“MAINS MEAL OF MUSIC”
THE LONDON GLOBAL DANCE FESTIVAL – MAIN EVENT
SUNDAY 30TH MAY
EVENT REVIEW
From the minute we heard about the plans for a massive dance festival in London, bringing in internationally renowned D.J.’s from across the globe, we were very excited about the prospect, with lots of questions being raised in our minds as to where the festival would take place & what it would look like. In exclusive discussions & meetings we were privy to the cast of music maestro’s that would be jetted into the capital and indeed some of the clubs that would make up this celebration of worldwide clubbing & music, but the actual host venue and space was only to become apparent just a few weeks beforehand, shunning ideas in our heads that The London Global Dance Festival (LGDF) would be set in a huge warehouse style venue or in a specially selected arena, rather that it would be played out in the clubbing backyard of gAylist/land London, Vauxhall and in club venues Fire & Area to boot.
Mind you, the plans and aims of the festival were grand and would include nearly thirty international D.J’s, fifteen international clubs/outfits and a whole host of international dancers, performers & artists that, in the words of the LGDF promotions team, would make this “...the largest international gay clubbing festival ever held in the UK...”. So, given the fact that the original line up touched five out of the six continents of the world, the scale of the task to bring together this incredibly diverse & distanced set of individuals & organisations should never have been underestimated and in many ways, LGDF would never have come to fruition were it not for the vision of one man, Alex Erfan, and the support of another, Craig Elder, both who threw their hearts & souls into the festival, laying their reputations on the line and putting plenty up for stake. Having already reported on the “massive run-up” which, not least for the individual London clubs, was a resounding success, how would the main event fare? And would it fulfil the aims of the promoters?
Well, having rested from our encapsulation of three of the five run-up events, we refreshed ourselves and our wears and headed back down to Vauxhall for the main LGDF event, arriving at Fire’s “Lightbox” entrance at just before 9.30 p.m. for the supposed VIP champagne reception, a planned prelude to the main event kick-off at 10.30 p.m. and a chance for invitees to meet with the host of international D.J. stars & performers, as well as some of the club promoters involved with the weekend long festival. But you know what they say about best made plans and it was clear from the frosty reception we got from the doorman and then the relative unpreparedness of the team beyond the entrance, that proceedings for the mere handful of VIP’s were not going as they should, although after a little confusion we did find ourselves to the all important champagne rubbing shoulders with Jerry Boston & co and then engage in chat with the only two D.J.’s to grace the reception with their presence, the enigmatic & endearing Fabio White & London scene favourite Brent Nicholls, we discussing many subjects, notwithstanding that the line of conversation was dominated by the configuration of the five rooms for the event proper.
With the 10 p.m. start coming and going without any real fanfare, we eventually made our way through Fire’s new “Raw” room, which had now been set aside for Sorry Shoes stars Jean Phillips & Mike Kelly, past the Lightbox space, which would see Fabio White fly the flag for the massive Miami Circuit week, The White Party, followed by The Face Of Ibiza team of D.J. Oliver & Baby Marcello, moving into the Mirrorarch room, which had been set aside predominantly for Italy’s finest gay party club Muccassassina, but with a little bit of French influence to kick off proceedings, the dishy Leomeo behind the decks representing Paris’s clubbing hotspot Pleasure X and laying down some serious sounds that saw the room numbers swell before our eyes (check out his special compilation lifted from his live set performance, available at http://soundcloud.com/djleomeo). With Brent & Fabio still by our side, we bounded up to the D.J. booth to grab this French fancy’s attention and weren’t to be disappointed as Leomeo recognised us in an instant, lining up a track and then coming out to give us a warm hug & kiss (yum yum), he dressed resplendently in a fetching union jack vest & looking every bit as scrumptious in real life as in his photo’s. Retreating back into the crowd we lapped up a healthy portion of Leomeo’s stunning opener of a set, before venturing forth into the main room, which has an altogether anglo French & Spanish feel to it, Barcelona’s finest, Steven Redant representing the city’s premier superclub Discotheque, with Paris’s own Ben Mason, resident of the legendary Scream nightclub the French filling in the Spanish sandwich that was completed by D.J.’s Eros & Ismael Rivas, stars of Madrid clubbing giant Space Of Sound & the annual pride centrepiece of the massive region’s capital, Infinitamentegay, but with the French based Delice boys providing the appetising eye candy.
