Club: Plastic People, London
Rated the #1 Club Night in the UK by DJ Mag and #72 Club in the World (2010)
FWD>> Thursdays - Ben UFO (Resident)
Located in a basement with low ceilings and darker than CZ in the main dance area :eyes: The only lights were the exit sign, the dj's laptop and a small red light at the back of the dance floor. Probably the smallest club in the world featuring a Funktion One system with a capacity that couldn't have been more than 200 people. Overall the music was good for the most part. I was told by a local that he was playing grime which I've never heard before. Wasn't feeling it as much as the house he was playing earlier but the whole room was into it. This girl was ready to give me a number to text to find out about an illegal warehouse party on Saturday but I was committed to Fabric! All in all a fun Thursday night!
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Ben UFO
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Club: Ministry of Sound, London
Rated #4 Club in the world (2010)
The Gallery Fridays - Stefano Noferini, Moguai, D-Formation, Craig Turner, Gavyn Mitchel, Jesse James, Pique, Karma, Plastic Fondu
Didn't find the sound system to be all that great as I put my ear plugs in after being there for a few hours. The whole club is made up of 3 rooms inside: 103: Rectangular shaped main floor plus with 2nd floor on the side that overlooked with a few VIP tables, Box: square shaped room a little bit bigger than The Orange Room and Baby Box: Box's smaller counter part. They also dad a terrace outside with it's own bar that served up drinks and sandwiches, burgers etc. I'd love to see more clubs that are open late to serve up more food better than chips or granola bars. There's nothing like sandwich at 5AM, especially if you're drinking and don't want to leave the club. I noticed on the website that they even have another DJ setup out here on the terrace for bigger nights. The crowd thinned out pretty early and from what I gathered D-Formation never played as Box was closed early. Missed their 20th anniversary weekend by 1 week! D'oh!
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Gavyn Mitchel
Moguai
Pique
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Club... nay.. Art Gallery: Tate Modern, London
Went to see some art and was delighted to see two DJ setups. Apparently this happens once every year. I was there towards the end of the day so it's possible more people were in attendance earlier or it's just not that popular all together. Either way it was still really cool to see something like this happening. It appeared as if people outside were allowed to drink their own alcohol they had brought. Definitely made my gallery visit more enjoyable!
Rinse FM (No DJ Name listed)
DJ Monki
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Club: Fabric, London
Rated #2 Club in the World (2010)
20 Years of Soma - Slam!, Gary Beck, Funk D'Void (Live), Black Dog (Live), Terry Francis, Dinki, Kiki (Live), Silicone Soul, Deepchord (Live), Master H
What can I say about Fabric? I'm absolutely FLOORED! As soon as I walked into the heart of the club after paying cover I knew I was in for a treat. My jaw was on the ground. Definitely the best decor/layout for a club I've ever seen. All underground, it's setup like labyrinth with brick walls and ceilings everywhere, exposed pipes and exhaust tubes/fans and warehouse style railings. Somehow this club pulls off a very raw/underground look but is classy like Stereo at the same time.
The main area of the main room was again comparable to The Orange room with the DJs switching between the stage up front and into the lighting/tech booth behind. A large balcony behind the main room had some vip booths and lots more room to dance for anyone. The sound was on point, the lighting was incredible (countless moving lights plus two lasers) and the vibe was the best I had experienced in London so far. Everyone was fully into the music and not pushy at all. The music in here rocked all night - Gary Beck, Funk D'Void and TWO sets from Slam! If you exit the main room to the back left you'd walk down a long hallway passing a bar, merch stand, huge stair case leading up to another room/exit and one other room at the end of the hallway. About the size of the gallery, but with a a raised second floor in the back with a balcony accessed by a turning metal staircase. Did I mention how raw this place felt?
If you ever find yourself in London: make Fabric a top priority for nightlife. You will NOT regret it!
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Gary Beck (Part 1/2)
Gary Beck (Part 2/2)
Slam! (Part 1/3)
Slam! (Part 2/3)
Funk D'Void
Slam! (Part 3/3)
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Club: Cable, London
#73 Club in the world (2011)
Phonica's 8th Birthday
Jaded Sundays - Raymundo Rodriguez (Resident)
After doing some research online, I found this club to be London's closest thing to Comfort Zone in terms of an after-after hours. Opening at 5AM every Sunday morning and not shutting down until 1 in the afternoon (is that it? :p). I arrived at 815AM from Fabric to a huge, slow moving line in a large tunnel near the London Bridge. I thought the place was at capacity because when we neared the front, people in front of me were leaving the line to go home instead of entering. Surprisingly we only waited a few minutes before being let in.
