#036 Johnno Burgess: Bugged Out founder on how to run a rave brand for 30 years

Music Not Diving is supported by Acid Nation (formerly AC55ID)... head over to www.acidnation.com to check out the fastest growing electronic music marketplace, a central hub for music discovery, streaming and purchasing!

-- Watch the video episodes of Music Not Diving over at youtube.com/@WeNotDiving

Bugged Out is one of the UK's best-loved and most enduring club brands. From humble beginnings in Manchester, through Sankeys, Cream in Liverpool, fabric and The End in London, right the way through to their enormous 30th birthday at the 15k capacity Drumsheds in London, this is a promotion that has consistently done things right in terms of the music and the vibe.

Johnno Burgess is one of the co-founders, and also the former editor of the legendary Jockey Slut magazine which originally launched the night that became Bugged Out. We discuss the history of the event with its many successes and occasional failures, the changing landscape over the last 30 years, how they booked Daft Punk for free, and we also get into the golden era of the dance press and how it looks in the current era.

This is a great conversation with a relatively unsung hero of UK dance culture. Get involved!

Grab the new Bugged Out book here

-- If you're into what we're doing here on the pod then you can support the show on Patreon! There are two tiers - "Solidarity" for $4 a month, which features the show without ads, regular bonus podcasts, and extra content. And "Musicality" which for a mere $10 a month gets you all the music we release on Hotflush and affiliate labels AND other music too, some of which never comes out anywhere else.

You can also make a one-off donation to the podcast using a card, with Paypal, or your Ethereum wallet! Head over to scubaofficial.io/support.

Plus there's also a private area for Patreon supporters in the Hotflush Discord Server... but anyone can join the conversation in the public channels.

Listen to the music discussed on the show via the Music Not Diving Podcast Spotify playlist

Chapters: 00:00 Brought to you by Acid Nation 02:13 Episode start 02:50 Bugged Out at 30 04:54 Changing fashion on the floor 07:28 The golden age of dance music journalism 12:45 Influencers are the new fanzines 18:08 The birth of Jockey Slut 24:00 From magazine to club night 27:30 The Manchester club scene 30:49 Closure of clubs and pop-up spaces 36:10 Trust and curation 44:12 Nation, Cream and Liverpool 47:20 First Bugged Out Weekender 52:30 Festival curation 55:00 Moving away from Liverpool 59:05 The End - 8 defining years 01:02:00 When clubs started disappearing 01:03:30 Drumsheds, Printworks and mega-rooms 01:05:50 The role of private equity 01:13:00 Highs and lows Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.