Representing one year in the life of an epic tale of disorderly Out of Orderlies. Once were warriors, twice were Kenobi-ists, many times were out of hor d’oeurves. They got ho’s, they got pimpin’, and twelve months of rinsing the ownership of “Cheese Skool”. Calcium deficient breaks leads to brittle bones to pick, thuggin’, and disharmony says one in ten breaks DJs. And what do the rest say? We Are One?
Ben Shepherd. Out of Order. What do these two things have in common? Most in the Melbourne breaks “mafia” would be quick to rhetorically slam both names without flinching. Shepherd? Know-nothing techno-cum-breaks DJ, pie-finger journo, acapella-fetished white boy who runs a breaks night that many are too cool to attend? Perhaps. Alternatively, still a white boy but one who was one of the first to re-snare the thundering popularity of breakbeat to pro-activate a weekly Friday breaks night called Out of Order. A night that would showcase some of the most diverse international, national and local DJs and producers in the year to come – fuelled with a vision for persistent partying. If it sounds more fanfared that it really is, then we can count on Shepherd to get to the point.
“To be honest,” Shepherd beings in a methodical fashion of how the Out of Order night came about, “we had a Friday night opening at Lounge and we needed to fill it. Combine this with the fact that at that time there was only really one breaks night in Melbourne, that being Ransom’s Saturday at Revolver and the breaks sound at the time seemed to have some momentum and we thought it was a good idea. Lounge had had a breaks night that lasted for 7 years in Purveyors – and the room’s layout suits the style.”
As Shepherd admits that OoO was initially too breaks oriented, nearing to the edge of purism, the Orderlies took a slow but distinctive turn away from the rest of Melburn’s breaking ilk. “Obviously we’re a breaks night – but we don’t feel any connection with the majority of the breaks scene,” he clearly states. “But at the same time it allows us to develop our own thing. I think we’re unique in the fact that the sounds that we play are extremely eclectic – and we’re very serious about keeping the people dancing … as weird as that sounds.”
Dancing frenzies have been some of the most memorable nights at Out of Order – from Security shakin’ their booties on the dancefloor to Lounge management breaking lamps and skipping needle off records, running around hugging DJs, and two packed out Kid Kenobi shows – and that’s just the locals. The not so memorable moments have been “just the standard,” Shepherd states with blatant realism, ”...when the night isn’t that busy … or when DJs no show … or when DJs show and then throw a tantrum and walk out … or if you’ve put a lot of faith in an event and it doesn’t quite work as well as intended … or when ex-residents slag you off on internet message boards. Just keep walking, I guess.”
And would it be suffice to say that all the proverbial bitch slapping that has gone one was merely due to the choice of breakbeat stylii pushed at OoO – Nu Skool versus Cheese Skool? “A DJ I book once told me that he was ‘trying to play with some kind of integrity’ one night when he was clearing the room recently,” tells Shepherd. “People – DJs and otherwise – have always told us that what we were doing wouldn’t work … we didn’t have a ‘name’ headliner … we played too across the board … which is bollocks because we’re still here. Out of Order is a hard room to play and we’re proud that we can keep them dancing, most who diss what we do have NEVER been to the night and NEVER seen us play … so their comments can be taken with a grain of salt. We own ‘cheese-school’.”
Another advocate of the ‘cheese skool’ is resident OoO DJ and promoter Nick Thayer. This English born DJ says that, for him, it was never about playing purely breaks and hopefully never will be about dead-end purism. “I always loved breaks because of the more organic edge they have (obviously originating with the old masters – about funk they were never wrong),” admits Thayer, “but to limit yourself to that is contrary to what breakbeat is all about. I’ve got You Am I bootlegs that I play. Sonia Dada acapellas. All sorts. It’s all about keeping the people entertained.”
“I’m there for them – not the other way round,” Thayer explains the main virtue of being a DJ.
Ben “Cheese Skool” Shepherd, Nick “Dancefloor Funk” Thayer will be hosting the Out of Order 1st Birthday this Friday 20 December with guests EK, Bass Kleph, Boogs, Ides, The Alias, and Spacey Space. The night is entitled ‘We Are One’ to represent the club night’s age, and maybe to fortify the notion that breakbeaters, or otherwise, are all in it for the same cause.
The Out of Order 1st B’day We Are One hits off this Friday 20 December 2002 at The Lounge – 243 Swanston Street Melbourne! Check WHATSON and streetpress’ for further details…and enter for your chance to win one of 5 double passes to OoO.
