Big congratulations to Devizes DJ Greg Spencer this week, the creator of Palooza house nights at The Exchange nightclub, for he made the prestigious bill of Fatboy Slim’s All Back to Minehead festival in November at Butlins; we have to celebrate him, baby, and praise him like we should!
Palooza launched in March last year, to bring back regular house nights in Devizes, and fantastic they are too. A year later and Greg excitedly messaged us with the news he was potentially booked for Fatboy Slim’s annual shindig at the Butlins in Minehead, we just had to wait for confirmation, which he now has. “I’m a bit overwhelmed by it,” Greg told us at the time, describing the news as one of the best days of his life when he announced it last week.
Goldie, K-Klass and a DJ set from Leftfield are among the highlights of who will be largin’ it with Norm at this annual dance music extravaganza; we wish Greg all the best with it. But if you want to get Palooza’d closer to home, they’re back at the Exchange nightclub this Friday, 2nd May. And we’re leaking future dates for Palooza nights to put in your diary, the 27th June, 29th August and 19th December.
This Friday sees the crew playing house, old skool, techno and tech house with DJs Floormover, Leggy, Rodj, Eldridge and Grit. Pay on the door, Facebook event page is here; let them know if you’re going!
Purveyors of perfect motion, house music promoters Palooza return to The Exchange in Devizes on Friday 20th December, for its grand finale of the year…..
March of this year saw the launch of Palooza, a project from two local house music diehards to bring the good vibes of house clubbing back to Devizes, and they succeeded with an unforgettable opening night at the Exchange nightclub. Palooza returns one last time in 2024, and it’s set to be the boldest night of the year as they transform the venue into a dance music haven.
Five hours of non-stop music from 9 PM to 2 AM, featuring a stellar lineup of DJs bringing their unique sound across tech house, future house, classics, and techno, guaranteed to bring the beats and keep the energy high. The lineup consists of Grit, Fashion, RodJ, Alchemy, Sun and T-Rex, the latter Palooza’s first female DJ, from Brighton.
Doors open at 9pm, when there’s a happy hour until 10pm with half-price drinks.
The last Palooza of the year promises to be an unforgettable celebration of dance music culture. Whether you’re a loyal fan or new to the Palooza vibe, this is a night you won’t want to miss! No tickets, just pay on the door.
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If rural West Country had a penchant for trance in the happy daze of the mid-nineties, heady nights of fluorescent-clad crusties with eyes like flying saucers and gyrating like robots at the UFO club down Longleat’s Berkeley Suite, or bumbling around a nearby forest afterparty keeping Wrigley’s in business, trance-techno, it could be debated, tended to be heavily influenced by German Tekno and of Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream which predated it, and in doing so, often felt rather soulless when compared to rivalling subgenres spawned from the rave era, of house or drum n bass, but there’s an alternative, Hedge Monkey….
House, jungle, happy hardcore, et al, they all had their pros and cons, but I tended to saunter them all with equal love, as I arrived on the rave scene at its inception, acid house, and if any splitting subgenre related closer to those roots it was trance and techno. Lou’s smooth vocal chants on Westbury’s electronic dance music ensemble Hedge Monkey blesses it with something bands like Eat Static lacked, a soulful voice and meaning. With an underlying base of trance-techno of yore, Hedge Monkey’s engineer Jase cherry-picks other dance music influences and moulds them into the melting pot. If Massive Attack came from rural Somerset, their sway to hip hop might be lessened, and you might find yourself with a sound not so unlike Hedge Monkey.
Being honest, I hadn’t heard of them until last night; I may have completed my rave honeymoon when Hedge Monkey was blossoming. They’ve three tracks on SoundCloud worth checking out, two new and one being a “samba dub” of an older tune. “We were a band years ago,” Lou explained, “even played Glastonbury festival twice! But this was before social media, really. I’ve been recording music with Jase the whole time, but we never did anything with it. Just recently we decided to get it all back together and it’s been fab, so we decided that we need to have a comeback gig!”
The comeback gig is Saturday November 30th at Westbury Cons Club, tickets are £8, from HERE. There’s DJs until 9pm, then Hedge Monkey swings on stage. If you’ve a passion for dance music of any pigeonholing subgenre, you should take note of this gig.
Based on the tunes, there’s more going on than mindless techno stomp, the vocals on the first tune Deeper Meanings, echoes out as 808 squeaks build in layers to a bouncing beat akin to Leftfield. It’s uplifting, euphoric trance, like Warp’s early days, elements took me back, conjured happy memories of fluffy nuggets like Tuff Little Unit’s Join the Future, (or am I showing my age now?!) which used subtle piano to give balance to the hypnotic ambience. Similar here, actual drum beats, guitars, and vocals give it body, makes it a band, which it is, rather than the sole bedroom producer flouting the usual samples.