However, our ventures were to lead us further forward and into the Propaganda international lounge, the space inspired by the Moscow club and was due to showcase two of the resident D.J.’s Tin Rooter & Tony Key, although with news coming through that complications with immigration had stopped them from advancing beyond Heathrow, hurried re-scheduling meant that Brent Nicholls would entertain us for close on three hours with an octane “nu-funk” fuelled set that certainly caught the imagination & attention of many, track after track leaving us in a myriad of dancing moves, not least when tip top hit “Release Me” was unleashed from the hefty Nicholls armoury and had the whole space pulsating with action (check out his specially dedicated double compilation at http://brentnicholls.com/music). So good was Brent’s performance that we almost forgot our duties, although made occasional trips across the expanse of the five dance areas, the intimate “Raw” room attracting little attention, even with sole Sorry Shoes representative for the night, the terrifically talented Jean Phillips, doing his level best behind the decks, the main room holding a healthy crowd, first with Steven Redant banging out some tremendous tech tracks, then Ben Manson doing a sterling job with the Delice boys exerting the gorgeous influence over the considerable gathering.
But it was the Muccassasina inspired Mirrorarch room that was stealing most of the LGDF main event plaudits, as Leomeo’s arousing & inspirational set had packed out the place and had laid down a considerable gauntlet for yet another drop dead gorgeous looking D.J., this time Italy’s & Mucca talent Phil Romano, who took up the challenge brilliantly, his muscular figure drawing nearly as much attention as his magnificent music, our second zoom across from Brent timed to perfection as the first showing of the specialist Mucca performers took to the stage and made a real splash with their flamboyantly fantastic costumes that included the infamous Mucca cow, which along with creative director Diego Longobardi, had been flown in especially for the event. If it hadn’t been for the continual draw back to the now more London based international lounge and Brent’s brilliant beats, we would have made the Mirrorarch our favoured space from there on in, but we were also keen to see what the Lightbox had to offer and, once again, timed our arrival perfectly, as the delectable Fabio White was laying down a superb set of uplifting funky, chunky & tantalising tunes that had us well & truly hooked, making our choice of where to cast our devotions a very difficult one indeed.
But choices we made, seeing out the remainder of Brent’s set and then heading back with him into the Mucca space, where yet more brilliant stage appearances by the cast of performers were made, centre-pieced by the superb P.A. of Anna Buckley, who first sprung into song, delivering a performance that included the massive hit “Express Yourself” during Phil’s set and then made the stage a further time while the second of the three Mucca D.J. representatives, Danny Verde was playing out. And in Danny we were to witness probably the performance of the whole main event, very much testament to the popular demand of this now accomplished D.J./Producer whom we have been promoting & pushing for close on three years, his meteoric rise to fame well deserved and one that continues to make us very proud. Track after track had us dancing in delight close to the D.J. booth, the room packed to the rafters and we being in excellent company in our spot, Steven Redant, Leomeo & Aurel Devil close at hand, as were Alex Erfan, Roni Inan, Jerry Boston & crew, all impressed with what the Mucca room had to offer. Even the lovely D.J. Mis-White wasn’t missing out and like us was supremely impressed with Danny’s performance, especially when he played an electro tainted version of “Acapella” and the collection was complete when pal & cougar impressionist Stephen arrived to add to the merriment.
