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the state of the uk dance scene

steewith2ees

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the piss artist formerly known as stevesircull (th
Ive always been obssesed with electronic music since pacific state (808
) hit my walkman in the late 80's. I was 2 young to participate in the golden age of rave music but finally cut my teeth at the age of 16, i come from Wolverhampton and during the early to mid 90's it was one of the best towns for hardcore music with 2 of the best nights in the country,pandemonium and quest (where i popped my e cherry. 1996 finds me permenantly installed at the sanctuary in milton keynes, didnt miss a helter skelter for nearly 4 years with a few dreamscapes and pure x's thrown in for good measure..
Moving with the times i started getting into the superclub sounds of the millenium, from homelands to slinky, gatecrasher to cream to passion at the emporium, house trance and techno become the order of the day, living on birminghams doorstep i was like a pig in muck with my regular visits to godskitchen puctuated by the occasional atomic jam and sundissential, nights that were going off like a week old jam rag in 90 degree heat. by 2003 id started using smack to cope with the weekly pillwhizz hangovers and as i slipped into my addiction it was almost as if id burst the bubble myself, and by the time of the great piperizine pill plague it was almost game over. Between ourselves and nearby shrewsbury, we managed to keep a healthy dnb scene going and during a long clean spell i managed to co promote a sucessfull old scool night in wolverhampton for 2 years (we managed to book grooverider on his first nye after leaving prison in dubai), but of course im once again back on the smack with no regular access to decent md or whizz, dancing shoes covered in dust.

Whats brought this mornings rant on? the local press has reported that gatecrasher birmingham is to be no more, and while they never hit the heights of their sheffield parties its sad to see the last of the (now) old guard dissapear from the high street. yes i know your all going to tell me that its all about europe and free parties but i never saw the rise of the superclub and the mitsubishi revolution as a bad thing as at the time dance music ruled the uk, and in terms of youth culture the uk ruled the world. I guess the main problem is that im a hopeless smackhead hurtling towards middle age and that i should finally grow up.

Saying that tho one more good night at the old boogey woogey would go along way towards blowing away a few of the thicker cobwebs. Im just a hopeless sentimentalist at heart.

RIP uk dance scene - 1987 -20XX or whenever

Stee (with two ees as one was never enough)
 
Ive worked on and off in that industry mate and still continue to do so occasionally. In London dance events/promotions have been downsizing to smaller venues for quite some time, since 2008 at least and they still continue to do so.

It is becoming increasingly harder for regular promotions to fill very large capacity venues unless they market there events in a particular manner, eg: Once a month parties, bank holiday events, birthdays etc etc.

There was a time in London where a very succesful dance promotion could fill a venue to capacity such as the size of fabric even on an odd night, such as a Sunday, week in, week out, every week. Not the case in 2014.

The scene is forever evolving and re-inventing itself, smaller dance music/DJ led bars, small underground clubs have been the way forward for quite some time in a city such as London, and are continuing to thrive and manage (Just about), where as a venue such as ministry will be closed most Sundays just as an example, unless its a bank holiday weekend.

All my favourite parties now are in small venues, probally 500 capacity or less.

It may come full circle again, who knows, but for the moment, thats the direction that things have been moving in.
 
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It's all about smaller parties these days, I think the days of the 'superclub' are definitely over. Noise complaints by bellends that move to the city centre then complain about the noise and developers breathing down their neck as the real estate is worth too much are the final nail in the coffin.
 
Who the fuck wants to go to a superclub anyway, utter gash.

they might be now but at one time they were bouncing, one example - slinky - opera house - bouremouth - one of the friendliest and most energetic places ive ever been in - i went to ibiza 4 times over the late 90's / early 2000's and as good as it was slinky still tops all of the nights i had over there (though space terrace at 9am during manumission carry on comes close)


and take global gathering - that was godskitchens baby - they look like a load of tosh now but the first one they did in 2001 was one of the most amazing, messy spectacles ive ever seen - no police - laid back security - as good an outdoor event as ive ever been to
 
All playing gash music through restricted sound systems.

if u dont like the music then each to their own i cant call you on that one

gash soundsystems tho? you will always pay that price at liscenced outdoor events but that 1st global was fine. as for space - both the terrace and discoteca had in my opinion the best rigs ive ever heard, and living in the midlands we had the Thunderidge at the mezzanine in wolves and many visits from the valve system in brum, so i know the difference between good and bad sound. Youve had ur head in 2 many bass bins dude and might need your ears syringing

on another note its official ive finally gone mad. ive lost a day this week somewhere, i thought it was Thursday today, weds yesterday and so on. even Inflourecencee friday thread didnt make me twig i thought she was getting ultra organised for tomorrow 8(
 
electronic music is pretty big again in the UK, it's pretty much killed off the indie rock of the noughties. However it's more about smaller clubs and being 'cool', than talking bollocks to strangers in superclubs.

