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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Joe Muggs

Aphex Twin, a Brixton squat and a load of wet mattresses: revisiting Telepathic Fish, the heart of the 90s chillout boom

People sitting and laying on mattresses in a night club.
‘A sea of mattresses, like some kind of Guinness record attempt’ … A Telepathic Fish night in Brixton, 1993. Photograph: Nancy Brown

‘I remember looking up over the DJ booth in this huge squat,” says Mario Aguero, “and seeing a sea of mattresses with people lying on them, like some kind of Guinness record attempt. Which was great until someone stood up to go to the bathroom. Then they’d be lurching everywhere.”

This was the scene at Telepathic Fish in early 90s London, and co-promoter Kevin Foakes winces as he picks up the memory. “We’d dragged quite a few of the mattresses off the street.” The influential music journalist David Toop had come along, “and his report said the first mistake he made was to sit down on a wet mattress”.

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