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| Introducing NEM3SI$’s new label Infinite Resistance! | | Mindbenderz talk ‘Lord of the Rings’ and fishing, as well as the creation of their new album ‘Celestial Gateway’! | | Iono-Music artists One Function, Eliyahu, Invisible Reality and Dual Vision talk Robert Miles, kids, dogs and vinyl, while we chat about their current releases! | | Luke&Flex talk influences, the Irish rave scene, why Flex wears a mask and Play Hard, their new EP out now on Onhcet Repbulik Xtreme! | | Lyktum expands on his new album ‘Home’ – talking about his love of storytelling, creating new harmonies and the concept behind his musical works. | | Pan talks getting caught short crossing the Sahara, acid eyeballs and tells us Trance is the Answer, plus shares his thoughts on his latest release 'Beyond the Horizon' - all from a beach in Spain! | | Miss C chats about living with the KLF, DJing in a huge cat’s mouth, training her brain and the upcoming super-duper Superfreq Grande party at LDN East this Saturday, 16th September! | | NEM3SI$ - I Live for the Night – talks superficiality, psychopaths, and bittersweet success, ahead of a plethora of evocative, emotional, and passionate upcoming melodic techno releases! | | Psy-Sisters Spring Blast Off! We talk to DJ competition winner ROEN along with other super talents on the lineup! | | Blasting towards summer festivals with Bahar Canca ahead of Psy-Sisters Spring Blast! | | Shyisma talks parties, UFO's, and Shotokan Karate ahead of his upcoming album 'Particles' on Iono-Music! | | SOME1 talks family, acid, stage fright and wolves - ahead of his upcoming album release ‘Voyager’ on Iono-Music in February 2023! | | The Transmission Crew tell all and talk about their first London event on 24th February 2023! | | NIXIRO talks body, mind and music production ahead of his release 'Planet Impulse' on Static Movement's label - Sol Music! | | Turning the world into a fairy tale with Ivy Orth ahead of Tribal Village’s 10th Birthday Anniversary Presents: The World Lounge Project | | The Psy-Sisters chat about music, achievements, aspirations and the 10-Year Anniversary Party - 18/12/22! | | A decade of dance music with Daniel Lesden | | Earth Needs a Rebirth! Discussions with Psy-Trance Artist Numayma | | Taking a Journey Through Time with Domino | | New Techno Rising Star DKLUB talks about his debut release White Rock on Onhcet Republik! | | PAN expands on many things including his new album 'Hyperbolic Oxymoron' due for release on the 14th April 2022 on PsyWorld Records! | | Psibindi talks all things music including her new collaborative EP 'Sentient Rays' on Aphid Records, her band Sentience Machine and 10 years of Psy-Sisters! |
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Find your way with Richard Pathfinder
Reported by Adam Symbiosis
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Submitted 15-08-07 21:10
Is ambition a good thing or does it colour your perspective on opportunities and the people around you? Sometimes you just have to find your own path in life and that path, as I’m sure your mother told you, should be a good one. Surely then Richard Pathfinder is best placed to find his way through?
But have you found your way with him yet? Maybe he’s lead you on a merry jig down to the festival beach, across the seas to an ocean of orange, maybe you’ll be lucky and follow him to the Coldharbour. The connection with H2O is maybe tenuous but Richard Pathfinder’s links with proper trance music and unforgettable parties is not. Now you might also have already guessed the relationship with him and Coldharbour. But don’t worry if you haven’t, more on that later.
Relaxing over a bottle of wine and some dough balls I’m excited just to be doing the interview with this usually media shy DJ and promoter. Indeed it may have something to do with keeping Trance On Thames a party for friends and well informed guests, but this time we have something to celebrate. Building up to this point for the last four years the journey the Pathfinder has been on is impressive and it was all down to a friend leaving a set of decks at his house after a party. “I’d started playing about with them and realised I could actually do it too.”
He had started clubbing and then DJing late compared to most people though, “I always regretted not getting into clubbing earlier when I was 18 or 19. On the other hand it’s probably a good job as I wouldn’t have my own business today; I wouldn’t be in a position to enjoy the clubbing now. Still what could I be now if I had got into it before anyone else? Who knows?!” Self depreciating or feet on the ground? I don’t think it matters much and you certainly can’t worry about these things as he rightly says.
Gigs at house parties followed, “I didn’t know the crowd I know now, everyone back then was the house type crowd and I’d go to the parties and play hard house to this house crowd. I didn’t get to play too often! But they used to stomp around to it and I enjoyed playing it and it was a good learning curve.” It wasn’t long before he found himself playing at the now defunct Essential, Steve Morley’s trance-tastic afterparty at the 414. A great morning for him, maybe not so good for his friend who emerged to find his car clamped!
