Dexter Jones

In this episode of The Dexter Jones Podcast, Paul “Madders” Madan returns for part two, sharing the raw and brutally honest story behind the rise and fall of Sundissential, one of the most iconic club brands in UK dance music history.

Madders was at the centre of the 90s rave explosion, helping build Sundissential into a phenomenon that packed superclubs across Birmingham and Leeds. But behind the scenes, addiction was taking hold.

What started with early rave culture and Class A drugs slowly spiralled into cocaine, crack addiction, and eventually losing everything.

In this powerful conversation, Madders opens up about the darkest years of his life, the collapse of Sundissential, his battle with addiction, and the long road to recovery.

This is a brutally honest story about rave culture, fame, ego, addiction and redemption.

If you were part of the UK club scene in the 90s and early 2000s, this episode will take you right back to one of the wildest eras in dance music history.

Topics covered in this episode

• The rise of Sundissential and UK hard house culture
• Life behind the scenes of 90s rave promotions
• How addiction slowly took control
• Crack cocaine and the downward spiral
• The collapse of a legendary club brand
• Hitting rock bottom
• Recovery and rebuilding life after addiction

Chapters

00:00 – “Crack Was My Life”
03:02 – When Did It Start Going Wrong?
04:39 – The First Time I Took a Class A Drug
06:55 – The Invisible Line Into Addiction
12:19 – Active Recovery Since 2017
27:39 – The Moment I Started Using Crack Cocaine
33:36 – The Beginning of the End for Sundissential
37:19 – Three Weeks in Birmingham Crack Houses
42:17 – When Sundissential Went Bust
1:00:03 – “If I Thought This Mug Would Change How I Felt…”
1:02:48 – The Moment of Clarity

About Paul “Madders” Madden

Paul “Madders” Madden was a co-founder of Sundissential, one of the most influential hard house club brands in the UK. During the late 90s and early 2000s, Sundissential events attracted thousands of clubbers every week and helped shape the UK dance music scene.

After years of addiction and personal struggles, Madders is now in recovery and works helping others facing similar challenges.

Subscribe for more stories from dance music culture

The Dexter Jones Podcast explores the real stories behind club culture, DJs, promoters and the people who built the dance music scene.

🎧 New episodes every week.

Subscribe here:
https://www.youtube.com/@dexterjonesibiza

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The Wellbourne Clinic

The Wellbourne Clinic is a UK-based addiction treatment centre that provides professional support for people struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. The clinic offers therapy-based treatment programmes designed to help individuals understand the root causes of addiction and build the tools needed for long-term recovery.

With a focus on personalised care, The Wellbourne Clinic provides a safe and supportive environment where people can begin rebuilding their lives. Their approach combines therapeutic support, recovery guidance, and community-based recovery pathways to help individuals move forward with stability and purpose.

Paul “Madders” Madden now works within addiction recovery support and has been involved in helping others facing similar struggles.

If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, you can learn more about their work here:

https://thewellbourneclinic.co.uk/

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Addiction & Recovery Support

If you or someone you know is struggling with drug or alcohol addiction, there are organisations that offer confidential help and support.

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)
Support groups for people struggling with alcohol addiction.
https://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk

Narcotics Anonymous (NA)
Support meetings for people recovering from drug addiction.
https://ukna.org

FRANK – UK Drug Advice Service
Free confidential advice about drugs and addiction.
📞 0300 123 6600
https://www.talktofrank.com

Drinkline – National Alcohol Helpline
Free confidential helpline for people concerned about drinking.
📞 0300 123 1110

Samaritans
If you are struggling and need someone to talk to.
📞 116 123
https://www.samaritans.org

The Wellbourne Clinic
Professional addiction treatment and recovery support.
https://thewellbourneclinic.co.uk

Important note

Recovery is possible. If you are struggling, reaching out to one of the organisations above can be the first step toward getting help.

Paul Glazby returns to The Dexter Jones Podcast for Part 2 of this in-depth Hard House interview, diving into UK club culture, Vicious Circle Records, Tidy Trax era dance music, DJ burnout, music industry politics, management failures, and the real reason he stepped away from the UK Hard House scene. In this episode, Paul Glazby opens up about losing 75% of his DJ income, building multiple gym businesses, moving to New Zealand and Australia, starting again at 40 in real estate, and why Hard House and underground dance music have come back into his life after more than a decade away.

