After witnessing an incredible gig at the MEN thanks to Example, Benga and Sway, we headed straight down to Venus, hyped up for more raving and excited to experience the takeover of the Mutant Night guys headed by John Dahlbäck.

First to kick off the rave was the talented Sean Grainger, who had everybody in the mood by dropping some killer beats, setting the tone for the night ahead. Next up, Nick Coulson, a DJ well-known around the North West who has graced the decks of top venues including Gatecrasher, continued to raise the game with his ability to work the crowd. From the start, he came out and smashed his whole set, especially when he blasted out his awesome new track, ‘Hostility’, which everyone went crazy for and left them thirsty for more.

By now Venus was absolutely packed so we headed to the back room where the BassJockeys were about to begin their two hour set and raise hell in the process! We’re big fans of these guys and having seeing them previously dominate the likes the Warehouse Project and Sankeys numerous times, we couldn’t miss their set at one of our favourite venues. Darren and James did not disappoint, dropping some classic tunes and their own brilliant mixes, literally causing the walls of the club to shake from the bass. These guys know their stuff and just like on their weekly radio show on Manchester Global Radio, they really rocked Venus up that night!

What made the night extra special was a surprise from DMM’s good friend, Lempo, dropping by to see us all and thanking everyone for the massive support he’s had over the past few weeks. (#DMMLovesLempo)

Heading back to the front room, we were ready for Dahlbäck to take control. Well known to the Venus crowd, last year Dahlbäck smashed the Bitch tent at Mint Festival in Leeds last and has gained a huge following from the club and its revelers   His whole set, full of filthy house classics, had the room going nuts jumping around, the atmosphere was amazing and one of those moments when you had to be there to really understand just how epic it was. Afterwards, the humble DJ showed us lots of love and respect by posing for photos and shaking people’s hands, which is always a nice touch!

Giving us the last slice of filth for the night and finishing it off with an almighty bang was Felix Leiter, another DMM favourite. Resident at Digital, Newcastle and no stranger to Venus, he smashed out some massive tracks, including Daft Punk’s ‘One More Time’ and a personal favourite, ‘Epic’ by Sandro Silva, which was probably the best word to describe his set, keeping up raving hard until 5am.

Friday was yet again a massive night for Venus and everyone involved and all we can say is, we can’t wait for the next one!

Photography credit

Photos by Jack Kirwin / The Manc Photographer. Check out the full gallery of the night!

This weekend in Manchester was certainly a big one with so much going on across the city, from John Dahlback at Venus to Zutekh at Sound Control, plus Nicky Romero at Sankeys and the Benga after party at Joshua Brooks after his headlining night at the MEN arena. It’s fair to say we were spoilt for choice and ended up splitting our night so we could feature as much as possible and highlight just how huge the music and clubbing scene in Manchester is right now!

After witnessing awesome performances by Example and Benga, fellow DMM writer, Kurt-Lee, headed down to Venus to see the incredible John Dahlback lead a bass-heavy house night supported by Felix Leiter, Nick Coulson, the BassJockeys and other top Manchester DJs. Meanwhile, James and I popped into Sound Control for a quick chat with Assistant Manager and Promoter for Great Friday and Fundamental, Patrick Rall, ahead of Zutekh taking over the New Wakefield Street venue. The stage was set up and almost ready for the night’s frivolities, for which we promised to return later: the buzz for Zutekh was so high, we did not want to miss out.

Heading over the road to Joshua Brooks by 11pm, we were greeted by a queue of eager young ravers, anticipating the arrival of one of the bass and electronic music figureheads, Benga. Tonight would be a special occasion, as it was to be the conclusion of his UK tour with an after party hosted by Red Bull Studios. We were expecting the night to be explosive, full of energy and to go off with a bang and we can safely say it reached and exceeded our predictions!

Pixel Fist set the tone by smashing out some of the heaviest, filthiest, bassiest tracks and mixes to start, leading into the headline act. 26 year old Adegbenga Adejumo, demonstrated his experience, musical variety and technical abilities with a charismatic, basement shaking performance.

