History of RetroTrax

I created Retro Trax at the end of 2008 , after being a very successful event promoter, having put on several Quadrant Park reunion events between summer 2005 and summer 2007 , at “Bar Non” Southport, plus four events at “Club ISIS” in Liverpool and another at the renowned “Mr Smiths” in Warrington and culminating with a boat party I christened “Quadrant Ark” aboard the world famous Mersey Ferry then on to the after party at the “Magnet Club” , there followed the first ever Original State reunion I named “Daisy Revisited” in the “Masque Liverpool” in spring 2007. There followed three huge “Back to the Old Pool” events in the O2 club these in collaboration with Pezz and 3 Beat records they happened late 2007 & during Liverpools Capital of Culture year (2008). A few days before the final event that I found I was going to be a dad, I decided to curtail my involvement in future events and to settle down, I opened a record shop in New Brighton were I had recently moved with my fiancé Lisa.

The record shops was my second passion having had previous shops in the 90s, “Red Hot Vinyl” and “Kontraband Records”, both shops were located in the “Liverpool Palace” shopping complex. So then began the Retro Trax story it was in the spring of 2009 several months after our daughter Daisy was born. The New Brighton shop was successful very quickly and we decided we would put off an official launch party we had arranged for May that year, as the shop was busy without much promotion. This it turned out was a masterstroke as I’d previously brought FPI Project to Liverpool the year before for the 1st time ever and they loved it so much they offered to do a gig for half the usual fee as they were playing in Scotland in August so i saved on hotels / flights and stuff too, I got them to play in August for my launch party in the 02’s smaller 450 capacity room. This event sold out and it became clear that there was still a huge appetite for my old skool and classics events, Lisa and I were drawn back into the world of club and events promotion.

So In late 2009 I signed a contract to put two more Retro Trax events on at the 02 Academy featuring Together and Dream Frequency in autumn of that year billed as Retro Trax presents “Warehouse Days of glory” followed in the spring of 2010 with “Retro Trax Presents” - “Shades of Rhythm”. During this time it became quite difficult running the shop on my own for 6 days a week plus managing the mail order records and promoting sides of the business, I reluctantly decided to close the shop in late 2010 when Lisa returned to her day job after the maternity leave was up, I became a full time stay at home dad running my mail order records and the Retro Trax events with help from Lisa.

We went on to do two Retro Trax events in Llandudno & Fleetwood. My next venture was to reopen one of Liverpool’s legendary venues, The Hard Dock at the tobacco warehouse complex, this required months of renovations to get the place ready to hold 2 hard dock reunion events in April and July 2011. The success of these events generated enough reserves to plan for our biggest and most ambitious project to date , the UKs 1st ever two day Old Skool Dance Festival weekend with camping, this took place at Bath Racecourse in May 2012 , before the festivals we put on a big charity Retro Trax event in Liverpool to raise money for Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, Lisa was cared for there after a health scare in 2010, plus we were asked to host our own Retro Trax room at the Bowlers Reunion. The success of the Bath Racecourse Festival led to another Retro Trax festival at Stanford Hall In Leicestershire in 2013.

We decided to take a year off the festivals to find a new home and organise some club events in Liverpool after the success of the Hard Dock Reunions, it was a joint event with Glen Cyanide who ran the Drome Reunions. Our 1st event took place in the O2 in October 2013 and led onto to two more Retro Trax presents Drome reunions in March & June 2014, it was just a few weeks after the June event that my Lovely Lisa died so suddenly, this changed everything for me, we had already been contracted to do a Drome reunion for October that year and a Retro Trax festival at Uttoxeter Racecourse in 2015. I did complete these commitments but it never really felt the same after Lisa’s death. It was also in 2015 I opened my new Retro Trax record shop in New Brighton, I did do two further Drome reunions in late 2015 and 2016 and a small event in “Fort Perch Rock” in an old Napoleonic Fort at the mouth of the river Mersey in New Brighton.

There was a final Retro Trax club event in the Arts Club in Liverpool in early 2017 , Then a year later I closed my record shop and moved to Northern Ireland to renovate an old farm where I still live today. In 2023 I realised just how much I missed the music scene and started planning my Retro Trax radio station. So here we are ..

Please feel free to visit our events page check out all the flyers from these great events plus our festival page to see more pictures of these events & history of the 2 record shops