ORBIT 94

ORBIT 94 captures the heady days of legendary techno club, THE ORBIT at the After Dark in Morley, Leeds in 1994. Between 1991 and 2003, THE ORBIT was considered one of the best techno clubs in the world, attracting the world’s greatest DJs including Sven Väth, Richie Hawtin and Jeff Mills alongside the best UK talent. Clubbers flocked to its weekly Saturday nights from all over the UK and beyond. As a result, it quickly became established as a must-visit techno mecca to rival Berlin’s Tresor or Frankfurt’s Omen.

ORBIT 94 captures a time before digital cameras, smartphones and social media changed the clubbing landscape forever. It was time when no-one cared if you pointed a camera in their face at a club, as they were lost in the endless 4/4 rhythm of the music. Village is proud to publish this new edition in print for 2025, coinciding with a solo exhibition by Lange at our Leeds gallery throughout October.

 “I first went to The Orbit in 1992, aged 18, with Karl, a friend from school. He knew people in Leeds who were regulars. I had access to a car so I became the designated driver. Queuing up, my nervous excitement and anticipation kept building. I had started going to raves in 1991, but nothing could have prepared me for the intensity of what was to come.  The Orbit was nothing like any club I had ever been to before and the atmosphere was nothing like I have experienced in the three decades since. The dance floor was heaving from 8pm until the final climax at 2am. Lasers hypnotised me as I danced for hours around the different levels of the club, my mind lost in the pounding 4/4 rhythms, shattering break beats and heavy rave stabs.  

When I left, my heart pounded with the thrill of what I’d just witnessed. We drove to an all-night truckers’ café, sipped tea and chatted until the early hours. Then we headed back to Karl’s friends’ flat in Leeds to chill out. I would visit The Orbit once more that summer before starting to study photography at college.  At art collage in Hartlepool, I met Chris and Caroline, two likeminded souls - and still great friends - into the same music as me. By 1993 we were travelling down regularly to The Orbit from Teesside, and in 1994 I took my camera for the first time to capture some of these images.  For my final college photography project, I decided to capture the clubbing experience and went back to The Orbit. This time, I had a rarely granted permission to shoot photos. I only ever took my camera twice as a) the club had a no-photos policy and b) I was too into the music and experience to want to worry about shooting images.

In June 1997 I moved to London so the opportunities to travel up became more limited and the lure of London clubland was beckoning. However, nothing will ever compare to the amazing atmosphere and music I experienced at The Orbit. It will always be my favourite club.”  

 James Lange moved to London in 1997, assisting photographers before branching out shooting for music magazines such as TOUCH and JOCKEY SLUT in the 2000s. There, he photographed numerous club nights as well as shooting portraits of the DJs and producers. This led James to fledgling photo agency PYMCA (Photographic, Youth, Music, Culture, Archive). In 2005 he joined the team as Photo Editor & Archive Manager.  He is currently Picture Editor at renowned photo agency Camera Press. 

 The Orbit: Morley’s Techno Mecca by Eleanor Vickers:

 An orbit is a regular, repeating path that one object in space takes around another. The elliptical deleuze emulates the fragmented memories of a club night born in Ossett and made in Morley: spinning wax melted over the turntables from the perspiring ceiling, limbs swung from the curved three story balconies, and rotating fists clung to the ecstatic atmosphere. Magnetised to the spirit of the scene, perihelion punters soaked up their tea in the queue at half past 6, ‘take the biscuit’ flyer in hand waiting eagerly to get into the legendary club night The Orbit.  

 Run by Sean McInereny, Nick Gundill, Darren Turner, Neil Harston and Sean Kendrick (1991-2003 by Sean & Nick), the club night began in 1991 at Woburn House aka Thirtysomethings in Ossett which fed off the comedown of the rave scene’s golden era. Before long it was operating in tandem with The After Dark in Morley, an old Victorian picturehouse turned club.  

 “Through The Orbit being there, Morley became a techno town and the culture seeped into the wider community” explained Mike Humphries, ex techno junkie and Orbit residential stalwart alongside DJ partner Jon Nuccle, who were musically involved with the party across ten years. Not only was it a local labour of love, it was seen as the UK’s answer to Tresor, Berlin and often praised amongst artists, ravers and press as the best techno club in the world. But to Nick Gundill, founding member of The Orbit, “it just became what it was”, a club of its time built within the rotating mechanics of the rave wheel. Being pedestalled alongside legendary clubs and techno institutes wasn’t built into The Orbit’s DNA, often shying away from press coverage and maintaining a level of local integrity and international modesty, “we weren’t celebrity promoters, it wasn’t our bag”.  

 Intro from the Biodegradable Soundsystem series by Eleanor Vickers from her self-published independent book, 2024 (Originally published online via Threads Radio, 2021)