2 Bad Mice [Guy Henstock]

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IF you recognise the name 2 Bad Mice on the flyers, it may be quite revealing about which club – or field – you spent the early 1990s.

The rave music producers were taking a walk down memory lane this week ahead of an upcoming gig behind the decks at a Queen’s Crescent pub.

They told the New Journal that they are still “guilty of rocking the house” more than 30 years after their bedroom-­studio breakbeat hardcore track stormed the mainstream pop charts.

Co-founder Simon Colebrooke said: “The ‘old skool’-related stuff, everybody still goes nuts for it. People look back on it with such fondness and there is massive nostalgia.

“I think it has such a special place in everyone’s heart because of what was going on in the UK at that time. We were coming out of Thatcher’s Britain. It was a dark place, you could only let loose in these terrible night clubs. Then there was the poll tax riots, and all that.”

2 Bad Mice are putting on a series of nights in support of small independent venues across the capital – including at the Gipsy Queen pub, Malden Road, on February 15.

“There hadn’t been a really big youth movement, not since punk, and nothing near as big as what happened with the rave scene,” said Mr Colebrooke.

“If I could I’d go and do it all over again I would. But the recovery time would be a bit longer now if you know what I mean. I’m 53 but I feel like I’m 83.”

Mr Colebrooke and Sean O’Keeffe set up the group, later joining forces with Rob Playford, who ran the influential Moving Shadow label, in 1991.

“We knew each other through BMXing basically. We used to go out to a small club night in a basement in the early stages of acid house,” he said. “We met Rob a little later, and that was the start of our musical journey.”

2 Bad Mice got its name from a sample they had taken from a vinyl album of TV actress Wendy Craig reading the Tales of Beatrix Potter.

Their track Bombscare crossed over into the charts while the song Waremouse featured in the 1997 movie The Jackal in a scene where Bruce Willis kisses a man in a nightclub.

Now working as a telecommunications engineer, Mr Colebrooke recalled fond memories of late nights at the Camden Palace – the venue now known as Koko – record-shopping in Camden Town and going to the market to buy mixtapes from the stalls.

Looking back on his early 1990s glory days, he said: “Back then we had no preconceptions and we didn’t have a clue what to do.

“We just had ideas in our heads of the samples we wanted to use. We just wanted to make stuff that we wanted to hear on the dance floor, or pirate radio and mixtapes.”

He added: “We have been really lucky because we both work but still get to go out and be 2 Bad Mice at night.

“It still keeps us connected with fans and people that bought the music back in the day. We’ve constantly gigged over the past however many years – playing big festivals and venues like Glastonbury, Boomtown, Printworks.

“But we made a conscious decision to try and support the more intimate venues.

“To be able to go and play pubs, it’s great – we get our mates along, and get them to play too.

“If you had said to 21- year-old me back then still doing it in 2024, I’d have laughed at you.”

He added: “The dream would be to work back full-time in the music industry. But it’s tough out there. What people hear about running a label, and what’s it’s like in reality, it’s all very different.”

The 2 Bad Mice and Friends gig features Jet Boot Jack, Mr Doris and Kevin Cutts in a night that promises a journey from “disco to house to rave” at the Gipsy Queen from 9pm-1am on February 15.

Tickets at: https://ra.co/events/2072955