We have flaunted with fluorescence, gyrated with giraffe’s, played with the pharaoh’s & filled our faces with fast food, but come Sunday it will all be about samurai’s &sushi at sunset as WE London turns Japanese on us with a bank holiday tea dance, the dinky detail an image click below, while DM propels the PR as well as a specially prepared podcast by one of its more prolific players, along with all the detailed in unrivalled concentration & coverage beneath.
Of all the countries that have touched & influenced the capitals clubbing circuit over recent years, Spain has to rank pretty highly, a whole wave of brilliant brands having made an impact here, Cafe Ole, La Troya & Space among them, while the two biggie’s, Matinee & SuperMartXe have certainly been significantly responsible for transforming both the style & substance of club events in London. But while these two global giants can take plenty of plaudits for making home grown brands think a little more out of their four walled boxes, as well as having captured the imagination of clubbers, the slightly newer kid on the branding block has at least matched, and some would say, exceeded its nemesis neighbours in virtually every department. With its significant statement being the huge LED style stage settings in its shows, but with an equally resounding reputation for delighting its discerners a real sense of fun & frivolity in its successive sequence of events and it is no wonder that WE has pretty much left both Matinee & SuperMartXe behind in its quest to become the biggest international brand to walk the walk & talk the talk in London town.
Indeed with record numbers of attendee’s to parties this year alone, WE has certainly scored highly on the popularity stakes, claiming The Coronet in Elephant & Castle as its own, 2012 having already seen Spanish based promoter Victor Pallas & his team stage five events, the dizzy heights of “Safari” on 1st Jan matched in their individual ways by “Fluro”, Pharaoh”, “Fast Food” & “Players”, WE having proven to be the place to be & be seen on the scene, whether in tea-dance or regular format. Furthermore, what London has achieved with its staging of WE is nothing short of miraculous, as Victor has been quoted as saying on a number of occasions that the capital is second only to the brands home of Madrid in terms of both content & charisma, the UK promotions team, Orange Nation, having led the way on many occasions with premiering the latest & newest concepts for the club ahead of its Spanish backyard base. In fact, London was the first to show us “Safari”, flaunt “Fluro” & propel “Pharaoh”, while it toed the Madrid line with the following two, but is set to score another first this Sunday, when it entertains the latest WE wonder, “Hi Japan”, another seemingly off the wall idea but one that will surely shout the statement of fabulous fun of all the former forays.
So what’s this latest theme all about? And what can you expect on the stage show & music front from “Hi Japan”? Well, if we are to be honest, the theme is a little lost on us, the feeling we get being that the team here in London aren’t particularly in on the act themselves either, the event PR patchy to say the least, this the only inkling they giving us when they say “…the stage will be as spectacular as ever – offering custom visuals and incredible special FX via multi LED screen installations and incredible staging and production…” while the billing for this latest WE event is bold, they stating that “…with the last Monday off work for 2012 expect a massive turnout with London’s hottest boys out in force, transforming the Coronet into a hot and steamy mass of muscle, getting down to the beats of London’s hottest D.J.’s…”, no mention of Japan anywhere, although we highly suspect that, as our title suggests, emblematic elements from things we immediately identify as hailing from “The House Of The Rising Sun” will be used to exciting effect in both the LED displays & the dancers costumes, something we have come to expect from the wonder that is WE, Yet, in fairness to the London team, we know from both experience with the brand & the way Victor & his Spanish set operate, that they tend to keep much of the staging & costuming detail close to their chests, so as to create the maximum anticipation & subsequent impact as is possible, but are equally sure London is, nevertheless, very much in the loop. All that said, one thing we can confirm is that the dancers will be every bit as dream worthy as previous outings, so spots close to the stage would be an advantage, while stepping back to take in those massive LED displays is also advisable.
