Electric Chair End of Year Riot December 2009

A review for http://www.4clubbers.net/

Christmas: You’ve been sat around for days watching festive films and TV specials, you’ve scoffed everything in sight just for the sake of it, Mariah Carey, Wham and Slade have been blaring on repeat and you’re now getting a touch of cabin fever.

After days of extravagance and laziness, our ears prick up at news of a night out and an excuse to rave off all of that festive turkey, and there were many opportunities to give ourselves a collective kick up the backside after all the indulgence from Boxing Day and beyond; plenty of time to go out dancing and catch up with pals before the hype machine that was New Years Eve kicked in.

By far and away the biggest treat for veteran Mancunian clubbers was the now legendary Electric Chair on Sunday the 27th of December. Held in the quirky rabbit warren - Legends; a predominantly gay nightclub tucked away behind Piccadilly Station, it was the perfect venue to have a one-night-only resurrection of the greatly loved and sorely missed event. Electric Chair ran from 1995 in a grimy basement and powered through gaining a loyal following until its final party in January 2008. Renowned for its untouchable atmosphere and knack of playing consistently excellent records across the board of house, disco, soul, hip hop and techno month by month, Electric Chair was, and still is an institution for many Manchester folk. The vibe still lives on at the successful Electric Elephant festival, a sister party ‘Homoelectric’ held every other month also at Legends, and of course, The End of Year Riot, a place where old Electric Chair regulars and new faces could meet, dance and celebrate the true meaning of the festive season: any excuse to party

The diminutive doorway and understated sign that led into Legends made the venue look deceptively small and unassuming from the outside. However, once clubbers filed past the bouncers and door whores and led down the staircase, a veritable maze awaited. Every room boasted its own eccentric identity; from the Mineshaft room complete with wall-mounted motorbike, through the eerie tunnels of exposed brickwork, traipsing underneath the cargo netting of the named-for-the-evening One Deck Piano Lounge (the netting traditionally yanked down as a rite of passage at Electric Chair parties of old) the raised platforms and metal bars on The Tunnel dance floor and the inter-connecting corridors and various levels, that made it so much fun yet equally exasperating to get lost in as you tried to navigate your way from place to place. To wander around for 15 minutes, discovering new weird and wonderful rooms playing various kinds of music, only to end up back in the main foyer exactly where you started, was fabulous and frustrating in equal measure.

Other Manchester nights made their musical mark on the evening, with resident DJ’s playing from local parties such as Cutloose, Disco Outcasts and Development; all previous Electric Chair regulars, all with a fondness for the night that came across in the records they played. The beauty of having an event in such a large venue was the sheer variety of music played from room to room; from the campest of disco, championed by Greg Wilson, to the deepest of house from Sub Club residents Dominic Cappello and Harri. The Scottish duo kept the crowd glued to the dance floor from the off and right through until the early hours of Monday morning, a time when people would usually be tucked up in bed with thoughts of work the following morning. Dom and Harri proved a hard act for Manchester deep house producer Trus’Me to follow, however the dance floor was still busy as the night drew to a close, with founders the Unabombers finishing things off on the Main Dance floor.

The sheer size of the place meant that keeping track of what was going on everywhere was near enough impossible, but from the slightly sweaty but smiling faces in The Tunnel by 4am, Electric Chair always had, and always will have that little bit of Manchester Magic.

Photos by Celine Ammeux

2009 - Revelry in the Recession

A feature written for www.4clubbers.net

2009 has been a peculiar chapter for us all. We’ve seen the first black president of the USA inaugurated, celebrated 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, we lost the King of Pop and wondered what on earth those Irish idiots with the silly hair were doing on X Factor. Rewind twelve months and it was looking like the forecast for the forthcoming year was pretty bleak, with one word that people could just not get away from: ‘Recession’ . There were fears for peoples' jobs and for many people this fear became a dismal reality. According to the tabloids it seemed as if we would all need to lock ourselves in an underground bunker with some tins of corned beef to keep us going until we were out of it.