Alongside Youngman, one of the UK’s most exciting young talents on the bass scene right now, Benga turned up the heat with a genre-bouncing set. From The Prodigy, ‘Smack My Bitch Up’, to some classic Magnetic Man, ‘Perfect Stranger’, then jumping to the heavy bass sounds of Knife Party’s, ‘Internet Friends’  showing the true variety of the Londoner’s performance. Benga’s newer material also went down a treat, with ‘Hitman’ being a resoundingly popular track. Allowing the basement to recover a little from the thumping bass, the duo threw in some old-school garage including classics from Daniel Beddingfield and Sweet Female Attitude, all to the pleasure of the crowd, who were going crazy for their set.

Calming down the tone and vibe, we returned to a packed out Sound Control to catch the rest of the Zutekh night, where Thugfucker and Matt Tolfrey were pleasuring the crowd with their bass-house sounds. Zutekh nights have become a major feature in Manchester’s electronic music calendar and it was clear to see why the night had built up so much hype. The atmosphere was electric, everyone was lost in the music enjoying themselves.  When we finally left, our taste for all things house, dance, drum’n’bass, dubstep and garage had certainly been satisfied, so we went home with huge smiles on our faces!

After recovering from the night before, it was time for round two back at Antwerp Mansion for the third Rum & Bass night, which has quickly become a firm DMM favourite. This time we were joined by our good friend, DJ and Producer, Tommy Harrison, who was just as excited as we were to hear Kinyume play and be a part of another top rave. Jake Ladley nicely warmed up The Gig Room downstairs and established the heavy bass vibe before Taneli took over the reins and smashed out the beats.

By around 12.30am the crowd were hyped and thirsty for more, just in time for the masked duo, Kinyume, to step in and completely thrash the room from beginning to end. Even as a relatively new duo, they have bagged themselves a set at this year’s Parklife Weekender and their 45 minute set demonstrated why. From UK garage to filthy bass and to older dance tracks, they had the student crowd in the palm of their hands. Ben James, another DJ  quickly gaining a name for himself, was on top form yet again, keeping the rave jumping, with Rich Reason finishing off another memorable night for Rum & Bass.

By the early hours of Sunday morning, the DMM team were completely finished, so Sunday was a complete write-off! However, there you have it, an account showing just why Manchester is the raving capital and that was only some of the events that happened over the weekend…bring on the next one!

Photography credits

Zutekh: SpamellaB
Benga: Abigail Melissa Stein
Kinyume at Rum & Bass: Lee Ryder – full album here.

With over 35 of the world’s biggest DJ’s in house, techno, dance and drum’n’bass on the line-up, we were pretty excited to experience the first annual Mint Festival at Lotherton Hall near Leeds, one of the UK’s leading boutique festival sites. Hosted by the team behind Mint Club and Mint Warehouse and with the festival season coming to a close after a wash-out summer, we were hoping this to be a mad, messy and memorable one to remember and a success for all involved.

Feeling a bit worse for wear thanks to an incredible Rong at Venus the night before, we arrived back again a few hours later to meet 150 other festival-goers for our coach there – Jager for breakfast was on the menu! We rocked up at the impressive Edwardian grounds around lunchtime to no crazy queues, a field full of tents and plenty of wellies after some of the worst flooding in years – but thankfully it was no Creamfields, the sun was shining – maybe more festivals should be held at this time?

As part of their 6th birthday celebrations, Bitch were proud to host an arena and we headed straight there after stocking up on drinks from the bar in the tent – sensible idea to avoid missing your favourite artists/ DJs!. Dale Castell kicked it off, getting the crowd going with some decent vibes before B3 took over. We’re good pals of the 3 DJs that make up B3 and were hyped to see them for only their second set as a collaboration… and wow did they blow the tent up! Smashing out big tunes like Coldplay ‘Fix You’ and Otto Knows ‘Million Voices’, and remixing and bootlegging to get the crowd going crazy, they worked it and we were going mad for it. We’re already buzzing to see them again at Venus for the Halloween Bitch night – bring it on!