However, one department of the WE dancing delectation we can be certain sure about is the music, the line up of D.J.’s looking particularly good, not least that resident Spanish superstar Carlos Gallardo will be making another welcome return to the capital, he having featured in nearly all the parties here since WE started 18 months ago, his heady mix of euphoric euro-beats, blended with more progressive pulses & tech come tribal tones, ranking him very highly in our espaniol estimations. Indeed, we are not the only ones to think this way, as Mr Gallardo has been voted as one of the top D.J.’s in his country on a number of occasions, while the demand for his services across Spain & Ibiza speak for themselves. Furthermore, Carlos is pretty active in the recording studio, his latest track project “After The Summer” seeing him team up with vocalist & top draw PA Peyton, we loving the video trailer for the track below and will hopefully be an inclusion in his headlining set at the Coronet on Sunday, Carlos even having remarked of the WE “Hi Japan” event as nothing short of a homecoming, London undeniably one of his favourite international destinations to play, among the countless others he travels to in representing the brand.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUcY-JIj9D4[/youtube]
However, London packs a representative punch at this WE, as our own all-star makes a welcome return to the line up, Steve Pitron having been at the inaugural event in December 2011 and gave us the biggest & best start to any clubbing year in our history at “Safari” in January. But having shown his spectacular hand at “Fluro” & “Fast Food”, we cannot wait to be back on stage with him on Sundasy, not least that we reckon he has a pretty special set in store for the packed out place that will be The Coronet in his hands, Steve continuing to delight us a generous sprinkling of new sounds each & every time we hear him play. Plus, we have it on extremely good authority that he has produced a specially devoted podcast to this event, one which we are told is “…a one hour blast of peak time Pitron…” and contains some of his favourite tracks from his recent smash “Summer 2012” series along with some brand spanking new sounds that we are hoping will feature in his live set. Indeed, literally as we were going to press with this post, news came through that the podcast was being released & loaded up to at http://stevepitronsessions.podomatic.com, Steve concurring with our commentary when he say’s “…this 1hr mix includes some tasty new tracks from my current afterhours sets as well as a handful of tracks you will recognise from my recent Summer 2012 sessions that will form part of my set…”, this latest Pitron pressing sure to attract the usual frenzied attention that all his previous releases have, daily downloads regularly exceeding the four figure mark, the direct download link being http://stevepitronsessions.podomatic.com/entry/2012-08-23T03_59_43-07_00.
But the D.J. line up story doesn’t stop at these two, although to be fair (especially in our estimation), they will be stealing much of the “Hi Japan” limelight, the Spanish flag will be flying high & proud as Gonzalo Rivas is another that makes a welcome return to WE, this incredibly experienced individual much missed on the capitals clubbing circuit since moving back home to Valencia where he is now permanently based. But making trips across for the big weekends on the scene, Gonzalo is back & sure to steal a sizable chunk of that spotlight for himself with a set to savour, while the D.J. duo of Alan K & Paulo Moreno will also want to have their WE say, a back-to-back set that completes the main room musical package, while the welcome retreat of the upstairs lounge will be masterminded by Fast Tony & guests, representing Jodie Harsh’s boutique clubbing brand, the award winning Room Service. And on a hosting front, JJ Clark & Ben Kaye once again join forces both inside & out, while no WE party would ever be the same & the queues managed as efficiently without the services of Tom Fuller, this leaving us to fire off the ticket & event detail, WE “Hi Japan” taking place this Sunday (26th Aug), door opening at the “tea dance” time of 6 p.m. & the event running through to a planned 2 a.m. finish, advance £18 tickets the only options left, as all the early birds have sold out, these still reasonably priced passes on sale online at http://orangenation.clubtickets.com/gb/2012-08/26/we-party-london-hi-japa as well as at the usual Soho outlets, while entry will also be available on the door but expect to pay more, further info out, should you need it, at http://wepartylondon.com.
So, needless to say & following our return from our summer sabbatical, we will be in the thick of the “Hi Japan” action, probably stage bound with a certain D.J. (or even D.J.’s) for part of proceedings, we hope nibble size review tweeting our way through it all. So, if you see us, come say hi, failing which you can follow the action live at http://twitter.com/discomatt, this certainly looking like another wonderful WE event extraordinaire. (DISCO MATT)