The past twelve months however has been a strong year for clubbing across the country, with larger nights continuing to attract the masses and smaller events cropping up all over for those who wanted to keep it intimate and wallet friendly. It was agreed that Recession themed parties were the best way to get through the cold winter months, with Mulletover holding a January smash-up which saw Todd Terje, Anja Schenider and Matt Tolfrey play for a mere eight pounds, and flicked the V’s at the idea that hard up wouldn’t equate to hard partying. Eight quid is pretty much the price of a double vodka down in London town, so it would have been rude not to get involved. A ‘Budget Glamour’ fancy dress themed rave held by the disco-tastic Lowlife in February saw hoards of plastic bag-dress clad revellers flock to London’s Corsica Studios. If one were to witness the masses of fake money and gold streamers hanging from the low ceilings of the studios, and an atmosphere of hedonism and decadence to the delectable sounds of Prins Thomas and Bill Brewster amongst others, they would have wondered what all of the fuss was about. “Recession? What Recession!?”

As we left winter behind, the biggest question mark was over Ibiza in summer 2009. People were out of pocket, the Euro was weak…did we really want to spend a whole sixty pounds to get into one club? Nights such as Danny Tenaglia’s ‘Be’ @ Space crashed and burned, and funky house parties Hed Kandi and Miss Moneypennys upped sticks and left El Divino, rendering the venue as nothing more than an empty yacht club with overpriced door tax. The ‘London’s Calling’ Spectacular; a one off event to take place in August with pioneers Orbital and Darren Emerson of Underworld fame, was a Spectacular flop, with 10,000 capacity club Privilege fully open…..and inhabited by a mere 1,000 people.

However reports from the White Isle told us that despite the setbacks, certain parties flourished. It appeared that punters were simply being choosier with the nights they decided to go to, with Cocoon, We Love… and F*ck me I’m Famous bringing in impressive crowds week by week. Various new venues popped up on and around the Playa D’en Bossa strip, and with DC10 noticeable in its absence for the most part, outdoor daytime parties began to make their mark again on the Ibiza clubbing scene, with Zoo Project raves and events from the Cadenza collective taking place throughout the summer. The authorities also held more relaxed attitudes to finishing times, with some parties at Amnesia going on way into the following afternoon. Could it be possible that 2010 is the year that Ibiza returns true to form? Here’s hoping….

Internationally, festivals in 2009 carried on in their own way with excellent reports from Sonar in Barcelona and Exit Festival within its Serbian fortress. Croatia was stil

l the destination du jour for summer partying, and why the hell not! The beautiful Adriatic Sea, warm sunshine and relaxed vibe sets the perfect scene for a festival, and the Garden Festival was joined in 2009 by Airbound making its Croatia debut, as well as Manchester’s Electric Elephant for the second year running. The scope for events in Petrcane seems to be getting bigger and bigger, and with even more festivals billed for 2010, it looks set to be another busy year.

Back in Blighty, the usual mix of wellies, tents and cider were commonplace at festival time. Glastonbury and Global Gathering boasted some of the hottest days of the year, whilst festivals like Glade and Creamfields were a veritable slush-fest. Still, this didn’t stop us making the most of each and every festival with gusto. We’ve all been in the UK for long enough to know that crap weather is just one of those things. If it rained - we got wet, and dealt with it.

It’s hard to believe that it is almost a decade since we were all teetering on the edge of the Millennium, champagne in hand, wondering if the ‘Millennium Bug’ was going to turn all of our computers against us and wondering whether it was really worth paying almost a hundred quid to go and see Oakey play at Cream on the Pier Head. Little did we know that the years following this turning point in history would see the ‘SuperClub’ die on its arse and the old school Warehouse Party take its place as the coolest place to go dancing. Indie and dance music would fuse with acts like Doves and Ian Brown playing at typically dance orientated events, and we would even see some of our trusty guitar heroes giving it a go behind the decks. Electroclash found Erol Alkan, who subsequently found

Bugged Out, and alongside Tiga, Miss Kittin and many more, turned it from a stomping house and techno Mecca to a whole new musical concept. Minimal returned spawning a whole new trend for DJ’s and producers. The market was soon saturated with new records, club nights and DJ’s, some high quality, some utter rubbish. Alongside this, neon made a comeback and a complete rock/dance hybrid by way of the Klaxons appeared. The TV show Skins was aired showing kids clubbing, partying and getting wasted to a thumping soundtrack: Nu-rave was born. It’s certainly been a decade to remember, with many prominent trends appearing and disappearing. 2009; the last year of the first decade of the new millennium, finally felt like it was starting to even out.

2010 looks to be a corker, with the world very slowly dragging itself out of the recession. It’s going to be a slow climb, but if that hasn’t stopped us partying during the lowest point, we’ve all got nothing to worry about.