Sep. 1991 Lez and Adam meet, & begin working together
on various different projects, including the industrial metal band, 'M.A.D'...
Sep.1994 M.A.D. breaks up, and Adam and Lez start LAB4
Dec. 1994 LAB4's first gig is a Torture Garden party at the Ministry of
Sound
Apr. 1995 LAB4 have their second gig; Universe at Club UK, alongside Derek
Carter and Josh Wink
mid 1995 The first LAB4 single, 'Alien/Transformation' is released on Pod
Communications (Frankfurt)
Jan. 1996 After a few more gigs, LAB4 are invited to play Club UK again
for the Universe second birthday, this time with Laurent Garnier, Billy
Nasty and Carl Cox
Apr. 1996 'Transformation' becomes an end of night anthem at various clubs
around the UK, and the bookings start rolling in...
mid 1996 LAB4 make their debut at Escape from Samsara at The Fridge, which
amoungst other gigs, leads to regular appearances over the next two years
Mar. 1999 LAB4's first album, 'Neurocide' is released
Aug. 1999 First gig at Dance Valley in Holland with over 40,000 party goers(!!)
LAB4 is snatched up for Dance Valley residency immediately!
Sep.1999 LAB4 have their first tour of Japan, starting at the legendary
club, The Liquid Room in Tokyo, for Viva
Oct.1999 First Swedish gig... LAB4 get arrested by the Swedish Drug Squad
and spend the following six hours in a cell, designing the artwork for their
next album, 'Evilution' ( although the album itself hadn't actually been
written yet!) The whole of 'Evilution' takes just three months to write...
Dec. 1999 LAB4's first gig in the USA, the millenium eve party in New York
Apr. 2000 'Evilution' launch parties (all blinding!) in Holland, London
and Japan
May 2000 LAB4 have their first gig in Canada
Jun. 2000 Finland experiences LAB4 for the first time
Jun. 2000 LAB4 decides to make the break from One Inch Records and start
their own label - 'Fragile' - the new home for all LAB4 tunes from now on
Nov. 2000 LAB4's first, and definitely not last tour of Australia
New Years Eve 2001 A 2 hr set at the Country Club in Dorset, a 3hr drive
to do the last hour at Brixton Academy followed by Fevah at Heaven on the
afternoon of the Jan 1st
Feb.2001 LAB4 play 12-1pm at Impulz in Holland, and a private plane takes
them back to England to do 5-6am at the Country Club
Mar. 2001 The second blinding tour of Australia, which also includes New
Zealand for the first time
Apr. 2001 'Devilution' is released, a complilation of LAB4s work from the
past 7 years
May 2001 The second tour of Canadian LAB4 hysteria, which also includes
parts of the USA
Jun. 2001 LAB4 team up for the first time with Sundissential (Birmingham),
the beginnings of a strong working relationship and a formal introduction
to the Midlands
Jul. 2001 Impulz, Holland - these parties just get begger and better each
time...
Aug.2001 Dance Valley, Holland, 100,000 people - the Hard House tent is
now the second main stage - LAB4 rock 25,000 punters in the middle of the
afternoon
Aug. 2001 LAB4 second visit to Finland, one of their finest weekends ever
as the Finnish crowds welcome LAB4 to rock Tampere and Helsinke
Aug. 2001 LAB4 leave Finland and drive straight to Leeds for Tidysenntial,
one of their most memorable gigs ever - on the verge of the death from a
full on weekend, the Northern partyheads bring Adam and Lez back to life
with one of the most mental welcomes they have ever received!
Oct. 2001 LAB4 are invited to play live on 'The John Peel' session (UK's
most respected radio DJ for many years) on Radio 1
Oct. 2001 The first VIRUS album launch party @ Brixton Academy - unfortunately
the album is not yet ready, so LAB4 gives away 2000 limited edition CDs
- LAB4 live @ Dance Valley, recorded August 2001
Oct. 2001 Japanese Domination continues with a mad tour including Sendai
and Tokyo - one of the amazing venues called Vel Farre
Dec. 01 - Jan. 02 LAB4's Australian and New Zealand Assault Tour - the third
and most cracking so far, including an amazing New Year's Eve with Frantic
Melbourne and introducing Adelaide into the equation for the first time
- unfortunately due to the airline losing the LAB4 kit, and a load of miscommunication,
LAB4 miss the gig @ The Gathering in New Zealand, which sparks a load of
nasty chatroom gossip about LAB4 blowing out gigs on purpose with a preference
for houseparties in Wellington!
Mar. 2002 LABORATORY - experiment 1!!! LAB4 present for the first time,
their own day time party for the Easter weekend - choosing all the main
room DJs to take the crowd on an entirely amazing journey which is different
to all other parties around at the same time.... True magic happenned, due
to the input and energy from every single person who was there, as well
as for the first time delivering a "people's choice" live set
- a voting poll on this website for the most requested LAB4 tunes turned
into an exclusive and recorded 90 minute set...
Apr. 2002 LAB4 make way to Japan for the fourth time, to play at Cybertrance
in Tokyo, the biggest indoor party that Japan has ever hosted - 25,000 people
indoors
Jun. 2002 A major breakthough for LAB4 after many years of being the undisputed
live Kings of the Hill on the underground dance scene in the UK - the major
players sit up and begin to take notice, and book LAB4 to play in the Tidy
Arena @ Gatecrasher Summer Sound System (one of two of the UK's biggest
annual dance festivals) - the world is introduced for the first time to
the hard arse remix of Eminem's "Without me", called "Round
the Outside" - with a special guest appearance on stage by the man
himself.... Or was it?!??