Also, whilst actual dance music isn't really in the charts like it was in the 90's, with all the trance stuff that actually charted, it seems like most chart rnb/pop/hip-hop these days has dance elements and influences.
 
electronic music is pretty big again in the UK, it's pretty much killed off the indie rock of the noughties. However it's more about smaller clubs and being 'cool', than talking bollocks to strangers in superclubs.

Also, whilst actual dance music isn't really in the charts like it was in the 90's, with all the trance stuff that actually charted, it seems like most chart rnb/pop/hip-hop these days has dance elements and influences.

fuck that for a game of soldiers, what happened to randomness, the mixmag mongo hot line and voguing like a twat at insomniacs or subway city at 11am on a sunday morning?

ur bang on about the influence its had on mainstream music
 
There is no point having the best sound system in the world if you have bills to pay and your venue is closed everyday except fridays and saturdays and the promotions cant fill such a large venue on the 2 most popular days of the week.

The Venues and events game is a gamble, and the bigger the vision you have the bigger the stakes at risk for all concerned.

No comparrison whatsoever between summer festivals and ibiza to uk clubbing because people go to those events as there a special occasion its not a lifestyle that needs to be kept up on a weekly basis, so people are still very enthusiastic to go awol for special events, this is why in this country events on a large scale in clubs are just about coping if they market themsleves to once a month and bank holiday big one offs. Try filling fabric every saturday night with 3000 people plus (on the most popular day and likely to be succesfull) and you will still run into issues, have to have not every room open etc.

I can name serveral large venues that for quite some time in london have been hiring themsleves out for other types of buisness, corporate functions in smaller rooms during the day, filming of adverts and movies as a film studio, quite frankly because they cannot afford to rely on just dance events anymore as an income at nighttime.
 
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There is no point having the best sound system in the world if you have bills to pay and your venue is closed everyday except fridays and saturdays and the promotions cant fill such a large venue on the 2 most popular days of the week.

The Venues and events game is a gamble, and the bigger the vision you have the bigger the stakes at risk for all concerned.

No comparrison whatsoever between summer festivals and ibiza to uk clubbing because people go to those events as there a special occasion its not a lifestyle that needs to be kept up on a weekly basis, so people are still very enthusiastic to go awol for special events, this is why in this country events on a large scale in clubs are just about coping if they market themsleves to once a month and bank holiday big one offs. Try filling fabric every saturday night with 3000 people plus (on the most popular day and likely to be succesfull) and you will still run into issues, have to have not every room open etc.

Alternatively pay a fiver to go to a warehouse on a saturday night and listen to decent tunes at a decent volume where they won't kick you out come 6am.

imo
 
We have clubbing round the clock in london if we get kicked out of a venue at 6am there are legal options of places to still continue to party. Its not out in sticks where you are restricted.
 
I know I lived in London for five years. I can't think of many places that don't charge you again come 6am for the daytime session though.
 
fuck that for a game of soldiers, what happened to randomness, the mixmag mongo hot line and voguing like a twat at insomniacs or subway city at 11am on a sunday morning?

ur bang on about the influence its had on mainstream music
Subway City <3.....

Not so much these days though, popped in there a year or so ago, fuckin dire :(
 
nah mate - did u read my op (it was abit long winded to be fair) - im from wolverhampton so that and birmngham is where i did 75% of my dancing.
@ scotch - i think they still use the place for theodd good party - im sure they had House of God there a few months back. I always used it for Afters on a Sunday morning if id been to Sundissential or a sat nite event at the que club. Amazing for a carry on and camp as fuck - the gayboys were always up for hard as fuck house and the backroom was always proper groovy. Proper sweaty dive as well you wont find many places like that now \o/
 
nah mate - did u read my op (it was abit long winded to be fair) - im from wolverhampton so that and birmngham is where i did 75% of my dancing.
@ scotch - i think they still use the place for theodd good party - im sure they had House of God there a few months back. I always used it for Afters on a Sunday morning if id been to Sundissential or a sat nite event at the que club. Amazing for a carry on and camp as fuck - the gayboys were always up for hard as fuck house and the backroom was always proper groovy. Proper sweaty dive as well you wont find many places like that now \o/
 
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