At heart, Frame was always an old school, indie disco.
A place where the awkward kids, then fast becoming geeks of nascent chic, could cut a rug. To music they actually listened to and liked. Or just nod along, on the sidelines, nae pressure tae bust oot yer moves, without being shamed for it!
It was also, always, Kezza's brainchild.
Cutting DJ teeth as host of a popular indie show on the old, community not corporate driven, Leith FM, for over three years, Kezza's knack for cultivating and growing an audience, led to a promotion to Assistant Manager of the station. Increasingly being nudged, then hauled screaming and kicking, into a more commercially minded model, how the station was changing didn't suit Kezza's independent, free-spirited DIY ethos. That was still reflected in the local and wider indie artists championed on 'The Sublime Sunday Show'.
Almost inevitably, Kezza left the station when even the show format, dictated by the growing hegemonous corporate tyranny, and DJing in it, started to feel stifled. Forging out alone was the only option. Hosting club nights, all about the music and the people who listened to it, was the only natural progression.
This was first a fittingly nomadic affair, called 'Dream Sequence'. The pre-cursor to Frame, without a home to call its own. It kicked off in late 2009.
Self-promoted by Kezza, inevitably through DIY, fanzine style, fly-posting, across streets and hoardings, as well as in 'the right' pubs and venues, it gathered some momentum.
Happening on a rough monthly basis, Dream Sequence, was hosted in a few different locations, some now also defunct, across Edinburgh.
Having added a DJ or two from like-minded friends, to lighten the load, although still doing the legwork, posting and promoting, booking venues and artists (for the odd live slot), solo, Kezza's search was on for a 'permanent' spot for the club. Late in 2010, the right place met the right name change.
Then, after a successful first night at The Wee Red Bar, in Edinburgh Art College grounds, Frame was born. Finally, regular patrons and passing folks knew where and when to find what would go on to become Edinburgh's premier indie club for the next three years or so.
We say 'premier' in a qualitative, not just quantative, sense.
Frame remained true to Kezza's ethos and, while some nights may not have made it the most consistently busy club, it was where DJs from the proliferating 'scene', marked out by other clubs, could be found shaking their rumps. That and shouting at the DJ booth (or DJ burst out from it, chancing a shimmy along, ready to nip back in time for the cross fade!), 'Who is this?'.
And when it was busy, it was hoaching!
Frame instilled a loyalty in its errant patrons too. There was one weel kent face (you know who you are!) managed, somehow, to get back into a night, a record total of four times!
This was after being ejected by venue security for drunken, over-exuberant, art school dancing (read, falling down and getting up with rythmic regularity and staggering grace), whilst slurringly and loudly inciting everyone else to join in!
For those who care, its worth remembering, Frame was a love story. Not just about independent minded music fans and the music they love, but in the traditional sense too.
Somewhere mid-term, whilst building up a good head of steam, Kezza met J (or, tumshieheid, to use the appropriate, online nom de plume!). A veteran, having worked indie clubs in Greek holiday spots for a few years prior, tumshieheid added a certain je ne sais quois (jeez, two francophilsims in as many sentences! Pretentious, moi?) to the Frame dynamic.
Tumshieheid worked towards finding Frame and Kezza, through the early to mid 90s, first hosting and promoting warehouse raves 'darn sarf', after returning to Blighty's shores. Finding a frequency, mixing up indie ethos with punk aesthetic and dance beats, music and visuals.
Then, after returning to a native West Fife mining village, organising a yearly free festival, as a conscious alternative to Scotland's biggest and most commercial one, hosted just over the hill. Paying for it by bussing folk into monthly gigs at the local Miner's Welfare Club, as part of efforts to save it.
Building on that spirit, tumshieheid, through a mixture of happenstance, creative imagination and hard work, wound up with a music studio and arts venue which had a very similar ethos to Frame.
The fates aligned, Kezza and tumshieheid met and fell head over proverbial heels. Music was involved.
It took a beat or two for the Frame crowd to warm to tumshieheid's sets, when added to the DJ roster. It wasn't helped by other DJ's noses being put out of joint.
But it wasn't nepotism. Frame continued to grow, reputationally and literally, because value had been added.
It had become a genuine joint effort, a labour of love. And now had a graphic design, website building and poster/flyer making 'department'.
A willingness to help Kezza out with the legwork, the flyposting and promotion, which other 'turn up, play a set and thats it' DJs had spectacularly failed to do up until then, was a welcome bonus.
There were one or two tumshie champions in the crowd (again, you know who you are!), the majority of whom had become expectant indie putty in Kezza's hands!
Having at least one solitary soul, standing in the middle of a cleared dancefloor, screaming 'Yaaaaasssss!', kept the chin up. That and a bit of playing to expectations.
Word spread, as the quintessential Frame format took hold.
As it did, there were interviews with Kezza and tumshieheid on Leith FM's (and Kezza's show) successor, a few crossover events, between tumshieheid's studios and Kezza's club, gigs at both venues, promoting Edinburgh locals in West Fife and vice versa, podcasts, recording/producing someone else's indie radio show (to promote and have band's being championed by Frame interviewed on it).
Oh and a guest invite to play an event at Brixton's then coolest venue, from folks who'd listened to Kezza's show and been to Frame, whilst studying and working in Edinburgh.
It was a trademark cracking night (and technically the first frame-away-game), some of it recorded in the pics below. Testimony to how fresh the tunes were, for the crowd, is how burned into both DJ's memory the image of looking out from the stage-booth to a sea of bodies, jumpin' and jivin', almost all with phones set to 'shazam' held aloft, is!
Following on from that, as just one among many peaks, eventually, life changes for all concerned were to bring Frame, the home game, at The Wee Red Bar, to a natural end.
Plenty more good times, drinking, dancing, dancing and music, music, music, followed, home and away, before Frame, as was, finally unplugged the decks and speakers, and shut its literal and online doors.
Until now, that is...
Were you there? Wanna share memories of Frame? Got pics? Just enjoying the playlists and podcasts?
Let us know or send 'em over! We'll publish them here or give you a shout out on the podcast - what are you waitin' for?