Hi there,

A producer/dj friend of mine is looking to start a number of trance events around central London early next year.

We have a couple of trendy bars in great areas lined up plus we have been offered a very well known venue for a full on club night.

Everyone in trance knows that the London scene is dominated by The Gallery which is hosted Ministry Of Sound every Friday. We feel that alternative, smaller, more intimate nights are very much needed in the capital away from the tourists, overpriced drinks, heavy entrance fees and beer boys so to speak. The events will be held on Saturday evening/nights so we are not clashing with The Gallery.

The line ups at these events won't be just normal djs but widely acclaimed trance producers and djs who are more than happy to play out to their fans in a more intimate venue.

For all you London based trancers, I would love to hear your feedback on this. Do you feel that London needs a breath of fresh trance air? Just a nice relaxed place to hear great tunes with your mates?

Cheers,

Anthony

If this is in the wrong section, I do apologize. Feel free to move it.

I say fairplay to you and go for it. I think trance actually works quite well at smaller venues, A dj (Hexidecimal I think...) at AIR Gods last night, dropped binary finary in the back room, and it actually went down really well.

I know there are similar events across the country. Can't think off the top of my head, but it may be worth contacting these promoters for some advice of what works / doesn't work.

Essence in Banbury, I think someone called Caz runs that, she gets on the Matt Hardwick and used to go on the Gods board. I don't think this does that well though.

Off the Rails in Sheffield and Digital Society in Leeds, both do very well from what I hear.

Good luck.

___________________
Kinetic Mix -
http://www.sendspace.com/file/vtgvwx

ENJOY!!

Smaller trance nights in London would be great. In a city this big there has gotta be room for more trance than just being dominated by The Gallery. They do the big nights really well, but I'm not always up for the crowds and the tourists at Ministry of Sound. Something less hectic and more underground and intimate would be a great addition to the London trance scene. It doesn't even need to be really well known DJs - just some good tunes, a nice venue and a friendly crowd.

Trance Generation did a few smaller nights along these lines a few years back which were really good, but they haven't done so much recently.

If you get this started up, let me know and I'll definitely be along with a few mates!

Sounds good, it depends how big the venue is, if its a bit smaller a House/Prog House night might be more suited IMO, a big room style Trance themed night would suit a larger bar or at least one with a decent sized dance floor.

I know about all the nights mentioned in this thread apart from the one in Banbury which is near me so I might have to check it out.

Theres a night called Audio Liquid which are held in smaller venues in the Midlands, usually Birmingham.

On the Subject of London Matter @ the 02 arena is pretty epic if you havent been there.

___________________
http://soundcloud.com/drewwihl

I agree smaller venues are more suited to Prog Trance/Prog House than the big room full-on trance. No point going for pure house, there are already many bars in east London playing house.

I guess it's what Anthony's mate produces will be along the lines of what gets played - Anthony, are these nights still on the cards for next year?

Sounds great to me. There just aren't enough trance nights around, particularly in London. Something a bit more low-key and intense sounds like a nice alternative to Ministry.

how is it going in relation to starting up a new, smaller more intimate trance night in london?

if you do start one up, i will definately go!

is it still on the cards?

David.

Good luck to you. The hardest bit will be finding the right venue though - as has already been said, uplifting trance naturally suits a bigger room and doesn't scale down so well.

There's probably a market if you get it right. As has been said, Trance Generation used to do this kind of thing and had a reasonable following, but in my opinion they used completely the wrong venues towards the end. And there's the old Knowwhere following still kicking about.

ElectronicSessions do trance boat parties on the Thames every month and always sell them out, but not everyone wants to go on a boat that often.

For me, even prog/tech trance nights in smaller rooms still have to have the right sort of shape and feel to create the right atmosphere. Yeah you can have a good laugh in any old bar with the right people and some big tunes, but it won't be taken too seriously so you'd find it hard to grow (even to fill a small venue).

I can't think of many smaller venues in London with the right feel, but then there are probably 100s I haven't been to! And the clubs which do have the right feel will also have a lot of competition from house nights; house works in just about any room trance does - and often works very well in the kind of venues trance 'needs' - but not vice versa.

___________________
Stu Cox |

does anyone know of any smaller venues (say capacity of about 200-500 people) in London that would be suitable for an underground style Trance night then?

interesting what the person who did the last post said - are we saying here that there is a distinct lack of suitable venues in London for smaller trance nights?

that's very hard to believe in a city the size of London - there must be somewhere still open that is suitable for this kind of night?

Surely?

London does seem to be missing certain venues for trance. Most of them are dominated by house nights and venue owners don't really want to take a risk in changing style in case it scares of regulars.
Also costs in getting big name DJs (especially in the trance cycles) has prevented smaller parties from appearing and also they normally have a commitment to The Gallery so will usually turn down smaller gigs in favour of MOS. Couple that with the reduction in the trance community in London and it certainly makes it worrying for trance parties in the city.
My own night (EDM) which featured trance heavily, is still looking at moving venue into central London but i still haven;t found the right place (i used to run the events in Wimbledon but wanted to move it on to increase the amount of people attending)
Fear not though, i played at one party called Odyssey at the weekend which is a free party and they had an amazing turn out (probably holds about 100 people) with people who were going mad to the trance music. Its a free party as well so check them out on FB. Other parties in London to look for include (as Stu pointed out) Electronic Sessions, Spangulation, Zoology, and Trance on the Thames. I think thats about it though - bad times