The definitive dancefloor directory
CHARWYEVENT
A NIGHT FOR CUBA
The Bongo Club, Edinburgh, Fri 3 Aug.
In recent years salsa has taken Edinburgh by storm. Cuban theme bars have sprung up left, right and centre and most of these host regular salsa nights where you can practise the moves before unleashing your particular take on ‘la vida loca’ at any one of the city’s high calibre club nights. While enthusiasts can usually take their pick from the likes of Club Latino, Salsa Viva, Arakataka and Latin Explosion, hosted at venues throughout the city, this month they can get the whole shooting match at one location in the massive Latino hootenanny that is ‘A Night For Cuba’.
‘I thought it was almost daft for everybody to have their own individual things happening at different times,’ says Simon Hodge, the promoter and DJ at the city’s
longest running salsa night Club Latino. ‘So I thought, “How about getting together and just doing a one-off thing as a huge, big party,” but to say, “Right, because it’s going to have the significance in terms of people getting together, let’s go a bit further and make it have a real significance and make a real difference”.
And that’s where we came up with the idea of giving all the profits to Medicare Cuba. If you’re going to do something as big as this, go further - go the whole
hog.’
Founded in 1994 by Chic Medley and Simon Hodge, Club Latino was the first showcase to pay tribute to the music and the passion of South and Central America, with live acts and dance demonstrations forming an integral part of the night. ‘The pair of us had come up in club culture and we looked at Latin and said that this should be looked at as part of the proper club culture in
NEW RECORD STORE IMPUTOUT St Mary’s Street, Edinburgh.
Record shop Widows and widowers (although there's cons‘iderably less of these) Will flinch at the words 'I'Il just be a minute in here. love' as they know full well ‘a minute' translates into two hours of record rack heaven. Sure it's inconSiderate. bordering on downright rude. but those out there who love and cherish their why! Will Simply say 'that's the way it is. Deal wrth it.' Thankfully (or not). Edinburgh couples now have a new location at which to ‘deal with it‘ as local DJs Gayle Sellars and Darren Dawes open a new dance specialist store in the shape of Inputout.
Known respectively as DJ fixtures at Acetate and the Rhumba Club. Sellars and Dawes have uncovered a two room space next door to SOund Control. one which they've already fitted Out With a fat back catalogue. 'We've gone all out to s0urce ClaSSICS from specific artists and labels. from French house and Masters At Work to Red Planet and DJ Sneak.‘ says Sellars. In addition to the house and techno staples. stock will also cover R88. hip hop and chill-out material.
Until recently Sellars worked behind the counter of Uber Disko and is therefore well aware of a need to stock imaginatively and use unusual
Havana ball
Edinburgh,’ says Hodge. ‘We wanted to take it away to some degree from being something you hear in Masonic halls and make the point that this is valuable club music, it’s not something to be hidden away just for the Latin community. It should be brought bang into the middle of the town and presented in a club as a proper, viable alternative in the club scene.’
With Latin music now established as an integral part of the city’s thriving club scene, the main purpose of
the momentous inaugural gathering of Edinburgh’s
Latino clans in ‘A Night For Cuba’ is to pay homage to the country that inspired them in the first place. ‘We’ve all done reasonably well out of the explosion of interest in Latin music,’ says Hodge. ‘and all of us independently of each other thought, “Well, as we've done OK out of it, why don’t we put something back into it, just to say thanks?”’ (Catherine Bromley)
STE\T RTHT
Proprietors Darren Davies and Gayle Sellars
distributors. This and attitude—free service wrll be cornerstones of InptrtOut and while competition from independents and multinational giants is nigh on ferocrous. the couple are confident of success. ‘Personal sen ice will be a strength.’ says Dawes. ‘and individual tastes will be more than accounted for.‘
Considerable care and investment has also been put into shop fittings and eouipment tailor-made for the unuSual
and unique demands of Vinyl Junkies. The generally relaxed wbe in the shop is augmented by the installation of retro Space Invaders. locally supplied graffiti artw0rk. drinks facilities and five turntables. each wrth their own indiwdual mixer. There are tentative plans for a related studio facility and music label. while a range of merchandise. t-shirts and eduipment Wlll also be introduced at a later date. iColin Cook)
White Rabbit Cowboys Those keray-zee Cowboys have a selection of credible to comedy club nights and a Sat night adventure called ‘Department Of Tranceport' which involves you in the back of a moving van with booze. other peOple and a DJ. This is the launch night of the whole kooky caper. The Honeycomb. Fri 3 Aug.
La Belle Angele Presents Kevin Saunderson Those who recall the sheer clubbing joy of the Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson event organised by Pure as part of the TripTych festival will be hot-footing it down here for an extra helping of blistering Detroit techno. La Bel/e Ange/e, Fri 3 Aug.
Bass:Trap Sessions While it's generally against all that‘s good, decent and generally acceptable to run pre—clubs in the Hitlist we'll make an exception for Bass:Trap because it boasts a beast of a soundsystem, a 3am licence and a guest DJ in the form of Wall Of Sound's mad muppet. Wreckage. Barn Bou, Fri 3 Aug.
A Night For Cuba Like the very finest Cuban cigar this Latin hootenanny — featuring the finest Latino nights currently gracing our fair city — will be hot. smokin‘ and seductively succulent. See Preview, page 82. The Bongo Club, Fri 3 Aug.
Vegas Live a little. dance a little and gamble to your heart's content at the swinging showtune festival extravaganza housed in the stunning surrounds of the Belgian beer tent. See Preview, page 81. The Famous Spiege/tent, Fri 3 Aug. Headspln A four-deck fiasco in the best possible taste, featuring hip hop. house and funk for those who like to spend their nights on the dancefloor. This event forms part of the Club Festival strangely called ‘Soup’. Teviof Row House, Sat 4 Aug.
2-9 Aug 2001 Tue LIST 7a