The second tune, Lou’s Samba Dub Lung, shakes up more experimentally and contemporarily, dubbing a chemical breakbeat. There’s absolutely no reason for Plump DJs or The Chemical Brothers not to spin this one in my humble opinion, yet still, there’s still something underlyingly faithful to the trance techno of its roots, the dirty little tent on a muddy Somerset field!
Final tune to mention, then you can go take your meds; Turkish E, take us back to trance. It’s seven minutes of bliss, retaining uplifting vocals, squidgy 808s, shroom-inspired twirls and block rockin’ beats. You know, I might have an efficacious relapse if I attend this reunion-type gig, just try to prevent me from waffling Uncle Albert moments; “when I was in the rave,” type stuff! Ruffle your matted dreadlocks, unearth your tie-dye T-shirt from the loft, ignore me best you can, and I might see you there!
Well, I had fun, danced my little socks off at Palooza’s inaugural house music experiment back in early March, and I’m glad to hear they’ve another coming up on Friday May 10th….
Palooza delivered everything they said they would to the Devizes Exchange nightclub early March, with a knockout inaugural night of smooth house music vibes. Here’s my take on it. The DJs were bang on the money, the atmosphere was unpretentiously buzzing with positive and uplifting vibes I compared to the UK rave scene at its peak, but a few more through the door would’ve been welcomed. As it is with dance music culture, a new thing has to grow and develop, and this works through word-of-mouth; hence why I mention it!
What impressed me most was the age demographic there. I spotted a number of older ravers, reliving their misspent youth, and I saw younger clubbers too, but all mingled with the shared ethos of good vibes, and that’s what made the night so satisfying. If you missed the last one, I advise you check in on the next one in May; keep up-to-date with them on Facebook. Tickets are HERE.
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Newly formed and locally based collective Palooza hosted their opening night at The Exchange nightclub in Devizes yesterday, offering house music with universal appeal and the ethos of raving days of yore; mind I don’t have an Uncle Albert moment here, “when I was in the rave!”
Greg Spencer, the kingpin in organising the event, told me he’d be interested to read what I had so say about the do. While a DJ night is a different kettle of fish to reviewing a live band, the kettle or main premise is the same for anything, points scored for doing what it said on the tin. In other words, was it as advertised?
Palooza hyped it to be “the hottest house event in Devizes. Deep house and soulful grooves, tech melodies to uplifting beats.” The only indifference was it’s the “only” house event in Devizes for some considerable time. Other than this trivial, my dancing clogs didn’t stop, so top marks all round for a fantastic treat.
Welcomed, then, for those dance music hunters and an inaugural shindig hoping to blossom, I hope so too. Retrospective glimmers to the heyday of UK rave culture have been successful in larger towns, yet always seem to come with a marginalised hook.
Raver Tots invites parents of toddlers to force their youth culture down the throats of their impressionable offspring, in a bizzare soft play-happy hardcore mesh, and Trowbridge recently saw the Pipe & Slippers Raves, patronisingly focusing on middle-aged ravers by reducing noise levels and ending at a respectable time.
Though both successful, they feel presumptuous and a tad condescending, in my opinion. I never felt the need to embed my nostalgic skulduggery on my kids; they find their own way. And as for the idea of finishing a party at eleven o’clock so foggies can retire to their slippers in some kind of care home fashion is, quite frankly, insultingily ageist and badly researched; ravers danced all night, into the next week if possible. What in the good name of John Digweed gave them the ludicrous Cinderella notion we can’t now cut a rug after midnight?! It’s not done via age concern, rather cashing in on nostalgia.
The reason for being critical of these others is that rave had no uniform or restrictions. It was universal, the loosest era you can dub a youth culture, for it engulfed every preceding one and fused them in one electronic explosion of positivity and joy.
Ravers came from punks, mods, soul boys, travellers, new romantics, rastas, bikers, the lot. No one gave a hoot about your roots, ethnicity, political sway, sexual preference, and especially not your age; we all danced together under the same sun. It was the most unassuming epoch ever.
And, delightfully last night, the ethos matched. Palooza filled “the Bin” with a handful of older ravers proving they still got it, but equally attracted a wide age demographic, interacting without the slightest hint of aggravation. That’s the ticket, that’s precisely the atmosphere old ravers cherish with pride, and one which, evidently, is being passed onto the younger present. We stopped racial tension, drunken nightclub brawls, and football hooliganism; really.
The Exchange in Devizes faces historic self-deprecating banter from locals, infamously dubbing it “the corny bin.” I beg to differ. The modern Exchange is on a level way above your typical nightclub. By comparison, it’s comfy, congenial, and affordable at both the foyer and bar. It retains the exceptionally simple but functional design of square amphitheatre dance floor, with all seating facing inward to it and the bar stretching across the rear. It makes the perfect spot for a house night of Palooza’s challenge to recreate the integrity of classic dance music culture. I’m only here to report back that it did, with bells on, oh, and shake ma thang like a Polaroid picture.