Jun. 2002 The fifth, and possibly the best so far of all Impulz parties
- an amazing setting beside the lake and under the full moon, with 25-30,000
people dancing under stars with LAB4 helping to see the sunrise in...
Jul 2002 Scotland finally gets a taste for LAB4 live for the first time
with the M8 Magazine bash @ The Arches in Glasgow
Jul. 2002 The Sundissential Arena has LAB4 as headliners at the God's Kitchen
Global Gathering (the other major annual dance festival in the UK) and take
the roof off
Aug. 2002 A year to the weekend, LAB4 visit Finland for the third time -
an amazing and up for it crowd, and a definate relationship to be continued...
Sep. 2002 LAB4 are invited to play in Holland again, this time for '4 Elements'
in Rotterdam - approximately 25-30,000 indoors
Sep. 2002 Finally, LAB4's third double album, VIRUS is released on Tidy
Trax - with an invite only intimate gathering @ Cyberdog in Camden - one
of the most memorable parties of the year for all who attended
Sep. 2002 The Australian and New Zealand contingent have the pleasure of
receiving LAB4 on their soil again - this time including Brisbane(QLD) with
the entire tour selling out every gig - one of the maddest being in Christchurch
NZ where the place was more like a rock concert than a club night! Looks
like those nasty chatroom rumours only helped the LAB4 legend, rather than
hinder it :-)
Oct. 2002 LAB4 headline the Tidy Weekender at Pontins on the Sunday night
and blow the place apart - this time the show includes some "Ad"lib
firebreathing on the spur of the moment...
Oct. 2002 LAB4's second double album, NEUROCIDE is re-released after being
out of press for about 2 and 1/2 years - this time with new artwork and
on LAB4's own label Fragile
Oct. 2002 No sooner are they back from their Australian and NZ tour, and
they're off again, this time to visit Buffalo, NY and Canada for the third
time - another storming tour of Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa
Nov. 2002 LAB4's second visit to Sweden, to possibly their favourite venue
in the world, Docklands - this time without incident!!
Nov. 2002 Gatecrasher @ Birmingham NEC - the largest UK indoor dance event
of the year (approx 15,000) - the Tidy Arena is rammed all night and LAB4
has the place totally rocking and inherits a load of newfound followers
Dec. 2002 Yet another amazing Impulz @ Den Bosch in Holland - 25-30,000
people indoors - LAB4 play the main room to a capacity of 15,000 in one
room
We set out as LAB-4 in September of 1994 and did our first gig at the Ministry of Sound for the fetish club , "Torture Garden" in December of that year.We only played for about 20 minutes and that included every track we had written and a remix of the track we started our set with! We spent the next couple of months frantically writing new material and in February of 1995 we got asked to play for Universe at the legendary Club U.K. on the 7th of April, alongside the likes of Derrick Carter ,Gayle San and Josh Wink . We spent the next month panicking but also not believing that we would actually be playing at Club U.K.! We went on stage at 2.30am in the "Cosmic Cave" , which was fitted out with an ear ripping 42K. sound system and filled with a crowd of screaming, sweaty ravers with whistles, horns and white gloves! We had discovered our purpose!
We only played about four more gigs that year and after each one we went back to our studio to fix the bits that didn't feel so good when we heard them back in a live situation. The next big gig for us was at Club U.K. again for the Universe 2nd birthday party ,which was on the 12th of January 1996. As if playing alongside Laurent Garnier, Billy Nasty, Justin Robertson, LTJ Bukem and Carl Cox wasn't enough , we are still at a loss for words to describe the atmosphere we experienced while we were on stage that night! It was a great loss when Club U.K. finally closed its doors a couple of months later and we were left feeling sure that we would never find anything to fill the gap and feed our growing hunger to share our music with you lot in a big, dark,noisy room.
Meanwhile our first single , "Alien" which also included the original version of "Reformation", entitled "Transformation" was still selling more slowly than we would have liked so we released "Witchdocter" which is a weird mixture of Rave,Techno and Jungle with "XL5" on the B-side (which eventually became "XL6"). We had hoped that this single might have been a little more accessible to the people who buy 12" records (usually D.J's). Again it sold more slowly than we would have liked so we headed back to the studio to try and work out what we might have been doing wrong.
This was around April 1996, and it was at this point that the next major stage in the LAB-4 story started. We started getting phone calls from various clubs around the country who had been playing "transformation" as their "end of night- oh go on, just one more" track , asking if we played live and would we come and play the last hour for them. This was amusing as we had thought that although we loved this track, maybe we hadn't fully understood the "ins and outs" of writing techno and had dropped it from our live set about six months earlier. One of the first and most memorable of these gigs was our first at "Escape from Samsara" at the Fridge. We had already played at the U.F.O club in Salisbury that night and then driven straight to London to play the last hour for a crowd who had already been treated to a live set from Cybernaught and sets from Blue Peter, Beamish and Oberon. Be careful what you wish for- it may come true! A big,dark,noisy room and you lot again, except we couldn't help thinking "what if we go on stage and everyone hates our set and we ruin the last hour of a night that had up to that point been a stonker!?!" Well , we played , you screamed and we got asked back so we guessed we'd pulled it off! Since then we have played hundreds of gigs for over one hundred different promoters up and down the country as well as gigs in Holland, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Finland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States.