Genuinely our favourite party of 2012. Incredible atmosphere, really well organised, top notch DJs, crowd, music and beer.

The guys were followed by a string of more awesome DJs; Riley & Durrant, DOD and Felix Leiter, who all kept the Bitch tent raving as the crowd grew and the messiness increased. The festival was just the perfect size, you could easily get from one tent to another, bars were easy to get served in and provided a really relaxed party atmosphere. The Bitch tent itself was packed but not too crowded. It’s not the best when you can’t move and dance your wellies off but no such problem at Mint. Blasting out classics that everyone recognised but mixed, mashed and meddled with – in a good way of course! – everyone was having a great time.

By now hours of raving had passed, much alcohol consumed and we were still all going mad for it – especially as Kryder took to the stage, smashing out his trademark heavy tracks like ‘Scorpio’ there was no excuse to be stood still. And what a warm-up for superstar DJs, Michael Woods, Eddie Halliwell, Danny Howard and John Dahlback – epitomising everything Bitch stands for in the house music world. It’s fair to say this was the arena to be in at Mint Festival, even though of course the other tents also had so much on offer.

Our coach arrived a bit earlier than finishing time at 1.30am, but we were all smashed, raved out and ready to head back to Manchester… to carry on the party at Venus for Bitch’s 6th birthday – there really ain’t no rest for the wicked! If Mint Festival returns next year we will definitely be back for more awesome house / dance / drum’n’bass from some of the best DJs worldwide – may it get bigger, better and more… MINT!

Quick edit from James – We cannot stress any more, how much we loved Mint Festival. SpamellaB and myself partied with loads of friends from arrival all the way until the coaches left. Between us, we’re at most festivals, WHP gigs, Venus, Sankeys, loads of clubs and parties and this was our favourite night of 2012 by a country mile. The atmosphere, music, bars, food and crowd were phenomenal. Incredible to say that this was the first Mint Festival, bring on 2013. Huge thank you to the teams at Mint, Bitch, System and Flux, the DJs, the staff and anybody involved. Awesome night.

On another note, I text the B3 lads on the night to say how genuinely proud I was to just be their mates. They were simply outstanding.  They will be superstars, so watch out for them at Venus for Halloween, Warehouse Project in November and smashing clubs and festivals Worldwide in the near future. 

Check out this insane video from the festival, says a lot really: 

Check out Mint Festival on Facebook

Huge thank you to Eddy Gosht from Oh My Gosht Photography for the photos, one of the best club / festival photographers around, head over to Oh My Gosht Photography on Facebook or view the rest of the Bitch album here!

 

My first encounter with a Bitch night was in April with American, house DJ and awesome performer, Gina Star. The hospitality of Venus, the quality of the DJs and the friendliness in the atmosphere made for one of my favourite regular club nights in Manchester. I commented on how the dress code was smart and that I didn’t think people would be there to rave, at first anyway but the rave went on until the early hours, high heels and all. The friendliness of the crowd made you feel welcome and relaxed and people were genuinely there to enjoy themselves. Naturally, I haven’t missed a Bitch or even many Venus nights since. The standards were already high so I was looking forward to a good night but I don’t think anyone knew quite how memorable it would be.

From the Applique Music Showcase, we met our guestlist competition winners by chance so headed down to the club with them, chatting about how refreshing it was to head to The Yacht Club for a chilled out party before the short walk over for the main event. All of their friends seemed to agree with our thoughts, the cool, relaxed warm-up vibe was so much better than just getting smashed in someone’s flat, then staggering into town, half cooked. Landing at Venus just as the venue was starting to fill, I joined my friends already dancing in the back room, giving Lempo some breathing space. He had been stuck with me for 28 hours by this point, poor fella.

