Hi folks,

Recent events: Global Gathering (sky water) and Riot.
Water from the taps & Afterssential.
Forthcoming events.
Memorabilia/Notalgia/History - Tin Tin's and TdV

Recent Events

Well, what a wet one that was... er ... Global Gathering or Pride, take your pick. Personally I did GG and then Riot! the following day. Some reports in from Pride in the Park indicate people became disgruntled when refused entry to the one dance tent in the park, and were either forced to stand outside on the rain or leave. People at GG were more gruntled than disgruntled despite the rain and the mud as there were lots of tents, each with class acts. Writers on various clubbing forums each seem to have had their own personal favourites.... the highlight of the event... for me it was Digweed's set in the Bedrock tent.

Anyway I was down there with my trusty camera and have posted the pics from both GG and Riot on the 2Klub website. They are accessed off the God's Kitchen and Riot pages respectively. If you've not been to the site in the last month or so you'll find some things re-arranged so it may be best to start from the clubs and venues review page:

http://www.2klub.com/club_and_venue_reviews.html

A few things struck me about GG:

They claim to have sold out, i.e. well nigh 35,000 tickets were sold.
Is my hearing giving up finally or was the Sundissential sound system on the quiet side? I only really could hear it when I was inside the tent, whereas the GK tent could be heard from half way across the site.
They sold Lipton Ice Tea, but not Red Bull, (just Red Devil.... yuch!)... and, £4 for a can of Stella!
The police said there were no problems, no incidents, no medical emergencies. No news is good news! :o)
Why do blokes piss in the open when standing 20 yards from a toilet for which there is no queue?

As for Riot... well another fantastic event, which was also interesting for the very public wreckage that was DJ Alex Kidd. Old 2Klub devotees may remember Alex from Manchester, (or indeed anyone who's a Good Greef regular will know him as a popular resident there). My main memory of him was the night we had Fergie play a four hour set (March 2000) and Alex being asked to play the first set before him to build things up. First sets and build ups just weren't Alex's style, "I don't play warm-ups" I think is what he said; he played "HARD!!!" and therefore he tried to out-Fergie Fergie, absolutely thrashing it! Fergie simply brought the tempo down and then built it up beautifully over the next four hours, and that night was a great success... I even almost made money on it... almost! :o)... oh well.

Alex's words were then ringing in my ears when at Riot, someone told me that though he was scheduled to play the second set, he was late and EJ Doubell had to stand in for him. As a result when he did turn up he played much later than scheduled. OK maybe he did get lost, the venue isn't the easiest to find, and I'm sure all would have been forgiven if he hadn't then proceeded to so publicly crash and burn. It was quite amazing really. For a while I was watching and marveling at his technical dexterity on the decks; very clever, very agile, but oh my lordy lord... what came out of the speakers was .... STOP!.. Start... STOP!... start.. StOp!.. sTaRt!... with music that was aaaaaaaaaaalllll over the place. The comments on Harder Faster have been pithier but basically, ... well, let's say, non-complimentary. To make matters worse for a DJ debuting at Riot, there were also a number of promoters connected with a variety of London clubs there, (on top of the Nukleuz people related to the club).

However, this was but a minor interruption in the otherwise superb flow of what was a great night, with DJ GRH playing the first set to excellent reviews, EJ Doubell playing a longer than usual wonderful set, and Danny Gilligan, Ed Real, BK and Andy Farley working their magic. Despite twelve hours of Global Slithering the night before, I couldn't stop dancing to them. Happily, the club has also addressed a problem by slightly toning down the volume of the main room which makes the night just about perfect. The crowd were great, as you can judge by the pics. Riot are holding a warehouse party on August 2nd - details below. Go!

Afterssential

Alex, who promotes for Sundissential and Subway City, has recently announced that a water fountain is to be installed at the venue, in response to pressure from clubbers asking on the SS website why the club doesn't provide the free drinking water it is required to provide. At the same time he says that the club will therefore also be increasing its entrance prices. Here's part of the announcement:

"As from this week free drinking water will be available from a water fountain. We hope this allays any fears people may have that they are at risk of dehydration (due to dancing). Due to the loss of water sales Afterssential prices will be £8 members/£10 non-members, Subway/Afterssential membership will be available from this week at £3."

ff:reloaded/Reloaded

Reports in on their second event indicate an attendance of only 30 or so people. My marzipan hat gets returned to the fridge for the moment

Forthcoming August Events

My apologies to Micky who runs Suction for getting the dates of their next events wrong in the last newsletter, (again!)

Saturday August 2nd.:
Birmingham. BLUE at Subway City from 10pm. (I looked on their website for their lineup but there was none there).

London: Twisted at The Fridge, Brixton from 10pm with DJ Alan Yeates, followed by Twist at Fire, Vauxhall, the offical Twisted after-party, starting at 4am with residents Peter Ward and Danny Gilligan as well as guests Ian M and Jay Pidgeon in the main room and DJ Rod cooking up a funky vibe in the second room.

Other Dates:
Twist at Fire, is establishing itself as London's Number One hard dance afterparty bringing the World's top DJ's to a more intimate space. Some of their forthcoming lineups include:

10/8 - Paul Glazby turns up the heat after the hardhouse academy along with Ali Wilson and Matt Smallwood b2b. Also the legendary Mrs Wood will host Room 2 with her techno set.

17/8 - Karim, headlines No Limits, and then plays Twist as their official afterparty.

24/8 - EJ Doubell - Fierce Rulin' Trade resdent DJ makes her Twist debut with Dirty DJs hosting the second room.

31/8 - Steve Thomas also makes his first appearence at Twist and promises to mix up a classic hard set with some exciting new beats while Ignition crew funk out the second room.

Twist has a £5 paying guestlist available by emailing; 5guestlist@twistclub.co.uk