Club Connected
Global Gathering
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Circus, 29/10/2007
After spending the best part of the '90s gurning to Oakey in The Courtyard, it has been quite some time since I have been to Nation and was unsure how it would be under new management.
As I've never had a bad night at Circus's nights in the Masque, the night promised to be good and the lineup was first rate.
We arrived at Nation at around 11.30, the night was completely sold out so we were expecting it to be really busy. The queue for internet-bought tickets and guest list had a waiting time of about 10 minutes.
We first headed to the main room which was packed, where Felix Da Housecat had already started.
I knew I had friends wandering around but didn't think I'd easily find them, so it was nice to bump into them left right and centre, particularly when they all congregated in the Courtyard for Eric Prydz. He was an unexpected treat! After only hearing his chart releases I really didn't pin much hope on a good set but was set straight soon after stepping into the courtyard. It was so busy it was difficult to get a spot to get in your dance swing where you weren't be jostled, but the crowd was really getting into it and the atmosphere was buzzing.
I wandered between rooms for a while to see what was on offer. I ended up back in the Courtyard to see Paul Woolford who really got the crowd going with his eclectic, original house.
Wanting to make sure I still had enough energy left to dance, I was a bit disappointed that SOS were on in the Annex at 3am (legs just aren't what they used to be!) I've been a massive Desyn Masiello fan since hearing his seminal Essential Mix in 2004, but I've only has the pleasure of seeing him once, as he hardly seems to venture up North and over the last 18 months he's taken some time out to produce and work with the other SOS members, Omid 16b and Demi. However they didn't disappoint. As they were on last the crowds had dispersed a bit so there was room to dance. The crowd loved them and everyone seemed to be big fans. I spoke to a guy who had never heard of them before but was really impressed.
In the Main Room, Groove Armada really got the crowd jumping with Superstylin' and all who saw them said they were brilliant.
Armin Van Helden took it back to the Oldschool with 'House of Pain' and 'We Want Your Soul' and the Courtyard loved him.
I was expecting to see some cracking fancy dress outfits but was sorely disappointed, the most shocking thing I saw all night was a guy buying two bottles of Smirnoff for £250!!
Must have had a good night as my ears didn't stop ringing until Monday.
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After spending the best part of the '90s gurning to Oakey in The Courtyard, it has been quite some time since I have been to Nation and was unsure how it would be under new management.
As I've never had a bad night at Circus's nights in the Masque, the night promised to be good and the lineup was first rate.
We arrived at Nation at around 11.30, the night was completely sold out so we were expecting it to be really busy. The queue for internet-bought tickets and guest list had a waiting time of about 10 minutes.
We first headed to the main room which was packed, where Felix Da Housecat had already started.
I knew I had friends wandering around but didn't think I'd easily find them, so it was nice to bump into them left right and centre, particularly when they all congregated in the Courtyard for Eric Prydz. He was an unexpected treat! After only hearing his chart releases I really didn't pin much hope on a good set but was set straight soon after stepping into the courtyard. It was so busy it was difficult to get a spot to get in your dance swing where you weren't be jostled, but the crowd was really getting into it and the atmosphere was buzzing.
I wandered between rooms for a while to see what was on offer. I ended up back in the Courtyard to see Paul Woolford who really got the crowd going with his eclectic, original house.
Wanting to make sure I still had enough energy left to dance, I was a bit disappointed that SOS were on in the Annex at 3am (legs just aren't what they used to be!) I've been a massive Desyn Masiello fan since hearing his seminal Essential Mix in 2004, but I've only has the pleasure of seeing him once, as he hardly seems to venture up North and over the last 18 months he's taken some time out to produce and work with the other SOS members, Omid 16b and Demi. However they didn't disappoint. As they were on last the crowds had dispersed a bit so there was room to dance. The crowd loved them and everyone seemed to be big fans. I spoke to a guy who had never heard of them before but was really impressed.
In the Main Room, Groove Armada really got the crowd jumping with Superstylin' and all who saw them said they were brilliant.