I was surprised to hear a lot of my friends hadn’t actually been to Bitch or Venus but when I caught up with them in the main room, I didn’t need to ask if they were enjoying themselves. Big smiles, big dance moves and huge amounts of banter said it all. Then Felix Leiter‘s new tune, “Your Future is Digital”, dropped for the first time of the night.

You can tell a big tune will be huge when you first hear it in a club by the way the crowd reacts and wow, the crowd reacted. Even the remaining few who weren’t already dancing were bouncing, fists in the air, massive grins on the faces of the Venus faithful. Club bangers like this need a packed nightclub to reach their audio-orgasmic potential. As expected, Felix Leiter’s set was nothing short of extra-ordinary. Technically sound but as I’ve said before, in a club it’s about making the crowd happy. If you’ve seen the Bitch TV episode with the Felix Leiter interview already, you’ll see how up-for-it the whole place seemed to be. As resident at Digital in Newcawstle, Mr. Leiter is used to a solid, clubbing audience and this showed in his confidence in the booth, reading what the crowd likes and playing to their tastes.

Kim Fai also stepped up the game, raising the bar once more. By this point the crowd were well and truly buzzing, Kim concentrating on the audience to keep the mood at the clubing sweet spot Felix had produced. We were stood behind him for a short while, a rare occassion yes as we tend to stay in the middle of the party not posing in the booth and just just observed as hundreds of dancing party animals beckoned to Kim’s every call.

Kim was clearly enjoying himself too, dancing away behind the decks, with Lempo on the other side of the booth pumping up the crowd jumping up and down with excitement as the big tunes kicked in. Playing a lot of tunes from Steve Angello’s Size Records, understandably, the biggest hit seemed to be his remix of “Sun & Moon” by Above and Beyond, which coincidentally ties in with our DMM Raver of the Week Award. And the winner is…drum roll please… Jono (aka Jonathan Lee) from Applique!

At this point, Lempo, myself and Emily, a new friend of DMM’s, headed over to the Renaissance Hotel to interview Felix. Being a packed clubnight, not everything always goes according to schedule, so we were stood chilling outside for a short period when some clearly messed up guy, covered in blood and totally oblivious to his condition tried to get into Venus. Quick note, he hadn’t come from Venus, in fact trouble of any kind is rare but nevertheless he was still trying to talk to Lempo and myself. As polite and friendly as Lempo is, how he kept his patience, I don’t know as the guy was trying to lean on him, rest his arm on Lempo’s shoulder, all whilst covered in blood. He did though and earned even more respect from myself and Emily as many in his situation wouldn’t have been so considerate.

We then crossed over to the Renaissance, for the Bitch TV interview with Felix. We all sat down and before Lempo had chance to introduce us, Felix being the gent that he is, introduced himself with complete sincerity. Now this is a guy who’s just smashed the hell out of a club, releasing an incredible track on Bitch Music and has an incredible past, present and future ahead of him and he still has the time of day to be a genuine bloke. Good game mate, good game.

The interview itself was awesome to watch, a few out-takes were made before we could get the full video but it was very funny to behold. Quite interesting to watch an interview from the camera behind the camera too, letting Lempo take control of the conversation. It was quite impressive too, watching him switch from DJ, to radio host, to clubber and then to interviewer without a blink of an eye. Will have to take lessons from the man himself I reckon!

The final cut of the interview is embedded as part of an incredible video by Jo3 Design that really highlights what is so awesome about Bitch. It’s not just a club night but it’s how club night’s should be, everybody is dancing, all enjoying an epic night and Joe’s skill behind a camera catches it perfectly. It’s extremely difficult to do this night justice writing this chapter but this video should help immensely! Watch it now:

Heading back to the club, we managed to catch the end of Kim’s set, the crowd still manically dancing away. When something I’d been waiting for most of the weekend finally happened. The launch of B3. We had heard the B3 promo mix and knew this was going to be something special. When Martyn Russo, Pete Mobey and Lempo himself donned B3 t-shirts and headed towards the booth, the crowd seemed to go crazy, ourselves included.

