There are some faces in our glorious city that never seem to stop being a part of the action. Eddie Goatman, promoter, DJ, serial band member and all round good egg is one of these. SOURCE joined the hairy hipster for a chat about the city, the scene and other stuff.
You’ve been dedicated to keeping the indie scene in Brighton since you first started DJing. Tell us about your latest project.
Meet The Sloths? Yeah, I really wanted the kids to have an indie night going on like I did when I was like twenty or twenty-one. There hasn’t been a midweek indie club night in this city since, I don’t know how long. We always have a live band at midnight so there will be an audience pouring in from the pubs at that time. The bands are relying on you as a promoter to bring an audience and I want to get some of the London bands that are really good, like Venice Trip, Pearl Harts, Franklys, and give them a following in Brighton. Well the only way I can do that is by putting them on in a venue which is free entry with a crowd who have specially come for that type of music.
And the name?
My favourite hangover YouTube video.
Over the years you must have seen a fair number of bands you’ve helped promote go on to big things.
First thing is I’m always jealous as fuck! I’m like, I wish I was in that band. Demob Happy, for example. Sometimes it’s a pride thing. At a festival in London recently two of the bands I had put on were playing. One of them was on the main stage and the other on the second stage and I was like, “aww, look at them”. I still want to see Brighton have its Madchester or Seattle Grunge scene. Everything I do is to put something into Brighton, it isn’t like a vanity project or anything. It’s that I feel that this city, which I love, needs this. LNL (Late Night Lingerie) was exactly that too. Brighton has always had one-off bands, like Electric Soft Parade or British Sea Power but it doesn’t feel like it has ever gone beyond that.
So what would you say is the most significant thing you have seen change over the last fifteen years in Brighton then?
I think the smoking ban and late licensing – as soon as that happened Brighton changed. It went from being like a really good clubbing scene to a half arsed clubbing scene. Pubs used to shut at eleven and everyone would just run to the club, and then that would be open ’til two. And everyone would have a great night and the clubs would be full from eleven.
And then the same year the smoking ban happened. When I used to DJ the only thing I had to worry about was the bar staff telling me off at the end of the night because they hadn’t been busy enough, because I’d had them all on the dance floor too long. Nowadays, I have to keep them on the dance floor just to stop them going outside and having a cigarette because that’ll make the dance floor look empty and then when people walk into the club they will be like “oh, it looks pretty shit in here”.
Can you imagine yourself living anywhere else?
No. I’ve gone around the world, but every time I go somewhere I compare it to Brighton. So I’ll go to San Francisco and I’m like, “Right, everyone says this is just like Brighton,” and you go and it’s like really wicked but it’s like bigger and hilly. And yeah, Brighton’s a bit like San Francisco but it’s smaller so I can walk everywhere. Although I do want to become mayor one day and put in a cable car. It’s my goal by the time I’m forty. The only place I think I could almost probably live is Nice, which has a pebble beach and is a bit quirky and cool.
I would call myself Brightonian, but Brightonians would say I am not, because I am from Hurstpierpoint – which is just down the road. So if people who come from Rottingdean can call themselves Brightonians then I want that credit. And I would come here every weekend, like, if we we’re going to the cinema or like bowling or whatever, it would be in Brighton. It takes fifteen minutes at the most. I’ll take you, I‘ll show you round – it’s very middle class.
I went to the Fat Boy Slim gigs – like the first one, that no one ever talks about.
Someone had a poo on my door step that night. Did you have a poo opposite the Lion & Lobster?
No, but I did have a party on the Seven Dials Roundabout. We were young.
Words by Louise Bloom
Photos by Ollie Thomas Photos
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