Armin Van Helden took it back to the Oldschool with 'House of Pain' and 'We Want Your Soul' and the Courtyard loved him.
I was expecting to see some cracking fancy dress outfits but was sorely disappointed, the most shocking thing I saw all night was a guy buying two bottles of Smirnoff for £250!!
Must have had a good night as my ears didn't stop ringing until Monday.
READ MORE >
90 Club Hits From The 90's
An amazing collection of dance and crossover tunes from the 90s, '90 Club Hits From The 90's' is a much-needed 4 CD album packed with top club hits from the era that brought you the most hedonistic super-clubs, the biggest earning DJ's ever and the coolest remixes!
With tunes from Armand Van Helden, Robert Miles and Faithless this album encapsulates the absolute best of 90's dance music for the first time all in one package. For anyone who lived through the 90's, reading the tracklisting is like reading a who's who of the dance music charts, with songs such as Professional Widow by Tori Amos, Missing ' Everything But The Girl and The Brand New Heavies ' Dream on Dreamer, surely nothing can define an era more than this album?
Highlights include Baby D, Armand Van Helden, Berry, Orbital, Grace, Stretch n' Vern, Josh Wink, Lisa Marie Experience, Rui Da Silva, Sonique, Wamdue Project, Olive, Moloko, Corona, K Klass, Deee Lite, Robert Miles, Faithless, Tori Amos, Mario Piu, C&C Music Factory and much much more'
Club Connected rating 7 out of 10. An interesting journey back to the 90s.
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An amazing collection of dance and crossover tunes from the 90s, '90 Club Hits From The 90's' is a much-needed 4 CD album packed with top club hits from the era that brought you the most hedonistic super-clubs, the biggest earning DJ's ever and the coolest remixes!
With tunes from Armand Van Helden, Robert Miles and Faithless this album encapsulates the absolute best of 90's dance music for the first time all in one package. For anyone who lived through the 90's, reading the tracklisting is like reading a who's who of the dance music charts, with songs such as Professional Widow by Tori Amos, Missing ' Everything But The Girl and The Brand New Heavies ' Dream on Dreamer, surely nothing can define an era more than this album?
Highlights include Baby D, Armand Van Helden, Berry, Orbital, Grace, Stretch n' Vern, Josh Wink, Lisa Marie Experience, Rui Da Silva, Sonique, Wamdue Project, Olive, Moloko, Corona, K Klass, Deee Lite, Robert Miles, Faithless, Tori Amos, Mario Piu, C&C Music Factory and much much more'
Club Connected rating 7 out of 10. An interesting journey back to the 90s.
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The Warehouse Project
Believe the hype ' the warehouse project is back and this time its bigger and better then ever. Manchester's biggest series of nights has landed on the city again but this time in a new venue beneath Piccadilly station right in the heart of town. For everything the Boddingtons brewery lacked, beneath the streets makes up for plus more ' more bars, better sound system and more places to crash out and flake, for those points in the night were all you can do is chill out and listen. Contained within a series of arches and tunnels, the venue has gritty industrial excitement to it; more intimate and more involved with the audience. Although the capacity is smaller then last year, the slight decrease in size only makes the venue better. Coupled with more intense visuals and cracking line up, the warehouse project is the only place to seen this year.
For those of you who are familiar with resident Manchester night Ape, the line up will come as no surprise. Only on the Manchester scene for two years, launched as the brainchild of well established Manchester promoters, Sam and Lee aka Sabre, Ape reputation has exploded beyond belief, regularly filling venues of a capacity of over 2000 people. It combination of brakes, D n B, MC's and basically any thing with a good beat and base has kept Manchester's party army happy for the past two years. And tonight was no exception.
Arriving around eleven, the event was already well away. Hidden underneath the entrance to the station, it lacked the ques and security presence there was at the previous location. The surprise of the night was the last minute addition of Manhattan notoriety and chart favourite Mark Ronson, who despite sound problems went down a storm. But name of night had to go to Ape favourite DJ Yoda whose combination of classic tunes and deep beats was all round favourite ' who else could get away with dropping some Dolly Parton in the middle of a set and make it sound so good!!! The end of the night steered more toward harder breaks and drum and base, with only the hardest of drum n base fans remaining for high contrast and jungle drummers closing sets. Notable mention has to go to Exit Festival favourites Stanton warriors, who brought that festival feeling back to UK for a stunning set.
