Fuse turns twenty

Twenty years is quite a respectable age for a club. And certainly for one located in the middle of a residential area. Over the years, however, Fuse has become part of life in the Marollen/Marolles district. At night, anyway. The internationally acclaimed temple of techno is celebrating its birthday with pride, over three weekends.When you're talking to the – official – managing director of Fuse, you would be well advised to avoid the word "discotheque". What his techno club has to offer is not to be confused with those entertainment venues where you go to steal the show, to be stimulated by sound and light effects, or to dance the polonaise. You go there for the music. And that is the way it has always been at Fuse. As Nick Ramoudt sees it, "We have always had a very solid formula and we never deviate from our programming. When trance and drum & bass were hot, we didn't join in that trip. Which necessarily meant ups and downs. But we have, of course, evolved with our time."

"The club's founder, Peter Decuypere, was a visionary, the first in those days to dare to bring artists from abroad to Belgium. There was no Internet back then and it was far from easy to get in touch with those artists. Thankfully, he took the trouble and, without realising it, actually created a concert hall for techno music."

Lots of international artists have made it clear that they love coming to play at Fuse. Is that down to the consistency of your commitment to techno music?
Nick Ramoudt: You mustn't underrate the Belgian public. The club itself is only made up of four walls and a sound system. That doesn't have much to do with it. It is the people on the dance floor, above all, who create the atmosphere. We may be fairly calm in everyday life, but when it comes to partying, we rate pretty highly. I found that out for myself when I travelled the world as tour manager for Dave Clarke. Electro, moreover, has had a longer life here than in many other countries. DJs notice that: here they can often play older or more obscure stuff, because the public often knows and appreciates it.

The line-up for "20 Years Fuse" includes big names like Richie Hawtin, Josh Wink, and Sven Väth. What is their connection with Fuse?
Ramoudt: All three have been around the scene for a very long time. Someone like Hawtin receives ten invitations every weekend to play somewhere. The fact that he comes to Fuse every two years shows that things can't be so bad here. [Laughs] What's more, I don't think he has ever played in another Belgian club. Sven Väth likes coming here too. He puts on a record and jumps into the crowd to join in the party. Once, in Brussels, we managed to lose him – how was I going to explain that to his manager. [Laughs]

There is quite a focus, too, on the younger generation, with DJs like Nina Kraviz, Ben Klock, and dOP.
Ramoudt: Things have moved really fast for Nina. I didn't think her first session here, four years ago, was that good. Thankfully, Pierre [resident DJ and a regular for many years - KVD] persuaded me to invite her back. You can't beat her when it comes to manipulating the dance floor. Ben Klock was a guest here for the first time in 2003. There were 300 people that time. Now he can fill venues on his own.

Pierre and Deg are the caretakers at Fuse. They, too, have helped to shape the club.
Ramoudt: Their musical selection is flawless: they always adapt to the guest who is coming to play and they know the whole history of music. So they can always dig that bit deeper than younger DJs. They are a pair of musical encyclopaedias.

A book is due to be released about Fuse. What is it going to be like?
Ramoudt: In that book, we want to pay a lot of attention to how the public has experienced the club. We always take up a position behind the DJ booth and we have a house photographer who takes photographs of the public and the artists. But a group of friends experiences that in a different way. We want to be able to incorporate their memories in the book. After a thousand Saturdays, that must be possible. We hope, too, to be able to describe the development of clubbing. It might make a nice supplement to the history of electronic music.

For you, what are the most important differences between the nightlife culture of twenty years ago and now?
Ramoudt: Before, we used to have a regular public that came dancing every week. Young people can't do that any more. The range of options they have has expanded. They go to festivals, travel more often, and so on. And they have a broader spectrum too. On Friday they go to a rock concert at the AB and the next day they come here for a night's dancing. Some of the eccentricity of nightlife has been lost as a result. We used to dress more flashily, whereas "normal" is the norm these days.

When did you come to Fuse for the first time yourself?
Ramoudt: In 1996. Like most young people back then, I heard techno for the first time on friends' cassettes. That music sounded so different and mind-blowing. The experience, moreover, was completely different to what you were used to. You didn't go to a one-hour concert: you went to listen to music for nine whole hours. I started working here in 2000. My parents probably thought I was mad. [Laughs]

What has been the most memorable moment for you at Fuse?
Ramoudt: In 2003, techno legend Dave Clarke played a set here. That night, he just couldn't stop playing and around seven in the morning he started to play his punk records. At one point, he picked up a turntable and started waving it from side to side in front of the loudspeaker, so that a gigantic feedback noise boomed through the whole place. As if there was a rock group playing. A DJ turning a record-player into an instrument, that's something I never experienced again. [Laughs]

What are you yourself looking for from this birthday edition?
Ramoudt: I think we have spanned three generations of clubbers now. And I hope that the first generation will turn up again too. And that the public will come along and enjoy the music, without any pretentions. Close your eyes and let yourself go. That, finally, is the essence of Fuse.

20 YEARS FUSE • 18, 19 & 26/4, 3/5, 23.00, €12/15, Fuse, rue Blaesstraat 208, Brussel/Bruxelles, 20/4, 23.00, €12/15, Old Casino, rue Duquesnoystraat 10, Brussel/Bruxelles, www.20yearsfuse.be

Vrijdag 18 april is Fuse-dag op FM Brussel met gratis tickets en dj-sets.