One final tour round the rooms included a landing in the Lightbox, catching D.J. Oliver & the larger than life Baby Marcello in full swing with their specially dedicated “The Face Of Ibiza” track, developed especially for this new club night they had created, the crowd going mad with excitement when logo t-shirts were hurled up into the air for them to grab. But there was little else to keep us away from Danny & the Mucca room by now and even when he had finished his sensational set with the third Italian of the night, Pagano rounding off the mega Mucca experience, our man from Milan was in close quarters to catch up on news and have a little boogie with us to complete what had been an enthralling experience of a night. However, by now it was well turned 6 a.m. and our minds were beginning to focus on the afterparty across Vauxhall, so tearing ourselves away from Pagano’s pulsating performance, we waved goodbye to Danny and, along with pal Stephen, headed off to the “Orange LGDF Closing Party” to continue the action deep into Monday afternoon.
In summing up this LGDF main event, we have thought long & hard about what we were going to say and with the feeling in our life very much of accentuating the positive and rejecting the negative, we are pleased to report on a whole load of positives coming out of this nine hour headlining party. It was clear that an enormous amount of organisation had gone into creating the event together and even with the hitches along the way, the team actually pulled off a great event, great because of the music, great because of the dancing and great because of the atmosphere, all aided and abetted by the truly international line-up and the involvement of all the international clubs, everyone of them that we spoke to seemingly thrilled with the outcome, which we suspect fulfilled the ambitions of the promoters.
As for our experience, well drawing on the highlights, while we adored Brent’s music bonanza, fell for Fabio’s showing and marvelled in Baby Marcello, it is undoubtedly clear that the Muccassassina room topped our list, Leomeo, Phil Romano & Pagano performing brilliantly, Anna Buckley adding extra spice to the already superb stage shows, and the whole atmosphere in the room excitingly electric. But the real star of the room and the event was Danny Verde, who proved to us and many exactly why he is in such demand, by pulling out an exceptionally stunning set and for us epitomised The London Global Dance Festival and all its intentions. (DISCO MATT)
Postscript
If you happened to miss the LGDF main event, why not check out over 70 pics of the night, available at http://seenqueen.com/clubpix/LGDF_300510/index.html, which includes a shot of us with Fabio White (happy memories!) or even better, take a look at their video of the main event at http://seenqueen.com/video/index.htm.
THE LONDON GLOBAL DANCE FESTIVAL – MAIN EVENT
SUNDAY 30TH MAY
EVENT REVIEW
From the minute we heard about the plans for a massive dance festival in London, bringing in internationally renowned D.J.’s from across the globe, we were very excited about the prospect, with lots of questions being raised in our minds as to where the festival would take place & what it would look like. In exclusive discussions & meetings we were privy to the cast of music maestro’s that would be jetted into the capital and indeed some of the clubs that would make up this celebration of worldwide clubbing & music, but the actual host venue and space was only to become apparent just a few weeks beforehand, shunning ideas in our heads that The London Global Dance Festival (LGDF) would be set in a huge warehouse style venue or in a specially selected arena, rather that it would be played out in the clubbing backyard of gAylist/land London, Vauxhall and in club venues Fire & Area to boot.
Mind you, the plans and aims of the festival were grand and would include nearly thirty international D.J’s, fifteen international clubs/outfits and a whole host of international dancers, performers & artists that, in the words of the LGDF promotions team, would make this “...the largest international gay clubbing festival ever held in the UK...”. So, given the fact that the original line up touched five out of the six continents of the world, the scale of the task to bring together this incredibly diverse & distanced set of individuals & organisations should never have been underestimated and in many ways, LGDF would never have come to fruition were it not for the vision of one man, Alex Erfan, and the support of another, Craig Elder, both who threw their hearts & souls into the festival, laying their reputations on the line and putting plenty up for stake. Having already reported on the “massive run-up” which, not least for the individual London clubs, was a resounding success, how would the main event fare? And would it fulfil the aims of the promoters?