All in all, ape did not disappoint. The eclectic range of acts coupled with a top venue meant that the third weekend of this year's warehouse was one to remember. A high standard was set for the weeks to come, so make sure you don't miss out.
Sat 13th October
The Ape 2nd Birthday
High Contrast
Mark Ronson (just added)
Subfocus
DJ Yoda
Foreign Beggars [ Live ]
Q-bert
DJ Kentaro
Stanton Warriors
DJ Food
Youngblood Brass Band [ Live ]
Jungle Drummer Vs DJ FU
Rich Reason
9pm - 5am ///
£15
READ MORE >
Believe the hype ' the warehouse project is back and this time its bigger and better then ever. Manchester's biggest series of nights has landed on the city again but this time in a new venue beneath Piccadilly station right in the heart of town. For everything the Boddingtons brewery lacked, beneath the streets makes up for plus more ' more bars, better sound system and more places to crash out and flake, for those points in the night were all you can do is chill out and listen. Contained within a series of arches and tunnels, the venue has gritty industrial excitement to it; more intimate and more involved with the audience. Although the capacity is smaller then last year, the slight decrease in size only makes the venue better. Coupled with more intense visuals and cracking line up, the warehouse project is the only place to seen this year.
For those of you who are familiar with resident Manchester night Ape, the line up will come as no surprise. Only on the Manchester scene for two years, launched as the brainchild of well established Manchester promoters, Sam and Lee aka Sabre, Ape reputation has exploded beyond belief, regularly filling venues of a capacity of over 2000 people. It combination of brakes, D n B, MC's and basically any thing with a good beat and base has kept Manchester's party army happy for the past two years. And tonight was no exception.
Arriving around eleven, the event was already well away. Hidden underneath the entrance to the station, it lacked the ques and security presence there was at the previous location. The surprise of the night was the last minute addition of Manhattan notoriety and chart favourite Mark Ronson, who despite sound problems went down a storm. But name of night had to go to Ape favourite DJ Yoda whose combination of classic tunes and deep beats was all round favourite ' who else could get away with dropping some Dolly Parton in the middle of a set and make it sound so good!!! The end of the night steered more toward harder breaks and drum and base, with only the hardest of drum n base fans remaining for high contrast and jungle drummers closing sets. Notable mention has to go to Exit Festival favourites Stanton warriors, who brought that festival feeling back to UK for a stunning set.
All in all, ape did not disappoint. The eclectic range of acts coupled with a top venue meant that the third weekend of this year's warehouse was one to remember. A high standard was set for the weeks to come, so make sure you don't miss out.
Sat 13th October
The Ape 2nd Birthday
High Contrast
Mark Ronson (just added)
Subfocus
DJ Yoda
Foreign Beggars [ Live ]
Q-bert
DJ Kentaro
Stanton Warriors
DJ Food
Youngblood Brass Band [ Live ]
Jungle Drummer Vs DJ FU
Rich Reason
9pm - 5am ///
£15
READ MORE >
Judgement Sundays
Judgement Sundays have always been a highlight of our previous trips to the island. For months leading up to this year's holiday our eyes had been firmly focused on the Ibiza Party Calendar to check who was part of the line up. This year Judge Jules, Eddie Halliwell, Fred Baker and BK had been brought
READ MORE >
Judgement Sundays have always been a highlight of our previous trips to the island. For months leading up to this year's holiday our eyes had been firmly focused on the Ibiza Party Calendar to check who was part of the line up. This year Judge Jules, Eddie Halliwell, Fred Baker and BK had been brought
READ MORE >
55
55
After last years hugely successful festival my expectations for this year were very high. It wasn't going to be an easy task because of the severe flooding that was sweeping the country. The line up this year was even bigger and better than the line up at last years event. Global Gathering is now fast becoming one of the worlds greatest dance festivals and this year was set to be the best ever.