What’s really defined Richard though has been the parties he’s put on himself over the years. “I’d collected together this old second hand rig, it’s a good way of getting gigs! Not being a name as such in those days, what was the best way to get a gig? Turn up with the party.” It certainly came in handy. A chance stop off at a bar in Amsterdam on the way back to the UK one Christmas would see Richard and (his then partner) Linda, also known as Nordstar, put on a party for their hosts. “I was still new to playing and practised every day and so had the rig with me as we had driven out to Linda’s parents house in Sweden. On the way back we stopped off in Amsterdam and while we were chatting to a bar owner I asked if he’d like us to put on a party the next night.” The guy didn’t need asking twice and it was the start of a great relationship.
I have to confess to being to a few of these parties and I’ve enjoyed every one. But nothing could beat the surrealness of dancing to some trance beats surrounded by the Amsterdam chapter of The Hells Angels and let me tell you they were having it! “Our man in the bar got busted one year. Luckily Max-E-Groove [a DJ friend] knew all the Hells Angels out there and they needed a rig for Queensday, so we upped sticks and moved round the corner. They liked a bit of hands in the air stuff these Angels.”
The enthusiasm he shows in putting on the parties shines through just talking to him and part of that exuberance is the fact he finds it funny that people just don’t expect him to be a DJ. “The other week my milkman came in as I had to sign a cheque and he asked ‘Who’s the DJ then?’ Of course I said I was and when I told him I played trance he shot back ‘Bloody hell, I was at Wildchild last week!’”
Eventually this passion would lead to maybe just the best free party in London today, Trance On Thames. Maybe it’s the location, the viewing perspective, its impermanence? What about the buzz of dancing to trance at an outdoor venue? Maybe it’s the just the great music that never seems not to be amazing come rain or shine? Whatever it is Richard has worked hard to keep the party small but perfectly formed and for informed clubbers it’s a permanent fixture in their clubbing diaries. “I used to flyer and poster the parties and do normal promoter type things, I was never really sure how many people were going to come down but about 50 to 100 people turned up for the first party. Josie came down and gave us such a great review that I had to put a quote on the next flyer and we got a few more down after that. We did one in 2004, two in 2005, five in 2006 and there will be three in 2007. It’s grown and grown but I don’t want it to get too big, it can’t get too big. It’s always been a question of not letting too many people know about it to be honest.”
It’s interesting the names that pop up of who would like to play at what must be one of the most exclusive clubs in London, but Richard has no doubt that big names and we’re talking the cream of the crop, even if they appeared as simply special guests, might just tip the party from being the perfect size to being unwieldy, dangerous and attracting of too much attention and even though the party costs him money every time on set up, running and insurance costs, he so far has refused any offers of assistance too. “We had the Arts Director for the Southbank come down and she said she loved it for the cultural aspect of it, but I didn’t follow anything up on it as I don’t want any kind of official recognition; you can do this, we’ll let you park here, I don’t want anything like that, it all starts getting a bit too permissive.” So next time you are there make sure you make a donation to keep this gem in London’s crown going.
There is however one offer he thinks in the back of his mind he would accept if offered and that’s to take the party for one special event on the invite of DJ Gee, “I’d love to play on Bora Bora,” he says, but this is where Richard really balances his ambition and his dreams. He doesn’t want the party to grow so big, he doesn’t want sponsors and ads, he doesn’t want to do anything but put on a great party and that’s what will make him such a great resident.
Oh yes that reminds me, I really should get round to telling you just why we are celebrating and let you in on the link with Coldharbour if you haven’t already got it. It is with great pleasure I can write that Richard has been asked to be bimonthly resident at Brixton’s unfalteringly good trance party Spangulation. Now if your mouth isn’t already watering at the prospect of catching up with Richard every other month with that other unsung hero of trance, Steve Hitch, then maybe you need to see a doctor. I know for one I’ll be down among the 414 flowers that night and you should be too. But enough exuberance from me, just how excited is the man himself? “I’m absolutely over the moon! I just wasn’t expecting it at all. I started going to Spangulation a while ago and I loved it because it’s such a lovely party. I’ve always had a soft spot for 414 from the afterparties I used to go to there, it was the first place I ever played and you can go upstairs and get a tea or coffee.” A man after my own heart indeed. Where else can you pair up and enjoy the warming taste of our national drink with the warming vibes of trance except your own front room?
So what can you expect from the brand spanking new residency. Well first up there’s the small matter of a back to back with Pandora SK for the first party (is there really any reason to miss this party now?) but musically there’s the more electro rock based trance with an edge that’s getting Richard going right now alongside his usual euphoric, uplifting sound and he’s digging into his collection for those well known but infinitely less played tracks to keep you guessing while you’re dancing. “I certainly want to play some different styles. I play a lot of hard trance as well, I just don’t play it out and so I’m looking forward to putting a bit of that in as well. Just mixing it up and making it interesting.”
Being of course the great person he is, I have no doubt he’ll able to make his way through finding the way forward with his music. I think you should find it with him as well, like the Pied Piper of Brixton, find your path with the Pathfinder.
Adam Symbiosis 
Photos courtesy of the HarderFaster Archive. Not to be reproduced without permission
Spangulation 5
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On:
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Friday 24th August 2007
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At:
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CLUB 414 [map]
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From:
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22.00-06.00
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Cost:
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£8 paying guest list, £10 otd
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Ticket Info:
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Email spangulation@btinternet.comfor paying and industry guest list.