The air held a manner of anticipation, and the three DJs delivered. With splinters of classic house samples from Leftfield to Fatboy Slim, the speakers pumped of joyous contemporary beats, bang-on the timeless vibe of house music since its inception. Glow-sticks passed around, smiles and hugs exchanged, no bullshit from tossers, just carefree merriment and united celebration.
Another top point scorer from me was Palooza didn’t try to be something it wasn’t, it didn’t try to cater for all and meld every dance music subgenre into a single night, for that would feel cramped or sycophantic by modern standards. If you attacked it objectively because you wanted abstract minimalist techno or darkstep breakcore, you failed to see the simplicity of a working formula of yore, the enduring practicality of association. Because, while one day viciously throwing down on his box, Jack boldly declared, let there be house, and house music was born, in 1987, when your scrupulous pigeonholed subgenre was an itch in its daddy’s bell-bottoms.
Soz, but a market town like Devizes couldn’t sustain something so codifying as a quasi-amapiano ethereal techno gig; think broader, and dance your trainspotting cares away!
Palooza met that challenge head-on and unruffled. Greg expressed to me that he’s only in it for the love. It now needs the opportunity to grow and harness its ethos. It needs to extend a welcoming hand to those looking for a regular and affordable quality dance music night in Devizes, of which I’m assured it will. And hey presto, ravers young and old will arrive there, Harvey Ross Ball’s smiley face logo will be smiling on our town, and house music will be reborn, and for that applause, Palooza gets my top rating; feel the melody that’s in the air and beeline the next date, one and all.
Every first Thursday of the month Muck & Dunder owner Shelly Field plans to get behind the wheels of steel and bring us some funky, laid-back, groovy, toe-tapping, head-bopping vibes, starting with this Thursday, 7th March!
From 7 until 9pm, The Muck & Dunder rum bar in Devizes invites you to join them for rum and records, and even bring some vinyl records for Shelly to spin, but you need to sign up on the night with a max of 3 tracks per person. “Think all genres,” they’ll say they’ll consider, “but we don’t want any face-melters or offensive stuff…you get the gist!”
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Feeel the melody that’s in the (Devizes) air! If the nineties house clubbing revival is what’s happening elsewhere around the nation, we have to admit, sadly it’s been a smidgen scarce in Devizes. That’s set to change, Greg Spencer from Palooza gladly informs us Devizes is on the verge of a groundbreaking shift in its nightlife scene. About time too, I might add, there’s still a bit of life in this rapidly ageing raver yet, y’know!
The inaugural Palooza DJ House Event is set to make waves at the Exchange Nightclub on Friday 8th March, offering deep house to soulful grooves, tech melodies to uplifting beats, and promising an extraordinary night of music, rhythm, and unparalleled community spirit….well, there’s a thing, that’s what it was always about.
Greg, who has previously owned a record shop and music venue, has been involved with festivals, and written dance music, signed to labels and remixed for other artists, tells me how he took a break from it all whilst raising a family, but like many of us feeling there’s something missing from middle-age, he’s aching to zip up his boots and go back to his roots, “for the fun,” he expressed. Yeah, I’ll go along with that!
This inaugural Palooza DJ House Event promises to redefine Devizes’ nightlife, creating a space to celebrate music, forge connections, and craft unforgettable memories. Palooza urges Devizes to “get ready for an introduction to a new world of rhythm, and become a part of it. Join us at Palooza, and let’s create memories, dance, and celebrate the beauty of music.”
They promise the event will have its share of surprises and special moments, making Palooza a truly unique experience each and every time. Palooza’s inception arises from a shared passion for the dynamic beats of house music. The event’s creators are dedicated to bringing this unique experience to the heart of Devizes, sharing their love for music with the local community.
The team has carefully selected a thrilling lineup that combines the infectious beats of our local DJs, known for setting the dance floor ablaze, with globally recognized music from the house music scene. Each performer will infuse the night with their distinctive style and boundless energy, creating an unforgettable musical experience.
“Palooza isn’t just an event,” they continue, “it’s an immersive journey into a world of rhythm and connection. The energy is palpable from the moment you arrive, drawing you in and making it impossible to resist the allure of the music. This event offers the freedom to dance without inhibition, lose yourself in the music, and connect with fellow party-goers who share the same passion for house beats. Whether you’re a seasoned clubber or a first-timer, Palooza invites you to a night of boundless energy and camaraderie.”
In a unique initiative, Palooza invites partygoers to suggest their favourite house music track before the event for the opening DJ set. Visit the Palooza Facebook page to contribute to the music poll selection and shape the unique atmosphere of the night.
Just one? Tricky, but, twist my arm, if I had to pick just one it would be Sunscreem’s Perfect Motion. Remember it? Oh, I do, vaguely! In a cloud of strawberry scented smoke, the dancefloor like an air hockey pitch, my feet gliding like two pucks, and, if you’ll pardon the puck pun, not giving a puck either, about any inhibitions, or cares, just you, and a fluffy crowd of smiling faces; If rhythm’s a drug, I’m hooked on you, So show me every move, We’ve got perfect motion…. Noooo, someone stop me, I double dare you!! I better sit down, have a cuppa and a bourbon biscuit, calm myself down a bit…. until March 8th, coincidently my birthday!
