Get the latest gossip

‘We knew a banjo house record would annoy the techno bores’: how the Grid made Swamp Thing

‘It was a smash in loads of countries. When we played it at London’s Ministry of Sound club, there was a girl starting at Roger’s banjo like she’d never seen one before’

I met Dave Ball after I went to interview Genesis P-Orridge of Throbbing Gristle for Strange Things Are Happening magazine, and we ended up making Jack the Tab, the UK’s first acid house album, under the guise of “various artists”. I was a bit wary because he’d been a proper pop star with Soft Cell, but NME put Jack the Tab on the cover and Warners offered us a deal even though – or perhaps because – the record contained the sounds of the bedroom antics of Gen and Paula P-Orridge and of howling wolves. Swamp Thing was meant to be joyous and immediate for the dancefloor, but we also knew that a banjo house record would piss off the people who were writing long, boring articles about so-called “intelligent techno”.

Get the Android app