the rolling london dancing thread

low life has already sold out iirc

Is there anywhere to dance in Hitchin? I drive past/ride the train past regularly and the place scares me a little. Is it like the town in footloose?

― owenf, Sunday, 23 October 2011 22:46 (Yesterday) Bookmark

Hitchin is quite nice - a bit like Stoke Newington or somewhere like that - not scary. There are a couple of townie clubs you can dance to, ranging from meat-market hell to acceptable r'n'b/dance. I put on my own nights at a local venue, but it's mostly gig-based with a few DJs when really I'd love to be able to do a medium-sized specialist DJ night etc... Would've been able to do something like that 10 years ago, but smoking ban/noise complaints/council restrictions have quashed a lot of the better venues and pubs.

I actually broke my dance duck last night with a little lol hipster house surrounding Nite Jewel at the Shacklewell Arms. It was a bit grim and deadening but such is the nature of that specific situation I guess - if I can do it there I can do it anywhere.

That venue kind of fucks me off. When I saw Ford & Lopatin, I was thinking "This place is smaller than the club I promote in, and I'm sure I'd be able to get a bigger/more responsive crowd than this", but of course because I'm not promoting in a big town agencies and bands just aren't interested in visiting. I'm sure this wasn't the case a few years back when Hitchin venues rivalled places like the Cambridge Corn Exchange for touring bands. In the eighties, Spandau Ballet, Thin Lizzy, the Specials, Squeeze and many others played right next door to where I used to live. Also the Fall recorded one of their best known albums at the same venue.

I'd be well up for an ILX "FAD", but of course I'd need a bit of notice. Have to give myself a good run up if it involves staying out in London all night and getting the early train home.

The Shacklewell Arms gives you a very, ahem, particular catchment area in terms of clientele.

the shacklewell arms is full of cunts at all times

it's nearing old blue last levels of AVOID

dog latin i would be into that!

a FAD?

In the eighties, Spandau Ballet, Thin Lizzy, the Specials, Squeeze and many others played right next door to where I used to live. Also the Fall recorded one of their best known albums at the same venue.

A lot of act, even British ones, just don't put in that level of legwork any more. Although the acts you named would have been going for a very broad, more-or-less mainstream audience. You're never going to get that with an act like Ford & Lopatin especially if the manager (rightly or wrongly) assumes that 80% of the intended market will be living within a two-mile radius of Dalston.

Yeah, I understand the psychology of putting them in London. I'm sure if the price was right I could put anyone I liked on within reason, but of course in London you can get away with charging £10 for a short set by an obscure act because at least a handful of people in London will have heard of them. In Hitchin I have to rely on mine and my organisation's reputation as promoters to put on decent nights. Pleased to say that after several years it's working and people will take risks and turn up.

I had no idea this thread was still going!

Since we moved back (nearly 8 weeks ago) I've been mostly going to Fabric and Plastic People, plus Corsica Studios once. I'm heavily biased towards places that I can walk home from, though, and despite some of the problems with Fabric (e.g. overcrowding) it's a 5 minute walk from us, so it's probably going to be the main place I go. It's also one of the few places that sometimes has a schedule that doesn't mess up my sleep (I get up at 6am in the week which makes late nights tough; so yesterday I went to Fabric at 7:30am and stayed until 1pm, which was perfect for me).

The other problem I have these days (apart from falling asleep before 10pm) is that having basically destroyed my knee last year it's very hard for me to dance (or even stand) for more than 4 hours, often a lot less, which also makes a lot of club nights less attractive - I need to save my knee for DJs I really want to hear rather than wait around for a few hours for them to start.

I'm also way out of touch with pretty much everything - what's so good about Low Life?

anything going on in london dancing-wise from nov 2 to 10? i'll be in town, we should go out

Oh, and I've been out a few times on my own already (in fact every time I've been to Fabric) and it hasn't been an issue - but then again it didn't even occur to me that it would be, so perhaps I'm a bit weird that way (I've gone to plenty of gigs on my own, which I know some people don't like doing).

xpost: there's loads! Just scroll through RA listings. Though 20 hours of event-going in 5 days has left me drained, though I may go to the free Feel My Bicep night on the 2nd.

are you guys saying that there are djs are Fabric, like, 24 hours a day?

are = at

no not usually - it was their birthday weekend so it was 30 hours straight. But they not infrequently have nights that run 11pm-10am or later.

its usually villalobos where it runs late, the last one, in aug ran on till 2.30pm. it normally finishes around 8am. they tried running it later with Zip but don't think he had the profile to carry something like that

Zip playing on the 19th at camp tho!

