SuprMartXe Club Review

SUPERMARXTE @ THE CORONET – SATURDAY 29TH NOVEMBER
REVIEW FOR SEENQUEEN


With our year being dominated by Italiano meets Spanish influenced everything, from Matinee events, through establishing new DJ/Producer friends and gathering amazing music mixes, not to mention fab seeing some P.A.’s at many a party, you would have thought we would be latino overloaded by now. Certainly not! and with the news that the talk of Spain & Ibiza, SuperMartXe was due to land in London town, we were very excited indeed. Having put on such a spectacular show in Madrid, combined with the amazing hype and build to the event, we were definitely not going to miss this one.

Choosing The Coronet venue in Elephant & Castle (not quite a glamour destination darling!!) this choice, in some ways, heightened the excitement although it was serious “hang onto your purses girls” territory as we arrived, supposedly fashionably late at 1 a.m. (it was open till 7 a.m. you know), thinking our late arrival would mean no queue? Well, not on your nelly! as the masses stretched back down the road. Fortunately for us, we caught sight of the lovely Jamie Head (and crew) who were close to the head of the queue, so surreptitiously managed to leapfrog scores of expectant clubbers (how naughty of us, slap wrists!).

With the advance ticket holders suddenly speeding into the club and we clutching ours, we soon found ourselves faced with airport style security and, it has to be said, overzealous individuals at that, the man searching us, managing to drop our MP3 player on the floor, effectively breaking it, not really the start we wanted! However, having negotiated the “Fort Knox” entry, we then advanced into what can only be described as a completely rammed Coronet and wishing to place our coats & bags into check, then proceeded to stand in a winding line of others, trying to do the same, stretching over two floors and hardly moving (the other coatcheck queue was just as bad). So, after waiting over half an hour, all the while bumping into familiar faces, including our Industri friend Stewart, we eventually gave up and descended from our lowly position in the procession and into the main room.

If there was one thing with SuperMartXe London that resembled Madrid, it was the size of this main space, which was breathtakingly full with a most metrosexual bunch of hedonists, dancing, “hands in the air” to the melodic house sounds of Spanish main land D.J. Juanjo Martin (of Matinee fame!) who had the crowd literally eating out of his hands. Whilst it seemed like a popular choice of music genre, for us, it seemed uncharacteristic of the sounds we have enjoyed in Madrid, Barcelona & Ibiza, rather more pandering to the softer & queenier demands of a London crowd (although we are not all like that you know!).

Looking around the massive main room, the team had made some effort to adorn the huge space with SuperMartXe signage and we were spellbound by the brilliant focal point that was the stage, with some amazing “glass” style boxes in-set into the back, sporting supremely handsome guys dancing in them, wow!! Madrid had gone overboard with production, so some would say London was more sedate, although the stage show that followed, with the centre piece of Rebekka Brown, was stunning and grabbed everybody’s attention. Huge lighting and stage production, in amongst a superb collection of “drop dead gorgeous” go-go dancers really set the scene for an amazing clubbing night on the tiles, with the venue allowing a stretch of over 9 hours.

So by now the party was well and truly kicking and the mass of people were enjoying themselves in new surroundings with a new feel. However, we couldn’t help noticing that there were a whole bunch of people either holding on to or wearing their coats (not a good sign). Was this a kick back from the coat check problems we had encountered? possibly, and as we like to have our bits and pieces secure before letting our hair right down , we suspect that many of those adorning coats & bags couldn’t succumb to the full SuperMartXe experience either, a shame really.

With Juanjo Martin assuming control of the decks, the hedonistic tribulations of the masses continued, with go-go’s finding positions around the main floor to further entertain the crowd. Nevertheless, we simply couldn’t relax and enjoy ourselves, watching our bags & coats constantly next to us, so it wasn’t soon before we decided we couldn’t endure such uncomfortable (for us) vibes anymore, as we also couldn’t stop thinking about the bad treatment we had been subjected to by the door staff earlier, we made our minds up to leave.

So, in resignation, we slumped out of SuperMartXe at the Coronet, to reflect on a night that (we must stress this) for us, did not hit the mark! Walking away and through and past scary council house style blocks of flats to the safe environment that is home, we shared comments with our favourite club promoter with the re-assurance that his venture was also quite busy. However, it has to be said the general feedback from most was that the Coronet party was superb, the effort put in by the promoter reflected this and SuperMartXe ended up being a huge success, coatcheck problems or not!

Well, what was our view of SuperMartXe? We found the concept fantastic, although the parties in Spain & Ibiza have obviously created a president for London. However, with the massive turnout, not seen in The Coronet and indeed in many a club in many a year, there is clear in interest in the brand and an expectant party extraordinaire. Did we get that feeling from SuperMartXe? Well we can say, probably yes but in small chunks due to the personal issues we encountered. and for those into the kind of commercial tunes played around the London scene lately, you would be having a good time . For us, the move trend to underground and chunky tech-house is what we enjoy (the kind of music that emanates from many more clubs headlining the scene of late). But, it has to be said that the foot fall on this occasion proved that clubbing on a big scale can pull a crowd and maybe that is where the scene should head. The question is, can it continue to do so?

Having heard from the promoter, Logan, after the event, the planned New Year party (possibly 3rd January) is great news, both for the scene and for diversity. SuperMartXe has clearly captured the imagination and compared to (potential only) rivals Matinee & Revolver, it is not really competition. In a scene that has been dominated by trashy Vauxhall clubs in recent times, it is so refreshing that not only do we have quality brands like Revolver & Matinee (albeit Matinee is in Vauxhall), but we can now add SuperMartXe to the list. There is, in are our opinion, room for all three (and loads more actually), so welcome to the fold SuperMartXe, even if you are in E&C which stands for CH. (DISCO MATT)