April 1994 - the Britronica Festival

A.K. Troitsky:
«If we're talking about Britronica, it happened in either March or April of 1994. This is, of course, the most astonishing page of my eventful biography, and there was probably no event so impressive and triumphant in terms of content, yet equally dispiriting in terms of organisation and loss of money.
Why it turned out that way I still can't quite understand. The technical organiser of Britronica was a certain Sasha, whose surname I've forgotten. I'm afraid it was largely he who botched the whole affair.
An incredible number of musicians came to the festival, incredibly mighty figures representing the British electronic scene. We've never had such a line-up since. There were Aphex Twin, there was The Orb, there was Ultramarine, there was Bruce Gilbert of Wire, Banco de Gaia, there were DJs, Paul Oakenfold.
We were supported by the British Council, and the British took on all the visa and flight costs. Our part was the fees, transport, catering and hotel accommodation.
Everyone said there was no advertising, but it seems to me there was enough of it. The information partner was Europa Plus, at that time indisputably the number one radio station. There was outdoor advertising too, and coverage in the press. Indirect proof that there was enough advertising was the fact that people came to Britronica from far away - from Kharkiv, Izhevsk, Vilnius and Riga. In the end, there were about twenty Balts at the festival's opening. And that was all...
I remember perfectly that dreadful sight: the giant MDM hall, designed for two thousand seats, and all the people fitting onto a tiny patch in front of the stage. There were around a hundred and fifty of them. It was an utter horror. Moscow, probably, was absolutely unready for events of this kind.
The club concerts went off somewhat better. I made use of practically every venue that existed at the time: there was the Hermitage, Manhattan Express and Pilot.
In its abundance of mishaps the event knew no equal. Someone had their equipment and instruments stolen. Bruce Gilbert got into a fight at Pilot with some bouncers. The least lucky of all was the person most precious to me, Richard James. He simply got food poisoning from some Russian dish and ended up in a Russian hospital, and departed for London a week later than everyone else, and with the most monstrous memories. I think this greatly inspired him toward his subsequent gloomy exploits.
After Britronica I completely lost all my drive and interest in dance culture. On the one hand, it was clear to me that I would never again bring over such a cast of people. On the other, I was weighed down by the total financial failure of this event. I can say that from my own pocket alone I paid out ten thousand dollars to cover the shortfalls, a monstrous sum for those times.
Since then I was done with dance culture.»