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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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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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
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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
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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 in to entertain us.
This was our second night out to Eden and we were all fired up to see Eddie Halliwell, he's one of our favourite DJs but we hadn't seen him for a while, so we'd been keeping up to speed with his latest music with his weekly radio shows and the new cream CD.
We must have been a bit keen to get into Eden as when we went to find the guest list queue we were told to come back in 20 mins, so we went next door to the garden of Eden (probably a good thing as the drinks were a bit cheaper!)
We went back about half an hour later to join the guest list queue (which wasn't moving) while the people with tickets were getting straight in! But the friendly banter helped pass the time and after a while we got in with no problems. The place was already busy (and getting sweaty!) so we went to find the set list and see what was in store for us. On the way we bumped into a group of mischievous looking men dressed as devils to keep us on our toes as they took great pleasure in scaring us!
Alex Kunnari was on the decks and was met by roars of 'whoop whoop' by the crowds. We decided to head to the bar to price up the drinks. 8 euros for a bottle of water is expensive but typical of the bigger clubs in Ibiza so we couldn't complain. We were also offered tap water as an alternative but after being told it tastes like mud we declined! As always Judgement Sundays had put loads of effort into the dancers and decorations, there were also a few showers of ticker tape during the night and some kind of ice blast (but no where near as scary as the one in Amnesia!), which cooled the dance floor nicely for, a bit.
When it was time for Judge to take over he opened with a banging version of The Gossip ' Standing In The Way of Control, and everyone was loving it. He was as lively as usual but his t-shirt was strangely plain! By this time Eden was really packed and there was no way we could get onto the dance floor, so we found a bit of space by a podium where not as many people were pushing past. Judge was playing some quite trancey stuff and we weren't quite getting into it, but then he played Bullet so we all had a good sing a long! He also played a version of Mark Ronsen ' Stop Me and then The Anthem ' which the crowd loved! Judge finished with the Chilli's - By The Way but this was drowned out by the crowd chanting 'Eddie Eddie' as he appeared behind the decks. Boys want to be him; girls want to be with him and who can blame them?!
So it was half 3 and it was Eddie time! We tried to move a bit closer to the DJ box to get some better pictures but ended up dancing around some palm trees in plant pots at the side of the dance floor ' not really sure what was the point of these??!! It was getting busier and hotter but no one was bothered as Eddie banged out the tunes, we didn't recognise many of the tunes but that didn't stop us having a good boogie. He did play some of my favourite tunes of the moment: Sander van Doorn - Rift and FKN feat Jahala ' Why. As always Eddie was jumping around behind the decks and interacting with the crowd, you can tell he's loving it!
Before we knew it, it was coming to the end of the set and Eddie began to climb up on the decks. He was winding up the crowd to chant 'Eddie Eddie', but they didn't need much encouragement, they'd been doing it all night! Then he was getting prepared for his customary stage dive'and that was the last we saw of him as he landed in the crowd and Fred Baker took over.
It was time for us to call it a night as my feet couldn't take much more, we had a great time and Eddie put on a great show. (We have to give a mention to the nice toilet attendant who let me sit down and put plasters on my feet'usually they scowl at you shoo you away!)
But our Eddie time didn't end there'..as we were stumbling home we recognised the Judgement Sundays car that had been parked near our apartment, and there was Eddie again! We couldn't resist so went to speak to him and get a picture, he was very polite and probably a bit shocked as we were a bit excited, what a great way to end to our Eddie review!