Interview with Joe Hart

The man behind Bodyhammer and World Unknown, resident at BLOC and stand up guy Joe Hart found some time to have a pint and chat to me about backroom parties, pervy old men and the Bodyhammer Coach trip...

So where are you from Joe and what’s your musical background?

I’m originally from Dorset, which was a pretty boring place, so I used to travel out to Bristol to go to crap trance nights just to get wrecked and have a laugh. At the time I liked some electronic music but was mainly listening to 70’s punk like Television, The Ramones, Big Black and Joy Division.

I then moved to Brighton where I met the BLOC guys and became obsessed with buying and listening to old electro, stuff like Unnamed DJ etc. The BLOC guys started doing the night ‘BLOC’ in Brighton and that was when I first started playing out regularly.

When did you put on your first night?

After Brighton I moved to Bristol for three years to train to become a mental health nurse, and we started a night called ‘Ear Aid’, I never really liked that name but the guys I was doing it with loved it.

That was a cool party, it was in the back room of some old man’s pub in a really rotten area of Bristol, and we’d go back there and set up and play electro all night. Everyone hated us, we’d have to go from the back, out to the bar to get a drink and people would just glare at you. They’d say you were ruining their night, but I loved it. It’s what made me want to put more parties on.

After that we started doing a night called ‘West Country Shakedown’ in the basement of a Thai cafe. We ran it all night and it was owned by this pervy old man who would invite you upstairs to watch porn with him at the end of the night, after putting your party on in his cellar.




That’s the great thing about Bodyhammer and World Unknown, are the good spots you source. Have you always been drawn to those kinds of venues or have you thought about putting stuff on in a nightclub?

When I was living in Brighton I was going through to the WANG parties on Hackney Road. I loved that you could go there and do what you want, and people like Andy Weatherall would come and play and no one made a big deal. No security on the door, just relaxed. It was the same thing with ‘Ear Aid’ and ‘West Country Shakedown’.

But then when I moved to London, just after the smoking ban, you would go to nights and all your mates would be disappearing outside, and your getting completely ripped off for drinks, it just didn’t seem the same.

Regardless of that though, we wanted to put Legowelt on in London. We’d done it in Bristol and thought it’d be easy enough to find a venue in London...which it wasn’t. We opted on the Korsan bar because we liked the look of it, and done the first three Bodyhammers there.

The First one was good, the second one, with Bangkok Impakt was also good, but the third one with Orgue Electronic was a disaster and no one came, so we decided we couldn’t keep it up and started checking out better spots where we could put local people on.

You keep saying 'we', who else do you do Bodyhammer with?

That’s my mate Paul, AKA Empty Set, who plays kind of arty minimal techno.

He contributes a bit financially but I do the rest.

I’m the boss.



So you’re last party at Korsan was a bit dead and you wanted a new direction, where did you go from there?

I remembered a night I’d went to at the top of a tower block. The party wasn’t very good but I remember thinking that the place was brilliant. I started making lots of phone calls and after a half a day’s worth of talking to folk I got a hold of the owner and convinced him to let me put a night on.

Was it hard work convincing him?

Not particularly. He was a bit wary at first and just didn’t want any trouble, no grime or anything.

That place was on Hackney Road’ish and we got my mate Placid, who has a ridiculous collection of old house, down to play and the night went really well.

You had to stand at the bottom of the tower block and wait for a metal lift to come down to take you to the 7th floor. You’d step in and pay the man in the lift, the door’s would open and you’d expect some run down squatty type of thing but the place was really nice, well decorated, not what you would expect. The whole place felt a little edgy and a bit wrong but that’s what made it good.

What do you see as the advantages of putting nights on in places like office spaces and warehouses?

I would say it just feels like you’re having a real party, like you’ve invited everyone round to your house and it’s not your house. I also love the way you promote these things, it’s all internet and email. When we done the three at the Korsan it was so boring going around sticking posters up, then walking past them the next day and they had been torn down, it was tedious work.

I just want to add that I’m always wary about use of the term warehouse now. It seems the trendy mobs have cottoned on but their warehouses have loads of security on the door and ridiculously priced drinks. It’s no right.

And the drawbacks?

Mainly just being careful not to get the owner in trouble.

What’s your involvement with BLOC?

Haha, everyone thinks I have something to do with BLOC but I’m just a resident there. It’s all down to George and Alex who organise all the bookings etc...



Putting on nights is obviously a lot of hard work. Have you ever had to deal with something that’s made you think, “F*** this!”

Yea doing the nights are hard work sometimes.

When you’ve lost loads of money and you’re walking to the cash point at the end of the night to take out your last 200 quid to give to an artist, who in their own right does feel bad about it but they got to make a living, it can be a tough time. You walk home and you’ve had a crap night out that’s just cost you 500 quid.

That can make you think, “F*** this!”

What keeps you going at those points?

That the next one will be better, like the first few at the Korsan bar, they weren’t going to end up going well so we changed tact. The couple we done in the Resistance Gallery in Bethnal Green also cost us loads of money, so that’s why we’re moving for the one on Friday.

What’s it like?

It’s brilliant. An old Victorian factory that used to be used for making boats or some type of maritime stuff. It’s on this modern street in Limehouse and looks very peculiar, it really stands out.

It looks like something out of Gotham City.

How do you find these amazing spaces?

Just asking around a lot, like if a mate goes to a good party and says the place looks good I’ll start phoning around. I keep my ear out for good spaces. Like with the office, I knew a guy who went there that I thought knew the owner. I spoke to him and it turns out he didn’t but someone else might have, and it just rolls on and on like that until I get who I’m looking for.

Have you ever done all the work and then been told no?

Yea, a few times, there’s this submarine in Kent that sits on the Thames. We were going to hire a coach and drive everyone out onto the Sub and float it out on the river. You could only fit about 30 people on it but that’s all you’d need, it would have been a great night. The place is hired out for parties anyway but, according to them, not Bodyhammer.

Quality. Deep sea Bodyhammer, would it have submerged?

Haha, no...I don’t think so, but that would have been something else.We also tried to get a nuclear bunker but that was a no go as well.



So, World Unknown is you’re new venture. Is it you and Andy (Blake) that run that?

Yea that’s me and Andy, we had him down at one of the parties in the gallery and he really enjoyed it so after that we decided to do something together. We chose Brixton so that people would have to make the effort to come down, you know, a bit of a challenge.

Like I used to go to the LOST techno parties and to get there you had to get a train to bloody Canning Town, with the high possibility of being robbed and walking down long dual carriageways. But it was good fun, so I guess that’s the kind of thinking behind doing it in Brixton.

And the music isn’t generally anything you hear anywhere else.

Yea we wanted to do something a bit different. Still keep all the Chicago House, but we’re both into Synth Pop, the kind of stuff playing in clubs in Belgium; some house and IDM but with more energy. We wanted to do something like that and the response has been good.

The sound system is amazing, parties are often let down by poor quality sound but that system packs a lot of weight.

They built that themselves and we’ve got a minimal amount out for World Unknown. Next time you’re there look behind the curtains, there is a lot more.

Some places have got all this good sound and it still sounds terrible, but that guy, he knows.

I also reckon the parties are going well because of being able to smoke, and not getting ripped off for drinks. I don’t buy this whole credit crunch thing in terms of clubs; people just don’t like getting ripped off.

Anything else you want to add?

Well, we’re still trying to sort out a Bodyhammer coach trip; we’re frantically trying to find a big place out in the country somewhere to hold a big party and drive everyone out, so watch this space...


Bodyhammer is this Friday. For details email info@bodyhammer.co.uk

Many thanks to Joe for taking the time to come and have a chat.