These were the lads they have known and loved for ages, lads that knew the audience, the music and exactly how to play together but this was their first live gig as a trio, so would the pressure get to them? Not in the slightest. Using the experience they have as individuals, during Bitch nights and The Bitch Show on Unity Radio, they tore the crowd apart. I have genuinely never seen a more perfectly targeted club set and neither had the hundreds of crazed animals, raving on the dance floor. The set must have been meticulously planned as the three seemed to relay off each other, each knowing exactly what the others were doing at any time, whilst still partying as if they were on the other side of the booth! Adding to this, 80-90% of the tracks were bootlegs, all of which seemed to be perfect for the occasion, the party was immense.

Then this happened:

As we hit that moment of peace, the build up before the big drop on Avicii’s, “Super Love”, the crowd stopped dancing and sat down. Now we know sit-downs have happened before but when the Swedish House Mafia did it at Creamfields, they actually asked the crowd to do it. B3 had nothing to do with this as it was genuinely a sign of the massive amount of respect everyone had for Lempo, Pete and Martyn. When the track dropped, Venus went absolutely mental. Awesome moment, one the B3 lads will remember for a long time.

The set I saw from B3 was something that had to be seen to be believed. I would go as far as to say it was the best 4-5am set at the club to date. They set up Frater & Stent for the best 5-6am set too. B3…The ones to watch. Ben, Manager of Venus Nightclub, Manchester.

At the end of B3′s set, Frater & Stent jumped in with the Bitch trio, massive credit to Chris and Ryan, they didn’t allow the party to fade for one instant, providing the perfect end to the night.

One last thing to mention, is a massive thank you to Eddy Gosht (Oh My Gosht Photography) for allowing us to use the incredible club night photos he takes. If you like them, check out the Oh My Gosht Facebook Page! Also a thanks to Adrian Jones (Reworked Robot) for the Youtube Video of the B3 sit down, Venus for their hospitality as always, Bitch for providing such an awesome monthly event and everyone else involved so far this weekend.

Download the B3 Promo Mix for FREE or read Chapter 4 – Applique Music Announcement NOW!

Follow:

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Kim Fai
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and Dance Music Manchester on Twitter.

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If you’re enjoying the #48HrsWith @IamLempo story so far, don’t worry. There will be at least 2 more chapters, about our day in the Applique Music studio, the DJs on the label and a full interview with Lempo himself, the next chapter being published on Saturday evening!

Boots n cats!

My Friday afternoon ended as per usual. A sneaky beer after work with the lads. That is where the normality ended as I was heading straight to Unity Radio, Manchester for #48HrsWith @IamLempo. 48 hours that anyone involved will remember for a very, very long time.

We were joined at the studio by his DJ / label partner, Japwow, alongside bitch residents Martyn Russo and Pete Mobey (Pedro) for what was to become, the birth of #48HrsWith. At this point, everyone involved knew it would be a big weekend,  consisting of music, banter, alcohol and a severe lack of sleep. However, I don’t think anyone realised quite how much we could squeeze into one weekend, where I would witness one of the greatest club-sets I’ve ever seen, meet some legendary heroes of dance music, chill with local but incredible musical talent and party with the best.

Unity Radio #TheBitchShow – 8pm – 11pm
I’m not a stranger to The Bitch Show but Friday had a real family, party-like vibe to it. Starting an hour earlier, the show was a cracker, with mixes from the mysterious B3, Bitch headliners Kim Fai and Felix Leiter with D.O.D added in for that little extra flavour. As you’d all expect, the mixes from Kim, Felix and D.O.D were all of the highest standard and would have made an incredible show alone but after the B3 promo mix that was released online last week, there was the added excitement surrounding this unknown entity. That intriguing feeling of will this be an absolute smasher or fall at the first hurdle. Judging by the social media and the way the studio bounced for the entire set, we could not see it being anything but a huge success.

As Bitch were launching their very own music label last weekend, it was only fitting that the debut release dropped on air and what a track that is. Hearing it for the first time on decent speakers, highlighted to me the awesomeness and power it had. Felix Leiter has provided Bitch with an insanely huge first single, “Your Future is Digital”, one that will be a really tough act to follow.

