Leftfield back centre stage

Stars of the 1990s dance scene are as popular as ever, says Ed Power

LEFTFIELD’S Neil Barnes recalls his band almost bringing the house down. “We were playing the Paradiso in Amsterdam, a beautiful, historic venue dating back to the 18th century. The people responsible for installing our system had turned the sound up too loud. When we started, this antique bar at the back of the room fell apart. That’s how heavy it was. There were bottles flying and everything. It was chaos.”

So ferocious was the Leftfield live experience that local authorities across Europe banned them. At London’s Brixton Academy, in 1996, the bass was cranked so high that plaster fell from the ceiling. “What nobody realised is that we had no control over the volume,” says Barnes. “Up on stage, you can’t tell how loud it is. And it was intensely loud, just ridiculous. The idea wasn’t to deafen people. It was to give them a good quality sound system. We had a lot of arguments about it at the end. I felt the sound wasn’t representing our music particularly well. On our new tour, it is set to a decent level.”