Lord of the dance party: Andrew Weatherall

David Bowie taught him to dress and Primal Scream helped him quit drugs. Original dance head Andrew Weatherall tells Louis Pattison about the things that saved (and raved) his life...

Andrew Weatherall knows the golden survivor's rule: never back yourself into a corner. A punk rock soul boy from Windsor, Weatherall rose to fame through acid house, his remixing nous transforming a band of jangly, Byrds-worshipping Scots called Primal Scream into the floor-filling good vibes merchants of Screamadelica. Since, he's made cut-throat techno music as Sabres Of Paradise and Two Lone Swordsmen, run a couple of record labels and a load more clubs, and honed a DJing style that plays it fast and loose with genre - see new mix album Sci-Fi Lo-Fi, which includes Gene Vincent, The Cramps and Killing Joke. And he's done this all while wearing some pretty sweet threads. How does he do it? Stay close as the Guide steps inside the Shoreditch lair of the man they call Lord Sabre...

1. The record that got me into music:
Donna Summer - Love To Love You Baby

"Sunday night was always the usual parent fare of Neil Diamond and Bread. But my mum and dad really liked Donna Summer's Love To Love. I like that there was something risque about it, although I was too young to understand the sex side of it - I just knew it was something taboo. And I also remember hearing my parents discussing I Feel Love and saying it wasn't real music because it was made by machines. To which I thought 'Cool!'"

2. Where I learnt to dress:
David Bowie - Pin Ups

"Good record, but a great sleeve. On the inside, he's got this Tommy Nutter suit with a bolero jacket, and he's wearing an eye patch. It was the feeling that, living out in the suburbs, you could cause a stir with the right cut of trouser or the right colour hair. I'm still obsessed with clothes. I've been known to see bands from the waist up and think they're alright, then see their footwear and decide they're rubbish. Call me fickle."

3. The club that made me:
Shoom

"At 25 I was a jaded clubber, but then I went to Shoom. Just 150 people in a small room. You couldn't see a hand in front of your face through the smoke machine, and they played the Residents, the Woodentops, new beat and house records. It satisfied my dual identity as a punk rock soul boy. This was 1988 and a year later acid house exploded, but before that it was just weird records with a good beat."

4. My first remix:
Happy Mondays - Hallelujah

"I went up to Manchester quite often, even before the Hacienda was built. Always liked it. The first Mondays song I heard was This Feeling, and I thought they were OK, not mind-blowing. But soon we were going to the same clubs as them, listening to the same music, taking the same drugs - and a year or so later, I'm in a studio with Paul Oakenfold, remixing Hallelujah. I was really scared! I'd never really been in a studio before, I didn't know how the machines worked. But we went in with some good ideas and samples, and it worked."

5. The record that proves dance music is alive:
Danton Eeprom - Confessions of an English Opium Eater

"Danton Eeprom is a very flamboyant Frenchman with a penchant for Pierre Cardin silk scarves. A couple of years back, dance music all went a bit functional, but this has a proper beginning, middle and an end - it's like a post punk/techno crossover record. The title comes from the Thomas De Quincy book, which I read back in sixth form, walking around with books in the pocket of my long rain mac. Probably had a Franz Kafka in the other side."

6. The club I ran:
Sabresonic

"It was always really substance fuelled, but we always had a mad mix of people because it was all about the music. I remember the first time I ever heard about Oasis. Paul Mathur from Melody Maker said: 'I've just seen the future of rock'n'roll - they did an 18 minute version of I Am The Walrus!' I said 'fuck off!' and shut the door in his face. I wasn't having that. How wrong I was! Did I grow to like them? Er, no."

7. The film they all forgot:
Hard Men

"One of those straight to video gangster films. It came out about 1994, I think. I played a club owner called Buddha. I was expecting the phone to start ringing and I'd have a Joe Strummer/Tom Waits-style film career, but it disappeared pretty much without trace. Thing is, they put the trailer with my scene in at the start of loads of films, so you'll probably see me when you sit down to watch Good Will Hunting on VHS."

8. The record that saved my Life:
Primal Scream - Riot City Blues

"For about two years, I went berserk. It was drugs based. I was making completely wrong decisions, just running amuck, like addicts do. My girlfriend didn't think I was going to live. In the end I literally did a cold turkey thing. But Riot City Blues saved my life. It was like, 'fuck it, we've got nothing to prove'. It was just an exuberant, joy-of-life record. It pulled me back from the edge."

9. The record i just remixed:
Black Lips - Veni Vidi Vici

"The Black Lips remind me of The Beatles' Hamburg period - melodic, well-played punk rock and blues. I've just remixed this album track. Live, they do this thing where one spits up in the air and catches it in his mouth. Not sure I approve, but maybe that's just because I'm gutted I can't do it without getting it in my eye."

· Sci-Fi Lo-Fi: Vol 1, mixed by Andrew Weatherall, is out now.

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