If you lived through the UK Hard House era, this is essential listening.
If you’ve ever walked away from something you loved, this will resonate even more.

This is not just about DJing.
It’s about identity, reinvention, burnout and rebuilding.

In this episode we cover:

• The collapse of his DJ career
• Losing 75% of his bookings overnight
• Fake gigs and music industry politics
• Launching Red Management
• Seven years of burnout juggling fitness and DJing
• The 10-hour farewell set
• Moving abroad and completely disconnecting from dance music
• Losing half his gym membership overnight
• Reinventing himself in real estate at 40
• The return of Hard House
• The one track he would close the night with

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🎧 CHAPTERS

00:00 The Collapse: “My DJ Career Looked Like It Was On Its Ass”
01:09 Losing 32 Kilos & Reinventing Myself Through Fitness
06:01 Drugs, DJing & The Night Everything Changed
08:12 Tidy Management, Trophy Twins & Industry Politics
12:55 Fake Gigs, Cancelled Bookings & A 75% Income Drop
19:42 Launching Red Management & Taking Back Control
20:26 Seven Years of Burnout: 5:30am Clients + Weekend Gigs
21:57 “I’m Never Gonna Do A UK Gig” – The Final Announcement
26:36 Moving Abroad & Losing Touch With Dance Music
33:00 The Gym Collapse: Losing Half My Members Overnight
34:22 Starting Again at 40: From DJ to Real Estate
40:05 “Music’s In The Blood” – Hard House Comes Back
47:13 The One Last Track: RRF – Yomamba

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About Paul Glazby

Paul Glazby is a UK Hard House DJ and producer known for Vicious Circle Records and his work during the peak of the Tidy Trax era. A key figure in underground UK club culture, he has released extensively across the Hard Dance scene and remains one of the most respected names in Hard House history.

🎧 Paul Glazby: Hard House’s Greatest Era & Why It’s Coming Back 
This week on the podcast, I sit down with Paul Glazby, DJ, producer, label owner, and founder of hard house record label Vicious Circle, to unpack the rise, fall, and resurgence of Hard House.

From teaching himself to mix in secret…
To clearing the dancefloor at Insomniacs before becoming a resident…
To build one of the most influential Hard House labels of the early 2000s…

This is a deep dive into one of the most important eras in UK club culture.

We talk about:

• The real impact of Tony De Vit’s passing on Hard House
• How Gatecrasher & trance briefly overtook the harder sound
• The explosion of 2000–2002 Hard House
• Building Vicious Circle from scratch
• Producing classics like Kick It
• The vinyl collapse & MP3 era
• Why Hard House is back
• The new generation pushing 150–160 BPM
• And how podcasting reignited Paul’s passion for music

This is Part 1 of 2. Part 2 drops very soon.

If you were there in the early 2000s… this will hit.
If you weren’t… this explains everything.

🔥 Topics Covered:

Hard House history
Vicious Circle Records
Insomniacs Sheffield
Tony De Vit
Tidy Trax
BK & Hard Dance evolution
Hard House comeback 2025
Vinyl era vs digital
UK club culture 1998–2005
Why are harder sounds trending again

🎶 About Paul Glazby

Paul Glazby emerged from Sheffield’s underground scene in the late 90s and became one of the defining names of UK Hard House.

Founder of Vicious Circle, his productions helped shape the tougher edge of the genre during its peak years. After a long hiatus, he has returned — producing new music, relaunching labels and hosting the Hard House History podcast.

⏱ Chapters

00:00 Introduction: Hard House Then vs Now
03:12 Teaching Himself to Mix in Secret
07:45 The Night Half the Club Walked Out
12:30 Tony De Vit’s Death & The Scene Shift
18:40 Gatecrasher, Trance & The Hard House Takeover
24:10 The 2000–2002 Hard House Explosion
30:25 Launching Vicious Circle Records
36:50 Producing “Kick It” & Signature Sound
43:15 Vinyl Collapse & The MP3 Era
49:40 Why Hard House Is Coming Back
56:10 The New 150–160 BPM Generation
01:02:30 Podcasting, Comeback & What’s Next

New episodes every Sunday at 5pm UK.
No clickbait. No bots. Just real stories from the people who built the scene.

