Just a quick review of the Underground Resistance show in London...
Firstly the place was a nightmare to find as the address given was simply
"Hoxton" so I assumed it was a big place that everyone knew of - people I
asked did know of it but not its location and that I wasn't the only person
to have asked that night! Eventually I wandered into a taxi office and the
old cockney geezer behind the radio told me it was in New North Street which
wasn't that hard to find - just on the other side of Hoxton!
So finally at the venue - not a massive queue it seemed so I wouldn't need
to wait too long to get out of the torrential rain and freezing gale force
winds... totally wrong on that count! The guys running the security here
made the guys running the Warp Night security seem a model of competency,
and when I finally reached the front of the queue an hour and a half later
and thoroughly drenched to the skin I found out they were also a model of
rudeness and very aggressive and if ever I get a gun the first few bullets
have their names on it - especially the one who held me back because I told
him he lacked competency (fortunately someone grabbed me and dragged me
through!). Rather bizarrely they weren't even searching people - just
pushing people about and threatening people!?!
So finally in - 11:30 already - by now the queue outside had grown even
bigger and the torrential rain seemed no closer to giving up. Inside I was
blasted by warm air, though possibly it was the air conditioning! (I had
been literally so cold I could not use my fingers to get my credit card out
for the ticket people). I got a drink and queued again for the cloakroom -
another taste of queuing and bad security - they had this total cant in a
flying helmet who was threatening people in the queue quite violently, until
this black guy called his bluff and he turned pussy but still tried to make
out he had some kind of authority!
As for the venue... the first hall was a sort of r'n'b with a bit of hip
hop room - when I got in they were playing that foul All Saints record and
whenever I went by it didn't seem to stray too far from that; that room had
some pretty good heating in it meaning it was always blazing hot (that sort
of dry industrial strength heater hot rather than radiation from lots of
dancers hot). The cloakroom played a series of old Hitchcock movies which
no one even glanced at. Upstairs I didn't stick around as there was some
bad pop music playing - I kind of figured this was where Talking Heads "Road
to Nowhere" rather aptly drifted across the breeze from whilst in the queue.
No idea where the room Moodyman was playing was or the room full of birds
(unless that was the RnB room put on in the hope of dragging a little more
snatch in). I'm quite mystified by how each room was meant to reflect a
classic Hitchcock movie but if someone can help me out here I'd be grateful!
Okay, lastly the UR room and very impressive it was too - A huge vaulted
building bigger than you're average warehouse; the place was in pitch
darkness except for a thin diagonal strip of bricks that had been demolished
at one end and luminated with bright lights from behind (where the DJ booth
was) and UR's projections of slogans and sharply photographed shots of
machines and mechanisms which seemed to work extremely well on the dark
bricks of the crumbling walls (the walls did have holes in them to the
outside world!) Very few people were dancing and most looked like they
were just trying to maintain enough body heat to make it to midnight then
they could go home!
At 12 there was a short countdown and then the front third which was a huge
sloping stage opened up and everyone crowded on and it seemed to give
everyone a cue to start dancing. The next hour was filled with some fine
electro flavoured breaks and the crowd just kicked off! Then about 1.30 the
techno went banging and the place erupted in cheers and everyone had
finished warming up and was off! I slunk off for a bottle of water when the
DJs changed over at 3am and the next guy came on and totally changed the
beat, coming in with a latin jazz flavoured cut which descended into a
constant beat before resuming again, then it was back into banging mode and
everyone was off again! There was another big crowd reaction later on when
the UR remix of Expo 2000 was dropped so I figured everyone knew that one!
At 5am we were told it was midnight in Detroit and we had a couple more cuts
before we were left with the sound of slipmats fkg up someone's needle - a
nice way to clear the place I think! The RnB room was supposedly going
through until 7 but I wasn't going to stick around until then listening to
All Saints yapping on!
So that was it! Definitely a good one except for the security and hopefully
Mad Mike will send his boys over again real soon!
BABY DIDDY
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