Rewind, Reload, Repeat: UK Garage Is Back, and Derby’s Getting Involved

There was a time when you couldn’t go on a night out without hearing a bit of UK garage. The late nineties and early noughties were full of it. Two-step rhythms, chopped-up vocals, ridiculous basslines and MCs telling you to rewind the track for the third time. Whether you were listening to pirate radio, buying white labels from record shops or heading out to clubs, garage was everywhere. And then, as musical trends tend to do, things moved on.

Except UK garage never really went anywhere. It just stopped being quite so fashionable for a while.

Over the past few years, the genre has been enjoying something of a resurgence. Craig David continues to perform to huge audiences, Kurupt FM have taken their fictional pirate radio station from a cult comedy to festival stages, and garage classics have even been getting the orchestral treatment. Meanwhile, a new generation of producers and DJs have been rediscovering those unmistakable rhythms and giving them a contemporary twist.

And here in Derby, there’s a little bit of that old-school garage spirit bubbling away too.

Between the dance music nights at Mr Shaw’s House and the brilliantly self-aware sounds of Southpaw Grammar, the city has been getting another taste of a genre that soundtracked an entire generation’s nights out.

And judging by the turnout at REWIND.RELOAD.UK GARAGE back in August, we’re not the only ones happy about it.

REWIND.RELOAD.UK GARAGE: A Proper Old-School Night at Mr Shaw’s House

On Friday 21 August 2026, Mr Shaw’s House in Derby hosted REWIND.RELOAD.UK GARAGE, an evening dedicated to classic UK garage anthems, with DJ Mr Picton behind the decks and a special live performance from Southpaw Grammar.

And what a cracking night it turned out to be.

There were plenty of people down there, a great atmosphere and, most importantly, some absolutely fantastic music. Sometimes you don’t realise how much you’ve missed a particular sound until somebody starts playing it again. Suddenly you’re transported back twenty-odd years, remembering nights out, questionable fashion choices and the days when you could probably stay out until four in the morning without needing three days to recover.

Mr Picton was on DJ duties, working his way through a selection of classic garage tunes that had the place moving. But what made it particularly enjoyable was that he was spinning actual vinyl.

Not somebody standing behind a laptop pretending to turn a knob. Proper records.

There’s something special about watching a DJ dig through a collection of vinyl, particularly when the music comes from an era when white labels, record shops and pirate radio were such an important part of the culture.

At one point, I requested Shola Ama’s Imagine, a track I genuinely couldn’t remember the last time I’d heard somebody play out. Not only did Mr Picton have it, he had it on white label.

Beautiful.

It was one of those little moments that reminded me why these nights are worth getting out of the house for. You can listen to all the old classics on Spotify whenever you fancy, but hearing them played through a decent sound system, surrounded by people who remember them just as fondly, is a completely different experience.

And that’s something Mr Shaw’s House seems to understand rather well.

Southpaw Grammar: Dad Garage, School Runs and Still Having It

After Mr Picton had warmed everyone up with the classics, it was time for Southpaw Grammar to take to the stage.

If you’re unfamiliar with Southpaw Grammar, imagine the sounds of early-noughties UK garage mixed with the everyday realities of getting older, having responsibilities and discovering that your knees aren’t quite what they used to be.

He calls it Dad Garage, and that’s probably as good a description as you’re going to get.

His music combines garage production with singing, spoken word and MCing, delivered with a healthy dose of humour and some genuinely clever lyricism. It’s nostalgic without being stuck in the past, and funny without feeling like the whole thing is just one big joke.

Because underneath the tongue-in-cheek observations, there’s something quite refreshing about what Southpaw Grammar is doing.

So much of the music industry seems obsessed with youth. New artists, new trends, new faces. There’s often this strange suggestion that if you haven’t made it by a certain age, you should probably give up and find something more sensible to do.

Southpaw Grammar clearly hasn’t received that memo.

His songs explore the transition from garage sessions and late nights to school runs and everyday responsibilities, while making it abundantly clear that growing older doesn’t mean you have to stop enjoying yourself.

You can have a family, a job and a mortgage and still get on stage and perform the music you love.

And why the hell shouldn’t you?

We’ve seen Southpaw Grammar perform at Mr Shaw’s House before, when he supported Liam C earlier in the year, and it’s great to see him continuing to develop his sound and get out there performing original material.

His set at REWIND.RELOAD was another reminder that UK garage doesn’t have to exist purely as a nostalgia exercise. There’s still plenty of room for new stories, different perspectives and artists who have something to say.