Cable turned out to be a great wind down after Fabric. A large cavern with open brick arch ways all over. The main room had a bar that was still serving alcohol (I now realize London has no last call) on one end and the dj/dancefloor right across from it. The vibe was a lot more chill compared to Fabric with more people standing around chatting than getting fully into the music. Granted, the music was slower for this late in the morning but the energy from the crowd was definitely lacking. A spiral metal staircase took you upstairs to a nice area that hung over most of the dance floor below. Lots of couches made it for an even more chill area but there were still people dancing around as the music could be heard just as well as downstairs. Following a hallway at the back lead to bathrooms and a balcony that overlooked a second room with music that was a little more upbeat and a more lively crowd. Exhausted, I decided to spend most of my time upstairs in the main room relaxing.. double vodka redbulls only give you so many wings! Called it a morning at 10:30AM Overall, I really liked this club and would make an effort to return on another visit to London. It's open normal hours Friday and Saturday nights as well with fairly big DJs booked to play as far as I know.
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Raymundo Rodriguez
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Club: The Cavern Club, Liverpool
"The Most Famous Club in the World"
Tim Shaw
Beatles fanatics will appreciate this. This underground cave was The Beatles home in their early days. They played here 292 times in 2 and a half years! The club and the band were basically synonymous with each other. This club also played host to 1800 other bands, all of which have their name on a brick on the wall of fame just next to the clubs entrance. A local musician Tim Shaw was playing an acoustic solo set made up mainly of Beatles tracks the night I stopped in. Words cannot describe how amazing it felt to hear all their classics played at the same venue that was so important to them.
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Club: 42nd Street, Manchester
From Manchester with Love
I couldn't visit Manchester and not go to a club that would play the music that made the city famous. The Smiths, Joy Division, New Order, The Stone Roses (I'm a huge 80s nerd). This club had an Annex Wreckroom feel to it if you've ever been. Cheap drinks and retro tunes made for a great Thursday night! The highlight was hearing my favourite song by The Smiths <3
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Paul Manford plays Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
Paul Manford plays The Smiths' "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out"
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Club: Sankeys, Manchester
#1 Club in the World (2010)
Cool Kids presents... Artful Dodger, Toy Boy and Rob Drake, Underground Education, Conversion DJs
I looked up some mixes online from Artful Dodger in advance to see if it'd be something I'd enjoy and it wasn't. I decided to go anyways because the club was rated #1 in the world last year. I figured even if the music was bollocks, it'd be nice to see a club that that is apparently the best in the world even if it's not. Very limited signage outside other than obscure Sankey's logo seen above. The queue outside made it easier to find the building walking by.
Inside was a small room the size of Acid lounge with a bar, a dj and a huge light wall. I enjoyed the music in here the best all night. Lots of tech house made feel like Toronto. The main room was a good sized rectangular room about 3/4s the size of Guv main room. A very cool light wall behind the dj that could make patterns and show the djs name. There were also lots of LED light sticks hanging horizontal from the ceiling made for a very fresh light show. To my surprise I enjoyed the first two opening acts. Conversions DJs were decent enough and I quite enjoyed Rob Drake & Toyboy. Artful Dodger eventually came on and played.. gross ear piercing electro lol. The "cool kids" crowd reminded me of the club kids from Party Monster were the icing on the cake. Outside, down the a set of stairs went to a very dark terrace with a bar lots of areas to sit. The barbed wire on the fence really set the mood :p Nothing beats the girl that walked to the corner, pulled down her skirt, squatted and started taking a piss 5 ft from me. 10 seconds passed before one of her friends decided to step in front so others couldn't see... wow! I'm speechless. After going inside I realized they opened another room upstairs with equally awful electro. The lighting up here was kind of neat as well. All in all - really good club but I can't see how it made it to #1 in the world.. especially after going to Fabric. But maybe attending the night Chemical Brothers played would have me singing a different tune.
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Conversion DJs
Rob Drake & Toyboy
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Club: The Warehouse Project, Manchester
#9 Club in the world (2010)
Nero (Live), Caspa Dubs, Decks & Visual FX, Digital Soundboy S/System, Redlight, David Rodigan, Naughty By Nature, Instra:Mental, Oneman, Mary-Anne Hobbs, Two Inch, Punch
I'll start off by saying this is the massive 2 part fail to end off my trip to England. 1st of all, I bought tickets to Warehouse Project to see Nic Fanciulli, Derrick May & Jamies Zabiela. I give the ticket to security and am informed that it was a ticket for last week. Sure enough, it says October 1st on the ticket. I stood there for like 10 seconds trying to compute how on earth this could've happened. I triple checked almost all the plans I made for the trip and this was overlooked. I walked slowly away from the entrance while thinking I absolutely need to go to this party. It was the grand finale for a 2 week stay in England and I wasn't about to go down without a fight. The event is sold out so my only hope is to find someone selling tickets. Every 10 feet there's someone looking for tickets but nobody selling. After someone who says he knows someone with a ticket falls through I find someone else who is selling one for over 3 times the price of the ticket. I don't even try to bargain and tell him to follow me to the ATM. Everything goes fine and I get into the event under the assumption I mistakenly bought a ticket for another event. I realize when I get in and look at the set times that I'm not a fan of anyone on the lineup. Two huge fails in 20 minutes. *holds for applause* I didn't let it get to me. I was determined to have a great time regardless.