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Just when I think every musician within a ten-mile radius is under our radar, another one pops up, and usually, they produce electronic music. So, I say, look, I know Devizes is a blues town, but Devizine covers all arts, and besides, I’m an old raver; ergo, if you’re creating music, electronic or not, you’re very welcome here….
Proving I’m an old raver, for photographic evidence is nil and memories vague, West Lavington’s musician and composer Moray Macdonald’s alter-ego Cephid’s forthcoming album, Sparks in the Darkness had me pondering a post on a Facebook group for ravers, which I wouldn’t be on if I wasn’t! Someone posted a video highlighting the work of Delia Derbyshire at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, another commented rightly she was a pioneer of electronic music, a second added “erm? Kraftwerk?” causing me to rant; it doesn’t take much these days!
Yeah, I’ll give you, Kraftwerk were the primary electronically generated pop group, but Derbyshire’s magnum opus, the Doctor Who theme, an electronic rework of a Ron Grainer composition, predates Kraftwerk’s first commercially successful album Autobahn by eleven years.
This raises a fascinating point; at electronic music’s clunky inception few sought it viable for commercial pop. Fatboy Slim pointed out, You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby. The BBC Radiophonic Workshop created sound effects ideally for sci-fi series. Lesser-known German electronic pioneers Tangerine Dream only became familiar to the masses during the eighties for their numerous Hollywood film scores. Organisation zur Verwirklichung gemeinsamer Musikkonzepte, Kraftwerk’s quirky and pre-synthesizer antecedent, was the crème-de-crème of kosmische Musik, Dusseldorf’s experimental scene of the sixties, but while it took psychedelia and space-rock to another planet, Melody Maker mocked it “krautrock,” a name which stuck as its genre.
Seems rock’s phobia of electronic progression was the reason for Britpop’s retrospection to acoustic instruments once rave came of age. The chalk and cheese mingle side by side in today’s pop; David Gray’s self-dubbed style, folktronica hammered that last nail in.
The relevance of all this is, while immersed in Cephid’s gorgeous complex structures and intense electronic textures, one cannot help but contemplate the combined efforts involved in contributing to this development, as it harks it’s influences and indulges those passed, no matter by Sparks in the Darkness comparisons all would sound timeworn. From the impact the Doctor Who theme must’ve had on the English television-watching nation, to The Art of Noise and Yello, and from avant-garde American electro outfit Newcleus, to Universe’s Tribal Gathering 1997, when I observed every raver ascend from their chosen subgenre tent to pay respects to Kraftwerk. Cephid encompasses these, yet is ultra-modern, uses tech as orchestral, and is as fresh as the Buxton spring; like Jean Michel Jarre came after dubstep, as if 808 State created Tubular Bells!
Futurism and sci-fi remains a large part of marketing presentation for electronic dance music, from the eerie android on the cover of Kraftwerk’s We Are the Robots, to Phil Wolstenholme’s Vergina sun spaceship on the Orb’s 1992 album U.F.Orb, Sparks in the Darkness follows suit with a mysterious red sphere projecting across a cityscape for its cover, strikingly designed by Tiago Marinho.
The album commences akin to ambient house’s finest, floating or bubbling spooky and mysterious layers of atmospheric swirls, but its orchestral build indicates time has passed since the fluffiness of The KLF and Orb. Moray Macdonald cut his teeth touring with progressive rock and metal artists such as That Joe Payne, Godsticks, Kim Seviour and Ghost Community. This is sharper, unsubdued, his harder-edged rock influences will insure bands like Pink Floyd, Hawkwind and the Ozric Tentacles will be acknowledged here; erm, The Prodigy’s punk fusion post-Jilted Generation too, in part. The opening track To Catch the Eye of the Heaven flows into the next, as a raver I note Leftfield, and I’m holding out for it kicking in.
Thirty seconds into the second tune, the single Worlds Before, and it does, and when it does it’s immense, a stomp to make New Order blush, with all the workings of modern technology, you are encased in this, what is a culmination of many years of work, and there’s no going back.
Moray defines it, “soaring melodic leads cutting through spacious washes of synths, while propelled by layers of sequencers, drums, and percussion. Pulverising techno seamlessly giving way to complex progressive workouts and moody, groove-driven soundscapes, all packed with lasting melodic hooks.” Yeah, I’ll go with that! It has the concept album quality in which you must indulge in it completely. By Terminus we’re nodding to up-tempo trance-techno, breaking with vocal coach Angel Wolf-Black’s celestial chants, but behind its entrancing bleeps binds this driving rock drum, either by Emily Dolan Davies, who has drummed for Bryan Ferry, The Darkness and Kim Wilde, or Graham Brown of The Paradox Twin.
