GNSP

This is the final resting place of NSB
aka NuSkoolBreaks.co.uk and NSB Radio

NuSkoolBreaks.co.uk was started in 2001 and grew to be one of the largest music forums on the internet, with over 25,000 members, nearly 2 Million posts, its own compilation CD, packed out events, tour nights, and hosting arenas at festivals around the world.

In 2004, the forum community started NSB Radio which quickly grew to be one of the worlds biggest internet radio stations and voted the best breaks radio station more than any other. The station broadcast for over 7,000 days straight, creating 6,800+ show archives, millions of happy listeners and thousands of DJs in a fantastic community.

The End

On Thursday 15th September 2022 we announced the closing of NSB, and at midnight on Friday 16th September the last tune was played on NSB Radio (The Freestylers - Slammer), with the Forum, Radio website, Archives and Slack chat then all being turned off.

Founders Messages

A note from Jimmy Brayks:

I'm so, so sad that I am closing off such a large part of my life. But I need to be thankful for the many awesome people I've met through NSB, who I've created lifelong friendships with, and who I've had great times all over the world with, thanks to breaks.

NSB forum started around the year 2000, so over half my life NSB has been part of me, and for the last 18 years NSB Radio has been the soundtrack to my life.

I'm gonna miss chatting shit / arguing on the internet while my girlfriend / friends / family wonder what I'm doing. I'm gonna miss the 3am messages telling me that the radio is down, or the hundreds of emails per week that I have managed to ignore for 20 years. It's been funny, sad, tough, a disaster financially, it's ruined relationships, I've missed important dinners and occasions, but it's been worth it and I wouldn't change anything (well, OK, maybe a few things...) but we've done so much and created so much from nothing.

7,000+ days of streaming audio, thousands of hours of MP3s, 25,000+ forum members, nearly 2 Million forum posts, a BBC Radio 1 People's Choice award, at least 5 (I think) Breakspoll awards (so we can safely NSB Radio was the best breakbeat radio station in the world). A fucking compilation CD. Merchandise. We've hosted parties at festivals like Glade, all over London, all over the UK, the World - Miami, Sydney, Paris, Peckham... Lots of great achievements and it's all thanks to you, listeners, DJs, forum members and ultimately breaks music lovers.

The last 48 hours of NSB were some of the best days of my life - reading how much NSB and its music meant to listeners and the happiness our station, events and community brought you. Thank you. Love you all!

Jimmy

A note from Simon Plexus:

Well that was a ride, wasn't it? I can't believe it is over - it feels so long ago, but also like yesterday that collins303 pinged me this email of some Jimmy Brayks guy that needed help with a radio and forum thing. I was an ageing raver who was doing the servers for (and playing on) old stations like breakpirates and interface pirate radio. Things just snowballed from that email.

You have all been with me through all my travels through life. I've met so many people through the station - from Asia to the west coast of the USA and beyond. Listening to breaks at a festival up in the mountains in Santa Cruz was a fond memory. Playing Glade festival in 2009 with The Scritch in the NSB breakdown arena was when I last played a set to a crowd - and it felt like the right point to retire from Djing that had been part of my life since 1992. I've not played to a crowd any since then, though occasionally dust off the 1200s and have a spin for posterity. NSB meetups, brick lane curries. The list goes on. I've seen Jims coding ability go from strength to strength, even when he pings me now for help I usually just sit there and watch him type out his inner monologue as he figures out how to fix it himself. I'm finally redundant! Thank the stars. Only took nearly 20 years.

I'm so greatful to have been a part of this amazing community that spawned peoples music careers, record labels, parties, events and built up a lot of new DJ's self confidence in getting on the decks. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone who was part of this and helped everything keep going over the years. I have made some great friends through NSB, and sadly lost a few along the way too.

Which gives a poignant segway into the epilogue:

Loss is part of life: You are born, you will die. The bit in the middle is where you have all the fun. This is NSBs time to die, but looking back it was definitely a lot of fun.
So have as much fun in your lives as you can,
because it's pretty boring and a waste of time if you don't.

Peace. We out.

Simon

In the coming days we will make this site more of a memorial for NSB.

Getting your NSB fix

NSB Radio Mixcloud

You can listen to some of NSBs Archive shows on Mixcloud.

NSB Merchandise

Want to grab NSB merch before its gone? We have UK and US merch stores with NSB logos, and if you want to go old skool, grab classic logos merch of NuSkoolBreaks.co.uk and NSB Radio.

Love from listeners, artists and DJs all over the world

Over 100 messages of love in our final hours of broadcast - it's amazing to read so many memories and how much NSB meant to people:

Pause to hover. Use arrow keys or swipe to move forward and back.

Thank You to...

Jimmy Brayks - For being a sound geeza and always keeping the ship going. He's like marmite, you love him or hate him. Gonna miss running this place with you. Won't miss the stupid o'clock messages and calls. Thanks for letting me be lazy and just tag my "thanks list" onto yours because its pretty much identical anyway!

Simon Plexus - for always letting me wake him up to rescue the server, thanks mate

Our girlfriends - for putting up with us for many many years while someone was wrong on the internet

Tony Slackshot - what a legend, did so much for the radio, for the agency, for the live broadcasts, great chap

Richie Balboa - Richie ball bags, whatever happened to him, he just disappeared, ran the radio for ages, great drunk face

Alikat - Ran the radio for ages and did lots of great things when I didn't have time, saved the radio a few times

JJ Pinkman - Tireless NSB Radio schedule manager who has kept the radio and chat ticking over for years

Will MD - Keeping the NSB Radio schedule in check for many years and always giving me a sanity check, obrigada

Shaman - for being a moderator on NSB when everyone else gave up, what a legend, thanks mate

Clodhoppa - steered the good ship NSB while Jim was not around for a bit and generally sound geezer, helped out a ton with design work, did the London Breaks Allnighter flyer which Jimmy still uses for practically any design he does

Miffy - used to help out a ton with the agency and label and things, thank you

Bobzilla - for designing the NSB logo, what a legend, now he paints birds, not the page 3 kind

Morphosis - for designing the original NSB Radio logo, legend

Rik - for designing the latest and final NSB logo, top banana - rikgrafiek.be

VJ Air - for his constant support of NSB parties, Breakspoll and his scene defining visuals

MysterEon - for recording the infamous NSB jingle that signified the servers were down AGAIN! Plus quality humour in the chatroom

Mark Barren - for being the soundtrack of Friday nights for 20 years, plus some epic party sessions

TheScritch - for being a lovely chap and helping out with coding back in the early days

JPrime - for coding up the original schedule system we used a version of for over 15 years, thank you!

Speshal - for being Speshal, love you mate wherever you are

Collins303 - for introducing me to Simon back in the day

Biff - for always giving support to the breaks sound and helping me out so much with events and access

Ali B - for giving NSB opportunities with Air

Jimmy Mofo - for being a top mate and a geezer and a big supporter of breaks and NSB from day one

Quest - for just being Questicles really, the forum couldn't handle him bless

Oscar at Rumour Records - for putting out a NSB compilation album in 2004 you crazy man

Ben Jurassik - for giving NSB lots of party opportunities, always bringing 30-50 friends and being a formidable constable in the breakbeat police.

Calxtra - for being in the chat room everyday, helping out with scheduling, and occassionally TYPING ALL IN CAPS right until the end

AG4111 - for winning the NSB forum with the most posts - no-one else came close or dribbled that much.

Thank you to all listeners, DJs, forum posters, moderators, scehdule managers, promoters, promo teams, club nights, record labels and many more that have believed in NSB. Love ya.

That's all folks

Simon pulls the plug