Here's the story behind this CD. Back in 1996, Fretwell-Downing Group set up a domain called syspace.co.uk (a kind of wordplay on South Yorkshire space and cyberspace) as an umbrella for all the online projects and clients they were supporting. One site under the umbrella got more traffic than all the rest put together. It was one that had been built by 'DJ Risky', the son of FD Group's managing director at the time, about drum'n'bass records.
Shortly after that Del Dias got involved with the Risky (as he styles himself on the sleeve, as compiler of the second CD of this album) and hatched a plan to commercialise the site. He asked me to go for a drink in the Rutland and sounded me out about whether I thought Anthony Fretwell-Downing might invest in the idea. I told him I didn't think there was a chance of that (Anthony hadn't sold the education software part of the business at that stage, and the impression I'd gained was that there wasn't a lot of spare cash around). So I told Del not to bother even asking, but to explore other venture capital routes instead. He completely ignored my advice, and persuaded Anthony to invest.
Thus Drum'n'Bass Arena was formed. It didn't make any money for years, but I think the ringtone market was what enabled it to turn the corner to profitability. That's what Anthony told me, anyway (I didn't have much to do with Del after that, though I bumped into him at a networking event last year, and found that he's moved to London too). There was a rumour that, at first, Anthony thought the Bass in Drum'n'Bass was pronounced the same way as Bass the fish and Bass the brewery. In a light-hearted moment asked him if that was true, and he said it was.
So you're probably thinking that I got this album as a freebie, but, no, I paid cash in Fopp. Mostly just to see what it was all about. It's never done much for me.
[Sorry, comments closed as this post attracts way too many spam comments.]
 MusicBrainz entry for Disc 2
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