The Warehouse Project is a very special series of events. For the last 5 years, events are thrown every weekend for 3 months in a parking garage which previously served as an air raid shelter underneath Piccadilly train station in Manchester. Originally these parties happened in an unused brewery before outgrowing the space. This is the final year of such events with a 17 hour blowout to end things off on January 1st, 2012. Since the events are only held for 3 months of the year, each lineup is stacked with artists from all styles. Check out this year's schedule HERE. Aside from the very extensive security search at the front, this party reeked of a break and enter rave. Everything about the place seemed to so temporary.... because it is. This parking garage still operates as such during the week meaning everything is setup on a weekly basis. Having said that, there were still two elaborate stage setups with intelligent lighting, bars, couches, ping pong tables and a merch stand. The headliner Nero was not my cup of tea musically, but the vibe in the room during their set was incredible! I gotta admit that it was better than most of the dubstep I heard and halfway enjoyable lol (I loathed dubstep up until now) The atmosphere around the whole event was great. After mostly partying in actual clubs, the opportunity to party in such a rare space is really a treat. I may have paid far too much for my ticket but I don't regret it for a second. I'm so glad I was able to be a part of the last season of these parties. This was the perfect end to a smorgasbord of parties... well, not yet
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Naughty By Nature
Instra:Mental
Nero (Live)
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Club: Southº, Manchester
Afterlife. - WHP's After Party
They had free shuttle services from WHP to here and the people I was with had free tickets to get in so why the hell not eh? A nice intimate after hours with great music to round out the night. It wasn't as busy when I arrived at 530AM but filled in a little later. This club regularly features guest DJs that played WHP. Definitely ended my vacation on a high note :D So long, England! <3 <3
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MDNA
jon jon
this is awesome, I'm looking forward to reading it all
Endlesswave
Nice Kotsy!! Glad you had a blast and did elsewhere apart from just London.
Fabric <3.
breathesteve
Great review!
I've been to Fabric, Cable, and Plastic People. Fabric is definitely in a league of its own.
I'd love to go clubbing in Manchester one day.
GGM
tldr
...as in too long DEFINITELY read. Awesome reviews w/ media to support. This thing is definitely a go to guide for anyone travelling across the pond.
~C~
Nice thread Kotsy! Glad you had such a good time in the UK. You sure got around! lol :)
I only got to check out T-Bar and Fabric when I was there in '09, and Fabric was pretty dead since it was during the recession, and the music wasn't my cup of tea. I found the Fabric crowd too touristy (like all of London for that matter though), but I def. loved the underground feel of the place, and the size. I preferred T-Bar, because it reminded me so much of FW. It had an older crowd, and was full of locals instead of all tourists too.
I really enjoyed what BEN UFO was playing in your vid.
I will never get sick of the track Len Faki - My Black Sheep (Radio Slave Remix) from the Instra:Mental vid either. So darkkkkkk. Love! :eek:
Vivid Boy
London is the . i was more at some posh night clubs foolin around with snobby english chicks in the loo but it was still a kick ass time.
Camden was the too the week Amy passed.
GGM
quote:
Originally posted by kotsy
Rinse FM (No DJ Name listed)
Go to 0:41, bottom right corner, that kid is ripping the daytime dance floor way harder than anyone I've ever seen.
acronym
Did you happen to see David Rodigan while you were at the WHP? The man's an absolute legend. I caught him while I was in Croatia recently and it was some of the most fun I've ever had at a show.
hax-a-million
damn, didn't realize it's the final year of WHP... :(
solid reviews!
gimmebeatz
very good reviews, pics and vids!! how long were you in england to experience all this?
kotsy
Thanks for the kind words everyone! It was my first time ever in Europe (and off the continent) and first time traveling alone. Long story short: it was the best time of my life and I wanted to put at least the night life end of it into words to spread my love for England.
quote:
Originally posted by acronym
Did you happen to see David Rodigan while you were at the WHP?
Sadly no. At the risk of sounding like a newb: the three videos I took were of the only people of names I recognized *embarassed*
quote:
Originally posted by gimmebeatz
how long were you in england to experience all this?
12 nights (6 in London, 2 in Liverpool, 4 in Manchester).
