During the late 80’s, Gripper played at some of the UK’s seminal club nights including Manchester's 'Precinct 13', London’s 'Cat in the Hat,' and Liverpool’s 'Quadrant Park' to name but a few. With the blossoming of the rave scene in the UK, his blend of funky, vocal house, quality Hip Hop and deeper US grooves found favour in some of the UK’s first legal warehouse parties such as the 10,000 capacity ‘Upfront Allnighters’, Bolton’s prestigious ‘Belief’ parties, and nationwide Raindance events, playing alongside such luminaries as Moby, Carl Cox, A Guy Called Gerald, Laurent Garnier, Sasha, The Orb, and many more. Gripper’s ‘keep it real’ approach was a welcome sanctuary during this heady club boom and many write ups and reviews in Black Echoes and on BBC Radio Lancashire’s monthly ‘Funkology’ show celebrated his grass roots attitude.
The early 90’s saw Gripper returning to regular club ights in his hometown, where he ran the successful ‘Nice as Pie’ monthlies, which featured on the netwoek TV’s flagship clubbing programme ‘BPM’. Throughout the mid 90’s Gripper continued his local residencies and guest spots, becoming more and more disenchanted with the overt commercialism of the House scene. The club nights took on more of a specialised feel, smaller venues, moire diverse music. Residencies (Bar Miro) and guest spots (The Volcano, The Tunnel), in Glasgow and London (Breakneck, The Gardening Club) kept the vibe chilled and the tempo lowered. Grippers eclectic mix of parties continued in his home town Barrow, with nights such as ‘Club With Confidence'.