This is a good thread. I met my wife while was on dancing my own in the Key (gone, sadly). I don't dance on my own much these days, only if I'm out with one or two friends who decide to leave before I'm ready. I've had a few rubbish nights in London since I moved back two years ago. Shacklewell Arms being one and another being Love Fever earlier in the year. Going to Mulletover this Saturday hhmmm..

i was at that love fever i think. god it was shit. really nice people on the door and a nice crowd and a decent venue, but i was astonished at how poor the system and worse, the music was. it sounded great and the way they sold it it looked really good, but it completely wasn't.

there's been more than one love fever this year, the one with sprinkles in april would have been a whole different thing to that one in may - which was super disappointing

I couldn't make the Sprinkles one which was a shame. The one I went to was in May. The music was all over the place. The DJ played that Steve Moore 12" on L.I.E.S. and then moments later Braxe's mix of Kelis' Bossy. The crowd were pretty transient. They were charging £15 which was OOT considering it was so low key. I followed that with SecretSundaze in Greenwich, oh dear. My friends from out of town did see the funny side of it.

the may one was really disappointing, won't go to another of those

would have gone to sprinkles but was at soundstream/portable/sud

not sure what to think of secretsundaze....tempted by fred p this weekend but i dunno...they don't seem to do too good with venues. i heard the moodymann one was good but the zip one not so much. v likely to be going to zip at camp tho

SecretSundaze has the same problems that Superfreq, Wiggle, Faith etc. has for me. It attracts an older, generally male crowd which has some nasty and heavily druggy elements. They have been around for years and need large venues which London doesn't have enough of. They're not all bad obviously but it can be enough to ward me off. I think it's because London promoters have the difficulty that certain nights attract certain types where smaller cities often have more of a mixed crowd; fashionable, gay, students, music-heads, older clubbers etc.

Zip at CAMP will be ace though.

I'm also way out of touch with pretty much everything - what's so good about Low Life?

I've not been to a normal Lowlife party but they've been doing them for like 15 years or something and they always seem to sell out - I'm not expecting anything revolutionary, just really enjoyable house and disco. There's a big group of us going due to a friend's birthday, which always helps.

Zip at CAMP will be ace though.

Problem with this will be that it's at CAMP, atrocious venue.

yeah last fun secretsundaze i went to was at canvas..not sure they ever managed to find the right venue after that.

i have just been talked into going to this krankbrother halloween loft party on friday w/ matt tolfey but it's 'secret east london venue' arggggh

best nights i've had in london this year were both at cable (ostgun ton night with marcel dettmann + ame and the resident advisor party with loco dice)

i find it hard to have a good time at fabric normally

*ostgut

i'd be up for something the weekend of nov 3-6...

funny, the couple of times I've been to SecretSundaze what I've liked about it is the older crowd - it feels less tryhard, less drunken, less attitude-y. but maybe i've just managed to avoid the nasty element.

just bought tickets for this too actually: http://www.residentadvisor.net/event.aspx?302984

ooooooooooh

Don't think I could make Boxing Day cos I normally see my Mum on the 27th, but should be up for a bit of a rave up around the dates Geeta mentioned.

best nights i've had in london this year were both at cable (ostgun ton night with marcel dettmann + ame

I was at this, that was a good night. ame was a strange fit with it being dettmann and fengler but that track they played which sounded like a piano being thrown down a flight of stairs while someone shouted YEYAH was really great. pity about 2nd room in cable...steffi/efdemin was a definite draw but 2nd room isn't a good space so spent most of time in room1

yeah the 2nd room is kind of awkward although i quite like that it just runs through into some messy afterparty in there on sunday morning. i think we left at 11am that night

ha i didn't know that think we left around 830

actually i think it was the RA night where it ran on (but it was some completely different party with a weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeird crowd)

sounded like a piano being thrown down a flight of stairs while someone shouted YEYAH

http://youtu.be/OUFQbc5ymrw

this one?

ha no it was very different to that. there was v pronounced panning, then the falling down piano stopped and there was a pause and someone shouted YEAYAH

not sure about the YEAH but there are a couple of wolfgang voigt tracks that sound a bit like that

it didnt really sound like voigt - it was kind of silly and boisterous. the other problem is, i can hardly remember the track now

who's coming to lowlife? totes looking fwd to it, feels like it's been AGES since i had a proper rave

typically i have to be semi-sensible as i have to review a gig on sunday night but i'm sure i can manage to be home by...midday, right?

i have just been talked into going to this krankbrother halloween loft party on friday w/ matt tolfey but it's 'secret east london venue' arggggh

OMG I AM SO PISSED OF ABOUT THIS NIGHT

all the worst things about london 'clubbing' in one

- 'secret venue' miles out of town
- massive queue for event which you already have £18 ticket for
- violent queue for cloakroom which turns out to be full
- half hour wait to use portaloo
- two times over capacity
- 20 y/o kids in shutter shades whose dancing involves leaning into everyone next to them

the venue was actually incredible and matt tolfrey was great but it's like...impossible to have fun at these things. left in a huff.

jesus, tpp, that sounds grim. how the hell do people get away with putting on nights like that?

super excited about low life! i have perhaps unwisely agreed to go for brunch with my parents the next morning, but you don't actually have to sleep before going to brunch, right?

the venue was actually incredible and matt tolfrey was great but it's like...impossible to have fun at these things. left in a huff.

this is why i go to clubs once a year if even that often

last weekend i went over to trouw in amsterdam which was such an incredible experience and really put london clubbing in perspective. god i might just save my money and do that once every few months instead

yeah i am pretty jaded with the things that surround dance music (tho quite into the tunes) tbh so my views not representative, but i feel like an annual trip to berlin does the job for me.

Well, when Germans communicate, you listen.

Wait, that joke doesn't even make sense...