The Rock City Crew (also known as the X-Treeme Team) were a group of

breakdancer Breakdancing, also called breaking or b-boying/b-girling, is an athletic style of street dance originating from the African American and Puerto Rican communities in the United States. While diverse in the amount of variation available in t ...

s based in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

in the 1980s. The crew was founded by Rock City nightclub DJ Jonathan Woodliffe. Woodliffe was involved in starting the successful Saturday afternoon hip hop jams at Rock City as well as the club night on Fridays which attracted people from across the UK. The Saturday afternoon jams were initially set up at the request of

Trent FM Trent FM was an Independent Local Radio station which broadcast to Nottinghamshire. The station merged with two other East Midlands stations, Leicester Sound and Ram FM to form Capital FM East Midlands (part of Global's Capital FM Network) on M ...

, who later pulled out, and provided an opportunity for young kids to display their dancing skills. The Rock City Crew battled against breakdancing crews from across the country including crews with then to be legends such as drum and bass producer ''

Goldie Clifford Joseph Price MBE (born 19 September 1965), better known as Goldie, is a British music producer and DJ. Initially gaining exposure for his work as a graffiti artist, Goldie became well known for his pioneering role as a musician in th ...

'' (West Side Crew and Bboys) and Take That member ''

Jason Orange Jason Thomas Orange (born 10 July 1970) is an English former singer and dancer, known for being a member of Take That. He departed from the group in September 2014. Early life Jason Thomas Orange was born on 10 July 1970 in Manchester, Lancashi ...

'' (Street Machine and Broken Glass Street Crew). The 1983 crew members were: * Sly * Trix (a.k.a. Albert Thompson) * Legz * K.I.D. * Prince Touche * Wave Craze * Horace Francis * Calvin McLean * Paul Bernard * Patrick O'Connor * Pepper T (a.k.a. Priscilla Angelique) Members of the Rock City Crew were reunited during the making of the documentary film NG83 - When We Were B Boys which charts the rise of hip hop culture in 1980s Britain. They are also mentioned in John Robb's book 'The North Will Rise Again' which charts the history of music in Northern England. Trix (a.k.a. Albert Thompson) went on to present the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

programme 'Trash Talk' and is regarded as a breakdancing legend. He continues to host breaking competitions around the world. Pepper T (a.k.a. Priscilla Angelique) went on to dance on TV shows like Dance Energy and Solid Soul. She became an academic, studying at

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

among other universities and is a singer songwriter and dance music producer.

References

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External links

BBC Article: Film-maker identifies mystery Blue Note breakdancerB-Girlz Article about TrixNottingham Evening Post Article: Body-popping back to the years of Rock City Crew and hip-hopBBC article on Breakdancing in the Midlands 1980s onwardsLeft Lion Magazine article about Rock City Reunion
Music in Nottinghamshire British hip hop dance groups Breakdance Hip hop dance