From: Jon Freer (jon-freer_at_excite.com)
Date: 2005-04-15 10:09:10
Jon Freer’s event reviews: Easter bank holiday clubbing picks.
Electric Chair Bank Holiday Special: Saturday March 26th 2005 at the Music Box Manchester, with The Unabombers, Spiritual South, Moonboots, Boardman and Kelvin Brown.
The Chair faithful normally don’t need an excuse to cause a party-addled disturbance, but somehow this Bank Holiday event took it to the next level. With Spiritual South struggling to decide what direction to take the music in the main room, pitting broken techy efforts against airy fairy nu-er jazz efforts and Latin bouncers, Aficionado’s Moonboots and Jason Boardman tore up the backroom with a blistering display of cosmic disco, Balearic gems, poppy numbers and House hitters. The Aficionado team made the ‘shack’ their own, as eager dancing fellas and ladies squeezed into a room that really felt like another world, never mind a different club. In the end, the curtains fencing off this tiny dancerie were torn down in order to let more bodies shake to the magical rhythms Boardman and Moonboots were dropping. Highlights in the exciting, sweat drenched den proved to be Lil Louis’s x-rated “French Kiss” and Richie Havens’ inspiring “Going Back To My Roots”, naturally it was !
the original version of this ancestry tracing cut that was played. Heaven knows what regular backroom spinner Kelvin Brown made to what was happening on his turf.
The ‘Bombers restored an atmosphere of normality in the main room after the Broken jazz players, treating listeners to a trademark display of soul-stepped party music. Their self-styled Chair anthems resounded round the basement venue impressively, with records like Theo P’s re-edit of GQ’s bitter “Lies” and Dennis Ferrrer’s ballsy version of Blaze’s “Most Precious Love” going down sparklingly with the ever appreciative crowd.
El Diablos Social Cub Bank Holiday 2-parter: Sunday March 27th 2005 at Centro and an undisclosable city centre basement, with Greg Wilson, Danny Webb and Neil Diablo.
Sunday night affairs can often be sleepy-headed slow boozing events, but not so for this Easter Sunday El Diablos party. This night started off in the two-floored Tib St boozer, where the devilish crew can be found playing every Sunday, and a variety of bespoken turntable operatives can be found spinning on different days of the week. Expert local spinner Neil Diablo and Ben, who normally does much more socialising than playing records set the musical tone for the evening, before time-honoured DJing pioneer Greg Wilson touched down with a variety of soul-steeped and disco-singed warmers. Using laptop, reel to reel and vinyl spinning equipment, Greg mixed and cut expertly, dropping choice material that included Mary Jane Girls’ electrifying “All Night Long”. Centro is a fun place to chat with a choice musical soundtrack, but not somewhere to feel the grooves and so the party moved across the city to a curved ceilinged basement venue.
The second instalment of the evening’s high jinks saw Greg Wilson and Neil joined by expert record picker Danny Webb, who often spins with the satanic socialisers. The chosen basement hideaway proved to be an ideal space for the continuation of the party, where even a temperamental amplifier didn’t dampen the spirits of the crowd, despite threatening to cut the party short. The ever-hot, intimate venue, with a dancefloor stretching to the end of the room and little space to hide or stay out of the music-fuelled action, played host to a slightly more disco and house leaning playlist than at Centro. Well received material included Red Medicine’s powerful revision of “Let The Music Play”, The Fuzz and Nesreen’s plinky plonky “To Be Real” and Donna Summer’s hypnotic “I Feel Love”. El Diablos proved again that they’re a name to be reckoned with when it comes to putting on exceptional, atmospheric parties, which stick in the memory for a good long while.
Jon Freer(jon.freer_at_gmail.com)
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