Midway the pace lessens and Of Promises trickles into something definably more electronica, of Tangerine Dream’s sombre movie moments, of Don Johnson contemplating his fate as he leans on his white Ferrari looking out across Miami harbour’s night sky. Moray Macdonald has created music for film, theatre and art installations, and it shows.
Strobe takes off from where Of Promises lands us, like the later track Dead Hand’s Decree, it’s The Chemical Brothers on their best behaviour. Moray states, “the Cephid was created as an opportunity to bring diverse influences together into a single coherent artistic statement.” From his work with artists across the modern progressive scene, to his early love of experimental electronic music, many musical facets are represented, but still it flows in one radical and unique package impossible to pigeonhole.
There’s no surplus of talent left out of this project, Placebo’s Shelby Logan Warne, and Jerry Kandiah producer of Killing Joke and The Futureheads have mixed and mastered this, and while its not commercialised, just like Delia Derbyshire’s work in the sixties, it’s too groundbreaking to be ignored.
As The Old Me, plays out, even its name prompts me to imagining myself hearing this in a field somewhere in 1991, amidst matted trilby wearing juniors, eyes the size of saucers and dribbling on a Wrigley’s, it is so innovative, so radical, I’d probably have had a seizure!
“What’s wrong with him!” one raver asks another as I lie comatose.
“He’s had a premonition of the future of electronic music and his fragile mind cannot handle it; somebody get him a Technotronic album, pronto!!!”
The single Worlds Before is out now. Sparks in the Darkness will be released 9th February 2024. Find out more about the project HERE.
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It has been undeniably a variety music show at the Full Tone Festival this bank holiday weekend on the Green in Devizes, of tremendous proportions and matchless quality.
The stage I’ve previous dubbed “like something out of the Jetsons,” was once again erected, deckchair city assembled around it, with a bustling collection of food and drinks stalls beyond, and the sun with his hat on, shining down on all the shiny happy people.
It is a remarkable achievement and something to be truly proud of, to have here in our humble market town. The Full-Tone Orchestra taking their show to prestigious venues like Bath Abbey and Marlborough College, returned home, looking even more professional than ever. Conductor Anthony Brown waving his hands around like manual control of the world’s air traffic; it was, in a word, magical.
Highlights came thick and fast, Dominic Irving thrilled, heading a Tchaikovsky concerto on piano, for an opening of obligatory classical elements. The stage emptied as Will Foulstone took control of the keys, solo. Full Tone platforms young talent, like TikTok trumpeter Oli Parker, on Sunday, to an audience majority unlikely to know what TikTok is. Similarly, Will performed some videogame themes among Coldplay and contemporary pop, which is better in reality than it sounds to my generation bought up on ZX Spectrums or Mega Drives!
Will’s finale was an astounding cover of Elton John’s I’m Still Standing, and the orchestra realigned for a concentration of movie scores, largely dependent on the western themes of the late Ennio Morricone; liked this.
Then, BBC Introducing DJ skateboarder, James Threlfall took to digital wheels of steel and blasted the zone, and across the road to the chippy, with a set of contemporary and commercial high-energy house; lights came on blazing like the Green was the Ministry of Sound. Here is where I need to revert to my reviewing template, which resides on two major contributories. One is, did the event appease me personally, the second, more importantly is, did it do what it said “on the tin,” i.e., was it everything it posed to be. For the latter, the Full Tone Festival 2022 hit top marks, without a doubt. I watched the joy on hundreds of faces, as they danced the night away to James and the following Full-Tone Orchestra set of “nineties smash hits.”
The grand finale of Saturday night was certainly intrenched with nostalgia, perfected by an orchestra where no penny was left unexpended, no rehearsal was spent playing tiddlywinks, where the professionalism is first rate and the atmosphere was nothing short of sublime. The Full-Tone Festival was superb last year, this time around comes the typical stigma of a sequel, the “how can we ever top that” enquiry, and I’ve a duty to be honest, based upon the imperative Saturday evening, I’m not completely certain they did, on personal reflection, you understand?
Song choice at this conjunction was the only thing which let it down, for me. Started off okay, the Britpop beginning I can tolerate, but as it progressed to the pop hits of S Club 7, Britney Spears and Cher’s I Believe, et al, these, for me, were the excruciating pop slush of a generation below; I detested them at the time, and retain said detestation.
It was a far cry from the club anthems of last year’s, because that’s the point where creatively, electronic music technology truly challenged the orchestra. But, sigh, it’s all subjective, I told you about the hundreds of faces, didn’t I? They matter, it did what it said on the tin, with high gloss, it just wasn’t my cuppa.
I’m sorry I couldn’t make it to Sunday’s extension, we don’t all have bank holidays y’ know? But I can rest assured with the years of rock n roll experience of Pete Lamb’s Heartbeats, Kirsty Clinch’s angelic country vocals, and the fact Jonathan Antoine has been done BGT, it’d have been alright on the night.
