Shaft (rave)
Shaft was a UK-based dance music act from Ilford, East London, that scored a Top 10 hit in the UK Singles Chart in December 1991, with a rave track, "Roobarb and Custard".[1] It featured vocal samples from the vintage children's television cartoon Roobarb, as well as a variety of sound effects. The main contributor was the British record producers, Mark Pritchard (born 28 November 1966) and Adrian Ribble (born 15 January 1964).[1]
Although the single reached the Top 10 in 1991, it climbed to its highest position of No. 7 in January 1992. The follow-up track was "Monkey", which peaked at No. 61 in July 1992.[1]
The use of samples from children's television programmes was not unique to this hit within the genre, with Mark Summers having sampled The Magic Roundabout in his early 1991 hit "Summers Magic". However, Shaft was the first dance act to reach the Top 10 with a track using this type of formula. Other bands who went on later in 1992 to repeat this success were Urban Hype, who reached the No. 7 with "A Trip to Trumpton", and Smart E's, who achieved No. 2 with "Sesame's Treet". The string of similarly created records were dubbed Toytown Techno.