Rebay is a name synonomous with great metal club nights, live gigs, Bay Days and The Golden Fleece. Plus, now two Panic awards.
However times are changing, and so are DJs Rev and Ox, in terms of their promotional activities and the venues they
DJ in.
Recently a change has been noticed online – the Rebay name is gone from their Facebook group, and in place is a new moniker – Lost in Stereo.
Panic caught up with DJ Lloyd ‘Rev’ Rust to see what the change means for the future.
“Rebay existed purely at the Fleece” Lloyd tells me, ironically over a pint in the Golden Fleece, Chelmsford. “It was a celebration of the Bay Horse and we think that after two years we genuniely buried it.”
Lloyd is poetic about the end of the now legendery Chelmsford venue.
“We put The Bay on a Viking boat, sent it out to sea and fired flaming arrows at it,” he muses, “and after two years we proved that the Bay Horse spirit is still alive – whether you’ve moved to the Wheatsheaf, The Anchor, O’Connors, The Fleece, Barhouse/Hooga , wherever you have moved to, Rebay has still been there but everything has to end somehwere.”
Lloyd explains that the sheer diversity of what they are now doing in terms of promotion and DJing means they need to break from the Rebay at the Fleece label. They have bow branched out to a number of venues across the area.
“Dan and I have have been getting so much more stuff to do – we have been doing the Riot Show on Saint FM, we are resident DJs at the Big Lick in Colchester, we work with Missoula in Chelmsford, we have worked with Barhouse, DJed at Brownstock and are DJing at The Fling this year – we do so much that it becomes impossible to promote something on a limited scale.”
Using Lost in Sound as a new umbrella for all of their projects, the guys now feel they are able to bring everything together in one package, and keep people aware of future projects.
“We wanted to make sure people knew what we were doing and knew that if the radio show was on we could tell them about it.”
There is, however, always the risk that unfamiliarity will cause some people to drift away from the established support base.
“People may leave the Facebook group for Lost in Stereo because they don’t know what it is about, or they might not care about what is going on in Colchester but they should care, because it still has the same ethos and feeling behind it.
“It is an extension of what Rebay was, and in the future there will probably be flyers and some stupid merch and weird and wonderful things, but it means we aren’t limited to one venue or event.”
Events in the past have often been limited to single venues in the area. Whilst Chelmsford has some great promoters, often they operate one regular night in one venue, and Lost in Stereo feel that they have been instrumental in breaking that mould.
“Arguably we are one of the first promoters to have worked with so many venues in the town at once, and we wanted to make sure that we have a platform with which we could do that. We needed to change the name and therefore change the ethos.”
So what for the future, does this signify a growth for the boys, or more of a realignment? It is hard to see how they can fit much more into their schedules.
“Rebay has always been liquid, like a pint of beer you can tip it left and right and it always stays level, and always fills its container” Lloyd says.
“For those people that don’t know – we don’t do this full time, and where we want to be is happy, because we produce our best events when we are happy.” He definitely feels like they are running at maximum with their current range of events, and keeping consistency is now important.
“We are at capacity and we don’t want our events to suffer – we want to be doing good gigs to a good standard, and varied gigs with diversity.
“But still concentrating on those key events like Bay Days, Halloween and New Years eve. We want to concentrate on standard, but have fun in the mean time.”
That doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for new ventures, however. There are plans in the pipeline for some new nights, and the potential for more in the future.
“We are in touch with Marc and Jon at Hooga, who are nice guys and we wish them the best of luck, plus we will be doing a few gigs at Missoula on a Tuesday night. It is so new we are looking for a new name for it, which is in conjunction from Christian from Wild Combination and Cat House. There are going to be other events but it is mainly down to time and finance, because unfortunately it is often down to money.”
Whilst many people will see Rev and Ox around various pubs, bars and clubs in Chelmsford, one place you can always catch them is on their radio show – The Riot Show on Saint FM. Lloyd is pleased with the way the show is going, and the freedom they have an the airwaves.
“It is still going well, still fun and we still attract listeners from Japan, America, Finland, all over the world, plus it is a unique show. No-one else on an Ofcom regulated radio show played Kunt and the Gang that we know of, but we did. Four versions. We can do what we like and our station directors seem to love us for it!”
From an event celebrating the atmosphere of a long gone pub, to a monthly night, to bigger and more diverse things, Rebay and now Lost in Stereo have grown and developed into a promotional tour de force. The question now is how far left is there to go?
“There is a saying that goes ‘When you reach your peak it is time to die’” Lloyd muses.
“Lost in Stereo isn’t dead, it is new and like a newborn child; unfortunately it is like a newborn child that is incredibly purile and likes to entertain itself with various flights of fancy!”
And if the Lost in Stereo name could go on any event in the future?
“If we could put ourselves to one event it would be one where everyone that came to it enjoyed it and procured some of the bands merchandise, and enjoyed it in a musical, spiritual and artistic way, as well as having a bloody good time with a few beers.
“If I could do any festival I would do something bigger, but we are young in the eyes of promotion and when that certain opportunity comes… all I can say is watch this space! Either we will go out in a ball of flames or something monolithically stupid will happen!”
Search Facebook for Lost in Stereo
