In May 1995 brothers Mike Parfitt and Matt Parfitt (A.K.A Matt the Frog) started a house night that has lasted nearly 10 years and become a local institution.  

Matt: “It basically started because we were bored of playing at other peoples parties where we often found ourselves as the ‘token’ house Djs playing to a crowd of un-appreciative techno/drum and bass nuts, we just wanted a party to call our own where we could play the music we love to our mates…All Night!” 

And so The Groove Establishment was born.

This was a hay-day for dance music and night clubbing in the UK with superclub queues stretching for miles and people regularly travelling 150 mile round trips to see the right DJ in the right club.

Mike: “We used to go all over the place chasing the perfect night, everybody used to! Temptation in Newmarket was a favourite, as was Club UK in Ipswich and the legendry London nights such as Ministry of Sound, Garage City and Leisure Lounge”

After memorable trips to these legendary house clubs Mike and Matt decided to try and bring a little of what they had seen and experienced to their local scene.

The first parties were a roaring success and the brothers soon realised that something special being created.

Mike: “From the early days this has been a family affair the crowd has always been based on friends and friends of friends…we were all feeling the same music which made for the special atmosphere.

Matt: “We even made Mum and Dad sit on reception taking door money in the beginning! No-ones going to mess with them! Ha ha!

From 1995-97 the brothers put on countless quality nights mixing soulful funky US House and garage to a mad-for-it local crowd now finding quality dance music on their doorstep to good to miss!!!

The success of the parties locally persuaded Mike to branch out and together with the promotional expertise of Richard Pearce and Simon ‘Slap’ Raynor doing something on a larger scale.

Mike “At the end of the day, it just came down to licensing laws, the better the night the harder it was to play the last record at 5 to 12. It was very frustrating.

Richard: “But that’s small town Norfolk for you. There was no way you could defeat the local Grannies who oppose late licence applications!

So during 1997 ‘The White House’ Newmarket (Then East Anglia’s Premier dance venue) became the venue for 2 Groove Establishment parties and while Mike Parfitt remained the resident supreme, these parties welcomed big-name jocks John Kelly, Alex Anderson, Vivian Markey and Alex Daniels.

Mike: “The parties at The White House were great experiences for me as a DJ. To be able to play the same club that I’d had so many special nights in the past was something to be cherished.”

In-fact the parties at the White House were great nights that no one connected with the Groove Establishment will ever forget. Although for the promotion team it proved a full-time job to achieve.

Slap: “The difficult thing was getting people who ‘in that period’ traditionally had their ‘mad-night’ on a Saturday to turn out for our Friday night party.

Richard: “Plus the club was absolutely rammed every Saturday night full of loyal punters for ‘Temptation’ so we were always going to struggle to fill the venue on a Friday night. I fact that we had 2 great nights there is a real achievement.

In November1997 resident DJ and Groove establishment co-founder Mike Parfitt packed his a bag of records and took off to Australia for a year travelling. This left Richard and Simon to run the show.

This proved to be a very unstable time for The Groove Establishment as; with Mike ‘down-under’ Richard and Simon’s working relationship was very strained. It soon became clear that a parting of the ways was inevitable were the groove establishment to survive.

Around six months had passed since Richard and Simon split with little success, Simon had tried to reinvent a legendary venue of old with current music and Dj’s that weren’t brought up on the groove establishment musical ethos. Although the history was there at’ The COM’, the crowds felt sold out on the mix of mobile Dj’s and commercial track selection, a solution had to be found.

Richard:” People were coming up to me in the street saying where’s the groove gone, what’s happened to the parties. I knew action was needed, and quickly”.

That was the summer of 98’ and it wasn’t just the Groove Establishment that was on the wane. Clubland was also dying, with many big clubs folding and people generally becoming bored of the commercialism of the scene. People needed something to get excited about, something to breath new life. Then in that summer of 1998 Stardust’s “Music sounds better with you” coupled with a classic Ibiza that year experienced my so many seemed to mark a turnaround in not only The Groove Establishments fortunes but the scene as a whole.

Richard felt inspired and then found the venue that was to become The Groove Establishments home for the next 4 years. The infamous Limes Hotel In Fakenham.

Richard: “Its easy to forget with the venues current decline just what used to occur there every weekend! People used to journey from miles around to start the weekend there on a Thursday and finish it there on a Sunday night after an afternoon in the beer garden listening to Dave Pearce and his’ recovery session’.

Never one to miss a business opportunity Landlord Pete overheard Richard crying into his babysham and was quick to offer to host The Groove Establishment

Pete;” Right from day one I knew this would be big, bigger than anything we’d had before and anything that followed. The first night was rammed; they couldn’t get enough of it. The only negative was we weren’t big enough, by about the time the third night came it was one in one out by 9 o’clock. Crazy”.

In the winter of 1998 Mike Parfitt returned from Australia having not only had the time of his life but also gaining valuable international DJ experience. The Groove Establishment hosted a ‘Wander Returns’ night and together with Matt the Frog making a welcome return playing alongside Mike, the Groove Establishment Godfathers rocked the Limes to its very foundations.

Mike: That night was defiantly one of the most special nights. It was like I hadn’t been away!

1999- 2002 was a very successful and consistent period. The Groove Establishment it seemed were going from strength to strength.

Richard: The relationship between venue and promotional team were great, attendance figures high and basically we were just throwing great parties. Plans were already under way to supplement the success at The Limes with one-off parties at various venues around the county. Then the rug was pulled from under us.

Indeed The Groove Establishment were soon to be seeking a new home altogether as management at The Limes changed not just once but 3 times in 2 years thus changing the atmosphere and attitude that The Groove Establishment had thrived under.

Mike: After a load of meetings to discuss the future of our night it was decided that we would take a break with the promise to only ever return when we were in a situation where we could really take it forward and let The Groove Establishment achieve is potential.

Richard: We wanted to come back a little older and wiser and do it right. But we needed a good stable venue where we could return to where the management shared the same ambition.

And so in November 2004 The Groove Establishment teamed up with Gallery Bistro for a comeback party that marked the start of this new era. The party reaffirmed the view that The Groove Establishment had been missed and the now legendary ‘all – night’ NYE extravaganza showed everyone who attended that this time really meant business.

Richard: A full house at 4am tells its own story really doesn’t it.

Mike: Our philosophy hasn’t changed in 10years were still putting on nights where myself and the other Groove Establishment Dj’s are playing the quality soulful house music we love to people who seriously know haw to party!

In 2005 watch out for many more Groove Establishment nights at Gallery Bistro and at venues to be announced in Norwich, London and beyond.

Richard: It’s going to be finally time to see The Groove Established!

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