Even if those stories now involve the school run rather than stumbling out of a nightclub at sunrise.

Dear Mike: A Love Letter to The Streets, Told Through Eminem’s Stan

Southpaw Grammar’s latest project takes that combination of nostalgia, storytelling and everyday British life in a particularly interesting direction.

Originally scheduled for release across streaming platforms on 18 September 2026, Dear Mike is a parody and reinterpretation of Eminem’s Stan, written as a letter to Mike Skinner of The Streets.

Yes, that Mike Skinner. And yes, that Stan.

On paper, it sounds like a fairly unlikely combination. But when you think about it, the connection makes a surprising amount of sense.

Both Eminem and Mike Skinner helped redefine what storytelling could sound like in popular music. Both found ways to turn everyday experiences into compelling narratives, albeit from very different perspectives.

Where Eminem’s original Stan tells a dark story of obsession and the relationship between an artist and a fan, Southpaw Grammar takes the familiar musical backdrop and turns it into something altogether warmer.

Dear Mike is essentially a thank-you letter to the musician who inspired him to find his own voice.

Performed over a carefully recreated version of the original instrumental, the track replaces the darkness of Stan with humour, gratitude and reflections on growing older.

There are references to Original Pirate Material, warm lager, overflowing bins, open mic nights, school runs and all those wonderfully ordinary details that Mike Skinner became so good at turning into music.

And that’s really where the cleverness lies.

The Streets were never about presenting some glamorous, untouchable version of life. Mike Skinner wrote about things people actually recognised. Nights out, relationships, boredom, mistakes, money troubles and the peculiar little dramas of everyday British existence.

For a generation growing up in the early noughties, hearing those experiences reflected in music was something special.

Southpaw Grammar takes that influence and brings it into a different stage of life.

The late nights might have become early mornings, and the clubbing stories might now involve trying to get the kids to school on time, but the experiences are no less worthy of being written about.

As Dear Mike develops, it becomes less about trying to imitate The Streets and more about recognising what Mike Skinner’s music actually taught him.

You don’t need to live an extraordinary life to tell an interesting story.

Sometimes the ordinary stuff is where the best material comes from.

It’s a lovely sentiment, particularly from an artist whose entire musical identity seems built around embracing who he is rather than pretending to be somebody twenty years younger.

And while the concept is undoubtedly tongue-in-cheek, there’s something genuinely heartfelt underneath it all.

So Where Can You Hear Dear Mike?

Unfortunately, Dear Mike hasn’t had quite the straightforward release Southpaw Grammar originally planned.

The track was intended to arrive on streaming platforms on 18 September, but copyright complications surrounding its use of the Stan instrumental and its status as a parody have delayed its appearance on services such as Spotify.

At the time of writing, the release appears to be undergoing further review through DistroKid, so hopefully it won’t be too much longer before it becomes available on the usual streaming platforms.

Copyright and parody can be a complicated business, particularly when a new recording closely recreates an existing composition. Whether the track ultimately receives clearance remains to be seen.

Thankfully, you don’t have to wait to hear it.

Dear Mike is already available to watch and listen to through Southpaw Grammar’s social media channels and YouTube, complete with a music video.

It’s well worth checking out, particularly if you grew up listening to Eminem, The Streets or the UK garage scene of the early noughties.

And if you’ve ever found yourself wondering where the last twenty years disappeared to, there’s a good chance a few of the lyrics will hit rather close to home.

It’s Later Than You Think: A Different Side of Southpaw Grammar

Southpaw Grammar isn’t hanging around waiting for Dear Mike to make its way onto streaming services either.

His next release, It’s Later Than You Think, is scheduled for Friday 16 October 2026, and takes things in a slightly different direction.

Blending ambient garage sounds with spoken word, the track explores the idea that life is short and that we only get one opportunity to make the most of it.

It’s a message that feels particularly fitting for an artist who has made a point of getting back out there, creating music and performing despite all the responsibilities that come with getting older.

There’s a recurring theme running through Southpaw Grammar’s work, whether he’s joking about the realities of Dad Garage or reflecting on the musicians who inspired him.

Life moves quickly. Things change. Responsibilities pile up. But that doesn’t mean the things you love have to disappear.

And perhaps more importantly, there’s no point spending your life waiting for the perfect moment to do something.

Sometimes you’ve just got to get on with it.

