I found a flyer in my bag today. Five years ago on Thursday May 20, 2004, me and a group of friends organized a drum n bass party in Sheffield called *Sneak. It was held from 10 pm until 2 am at Orchis nightclub. I don’t know what the club is called now, but I know it isn’t Orchis.

There were six of us involved I think. We had met through the Drum n Bass Arena forum after complaining about how boring the drum n bass nights were becoming in Sheffield. I think we did about 100 to 200 people at that first party. We booked ourselves to DJ and a young MC called Skeez, who was relatively unknown at the time, came over and helped us out.

We got together with a guy called Wilf, who, among other things, runs a hugely successful night in Manchester called Metropolis. Wilf is one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met. He is pure Manchester. Some of the stories he used to tell us were terrifying.

Anyway, it was with Wilf that we started doing nights at a club called .Zero, now called Plug. We put up half the money and Wilf put up the other half. I think our initial investment was about 400 pounds each, so in total we must have had a startup of about five grand.

Wilf asked us who we wanted to book and depending on how much they cost and if they were available, we started booking drum n bass lineups. At the first event we had Mampi Swift, Bad Company, Marcus Intalex, Ray Keith and Subfocus – I think. We filled the club with about 800 or so people.

We put on these parties for the best part of a year. Our role was primarily as a street team promoting the events, sending out press releases, selling tickets, sorting guestlists and then working on the nights of the parties. We had everyone at these parties: Grooverider, Hype, Krust, SS, Fresh, Micky Finn, Adam F, J Majik, Pendulum and so on.

To an extent, we put ourselves up in competition with Drum n Bass Arena. It was fun while it lasted.

*Sneak eventually ran its course and then Wilf took over the night and we bowed out of the picture. This was Wilf’s way of getting into Sheffield and it was our way of putting on some really good parties. Everyone was a winner and we made back all of the money we invested plus a little more.

After that I carried on doing a Sunday night I’d started at the Forum on Division Street, where I also worked behind the bar. This night was a pain in the neck because nobody ever came except one Bank Holiday when we did about 750 people and made loads of money.

The people I worked with at Forum are now pretty much keeping the nightlife scene in Sheffield ticking over at various venues. They’ve done some impressive stuff while I’ve been away. At one point we were all working behind a bar together, staying out all night and generally getting up to no good.

I can’t help but think that if I’d stayed in Sheffield, I’d have followed much the same path as they have. In many ways I wish I had because I miss the UK nightlife scene.

Ultimately I made the choices I did for a reason and here I am in Timor-Leste. I gave up on the nightlife scene here a long time ago. To be honest, I don’t really socialize much in Dili – I just work. I try my best with the things I do and it’s mostly all positive. I haven’t had a full-time job for more than six months, but the work I’m doing now takes up more than a 9-5 would do anyway.

Life is otherwise pretty good. I am, however, starting to think about what I want to do next. I’m seriously considering going to Japan or China, not in the near future, but in a year or so.

We’ll see. For now, I’m just reminiscing after finding a five-year-old flyer in my bag.