Megawoof "Re-Booted" - Club Review

MEGAWOOF "RE-BOOTED" - SATURDAY 5TH SEPTEMBER
REVIEW FOR SEENQUEEN


There seems to be a trend for ringing the changes across gAylist London, with Matinee deciding to up sticks and move across London to Cable, heralding a new beginning for them and that was exactly what the team behind one of the capitals butchest clubs had in mind when it waved goodbye to its associations with super club Colosseum, deciding that Hidden over the otherside of Vauxhall would prove a much better home for its plans to not only re-invigorate the fortunes this once popular monthly outing, but would allow the team to re-introduce the social elements that were sometimes missing from its most recent home. Who are we talking about? Megawoof ofcourse, a club that we admidt is not a regular part of our calendar, but we certainly couldn't miss this "re-boot" party.

So, having made plans to meet up with friends Benoit & Stephen in Barcode Vauxhall, we took the short stroll round to Hidden, arriving at the entrance just after midnight. Having been the the venue before in the guises of Hard On! and also Hook'd, we were familar with the layout and once we made our way through and past the friendly security staff, we headed to and were checked off the guestlist, which we had been kindly added to by Italian stallion D.J./Producer Pagano, swinging through the main entrance where Daz and his team were marshalling proceedings, saying our hello's and also hinting that we were down to review the revised music policy and Hidden as Megawoof's home.

Checking our bits & bobs off in the coatcheck, we entered into the middle space, named the "Blue" room, which was already brimming with the usual Megawoof mix of musclebears, chunky blokes and their admirers with more than a splatter of gorgeous looking Latino's but with the accent definately on muscle & hunk rather than chunk or camp, the room oozing a real sense of social interaction with some cool beats being played out by D.J. Oss. Fueling ourselves with refreshments and having caught up & said greetings to Pagano, as well as chatting with a host of other familar faces, we decided that a tour of the other rooms was on the cards and made our way around the winding corridoor, up the stairs, entering the main "Red" room from behind, through the elevated seating area and then down towards a packed out dancefloor, where Sugarbear was just handing over the D.J. decks to Daz Saund. Now, we know that a key part of the new look Megawoof was a re-positioning of the music offer, with this "Red" room aimed at delivering a more uplifting and commercial sound, but we were somewhat surprised to hear the familiar tones of the Freemasons "Uninvited" track, which was for us a little too commercial, but was clearly going down well with the crowd who were jiving away, hands in air, a quite interesting sight to see such butch musclebears dancing away more like disco bunnies.

Having found a spot next to the D.J. booth with a perfect view of proceedings, we also began to dance away to Daz's music choices which toughened up slightly, still had a very much uplifting & commercial style but with a little less amount of vocals, familar faces still kept appearing, including favourite bar boy Guilleme, Gaydar pin-up Dimitrious and D.J. Micky Galiano, who were all savouring the amazing atmosphere that was buidling, as was the heat in the room, or at least around our spot which was becoming stifling. Mind you the action was hot as well, with some very good looking men around and two very hunky & gorgeous go-go dancers ascending the podiums each side of the dance area to perform for the crowd, adding to the impressive lazer lighting and the butch Megawoof motiffs hanging from the ceiling. Despite the heat, we were really getting into our stride, when we were interrupted by a chunky & seemingly Megawoof regular who wanted a slice of our spot by the D.J. booth, pushing his way in front of us and declaring "I want to be seen" (don't we all!!), putting a severe dent in our enthusiasm for the commercial space and indeed the impeccably friendly crowd, up until this rude interlude.

This singanlled our need to re-inject some fun back into our Megawoof experience, so we made our excuses to friends Benoit & Stephen, opting to head off into the third music space, the "Black" room, which had the promise of more deep and progressive house, much more our style of late and in the hands of Pagano, who had just taken over from Diddy behind the decks, who could ask for more. Having savoured a superb set from him just days ago at Trade/Orange, we were definately up for more of the Italian stallion's magical mixes and were not to be dissapointed as he delivered one tantalising tune after the next, erupting us in dancing delirium in a room & space set aside by Hard On! as a play room, but working just as well as a dancefloor. With enough space to move & groove together with the temperature being much more comfortable, we really began to enjoy ourselves once more, the incident in the "red" room now a distant memory and to make us feel even better a goodlooking leather clad hunk spotted us, complimenting our work and entering into an engaging conversation, this sort of interruption to our dancing a much more pallatable & welcome affair. With pal Stephen also joining us, followed by friend Cliff Jackson, we were definately in good company and with Pagano pulling yet more great sounds out of the bag our evening was certainly set fair.

However, with time getting away from us and the call of an earlier starting Beyond on our mind, combined with the need to pop back to Barcode Vauxhall to catch up with Nick Tcherniak, we headed back into the "red" room to find friend Benoit who was also ready to move on, although the space was still full with dancing hunks savouring the tougher sounds being played out by Tim McClone. So we stayed a short while before winding our way back through a buzzing & sociable middle "blue" room, saying our fairwell's to Stephen, to Cliff Jackson & dipping into the "black" room, also to Pagano, who was still at full steam and questioning whether we had been in the darkroom (was there a darkroom?), although with our intentions clear, we headed off into the Vauxhall night to honour our further liason commitments.

So, what did we think of Megawoof at its new home? Did it fulfil expectations? How did the change of music policy work? And did the planned "re-booting" work? Well, it was fair to say that we were not expecting it to be quite as busy as it was and arriving to find two of the three rooms packed out was a welcome surprise. With Hidden's three room layout and configuration, it has certainly allowed Megawoof as a club to realise some of its "re-booting" goals, not least in giving the club event a much more friendly feel, the "blue" room being an ideal space to socialise & chat with much more chilled music on offer. The decision to offer a room with uplifting & commercial music certainly went down well with the masses and despite the D.J's playing out in the room not really known for delivering out & out commercial sounds, Daz Saund particularly performed really well and with so many of the muscle hunks holding hands up high, it was more like Megapoof!! This probably detracted somewhat from the deep, progressive sounds on offer across the other side of the venue, a music style we think the team need to hold on to, especially with someone as talented as Pagano on their residency list.

Only one question is left. Will three rooms of music work and indeed will there be a big enough crowd to fill every room? For us this remains doubtful and therfore the team may need to remain open to returning to the "two" room format, which seems to work well for Hard On!. As for our expectations, well they were fulfilled and in part suceeded in many ways and we definately think the move to Hidden was the right one, so with a few small tweaks we are sure Megawoof will continue to survive and to thrive and we will certainly be back for more sometime soon. (DISCO MATT)