March 26 2006 - The New Monkey was rocking with Chrissy G in the mix. Ravers enjoying the buzz on a weekly basis - no-one aware there was about to be the crisis.
MC Impulse's Raid Rhyme will forever go down in history as one of the North East's rave scene's most iconic tracks - as it encapsulates the real time shutdown of Sunderland's popular New Monkey nightclub of 2006.
The Monkey frequently hosted Makina club nights, where Spanish techno would blast through the speakers capped off by clever rhymes from performing lyricists.
The New Monkey was a busy night hub for ravers alike between 1999 and 2006 - with residents of the North East and travellers from further afield often visiting to soak up the atmosphere. But the Pallion club didn't run without its problems and complications.
The demise of the nightclub came following an overdose. which took place inside the club in July 2003. Garry Henderson, 18, collapsed and died after consuming ecstasy pills.
At a later inquest into the teen’s death, Sunderland Coroner Derek Winter, said: “I do hope unregulated clubs can take steps to deal more effectively with young people who get into crisis.”
Police carried out a full-scale raid of the Monkey on March 26, 2006.
More than 100 police officers raided the club, seizing drugs and making 14 arrests. Search warrants were also simultaneously executed at the homes of senior management and staff from the trouble-hit venue. Among the 300 people inside the club at the time were two 14-year-olds, two 15-year-olds and two 16-year-olds.
A closure of notice was subsequently served to the club, and its owners were made to stand trial.
In November 2007, David Mallin, 45, then of Dykelands Road, Sunderland, and Brown, also 45, then of Atkinson Road, both Sunderland appeared in court accused of knowing deadly ecstasy was being sold and taken at the venue. Both denied permitting the premises to be used for the supply of ecstasy and a second charge of allowing the premises to be used for the smoking of cannabis. But they were found guilty by majority verdicts by a jury at Newcastle Crown Court. Judge Beatrice Bolton sentenced them both to 12 months behind bars.
The club was also forced to shut indefinitely and the reputation of the Makina scene was tarnished from the outside looking in.
However the Makina music scenes lives on despite some people falsely perceiving it as music fuelled by binge drinkers who brag about instances of anti-social behaviour.
Take into consideration the lyrics of Paul Megson aka MC Stretch.
Paul, from Lobley Hill, came home from work one day to the news that his mother, Dawn, was terminally ill with breast cancer and her condition was deteriorating.
As a youngster who grew up with Makina music, he dealt with the heart-breaking news the only way he knew how to - by writing lyrics and belting them out with all his heart. It was during one of the the darkest moments of the 42-year-old's life that he came up with the lyrics for one of the North East rave scenes most iconic tracks - 'I've got this feeling'.
And although many of the tens of thousands who will have heard the track performed live will have no association to Paul in person - in spirit, many listeners can relate with his predicament of crisis at the time it was written through their own personal experiences.
In a 2019 interview with ChronicleLive, Paul said: "If I am in a rave, the whole place just stops and goes with it, and I think it connects because the words relate to a of the people who are part of the scene's lives. People who enjoy this music, a lot of them come from hard backgrounds and broken homes who have not had the right chances, and these words are words that have meaning to them.
"They are not charvers, they are people who love music who want to come into a room and let their emotions out."
And it's not just Paul who has hacked into rave and Makina as a means of relieving stress and releasing bottled up emotions either - with many adolescents recreationally MCing to deal with current issues.
Taylor Bowe passed away at his family home in Houghton-le-Spring in 2018 aged just 15.
An aspiring MC himself with a love for Makina music, his friends gathered after his passing to give him a send-off the best way they knew how to - assisted with the power of rave music. Friends gathered around a set of speakers in Houghton, delivering almost-endless lines in memory of their dear friend who they had lost prematurely.
Balloons were also released into the sky while the 15-year-old's favourite music played.
Meanwhile, youth clubs across the region also give youngsters the opportunity to show their creative side by providing sessions where they can make the most of otherwise inaccessible musical resources.
But it's not just the youngsters which the music resonates with. For many growing up across the North East throughout the late 90s and early 00s, it is the sound of a generation.
Schools across Tyne and Wear were packed with pupils trading their favourite New Monkey, Powerhouse and After Dark tracks on their Sony Ericcsons via Bluetooth and Infrared, while music classes in council estate establishments held DJing and MCing classes for interested parties.
My old school, Castle View Enterprise Academy, in Sunderland, even held an annual event called the 'gig in the garden' where aspiring musicians could showcase their skills on the microphone, with Makina and rave music featuring heavily.
And it shows how that sound has stuck with many into their adult lives to this day. You only have to look as far as reunion events which crop up across the region.
Long-standing MC Turbo D's 'birthday bash' which took place in Sunderland over the Easter bank holiday was one of these. The sell-out event at Trilogy on Green Terrace featured familiar faces such as Chrissy G, Impulse, Trance, TNT, Ronez and pioneer of the movement, MC Stompin.
Although the music got a bad wrap due to the shady occurrences which took place at the Monkey in the 2000s, many of the people who enjoy Makina to this day use it as a sense of release, and celebrate it.
In a 2020 documentary on YouTube by Boiler Room and the British Council, entitled 'Makina!' Jimmy Mason aka MC Rockeye spoke very highly of these types of event.
He said: "Unless you've been to a rave you can't explain it. It's a place where you can get a serious professional solicitor, you can get a soldier, you can get someone who's perhaps a single parent, but while you are all together in that place - you're all the same."
Another interviewee, added: "It is basically a community thing - when you're there that is your time. It's like 'this is me', you can be yourself.
"Even though it's been frowned upon as a scene as a bad place where 'charvers' go and different things, there's a lot of positives come out of it. We've got nothing else.
"To me Makina's happiness. I hear it, I smile."
It's not a genre of music that will ever be as popular as pop or rock by any stretch of the imagination - but it's a little piece of home for those who have been surrounded by it for so long.
Just as Londoners have grime music and Yorkshire folk have bassline - Makina will never stray too far from the hearts of the local communities across the North East. And although live club nights in local city and town centres are very few and far between at the moment, the rave scene will never die out completely.
Read more:
Sunderland's infamous Blue Monkey club makes Radio 2 as listener reminisces
See undercover cop discuss Blue Monkey raid as documentary into notorious nightclubs is released
The hidden heartbreak that spawned Gateshead rave legend's biggest tunes
Inside Sunderland's infamous nightclubs - documentary to reveal Blue Monkey and New Monkey stories
Who remembers the infamous New Monkey nightclub? The troubled venue that was a haven for ravers