If you’ve been enjoying the journey this past year, thank you.
We’re just getting started.

In this episode, I sit down with Jason "JFK" Kinch to unpack 30 years of PaSSion and the era of weekly UK club culture before the corporate superclubs and festivals muddied the waters.

Operating alongside Gatecrasher, Cream and Godskitchen. Before huge production budgets and global DJ brands.

PaSSion was building something different.

From the early days of flyering streets and risking everything financially, to flying in unknown artists like Ferry Corsten and a young Armin van Buuren who was still at university, this is a raw and honest look at what it really took to survive in the golden era of UK clubbing.

JFK opens up about:

• The reality of losing money as a promoter
• Why are you only ever as good as your last party
• The integrity of Tony De Vit turning down upfront feed to remain resident
• Taking risks on artists nobody knew
• Growing from 750 capacity to 2,500
• And why seeing that first person run onto the dancefloor still makes it all worth it

This is not a throwback for its own sake.
This is clubbing history from someone who lived it.

If you care about UK club culture, trance history, and the foundations of the scene before it went global, this episode is essential viewing.

Subscribe or follow for more club culture deeps dive with the people who built the scene.

Chapters:

00:00 30 Years of Passion - Before the Superclubs
07:35 The Emporium - Mark & Eric and the Birth of Passion
10:42 The Brutal First Six Months of Passion
16:48 Why Is He Called JFK?
21:52 Weekly Partying in the 90s Club Scene
28:26 Running The Emporium Nightclub
32:36 The Tony De Vit Residency Story
37:25 Ferry Corsten at Passion - Before the Fame
39:02 Booking a Student Armin van Buuren
43:46 Taking Passion to Ibiza
52:57 Tiësto at Cream Ibiza – The Superclub Era
1:00:14 The Generational Shift in UK Clubbing
1:06:54 The Return of Passion
1:12:00 Modern Day Clubbing Challenges
1:17:47 The Truth About Promoters Losing Money
1:20:28 Why He Can Never Walk Away
1:36:18 The Last Tune of the Night

This episode of the Dexter Jones Podcast tells the real story of Paul Madan AKA "Madders", who is one of the defining figures behind Sundissential and UK club culture.

It’s an honest, unfiltered conversation about success, addiction, collapse, and recovery. From the height of clubland to a twenty-year battle with crack cocaine, this episode goes beyond dance music into accountability, survival, and rebuilding a life.

This is one of the most important conversations we’ve ever recorded on the Dexter Jones Podcast.

This is not a nostalgia piece.

It’s a raw, human conversation about success, excess, addiction, collapse, recovery, and the long road back to finding meaning again.

From the rise of Sundissential and packed-out clubs to a twenty-year battle with crack cocaine, losing everything, finally finding recovery and his true purpose in life, this episode goes far beyond dance music.

It’s about accountability, survival, and choosing to face life head-on.

This episode is dedicated to everyone around the world living with any version of addiction, and to those in recovery who choose courage, honesty, and hope every single day.

In this episode, we cover:

📖 The real story behind Sundissential and its impact
🤯 The pressure, chaos, and reality behind the scenes
🤧 Addiction, denial, and hitting rock bottom
😢 Losing everything and starting again
▵ Recovery, responsibility, and life today
🥰 What survival actually looks like when the noise stops

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Chapters 📖

00:00 Intro | The Real Story Begins
04:08 Why He’s Always Been Called “Madders”
06:13 The Rumour That Madders Was Dead
10:14 Addiction Tightens Its Grip
25:53 Promoting the First Events | Early Clubland Days
37:32 How His Mum Invented the Name Sundissential
44:53 Sundissential Grows to 100,000 Members
57:51 Five Thousand People Turn Up to One Club
01:05:00 Sundissential Becomes a Superclub Brand
01:27:56 Club Deaths, Media Pressure, and Everything Falling Apart

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THE WELLBOURNE CLINIC
A huge thank you to Paul and the team at The WellBOURNE Clinic for the vital work they do supporting people affected by addiction and recovery. If you’d like to learn more about their approach and the support they offer, please visit their website:

 https://thewellbourneclinic.co.uk/