‘One Sunday this summer Rachel was in Greenwich Park with her daughter Saskia feeding the robins with Neil who she met over 20 years ago..’

Neil+Rachel

Dogstar, Brixton, late 1990s

Rachel:

In the late 90s I was living in a flat opposite Brixton fire station on Gresham Road. I was delighted when the Dogstar pub opened as it was so close. On Sunday nights the DJ was Joe Egg, who I remember used an old telephone handset instead of headphones.  My friends and I went to his Dogstar night every Sunday, drank too many Smirnoff Ices and danced away to Joe's pop hits. I noticed Neil on the dance floor as he was wearing Larry Levan’s live at the Paradise Garage T-shirt and I had just bought the album on vinyl. I told him I liked his T-shirt and we chatted for ages. We were both DJ’s and we talked a lot about music. I suggested we swap numbers and keep in touch. Neil said definitely, as long as I knew he was gay! I said I did. 

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After that we always kept in touch. I'd often go to see Neil DJ as he played in weird and wonderful places. He's always lived in east London, and me in Brixton, but it's easy to keep in touch if you make the effort. I always send him a Christmas card too. He loves that. I always like chatting to him and hearing his news. He's so cute and always has a funny story. A while back he posted exerts from his teenage diaries on line and they were hilarious. He's quite unique. Recently he's been at a loose end due to the pandemic and has befriended some robins in his local park. So last week my young daughter and I went with him, so I could film him feeding the birds by hand. My daughter loved it. During lockdown Neil and I have both done a lot of DJing online, and have supported each other's gigs. He's a great DJ. We'll always be friends.

Neil:

I moved to London in summer of '99, aged 21, working for Virgin Megastores Piccadilly. To start with, my only friends were those I lived/worked with and whoever I'd end up meeting in the gay bars of Soho. My friends at Virgin had been to an 80s night at the Dog Star on Sunday called Negligee. 80s being my favourite music, I was super keen to go. I also loved disco and, around the same time in 2000, went to Dazed & Confused Studios when they had an exhibition on in support of the recently released Strut compilation Larry Levan Live At The Paradise Garage. I bought myself a t-shirt that matched the album sleeve and glowed in the dark. I wore this t-shirt when I went to Negligee and Rachel approached me, as she also loves disco and had the album too. Working for Warner music, we instantly gelled on a shared love of music and even made plans to launch our own 80s night together but couldn't find the right venue. However, we've always kept in touch and have been to gigs together (ABC and Prince to name but two iconic acts in the 80s!) And now we meet in Greenwich Park, where I feed the robins a few times a week, for Rachel's daughter Saskia to share the experience! The t-shirt was quite the catalyst for me friendship-wise as the same thing happened at Shadow Lounge. A bus boy, Sam, swooped over to me and demanded 'WHERE did you get that t-shirt!' as he was a massive fan of disco. We then became friends and a whole bunch of us disco devotees would go to Cherry Jam in Royal Oak to hear Kenny Carpenter and other disco legends play, or Fiction at the Cross in King's Cross on Friday nights. We still gather now for things like Love International in Croatia and the occasional house party, although Sam and most of the gang have since moved to Bristol. That t-shirt really did attract the right attention!