IIBS listings
Phactft I e your mum has heard of them,
but that doesn't make them dicesy bastards, claims Rory Weller.
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Home? Phats & Small aka Jason Phats and Russell Small.
Age? Hard to tell, but we reckon they're hovering around the 30 mark.
Occupation? Dis, producers, chart- topping superstars and general international merry-makers.
Origin? Brighton, where they met a decade ago, hugging the floor of The Zap.
And just how big was their first single? 'Turn Around’ was officially the best selling dance record of this year, going to number one in most countries round Europe, getting them on the cover of magazines, appearances on Top Of The Pops (twice), The Ozone, CD:UK and all the rest.
So can we safely assume they're cheesier than my feet? (Sniff) No way. They may have done all the kiddie TV and had a bit of a jump around at Party in The Park, but they‘re fronted by a singer (Big Ben) for the PAs. As DJs they rock it, jumping house style.
how did the track come about? Phats had the idea at the beginning of last year to'combine a sample from Tony .Lee's 'Reach Up' and French style filter disco and went to Small to help him make it.
Why him? As well as being Brighton buddies, Small had been producing for a number of years under a number of names including The Delorm and Dharma Bums. He also ran his own Afro Cuts label, heavily supported by the likes of Derrick Carter, Stacy Pullen and Derrick May, so knows his way round a studio.
What happened next? They brought in Big Ben for the vocal and put the track out on Eric Powell's Boo, a subsidiary of Bush Records. The track slammed into everyone's charts of ’98 and finally got commercial release on Multiply in March this year.
How did they follow up? 'Feel Good’, the second single, did reasonably well, they've also been working on remixes and have been travelling the world in a search for the best porn channels and enjoying being celebs on the prowl.
I Phats & Small DJ at Colours, The Arches, Sat 16 Oct.
64 THE LIST 22 Jul—S Aug 1999
CLUB LISTINGS continued
I Goodfoot at The Bedsit. 10pm-2am. £5. 15 Oct and fortnightly. Scotland’s number one Northern soul night back again after an enforced absence. The best of its type in the city and it’s back.
I Love Bug at The Garage. 10.30pm—3am. £4 (£3). Weekly. Good- time party tunes with a young, boppy, drinky and snoggy crowd. Wildly busy so it’s well advised to haul yo ass down there early.
I Paul Cawley at Air Organic. 9pm-midnight. Free. Weekly. Pre-club. Psy-phi’s Paul Cawley, label boss of Fenetik Records, here every week for a beta testing hip hop, drum & bass and break beat set.
I Polo Lounge at The Polo Lounge. 11pm—3am. £5. Weekly. DJ Michelle in main club with 905 club and indie and the Trophy Room with Tom for a more commercial mix. Gay. The Polo Lounge operates as a bar before all club nights with free entry before the club starts.
I Planet Peach at Planet Peach.
1 lpm—3.15am. £4 (£3). Weekly. Paul N’Jie playing fresh and upfront house funked up with a helping of R&B and soul classics.
I Privilige at Havana. 10pm—3am. £3. Weekly. Andy Guest with a spread from funky tribal through to up-front house. I Psy Phi at The Sub Club. 11pm-3am. £8 (£6). 8 Oct and monthly(ish). Mo Wax head honcho James Lavelle joining residents Paul Cawley (Fenetik) and Alex Horton for the finest in deep down hip hop. Psy Phi is usually monthly, but they’ve also got the Giles Peterson tour on 22 Oct and both these nights are guaranteed to be crazy busy, so get down early. See Hit list.
I Radar at The Cross Bar. 8pm—midnight. Free. Weekly. Pre-club. Progressive dub and techno with an eclectic mix of ‘beats, bleeps and squeaksfi
I Reds at Reds. 11pm-3am. £6 (£5). Weekly. DJ Alan Ronald with commercial house, dance anthems and club classics.
I Relief at The Arches. 11pm—3am. £8 (£6). Weekly. Night run by the crew behind the legendary Slam night, which Relief replaced. Relief offers the finest electro disco funk tech house from Laurence Hughes and Silicone Soul (Soma). 15 Oct and a very special one-off with Chicago house masters DJ Sneak and Derrick Carter going head-to-head. Dead dead exclusive and not to be missed (£10).
