| Tidy Trax has been a powerful
force in the hard dance sector of the U.K. music industry. Run by
The Tidy Boys, Andy and Amadeus, they are DJs, producers, and now
event promoters, with a strong rosta of DJs on their team. They
organise occasional weekenders, which have been raved about (forgive
the pun), by clubbers both gay and straight throughout the country.
These have usually been held at Pontins, Prestatyn.
| TdV Memorial and Launch of "Are You
All Ready". |
In June 2003 they previewed
a new mixed double CD compilation album of music and re-mixes
by the late Tony de Vit. The
party was held at The Nightingale,
Birmingham from 4pm to 1am, Sunday, with a line-up which read
like the Who's Who of hard dance DJdom. All the DJs played for
free,
| Here's the line-up of
those who actually played according to the Tidy Trax people... |
Ian
M
Paul Janes
Baby Doc & SJ (live pa)
Lisa Lashes & Anne Savage b2b
Tidy Boys
Andy Farley
BK
Pants and Corset
Knuckleheads |
and the proceeds went to the TDV Trust. I was told that the
trust supports the following charities:
FRESHWINDS
- a charity that helps people with life threatening illnesses.
It is based in Birmingham.
AFASIC
- a charity very important to the De Vit family, it helps and
supports children with language and communication difficulties.
ITS A DRUGS THING (OUTREACH DRUGS) -
gives help and advice to those who need it on drugs and safer
sex.
This event was held at a time when a confluence of streams of
information indicate a significant shift in the dance music
scene, (perhaps I should qualify that by saying the "white
urban hard dance music scene", but more on that elsewhere
on the site in due course).
For one, cyber wear, the uniform of trance and hard house clubbers
is finally on the way out. A mate who's seventeen and has just
got into the whole dance club and cyber gear thing called me
to say that he is dismayed that his friends are selling their
cyber gear... he's only just invested in his. Lo and behold,
I go to the TdV Memorial/TidyCD launch and hardly any of the
people there are in cyber. This despite the fact that most are
straight Sundissentialers. Sell your shares in Cyber Dog now!
For another, I went to Beyond, a popular
London gay after-hours club the previous night. They played
funky and deep house and hard dance music in each of three rooms.
There were about 2,000 men there. The almost empty room was
the hard dance room. I explained to a mate of mine who runs
another nearby club offering hard house to the gay scene and
who was with me, that now he had the explanation as to why his
club was empty. They just don't want hard dance music. Next
night I go to the TdV memorial, and they don't get in as many
people as they had expected. As a result they didn't open the
third room, and cancelled some of the DJs and performers. In
fact it is worth noting that this TdV memorial is now remarkable.
As far as I know it's the only one being held in this country
this year, (there's one being held in Ireland, organised by
Mark Kavanagh I believe). Last year and the other years since
his death there has been a plethora of events held each year
to mark the death of the "father of hard house". But
now it seems the hard house bubble has burst, those who knew
him, or of him, have dropped out of the scene, and far fewer
promoters think it's worthwhile holding such events.
In fact after eight hours of the Tidy event as I listened to
the Tidy compilation album "Are You All Ready" (a
double CD of TdV Tunes and remixes, folks, available from today
in all good record shops and from
the Tidy website priced £14.99), I thought what I'd
thought when I'd heard the TdV live in Tel Aviv album, (Global
Underground) - he may be dead but none of the
others still around can yet hold a candle to him in terms of
his creativity. In fact many of today's hard dance producers
have reduced the hard dance music which he developed, to a simple
and rather boring formula, repeated and recycled endlessly and
regurgitated in club after club hour after hour after hour.
In fact TdV was not the father of hard house... at least not
the hard house we know today, and I wondered whether the low
rumbling sound I could hear, was the sound he was making turning
in his grave as we listened to what people had done with hard
dance music after he died. |
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| The Tony de Vit Memorial held at The Nightingale,
June 29th. 2003. |
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All right, enough of the ranting and ...
er.. raving, let's get down to the lovely part of the event.
This was a noteworthy event for me as I got to meet up with
JP & Jukesy, Steve and Steph, Chris G. Andy-from-Pulse-who-talks-so-fast-I-can't-understand-what-he's-saying,
Andy-who's-straight-but-likes-going-to-gay-clubs, Alan, Russell,
Rick and Rob, Ramon from Trade, and Jeremy, my old club partner,
who now runs Sin:ergy and Phil the manager of the 'gale, (thanks
for the water!). It was grand to see you all, and well... truth
be told the music wasn't half bad either.
What makes for a good club event is when everything comes together
- the music, the people, the atmosphere, and the venue, and
you just have a great time. Well, if you weren't there
you missed a good one. Despite everything I've said,
this was one hell of a good party. Even if they closed a room,
even if cyber is dying out, even if no one's as good as TdV,
we still all had a bloody good time. And if you did miss it
this may have been the last event of its kind though I dearly
hope not.
Maybe its up to you and me to keep the flame burning brightly,and
maybe it's time for the clubbers to organise a TdV memorial
of our own. Contact me if u r up 4 it:Jonathan.
Finally, a message on GHB, the possession or
sale of which has been made illegal in the U.K. from tonight,
(30th, June 2003). One of the people pictured above recently
returned from hospital having been close to death after taking
GHB. One of the serious dangers with this drug is that you pass
out and bang your head on the floor or elsewhere when you do
so. That's what happened to this guy. He's lovely and I was
appalled to hear what he had done. Please try to stick around
so we can meet up for future Memorials for Tony de Vit, rather
than for you. |
| (Link to Tidy's pics of the event: just
click here) |
|