Feedback on the orchestra’s big band showcase has been fantastic, with particular praise of vocalist Will Sexton. On opera, spellbinding local soprano who could turn even me to opera, Chloe Jordan, said, “it was my dream to sing ‘Song to the Moon ‘Resulka with an orchestra. Thank you so much to The Full Tone Orchestra for allowing that dream to come true!” And that, in a nutshell, is the kingpin to assessing this spectacular; if dreams come true there, you can’t argue how special an occasion it was.
Though the headcount was slightly lesser-so than last year’s, trouble to many events this, as a sad reflection on economic issues, here’s hoping this awesome weekend on the Green will be enough to convince Full Tone to make this a permanent fixture on our event calendar. Devizes loves you Full Tone, that much is certain.
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All the local mainstream are on it like a fly on a turd, and the negativity of keyboard warriors is flowing fast and furious. Who am I to steer off the bandwagon, yet you know we’ll handle the news Wax Palace obtained permission for a “rave festival” to happen near Erlestoke with a slightly different angle……
An angle much less based upon the fact your esteemed editor had a youth some indeterminable time yonder, where he gyrated in muddy fields with eyes like saucers, masticating the shit out of a Wrigley’s Doublemint, and more on the notion, I hope, that while we have a great music scene in these backwaters, there is little to tickle our younger resident’s tastebuds. This then, is great news, surely?
But is raving still a progressive thing, or does it dabble largely in retrospection? And what exactly will this Wax Palace provide in the way of entertainment? Harry, one of the organisers, a man who unbelievably convinced Wiltshire Council, conservative at the best of times, to grant them permission to hold what’s best described, to avoid media confusion, as a “rave festival;” can he sell ice to Eskimos, or what?! In a short chat with him, I suspected he could.
He giggled at the question, “we’d do our best, that’s for sure! It’s been a bit of a task, but we got it through, and they seemed very with it, during the hearing.” Throughout Harry projected himself as level-headed, reliably assured of the achievement of Kaleidoscope, the name of the event.
The first myth from the Gazette’s report to dispel is that these guys are bundling down from Yorkshire to ruin our peaceful community, when Harry explained the company is only registered there, and he lives close to Erlestoke himself. “The group who first run it were students in Leeds,” he explained, “but we’re very much Wiltshire born and bred.” Herewith the reason for bringing it to Devizes.
Promoting this today is neither here nor there, they’ve a solid base and early bird tickets have already sold out for the estimated 800 strong event. “This is our third edition of the festival,” he said with me interrupting about how to define it, “it is very much a festival, but we hope it has the apogee of a rave, though licenced, as the articles have focused on. It started as one night event, next time it was two, now we’ve got the full weekend, and our largest line-up yet.”
To spoil my queries of disambiguation, musically, Kaleidoscope will offer the whole range of rave subgenres, from house and disco to techno to drum & bass; “you name it will be there!” But this only got me pondering the setup, if it would, as legendary pay-raves like Universe’s Tribal Gatherings once attempted, to host each subgenre in a different tent. Because much as this appeased the then evolution of the diversity, it tended to clash into one immense noise when central! “We don’t have genre-split tents,” Harry clarified, “they’re split more-so by their set design. We’ve got three stages, one indoors, another outdoor, in which we’re shaping out an old school bus for the DJ’s, which should be really fun.”
Harry jested jealously at me rapping about raves of yore like Universe, “we missed that golden era, but we very much like to be inspired by the ethos.” This is great, though I’m trying to avoid an Uncle Albert moment where I preach on memory lane, but it does bring to question how niche is the market, does Harry think rave is either coming back, or it never really lost its appeal?
“I think it is coming back, commercially, perhaps it did lose a bit of what it was meant to be. In the last few years, I’ve heard people referring to their club nights as raves. I think the term rave now covers something broader and less political than it did, originally.” Harry hopes it does come back, encouraged to bring back those original values.
Though I’d suggest, rave was apolitical, it wasn’t until government interjected with the Justice Bill post-Castlemorton which both forced it underground and for ravers to think politically. Originally it was solely a celebration of life, and to party, and that really was our only objective. Which neatly covers another misconception; we raved everywhere and anywhere, if it meant standing in a muddy field, or if it meant going clubbing, location was irrelevant, so long as we could blow off steam and dance!
And herein lies my pitch at why I think this is a fantastic addition to our local events, because if you’re the first to complain about this, I sure hope you’re not the same one whinging about acts of anti-social behaviour in youth culture. If Wax Palace can provide a safe haven for young to go and enjoy themselves, it’s surely a positive.
Wiltshire Council were keen to label this a festival rather than a rave, as rave connotes to some to be an illegal, uncontrolled gathering. I say, this is the name of the genre, and doesn’t relate to illegal gatherings at all. After the Justice Bill the scene became anarchistic in frustration to the restrictions, but it never began like this. There was a sense of one big family, a tribal movement, and it was all about smiles. This, I feel is an important point to reduce this common misconception, and something Harry was also keen to express. “We’ve worked really hard to build a real sense of community,” he explained.
