Story of Deja Vu

Referring back to the early 1990’s in Hull, there were two particular defining moments that you cannot deny had a major influence on this special city, which is located at the “very best end” of the M62.
In 1991, a local bricklayer named Dean Windass (AKA; God) was re-signed for his hometown football club Hull City, and the rest as they say is history. The other momentous event was in 1992 when another local legend first arose into the Hull folklore. This time around it was the birth of Déjà Vu, a house music event inspired by another legendary legacy, The Hacienda Club in Manchester.

Hull lad, Terry Spamer got the idea for creating such an event following his hazy visits to the other pioneering clubs. The Astoria in London, Nottingham’s Cool Cat, along with the Hacienda, all of these places provided the influence, which convinced Terry that Hull also needed to experience.

Any successful music event promoter will tell you that it all starts with one-off parties to test the water; this was also the case with Terry. But it was in May 1992 when Terry finally decided to go for it “big time” when the infamous Tower Nightclub held the first Déjà vu event and featured house-music pioneers The Masters at Work. This was a huge success and it proved, in years to come, to be the benchmark for putting Hull on the clubbing map.

Following the initial launch of Déjà vu, Terry secured a weekly residency at, arguably, Hull’s most prolific house music venue Room 1795. Located on George Street, the venue itself was not the biggest, but certainly punched above its weight, in regards to atmosphere and its unique layout. For a number of years, The Room served as a Mosque-like mecca for religious underground 'house-heads', but it was not only the people of Hull who stood up and recognised it, people travelled from far and wide and the night was nominated for several awards including National Club of the Year in DJ Magazine.The recognitions were valid ones, but by no means a set-up like most of today’s super-club promoters, this was a small, intimate venue holding no more than 600 people, which still managed to host some of House Music’s most influential DJ’s such as; Todd Terry, Roger Sanchez, Paul Oakenfold, Allister Whitehead, Graeme Park, Pete Tong…etc…the list could go on and on.

It would be fair to say, Déjà vu was in demand. Terry however, didn’t rest on his laurels and regularly switched venues due to the increasing popularity and numbers attending his Déjà vu events. In 1997, the migration of Déjà vu from Room to Eclipse was a brief one, lasting only 12 months before Terry moved his prized asset back to its spiritual home, Room where he stayed until the Millennium.

For most, the Millennium brought change and this was apparent in Terry’s thoughts when it came to the direction of Déjà Vu. In 2000, Terry thought the time was right to introduce a sexier, more stylish and funkier approach to the night. First the night was called Love Bomb at the Rhythm Room which featured funky and soulful house DJ’s, then when the Po Na Na group contacted Terry and asked him if he would run and promote the Fridays & Saturdays at the new 1500 capacity venue The Fez Club which was formally The Eclipse.

For the next 3 years Déjà Vu presented Fully-Charged on Fridays & Faith on Saturdays, as these parties flourished and proved to be a commercially sound move for Terry.
However, with the fall of that super club in 2003, Terry again switched venues. This time the legendary Welly Club Ballroom would host Déjà vu and the instalment of an award-winning sound system and strategically placed soundproofing were two of the many catalysts that made The Welly Ballroom the new place of worship for sexy modern dance music.
Déjà vu continued as a regular fixture at Welly for more than six years and won Galaxy “clubnight” of the year in 2007. Déjà vu left the Welly in 2009 but still maintained its reputation of one of the UK's most innovative promotions by constantly putting on one-off spectacular shows at a variety of venues, including The Asylum at the University and Lazaat in Cottingham, and of course the much loved Welly.

Incredibly after 20 years of providing us with some of the greatest house music events in our living history, DéJà Vu has now come full circle and will continue for as long as the people love it!
The man behind it all, Terry Spamer explained to us:

"This is our 20th anniversary year and we've got people coming from all over for these celebration events, including many of those who were at our very first, or earliest events. It's going to be like a big re-union of all the original people! They'll all be mixed in with the new breed, the new generation of House music fans, which will create a fantastic atmosphere. If you add it up, over the past twenty years, we've had more than a million people through the doors, which is incredible, and it is now officially the second-longest running House event in the world. Throughout the years of success with Déjà Vu, I got offered the chance to move my operation elsewhere on numerous occasions, but I let my heart rule my head…. because I'm Hull, through and through! I know the people here and the attitude of the place… and I love it, (even if some of them do moan too much!) so I've always kept it based here. I hope I don't live to regret those decisions! Yeah, it's going to be quite an emotional time for me this year and hopefully these celebratory events are going to be the best ever, to reflect those great memories of the last 20 years."

So, Déjà Vu is now about to celebrate that special 20-year anniversary with some spectacular "Birthday" events throughout this year starting with:

Inner City @ Welly Club - Sunday 8th April
DJ Sneak @ Welly Club - Sunday 6th May
Steve Lawler @Welly Club – Sunday 3rd of June

Tickets can be purchased online at: www.giveitsomewelly.com

Words by Mike White.