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More:
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This time of year we at Spangulation celebrate our birthday, our fifth birthday in fact!
This Spangulation will see all the residents playing special b2b sets, and we say goodbye to one, Julien, and hello to our newest resident, Patfinder.
Julien has been playing for us on a regular basis since February 2005 and been a versitile and well loved member of the team. We are sad to see him leave but hope he will be back for guest slots in the future.
Pathfinder played for us back in April and was so good that he was the only real choice when it came to recruiting our new resisdent. He puts on London's best outdoor trance party (Trance on the Thames) and has been a regular at London's most popular trance night, Knowwhere.
Club 414 has been our home for the last 5 years and we couldn't think of anywhere better to hold our night. Thanks to Tony, Louise, Steve, Glenn, Carla, Saga and all the rest of the security and bar staff for having us. Looking forward to the next five years!
There will be a CD give away to the first 50 people through the door so come early!
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Flyer:
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Other Features By Adam Symbiosis:
Godskitchen Xmas Party: Reviewed
The Big Chill: Reviewed
Tiësto at Victoria Park: Reviewed
Lilly Allen: Reviewed
Digital Society May 2009: Reviewed
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
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Comments:
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From: Karl Alexander on 15th Aug 2007 22:25.07
good interview !
From: Hitch the Knife on 16th Aug 2007 06:30.14
How were the dough balls?  Good interview.
From: Ian H on 16th Aug 2007 10:24.50
Good interview about a great bloke - well done on the residency Richard 
From: anushka007 on 16th Aug 2007 10:52.06
 I am so happy for Spangulation Crew and I am so happy for Pathfinder to joining their team. Five years of mayhem and I hope this party will continue for ever and ever and beyond. Interesting read guys.... sorry i cannot be there 
From: Stevie on 16th Aug 2007 12:41.23
Just as I thought my last remaining clubland role, as roadie/record bitch could be retired....
From: Pixsie on 16th Aug 2007 13:45.14
Great interview. And yes, Queens Day was amazing Richard! Love the TOTT, long may they continue. I'll look forward to seeing you play at Spangulation. Congrats on the residency.. xoxo
From: Marco on 16th Aug 2007 17:03.13
Great interview. Excellent guy and DJ.
A well deserved residency.
COME ON!!!!!
From: Andy Dunford on 16th Aug 2007 17:22.45
Wine and dough balls? You had you're interview at Pizza Express!!
Well done Richard - well deserved and with a style that will suit the party perfectly.
From: Alan-Banks on 17th Aug 2007 10:40.15
well done Richard - really well deserved
From: Mauzie on 17th Aug 2007 12:21.24
What a stunning surprise to log onto harderfaster.net today and come across this interview with Richard (Pathfinder). This is awesome news about your residency, Richard. Thanks so much once again for coming to South Africa.
All the best
From one of your groupies in South Africa
Maureen aka Mauzie
From: STACE on 17th Aug 2007 13:53.19
Get in there Rich! One of the nicest guys i know and one of my favourite DJ's. 
From: STACE on 17th Aug 2007 13:53.57
Oh - and as regards finding his path - it's probably in his pocket along with everything else.
From: Pathfinder on 17th Aug 2007 17:56.57
 Thank you everyone for your kind words. Can't wait till next week.
From: Sara on 18th Aug 2007 17:18.37
Looking forward to next Friday. Welcome to Spangulation Richard. Great interview.
From: Timmy Whiz on 20th Aug 2007 11:31.20
Another great interview congratulations SPANGULATION on reaching your 5th Birthday and what a wicked DJ to add to your Team  big shame Anetta and I wont be there for the party but we'll defo have a trance dance in Poland friday night and be thinking of you guys n gals
From: Dirty Old Bastard on 21st Aug 2007 16:35.34
Great Interview! So glad to have you as the new resident at Spangulation, and Friday night is going to be a very very special night indeed and I will help make sure it goes off with a bang - lol
From: Merekat on 22nd Aug 2007 21:40.02
Add your comments here !
From: Merekat on 22nd Aug 2007 21:40.57
DOH! Nice 1 matey, we will try & get up 4 it
From: Carine on 23rd Aug 2007 20:21.41
A good addition to the Spangulation familly. Looking forward to tomorrow night...
From: Menthol Taz on 27th Aug 2007 17:56.15
Nice one Richard - a truely lovely guy (the Mrs isn't bad either haha!!) - hope it went well, your first set with the lovely Pandora SK *grin*. Good luck & hope to see you soon xxx
From: Dr DUZZIT on 31st Aug 2007 17:12.09
go for it mate, congrats on the new ressi!! wikkid read up..
From: Lizzie Curious on 5th Sep 2007 07:50.57
Hey Rich, what a great interview. Everytime I see you you are smiling, one of the nicest genuine people I have met out in clubland. Congratulations on your residency as well, look forward to seeing you soon! xx
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