Today, of course, the original ravers have come of age, and organisations like Raver Tots have marketed retrospection in the form of taking your kids to a rave, but throughout our chat I got the feeling the ethos of Wax Palace was much more progressive, about introducing “rave; the next generation,” and that’s good to hear. “We like the idea through the way we organise events and our approach will introduce the idea of raving to a market who are only just coming to an age where they’re able to go to clubs. So, it’s nice to think we have the chance in shaping that impression they have. For a lot of people, this could be their first music festival, and for it to be local and described as a rave would be really exciting; exactly what I’d wish I’d have had in my village when I was 18.”
Tickets are here, Kaleidoscope takes place from 2nd-5th September.
Avoid negativity of misconceptions bought about by a bygone era, well organised and safe pay raves have happened since day dot, and providing youth with entertainment is paramount to building bridges; Wax Place, I salute you!
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If you’re missing a tubthumping club night, you could clear your laminate flooring of breakables, blag your kid’s colour-changing lightbulb, overcharge yourself for a Bacardi Breezer from your own fridge, and belch up kebab behind your sofa.
All these things are optional to simulate the full lockdown nightclub in your own home. But, even creating a cardboard cut-out queue for the downstairs bog, or hiring a doggie tuxedo so your pet can double-up as the bouncer, extreme measures in extreme times will doubtfully replicate the genuine clubbing experience; sad but true.
However, if props don’t make the neon grade, the music can. Swindon-based tri-county sound system, Mid Life Krisis, abbreviated to MiLK, announce an online schedule for live DJ feeds and multi-genre events. “We will be putting on events post Covid for the people of Swindon and beyond,” they say.
There’s an interesting line-up ahead, prompted to me by Pewsey acoustic performer Cutsmith, who is on this Sunday (28th Feb.) Yet most are hard floor, afro/tribal house, trance, techno and drum n bass DJ sessions, freely shared onto a Facebook group, here. Join the group, throw your hands in the air, scream oh yeah, just don’t set your own roof on fire, it’s only going to increase your insurance direct debits, mo-fo.
Your exhaust cannot drop off en-route, girlfriend needs not to spend umpteen hours sorting her hair, and there’s no over-vocal knob jockey giving you all that in the carpark to distract you. No excuse for unattendance; no dress-code either, get funky in your jimmy-jams, if you like, you know I will. Shit, I’m like the Arthur Dent of Mixmag!
Now, I’m also gonna start adding these posters to our event calendar, which despite being about as tech-savvy as Captain Caveman, I’ve taken the time when nought is really happening to redesign it, to be more user-friendly.
All needs doing is directing buggers to the thing, as we’re listing global online and streamed events, and until a time when Bojo the Clown finally stops mugging us off and announces a release date, it’s not worth adding real live events for me to have to go delete them again.
That said, I find difficulties in keeping up to scratch with what’s on in the online sense, partly because I’m fucking lazy, but mostly because they pop up sporadically and unexpectedly.
Else they’re mainstream acts begging via a price-tagged ticket. I can appreciate this, it’s a rock and hard place, and we all need to get some pocket money, but from a punter’s POV, charging to watch their own laptop screen in hope they get a good speed for their feed, can be asking a bit much and one now favours a PayPal tip jar system.
Such is the nature of the beast, where a performer or DJ could be slumped in front of Netflix one minute and suddenly decide they fancy going live. Thankful then, we should be, to these Facebook groups hosting streams, in order to create some kind of structure.
The positive, for what it’s worth, is boundaries have been ripped down. Without travel issues, online, your performance has the potential to reach a global audience, and hopefully attract newbies to your released material. Who knows, pre-lockdown you played to a handful of buddies at your local watering hole, but afterwards tribes from Timbuctoo might rock up at your show. Okay, I’ll give you, they might not, but potentially, the world is your oyster. Just a shame its shell is clamped shut.
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One of the scene’s most best-known names for more than three decades, Judge Jules has never shied away from pushing the boundaries in dance music. And this year, for the first time ever, audiences will be able to experience the iconic tracks that have defined his career through a ten-piece live band with Judge Jules himself at the helm.
‘Judge Jules: Live’… will be coming to Swindon’s MECA venue on 25th Jan 2020.
Jules’s in-depth involvement in many of the recent wave of “classical” dance events, including Gatecrasher, Colours, Club Class and 2019’s Ministry of Sound tour, inspired the decision to take the impact and emotion of the classical shows, but refine the feeling with a wholly new take on live dance music.
With complete creative free rein, Jules curated every element of the performance. Each track has been bespoke reinvented and reworked in a style unique to this live show, featuring a full ten-piece band, with brass, percussion, drums, bass guitar, lead guitar, keyboard, singers, and of course Judge Jules himself. A 90-minute show from start to finish, the music has been selected to represent the breadth and scale of his career.