Well, having rested from our encapsulation of three of the five run-up events, we refreshed ourselves and our wears and headed back down to Vauxhall for the main LGDF event, arriving at Fire’s “Lightbox” entrance at just before 9.30 p.m. for the supposed VIP champagne reception, a planned prelude to the main event kick-off at 10.30 p.m. and a chance for invitees to meet with the host of international D.J. stars & performers, as well as some of the club promoters involved with the weekend long festival. But you know what they say about best made plans and it was clear from the frosty reception we got from the doorman and then the relative unpreparedness of the team beyond the entrance, that proceedings for the mere handful of VIP’s were not going as they should, although after a little confusion we did find ourselves to the all important champagne rubbing shoulders with Jerry Boston & co and then engage in chat with the only two D.J.’s to grace the reception with their presence, the enigmatic & endearing Fabio White & London scene favourite Brent Nicholls, we discussing many subjects, notwithstanding that the line of conversation was dominated by the configuration of the five rooms for the event proper.
With the 10 p.m. start coming and going without any real fanfare, we eventually made our way through Fire’s new “Raw” room, which had now been set aside for Sorry Shoes stars Jean Phillips & Mike Kelly, past the Lightbox space, which would see Fabio White fly the flag for the massive Miami Circuit week, The White Party, followed by The Face Of Ibiza team of D.J. Oliver & Baby Marcello, moving into the Mirrorarch room, which had been set aside predominantly for Italy’s finest gay party club Muccassassina, but with a little bit of French influence to kick off proceedings, the dishy Leomeo behind the decks representing Paris’s clubbing hotspot Pleasure X and laying down some serious sounds that saw the room numbers swell before our eyes (check out his special compilation lifted from his live set performance, available at http://soundcloud.com/djleomeo). With Brent & Fabio still by our side, we bounded up to the D.J. booth to grab this French fancy’s attention and weren’t to be disappointed as Leomeo recognised us in an instant, lining up a track and then coming out to give us a warm hug & kiss (yum yum), he dressed resplendently in a fetching union jack vest & looking every bit as scrumptious in real life as in his photo’s. Retreating back into the crowd we lapped up a healthy portion of Leomeo’s stunning opener of a set, before venturing forth into the main room, which has an altogether anglo French & Spanish feel to it, Barcelona’s finest, Steven Redant representing the city’s premier superclub Discotheque, with Paris’s own Ben Mason, resident of the legendary Scream nightclub the French filling in the Spanish sandwich that was completed by D.J.’s Eros & Ismael Rivas, stars of Madrid clubbing giant Space Of Sound & the annual pride centrepiece of the massive region’s capital, Infinitamentegay, but with the French based Delice boys providing the appetising eye candy.
However, our ventures were to lead us further forward and into the Propaganda international lounge, the space inspired by the Moscow club and was due to showcase two of the resident D.J.’s Tin Rooter & Tony Key, although with news coming through that complications with immigration had stopped them from advancing beyond Heathrow, hurried re-scheduling meant that Brent Nicholls would entertain us for close on three hours with an octane “nu-funk” fuelled set that certainly caught the imagination & attention of many, track after track leaving us in a myriad of dancing moves, not least when tip top hit “Release Me” was unleashed from the hefty Nicholls armoury and had the whole space pulsating with action (check out his specially dedicated double compilation at http://brentnicholls.com/music). So good was Brent’s performance that we almost forgot our duties, although made occasional trips across the expanse of the five dance areas, the intimate “Raw” room attracting little attention, even with sole Sorry Shoes representative for the night, the terrifically talented Jean Phillips, doing his level best behind the decks, the main room holding a healthy crowd, first with Steven Redant banging out some tremendous tech tracks, then Ben Manson doing a sterling job with the Delice boys exerting the gorgeous influence over the considerable gathering.
But it was the Muccassasina inspired Mirrorarch room that was stealing most of the LGDF main event plaudits, as Leomeo’s arousing & inspirational set had packed out the place and had laid down a considerable gauntlet for yet another drop dead gorgeous looking D.J., this time Italy’s & Mucca talent Phil Romano, who took up the challenge brilliantly, his muscular figure drawing nearly as much attention as his magnificent music, our second zoom across from Brent timed to perfection as the first showing of the specialist Mucca performers took to the stage and made a real splash with their flamboyantly fantastic costumes that included the infamous Mucca cow, which along with creative director Diego Longobardi, had been flown in especially for the event. If it hadn’t been for the continual draw back to the now more London based international lounge and Brent’s brilliant beats, we would have made the Mirrorarch our favoured space from there on in, but we were also keen to see what the Lightbox had to offer and, once again, timed our arrival perfectly, as the delectable Fabio White was laying down a superb set of uplifting funky, chunky & tantalising tunes that had us well & truly hooked, making our choice of where to cast our devotions a very difficult one indeed.