With its more atmospheric garage production and reflective spoken-word approach, It’s Later Than You Think sounds like another interesting development in his musical journey.

It’s also another example of how versatile UK garage can be when artists start experimenting with its foundations rather than simply recreating the classics.

UK Garage Is Having Another Moment, and It’s About Time

Of course, talking about UK garage making a comeback is slightly misleading.

For plenty of people, it never went away.

The genre has continued to influence British dance music for decades, feeding into grime, dubstep, bassline and countless other sounds that followed. Producers have borrowed its rhythms, DJs have kept the classics alive and dedicated garage nights have continued to attract audiences long after the genre’s original commercial peak.

But there’s definitely been a renewed appreciation for the sound in recent years.

Craig David is perhaps one of the most obvious examples. An artist whose early success was closely connected to UK garage, he has continued to bring those sounds to new audiences through live performances, festivals and his TS5 shows.

Then there’s Kurupt FM, who somehow managed to turn a fictional pirate radio station from People Just Do Nothing into a genuinely successful live act.

What started as a comedy built around garage culture has become a celebration of it, introducing plenty of younger listeners to the music, characters and attitude that defined the original scene.

We’ve also seen garage classics reimagined with live orchestras, turning tracks once associated with sweaty clubs and pirate radio into enormous communal singalongs.

It’s a slightly surreal evolution when you think about it.

Twenty-five years ago, some of these tunes were being pressed onto white labels and passed around underground DJs. Now they’re being performed with string sections in front of thousands of people.

Not bad for music that was once dismissed by some as a passing trend.

But perhaps the most interesting part of the resurgence isn’t the big nostalgia events or established names revisiting their greatest hits.

It’s the smaller nights, independent DJs and grassroots artists keeping the culture moving.

Which brings us back to Derby.

Mr Shaw’s House Is Giving Derby’s Dance Music Scene Somewhere to Go

One of the things we’ve enjoyed about Mr Shaw’s House is its willingness to embrace different corners of electronic and dance music culture.

Derby has a long history with alternative music, and there’s certainly no shortage of gigs for people who prefer guitars, distortion and somebody screaming into a microphone.

We spend enough time at those ourselves.

But a healthy music scene needs variety.

It needs somewhere for people who want to hear house, garage, electronic music and all the other sounds that don’t necessarily fit into the city’s more traditional live music spaces.

Mr Shaw’s House has been doing a great job of putting on interesting nights and giving those audiences somewhere to go.

REWIND.RELOAD.UK GARAGE was a perfect example.

There was no need for an elaborate concept or an enormous production. Just a DJ with a great collection of records, an artist performing original music and a room full of people enjoying themselves.

Sometimes that’s all you need.

And while the nostalgia undoubtedly helped bring people through the doors, having somebody like Southpaw Grammar on the bill gave the evening something more than a simple trip down memory lane.

It connected the music people remember with somebody who is still creating new material inspired by those sounds.

That’s how scenes continue to grow.

Not by endlessly replaying the past, but by finding ways to bring it into the present.

Rewind, Reload and Keep It Moving

There’s something quite comforting about hearing UK garage again.

Maybe it’s nostalgia. Maybe it’s because the music still sounds fantastic. Or maybe it’s simply that those unmistakable basslines and two-step rhythms have a way of making you forget about everything else for a few hours.

Whatever the reason, it’s great to see more of it happening in Derby.

Mr Shaw’s House deserves credit for continuing to put on nights that celebrate different sides of electronic music, and Mr Picton certainly reminded us how good a proper old-school garage DJ set can be.

As for Southpaw Grammar, he’s doing something equally worthwhile.

He’s taking the music that shaped his younger years and using it to tell stories about the person he is now. Stories about getting older, finding inspiration, juggling responsibilities and refusing to give up on the things that make life enjoyable.

And there’s something pretty brilliant about that.

You don’t need to be twenty years old, dressed head to toe in designer sportswear and broadcasting from a pirate radio station to make UK garage.

Although, to be fair, the sportswear is probably still optional.

With Dear Mike finding its way through the release process and It’s Later Than You Think arriving on 16 October, there’s plenty more to come from Southpaw Grammar.

Meanwhile, if Mr Shaw’s House keeps delivering nights like REWIND.RELOAD, we’ll certainly be keeping an eye on what’s coming next.

Because if UK garage really is having another moment, we’re more than happy for Derby to get involved.

And Mr Picton, if you’re reading this, keep that Shola Ama white label handy.

We’re not finished with it yet.

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