On top of the already high standard of music, was the standard of banter. I had a really interesting conversation with the talented and lovely Japwow about her awesome experiences as a DJ, producer and label owner. Enticed by her stories of DJing in New Zealand, The US and pretty much everywhere there is a party, my eyes opened up to the fact that some of the nicest, most humble  people around have lead incredible, exciting lives of both highs and lows but also how much dedication it really takes to become a World class DJ and producer.

We also talked about the unbelievable lineup Bitch has in store for Mint Festival in Leeds. If we could share this, we would but what we can say is this is one festival not to miss out on come September.

The comedy highlight of the night comes from the off-the-cuff edit of Cedric Gervais’ Molly, replacing Molly with the tantastic absentee, Griff, which had everyone in stitches.

Has anyone seen Griff? – Coming soon from Lempo, Pedro and Russo!

Pre-party beers with Lempo and Japwow

After the show, we had a couple of hours spare before heading to Sankeys. The trio headed down to Venus to fulfil our thirst for a little bit of trance at one of the North’s finest trance nights, Rong, with Simon Patterson, Jordan Suckley and Heatbeat were leading the line-up.

Sometimes, trance can be a little heavy for most people but when it’s done well, clubs like Venus erupt and that’s exactly what happened when Cosmic Gate’s, Fire Wire dropped to the adoration of the Manchester revellers. If you’re a fan of your dance music, a little bit on the speedier side, the last Friday of every month always goes off with Rong at Venus, so head down.

Our next stop was Sankeys, with a slight detour in the direction of Socio Rehab for a chilled one before the madness really kicks in. A great bar with really cool music at the weekend, easy to chill and talk but ever so tempting to get up and move your feet, another highly recommended Northern Quarter venue that you will definitely catch Dance Music Manchester frequenting if you keep your eyes peeled.

Upon arrival at Sankeys, we were greeted with warm hospitality… and a bottle of Grey Goose vodka. Lempo and Japwow’s set started at 4, so we chilled upstairs in Spektrum then raved downstairs to main room sets from veteran DJ legends, Graeme Park and Todd Terry, who we had the pleasure to speak to in Spektrum, alongside our mutual friend the gorgeous Sarah Whittle. Happy Birthday for today Sarah! Again, an absolute honour to meet such a hero, my mind running through the idea of how cool it would be if the talented threesome combined on a track, blending their backgrounds together into something that would be pretty magical.

In the early hours of the mornig, almost as if they snapped into a DJ state, Lempo and Japwow hit the decks at 4am with a sublime set, a real showcase of their music, the label and their talent, still visibly enjoying themselves in the process. As relaxed as they had been all night, seeing them flick the DJ switch on, hitting every beat but still providing the banter, was a joy to see. As individuals, they are both impressive people. Together, something seems to click, a visible chemistry on the decks. The highlight’s including the Lempo and Japwow remix of Funky Beat by U.M. Project, out now on Applique and their forthcoming remix of “Hey Ey Ey” by Mark Starr on DBR.

By 5/6am, we headed back to the Lempo residence, for a couple more drinks (I began to think DJs are allergic to sleep) before passing out for a few vital hours before we started again. Friday night was an awesome party but Saturday had massive plans for ourselves and the rest of Manchester. With the Applique Music Label Showcase at The Yacht Club, another radio show, interviews on Bitch TV and live sets from Kim Fai, Felix Leiter and a ridiculously memorable set by B3,  it was a day and night to remember but we’ll cover that in the next chapters.

Read more from #48HrsWith @IamLempo tomorrow night only on DanceMusicManchester.co.uk

*UPDATE* – You can listen to the Lempo and Japwow set from Sankeys on SoundCloud on DMM!

Read Chapter 2 – Hangovers, Label Showcases, Off-The-Cuff B2B DJ Sets and Buskers

Follow:
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Lempo and Japwow
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