But choices we made, seeing out the remainder of Brent’s set and then heading back with him into the Mucca space, where yet more brilliant stage appearances by the cast of performers were made, centre-pieced by the superb P.A. of Anna Buckley, who first sprung into song, delivering a performance that included the massive hit “Express Yourself” during Phil’s set and then made the stage a further time while the second of the three Mucca D.J. representatives, Danny Verde was playing out. And in Danny we were to witness probably the performance of the whole main event, very much testament to the popular demand of this now accomplished D.J./Producer whom we have been promoting & pushing for close on three years, his meteoric rise to fame well deserved and one that continues to make us very proud. Track after track had us dancing in delight close to the D.J. booth, the room packed to the rafters and we being in excellent company in our spot, Steven Redant, Leomeo & Aurel Devil close at hand, as were Alex Erfan, Roni Inan, Jerry Boston & crew, all impressed with what the Mucca room had to offer. Even the lovely D.J. Mis-White wasn’t missing out and like us was supremely impressed with Danny’s performance, especially when he played an electro tainted version of “Acapella” and the collection was complete when pal & cougar impressionist Stephen arrived to add to the merriment.
One final tour round the rooms included a landing in the Lightbox, catching D.J. Oliver & the larger than life Baby Marcello in full swing with their specially dedicated “The Face Of Ibiza” track, developed especially for this new club night they had created, the crowd going mad with excitement when logo t-shirts were hurled up into the air for them to grab. But there was little else to keep us away from Danny & the Mucca room by now and even when he had finished his sensational set with the third Italian of the night, Pagano rounding off the mega Mucca experience, our man from Milan was in close quarters to catch up on news and have a little boogie with us to complete what had been an enthralling experience of a night. However, by now it was well turned 6 a.m. and our minds were beginning to focus on the afterparty across Vauxhall, so tearing ourselves away from Pagano’s pulsating performance, we waved goodbye to Danny and, along with pal Stephen, headed off to the “Orange LGDF Closing Party” to continue the action deep into Monday afternoon.
In summing up this LGDF main event, we have thought long & hard about what we were going to say and with the feeling in our life very much of accentuating the positive and rejecting the negative, we are pleased to report on a whole load of positives coming out of this nine hour headlining party. It was clear that an enormous amount of organisation had gone into creating the event together and even with the hitches along the way, the team actually pulled off a great event, great because of the music, great because of the dancing and great because of the atmosphere, all aided and abetted by the truly international line-up and the involvement of all the international clubs, everyone of them that we spoke to seemingly thrilled with the outcome, which we suspect fulfilled the ambitions of the promoters.
As for our experience, well drawing on the highlights, while we adored Brent’s music bonanza, fell for Fabio’s showing and marvelled in Baby Marcello, it is undoubtedly clear that the Muccassassina room topped our list, Leomeo, Phil Romano & Pagano performing brilliantly, Anna Buckley adding extra spice to the already superb stage shows, and the whole atmosphere in the room excitingly electric. But the real star of the room and the event was Danny Verde, who proved to us and many exactly why he is in such demand, by pulling out an exceptionally stunning set and for us epitomised The London Global Dance Festival and all its intentions. (DISCO MATT)
Postscript
If you happened to miss the LGDF main event, why not check out over 70 pics of the night, available at http://seenqueen.com/clubpix/LGDF_300510/index.html, which includes a shot of us with Fabio White (happy memories!) or even better, take a look at their video of the main event at http://seenqueen.com/video/index.htm.
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