“There is something about music being played live that never fails to send shivers down your spine – it doesn’t matter what the genre is, hearing a track performed by live musicians on stage is something you cannot replicate in the studio, or even on the best nightclub environment. So, I decided to create my own bespoke versions of my all-time favourite records with a specially selected band. It’s taken a long time to put together, but finally we look forward to taking the “Judge Jules Live” tour on the road. This truly is a new take on the ‘live dance music’ phenomenon and the tour bus starts rolling shortly.” – Judge Jules
This is not a show to sit down for – combining the energy of specially-chosen outstanding musicians with his own inimitable presence behind the decks, Jules will take the audience on a tailor-made journey through dance music with vocals, hands-in-the-air moments and plenty of basslines that’ll take you right back to your very first rave.
With audiences demanding more from dance music and newfound focus on a visual as well as a sonic spectacle, Judge Jules Live is a chance for dance fans to lose themselves in the moment with the kind of experience that you just can’t replicate with a solitary DJ.
The Judge still won’t budge.
Judge Jules will play Swindon MECA – 25th January 2020
Devizes set to party like it’s 1999; zipping up my boots with Funky Sensation.
Normally, if there’s a funky sensation in Devizes it means it’s been foggy post-harvest and the aroma of manure has filtered into town. In a similar light, I confess, I’ve been critical in the past about our only nightclub, events hosted tend to mimic what’s on elsewhere, and I really feel tribute acts have a home in hire venues and pubs, but not necessarily in a night club. It’s an age thing perhaps, usual nights too commercialised for me, recalling the clubbing scene of the eighties, how it assisted in spawning a decade of raves. To me, a night in a nightclub should be concentrated on DJ culture, be dissident dance music, and most importantly, should be banging, mate.
Here then is something that lacks in Devizes, flourishing with original music a trend I adore, though surely there’s a place for dance music too? A glitch set to change; with the potential to be a grand night at the Funky Sensation launch in the Exchange on the 5th April, I caught up with the hosting DJ, George Penny, to find out more about this Funky Sensation event doing the rounds on Facebook.
“Basically, I used to DJ about twenty years ago, free parties, private parties and a club residency,” explains George, who goes by the DJ tag George G-Force. “But then work, life, mortgage, wife, child came along.” It’s not so uncommon, for many the desire to create, artistically or musically though will return to bite them, and George started mixing again about four years ago. “I’ve been trying to get back out on the circuit, but it’s a lot harder now, a lot more competition.”
He’s been DJing in Frome and Bristol, with appearances for the ‘House of Disco’ collective and Input2 Promotions, but explains, “I always wanted to try and put on my own party a bit closer to home (Melksham) but had really been struggling trying to find a venue. I only heard about The Exchange three weeks ago and I think it’s perfect in terms of location; hoping to pull people from Melksham, Trowbridge, Calne and Chippenham.”
So, busting out of retirement, and ready to bring the heat with his unique blend of nu-disco and classic-vocal-funky house vibes, G-Force is set to take Devizes back to an era when clubbing meant clubbing. “We want to bring the fun back, with good old uplifting, hands in the air, sing-a-long music. That could be a classic disco track/re-edit, house anthem or a modern-day club banger!”
He brings along special guest DJ, Nina LoVe and DJ Stach. Akin to George, Nina took a decade away from the scene to concentrate on family and studies. But with a childhood filled with classical music and musical theatre, and discovering dance music and raving in the nineties, she couldn’t hold the bug in much longer than 2012, as with the discovery of Disclosure and Gorgon City, that led to a new energy for House music, vinyl junkie Nina started learning to mix.
Bath-based Stach has been playing to enthralled crowds since 1990, kicking off his career within the techno scene on the Isle of Wight. Since those halcyon days, DJ Stach has played many genres and has a wide repertoire; pleasing audiences with epic sets featuring nu-disco, classic and tech-house.
He can be found on the set lists of some of the UK’s best boutique festivals and coolest club nights, as well as elite private parties. Previous sets include: Shindig Weekender, Grinagog Festival, Love Summer Festival, The Backroom, and The Nest in Bath.
I gulp when my chat with George raises Shindig, as organiser Slim Goodgroove and I go back to art college days, the dawning of the breakbeat rave explosion and through to the fluffy house days of his Stardust Collective. Time to get all fuzzy and waffle off a parable or three, Uncle Albert style. Think I’m boring George now, I’ve a tendency to do that, but in hindsight, I really think a decent dance night is missing from the variety of things to do in Devizes, and welcome this prospect.
“I’ve never done anything like this before,” George tells, “but thought I’d give it a shot. Obviously, if we get enough people the aim would be to do it, maybe, three times a year.”
So, from old raver to young house music aficionado, take note; it may be time to dust off your old white gloves and relight the glowsticks. I never thought I’d see the day! Tickets for this launch party, at a fiver, are available from today.
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