Pete Tong's Essential Selection - 2nd February 1996 (02-02-96)

Описание: Please note, I do not own, nor claim to own, the copyright to this show. Please contact me with any issues.

Whilst there are many of Pete Tong’s ESSENTIAL MIX episodes already uploaded to YouTube (broadcast during Saturday nights/Sunday mornings), there are almost none from the 1990s of his Friday night’s ESSENTIAL SELECTION show (as of July 2024, I can only find five episodes on YouTube! - which sadly suggests there are not many of these recordings from the 90s left!). So, I’ve uploaded this from my old audio tape collection to share the nostalgia of such a legendary show, to celebrate the role Pete Tong played in the explosion of sub genres that underground house music spawned in the 1990s, and to ensure these era-defining episodes are not lost from the annals of time.

Today (2nd Feb 2026) celebrates the 30th anniversary of this episode!

It’s crazy to think the buzz of the 90s underground house scene was so long ago! I hope these episodes bring back as many great memories for you as they did for me.

For those of you that missed the 90s house music scene, here are a few words to try to describe how special it was… In the 90s, house music was not commonly heard, unlike now. It almost never featured on mainstream radio and TV, so Pete Tong’s radio show stood out as being different to other shows. At the genuine underground house clubs the atmospheres were unique. Most people were there for the music and were typically friendly. It was common for random people to say hi and ask how you were and check you were having a good night. Most people didn’t seem to be ego driven, all of us there just to have fun and to be a part of something special (all of this was the opposite of what you’d see if you went to the mainstream bars and nightclubs in the 90s where you'd regularly encounter drunk people that were prone to arguing and fighting). The underground house clubs felt safe most of the time. During the 90s, it seemed everyone wanted to be a DJ, and many were trying to be one (even if it was just to organise local parties). “Cratedigging” (and dancing!) at record shops was a favourite hobby for many, paying over the odds for new but rare bootlegs and white labels, handing wantlists over the counter to the Koop’s of this world (Human Traffic film reference). Finding groundbreaking new tracks/“promos” first before everyone else was like a sport, some DJs even used to cover the vinyl records’ centre labels when they played them in a club to maintain exclusivity for as long as possible! A DJ’s worth quite often came down to what hidden gems they had in their record box. As well as hunting down new music from established genres like progressive house & trance (e.g. Deep Dish, Sasha & Digweed, Way Out West, Dave Seaman, BT, Oakenfold) and deep house (MAW, Mood II Swing, Kerri Chandler, Marshall Jefferson), my personal favourite sub genres/scenes that emerged out of the 90s were the French filtered funk/disco/techno sound (Daft Punk, DJ Sneak, Armand van Helden), big beat (Fatboy Slim/Skint, Wall of Sound), breakbeat (Freestylers, Plump DJs), progressive breaks (Excession Records, Hybrid), retro downtempo breaks (Jadell, Ultimate Dilemma, Illicit Recordings), drum ‘n’ bass (Roni Size, Goldie, LTJ Bukem), UK garage (Tuff Jam), amongst others, …and as all of this unfolded in the 90s, Pete’s narration on his Friday show was the voice and “face” to this wonderful, exciting, and innovating scene. His eclectic range of music styles on the show no doubt widened the musical tastes of many of his listeners (an impact that cannot be overestimated), including for me as a pre-dominant rave/techno fan in 1994/5 (Westbam, Leftfield, Altern 8), Pete Tong’s ESSENTIAL SELECTION show was my main introduction to the seemingly endless number of thriving new scenes that were born in the mid-to-late 1990s. Listening back to these shows will probably give you the best idea of what it was like, without actually being there.

In summary, in the 1990s, Pete’s ESSENTIAL SELECTION show was truly ESSENTIAL listening for all "househeads" (clubbers) and “trainspotters” (typically DJs/record shop squatters), and we loved it! It was the best radio show of the 1990s … Enjoy!

For those interested, if you’d like to donate, https://paypal.me/brsot1990s

Full tracklistings of each episode, originally printed by Mixmag, can be found via https://sbradyman.angelfire.com/ess-s... , thanks to Scott Brady and Greg Smith for their references.

The tracklisting of what is available to listen to here is listed in the pinned comment below.

Also, amazingly, Pete Tong’s Friday night show is still going strong, you can catch the legend himself and his fresh new episodes every week here …

www.petetong.com/radio/

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001zzyx

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_one

Subscribe to this channel, @bestradioshowofthe1990s, to receive notifications as more ESSENTIAL SELECTION episodes from the 1990s are uploaded.