We arrived at the event and were greeted by exceedingly large queues. The police were holding people back for reasons unknown, but it only just increased everyone's eagerness to get inside and start the party. There was a bit of a campaign to make people aware that 'Toby' the sniffer dog would be greeting everyone as they entered, unfortunately for us we never got the chance to meet him because he wasn't anywhere to be seen.
Once inside we had a look round the site and some arenas weren't even open. When we asked the security guards what was happening they didn't even have a clue, they just told us 'sometime later'. I was looking forward to getting to the Polysexual stage and after wandering round looking for it I realised that it was the half built stage to the right of the main arena, so that immediately put a dampener on things. Even the Essential Selection arena was closed and I still don't know what time it actually opened.
We headed over to the Main Stage just in time for the beginning of the Essential Selection, the crowd was quite small but their enthusiasm certainly made up for it. The first night was spent wandering around the site listening to numerous DJs like Annie Mac, Erol Alkan & Bookashade live. The highlight of the evening for me was in the Main Arena with Sasha & Paul Oakenfold. Sasha has never been one of my favourite DJs but he really surprised me, the music was really banging and he played a blinding set. Later Paul Oakenfold took to the decks, he's been a bit hit & miss lately but on this occasion he was on star form from start to finish. By 2am the site was extremely muddy after all the days rain and I was glad that we had a hotel to spend the night at.
The following day, after acquiring a pair of wellies from the local store, it was time to head back to the festival. I was looking forward to it but at the same time I was dreading all the mud. Today's line-up was awesome so I put the weather to the back of my mind and got myself in the party spirit.
Heading over to the site there was double the amount of people from the previous day and the weather was nice and sunny. The walk to the site was a bit of hike because they'd put the car park miles away from all the action. We had to walk down a narrow country lane with cars shooting past. It's a good job I wasn't going back because I certainly wouldn't have looked forward to walking down there in the early hours.
As we walked around we noticed that all the stages and arenas were now open and the event was already in full swing. I divided my time between the Polysexual and Godskitchen arena since the line-ups were second to none, apart from the surprise inclusion of Dave Pearce in the Godskitchen arena. Nonetheless we listened to Dave Pearce and he was quite good. Unfortunately he brought the beer boys out with him and that created a very cheesy atmosphere near the front of the arena.
We headed over to the Polysexual arena and as usual the crowd were going nuts and showing absolutely no signs of slowing down. Especially as the arena was in a very poor state due to the weather. Alex Kidd was on the decks, who always acts like a man possessed showing so much enthusiasm for the work he does. Throughout the evening I looked around all of the other arenas, mostly not to my taste but all full to capacity. Most of my evening was spent going to and from the Polysexual & Godskitchen arenas seeing DJs like Marcel Woods, Eddie Halliwell, Edison Factor (Live), Armin Van Buuren, Paul Van Dyk, Lisa Lashes. The only hitch of the evening was when a few dickheads decided to scale the Godskitchen arena, forcing PVD to stop his set. Even PVD got on the mic & asked the morons to get down so they can carry on.
By the time PVD finished his set the weather took a real turn for the worst and the rain created a mud bath. Thank god for the wellies, because if I'd just worn my trainers I would've got trench foot! At this point I had another look around to see what was going on before deciding to head back to the car, the elements had just got the better of me. My mates had more stamina and carried on listening to Ferry Corsten. Once he finished they decided to call it a day too and we all decided to head back home.
To be honest overall I would say that it was not as good as last years event. But that is probably due to the very bad weather, which can't be helped. The drinks were reasonably priced, for a festival, my only problem was that people where banned from taking their own drink on to the campsite. To make matters worse they where selling their own over priced beer at a whopping Ôø‡30 a create!!
I also think that the merchandise for the event was a little over priced. The organisers need to realise that the clubbers who go to these events save for a very long time and it's the clubbers after all that have made the event what it is today.