After a spring & summer that we would rather forget than recall, we thought it high time we pulled our posting socks up and bring you bang up to date with what has been happening in our world over the last six months and what you can expect for our final three month fling of 2013.
We can count ourselves extremely fortunate to have been in the privileged position of carving out considerable clout across the capitals clubbing circuit in recent times, our recommendations & reviews receiving respectable notoriety, while having been stepping out on the scene for nigh on twenty years or so, we have also have become fervently fond of our frolicking as well as our reporting of clubs, events, promoters D.J.’s & the like, along our wonderful winding way, connecting with some of the stars of the scene as well as a list of familiar faces as long as our arm. However, it would be fair to say that, after a year that saw our personal life to priority, the needs of our nearest & dearest dominant and ever increasingly important in our lives affecting our output, 2013 has seen us needing to concentrate squarely on us alone, at least for the best part of spring & summer, as we waged a war against a life threatening disease that left us hospitalised for much of April & May. Yet, while we made a pretty miraculous recovery from a firm old knock on death’s door, the incredibly intrusive treatment & medication has left it’s scars, very much stalling our plans to be back on the scene, a string of splutters through the summer even affecting our website activity which, for the best part of the last three months has ground to a hefty halt.
However, health issues aside, 2013 has not been a good year for us, not least that a scintillating start in the hands of what we had labelled as our all-time favourite afterhours, came crashing down around our feet, an estrangement from nearest & dearest not helping, while the independence that we always prided our reviewing & recommending came seriously into question as we were inadvertantly influenced by a close quarter of club promoters & associates. Indeed, with this influence seeing us court considerable controversy with a war wage of words critical compositions against a clubbing conglomerate that had previously been a relatively comfortable bedfellow, all which was in the cause of a colossal change to the capital’s clubbing circuit which, at the time, we both wholeheartedly supported & hand on heart believed was necessary for the saviour of what had always been seen as the most diverse yet dynamic scene on the globe. So, having witnessed & commented on over the years, scores of situations of inter club & to speak out on behalf of our beloved scene & some of its prominent players, the polarity of opinion caused by our posts clear for all to see at the time, mounds of messages of support solidifying our stance while we stood in the wings, waiting for the promised clubbing change to kick in.
However finding ourselves some six months down the line from that significantly controversial stand, a long list of superlatives & phrases spring to mind in describing the precarious position we find ourselves in, we seemingly having bitten the hand that was feeding us as with the benefit of hindsight and given the fact that much if not all of the promise of clubbing change that swayed us in taking our significant stand, has come to nothing, we would perhaps have never spoken out quite so vocally as we did. Indeed, with many of our muckers either developing or continuing associations with the collection of clubs we had so strongly criticised and only a handful of accomplished alternatives to satisfy our scene step outs, with the recovery road that we still find ourselves on after our life threatening illness still a long one, for the sake of our sanity & in some sort of escape from the entrapment the cancer is causing, we somehow feel the need to re-connect with those clubs we condemned and, in so doing, eat considerable humble pie in accepting the folly we caused by our controversial outbursts. What the troubled recent health times have taught us, is the true value of both family & friends, yet with the former fold miles come continents distant, it’s our capital nearest & dearest that we depend upon to steer us into smooth sanity waters, so selfish as it may sound, we feel it is time to build some bridges that we burned, not least that as we chomp at the clubbing bit, we find a capital circuit that is struggling to say the least, prime parties at a premium and even the compact clubs & the bijou bashes fighting to hold their own, meaning the scene that we love so much, needs all the support we can give it.
So what does all this mean? Well cutting to the chase, we have decided once again propel & promote the parties that we pulled from our support structure in the spring, while standing by the ones we pushed to the forefront in their place, creating a non-judgemental all inclusive choice of clubs & events right across the broad spectrum that remains the capitals clubbing scene. So favourites such as Beyond, WE Party & Matinee London will be back, while elements out East, including Shoreditch stars East Bloc, The Dalston Superstore & The Joiners Arms will continue to benefit from our support, the likes of Gigolo, Room Service, The Eagle & Barcode also part of our support structure. And it goes without saying that the wealth of international’s will continue to feature large in our promotional package, Scream in Paris, Muccassassina in Rome, La Demence in Brussels, The Farm in Milan, Greenkomm in Cologne & Propaganda in Berlin a prominent pitch of the many parties that we will be propelling. In so doing, our philosophy is simple as for us it is now all about celebrating the choice, delivering on the diversity & impressing on the inclusivity that should be the strength of the scene, while over the course of the coming days we will be further setting our stool for parking the unnecessary politics that all too often ravage the clubbing circuit, rather propelling the parties, boosting the bashes & excelling on the events that play their part in this prolific picture.
As for this final three month fling, well with a Beyond already under our belt & WE party this coming weekend on the cards, we hope to have the burnt bridges re-built with rapturous reviews, while the firm date in the dance diary that is Trade’s birthday, dives out DISH & a return to Room Service part of the scene step out plan, we will also, hopefully get in a European expedition before the year is out. And in terms of our core activity, our reviewing, previewing, recommending & reporting, as well as what matters most tous, the music & the music makers, it will all be back, along with favourite posts “Pick of The Day”, “Podcast & Track of The Week”, “News Nibbles” and a new section devoted to “Events”, while we are seriously considering suspending our “Seventh Day Sermon’s” or at least negating the negative rather pushing the positive. as if we are honest, we are over the bitching, the bullying & the bad feeling and everything else that invoked these outspoken soap box slants & rants. Indeed, what these last few tough times months have taught us is, that life is too short for all this silliness, so it’s time celebrate what the capital’s clubbing scene has in the inevitability that the good times will once again roll and London will rise back to this superb standing as the most diverse yet inclusive clubbing circuit in the world. (DISCO MATT)
