One of my mates held a birthday party and I was lucky enough to get invited. The especially nice thing about this was that the guy lived in London and was kind enough to accommodate me and a couple of other blokes at his flat. While preparing for the trip I went through the event listings of the big night clubs in London such as Herbal, Mass, Fabric, Matter etc. At first I got quite excited when noticing that there would be a FWD party at Matter and was already quite pleased about the date my mate had selected for the party. Luckily I was patient enough to check the other venues as well, and noticed that an event at Fabric quite much crushed all the other options at least in my amount-of-interest-scale. The event was called “Playaz Bank Holiday Special” and boy did it have a nice line up! A nice selection of some of the biggest names in the scene such as Andy C, Hazard, Ed Rush, SpectraSoul etc. etc. were on the list. Went to fabric’s site in a flash, booked a ticket from there and a few moments later had a nice e-ticket in my gmail.
Must point out at this point what a nice pal I am 
. We arrived at London on the same day the party was in Fabric. So as the others headed out to celebrate the birthday (which was quite much the reason we all were there), I packed up and went to the other direction! Might also be that the others were pleased to get rid of me so quick… you never know.
Getting to Fabric should have been easy-peasy as I had a GPS phone with me and I had already been there before on an earlier trip, but… well, first of all, as usual in the UK, it was raining when I got to Farringdon station. Not a nice weather to navigate outdoors and especially not so when trying to protect the phone from getting soaked up. After walking around for a good while and browsing the internet for any clues, I finally got a some kind of a hunch on where I should be going… only to realize that I had been walking in circles and took a nice longish detour there.
There I was, at the entrance of Fabric… 15 minutes the party was supposed to start! The personnel there were still kind enough to let me in anyway. After showing my ticket I was ready to enter the venue. At this point I bumped into something that I was not quite used to in Finland: a security inspection! I’ve had some inspections at events here also, but this was a rather thorough one. Before you get any ideas, I must state that, luckily, this was not a rubberglove-type-of-an-inspection involving checking of anal cavities. I recall from the last time I was at Fabric that they don’t even check the women entering there . So hot tip: If you have some illegal substances, give them to your girl when entering the venue.
Other interesting thing concerning sexes was that there is a guy in the restroom area that directs the guys to the urinals when trying to go to the toilets. I’m not sure about other lads, but I at least sometimes also have to do a few number twos. Oh, but this is a music related blog, not a biology class… back to the original agenda.
I don’t know what it is about me that makes me always end up at the smallest and darkest stage at the parties, but somehow at this party I also ended up hanging out at Room 3. I have not been that much interested in the neurofunk releases lately, but must admit that the stuff DJs such as Prolix and Fierce were playing were really top notch! Was really nice to hear tracks like Unknown Error & Audio – Raising Hell (which is of course a remix of the legendary Hellraiser track). Here’s a clip so that you can also enjoy it:
Technique-wise I was not that pleased with the DJs that were playing at the beginning. Too much of mixing from breakdown to breakdown really did not get the energy up. Also noticed that even the bigger names really did not interact much with the crowd. As I’m really into performers such as Rico Tubbs, I was really let down by this fact. Sure you can get the crowd excited just with the music, but if you want them to go nuts, some stage performance is needed. Here’s a video that attests my argument:
Some of the guys playing at the beginning of the event got me a bit worried about what’s to come at the party later. Was not that impressed about the skills of these guys, but happily, I had nothing to worry about. The Playaz crew really knew their stuff! The dance floor was packed with people partying hard to jump up. Andy C, Brockie and DJ Hype really made an impression on me. Would be wicked to get one of those guys to spin at a local event (maybe even a Concussion event 
).
I had quite a nice time although spending the whole night by myself, because at that volume levels it is just impossible for me to a) shout loudly enough that anyone could hear me and b) to understand a word others were saying. Was really glad I had my ear plugs with me! Because having such a blast, I thought I’d stay there until the ending of the event. Don’t know if it is the age already getting to me or the (huge 2 hour) jet lag, but at 6:30 AM I was totally wrecked and ready to head back to my friends flat to hit the sack.
But what a party! So many new, interesting and inspiring new styles of drum & bass! Will not hesitate one second if I get another chance of attending an event like this! And now a treat for the people that have had enough … to read thus far: One of the biggest tunes, in my opinion, played at the party is now available as a free download! Check it out here:
http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/Rusko/track/Hold_On_feat_Amber_Coffman_Sub_Focus_Remix