I Shag at Fury Murry’s. 11pm—3.15am. £5 (£3). Weekly. Mark and James G playing to a good time party crowd in the guaranteed-a-winch Fury ’5.
I Soaterama at Nice ’n’ Sleazy (ground floor bar). 8pm-midnight. Free. Weekly. Regular Friday evening do, with the best in all sorts of fields from Americana punk to dub, drum & bass and original indie. I Stateside Sounds at The State Bar (Holland Street). 4—7pm. Free. Weekly. DJ Paul Shields playing alternative country, rock and blues along the lines of Led Zeppelin, Crosby Stills & Nash, Wilco etc.
I Strawberry Fields at Strawberry Fields. 9pm-3am. £6 (£7 after 11pm). Weekly. Classic party sounds from the 605 through to the 805. Sinatra to Bryan Adams, Beatles to Abba, Madness to the Bay City Rollers.
I Tangent at The Sub Club. 11pm-3am. £7 (£5). 15 Oct and fortnightly(ish). A- man and Panic with the lushest, grooviest deep and funky beats and melodic techno.
I Trash at Trash. IIpm—3am. £5 (£3). Weekly. 'I\vo rooms of party action with a mix of vocal house, funky classics and current R&B favourites from Grahame Ferguson and Stevie Smith.
I Upfront at The Asylum (Caledonian University Students Union). 10pm—3am. £1 (free to CUSU members). Weekly. House and trance in the main hall from Scott Mochar and Eddie Tonner both students at the Uni.
I Yang at Yang. llpm-3am (bar open from 6pm). £5 (free before midnight). Weekly. Premier hip hop and scratch mixing from residents Dema & Nice (Freek Menoovers) and Bunty in room two plus the guys from Kushi Records with double deep house in the back room. I Yum Yum at The 13th Note Club (downstairs). 9pm—33m. £4 (includes access to Big Daddy upstairs too). Weekly. New night ofjazz, Latin, hip hop and soul.
GLASGOW SATURDAYS
I Archaos at Archaos. 11pm—4am. £8. Weekly. Kris Keegan and A.J. mix up garage and house in the massive dome room dance floor, which has one of the beefiest sound systems and most impressive light shows in Scotland, plus full aerial display. Iain Thompson playing chunky disco in Betty’s while Paul Traynor plays R&B, swing and hip hop in the members’ Sky Bar.
I Ascendance at The Temple. 11pm—3am. £7 (£5). 16 Oct and fortnightly. Steve Lee (Gallery, London), Johnny Rocket, Billy Macatee playing hard and tribal house and a bit of trance too.
I Atomic at The Temple. 1 1pm—3am. £7 (£5). 9 Oct and fortnightly. With the sad demise of The Honeycomb in Edinburgh many corking nights were left without a home, including Atomic Baby, which we now see appearing over here, losing the ‘baby’, baby. Residents are the same though with the super tight hard house duo of Michael Kilkie and Zammo firing out the tunes.
I Bennet's 11.30pm—3am. £6 (£5). Weekly. Gay. DJ Sara with a good dancey mix downstairs that’s a bit heavier than her Wednesdays, plus DJ Grant Duff on the upper floor playing more handbaggy house.
I Bonkers at Bonkers. 11pm—3am. £5 after midnight; £4 before. Weekly. Club classics at this after-office hang-out with residents David Campbell and Nobble Whitelaw.
I Budda at Bar Budda. 8pm—midnight. Free. Weekly. Pre-club. Solemusic’s Stevie for garage, deep house and dancin on the tables.
I Business As Usual at The Apartment. 11pm—3am. £8. Weekly. Funky house and disco. Check out the new era at the Apartment with more relaxed door policy, credible music spread and generally less stiffness. Gutties are now encouraged which shows just how much they’ve loosened up their attitude.
I The Cathouse 10.30pm-3am. £4 (£3.50) £2.50 before 11.30pm. Weekly. Three floors of rock, grunge, contemporary indie and indie dance, in one of the best rock venues in the country.
I Classic FM at Fury Murry’s. lem—3am. £6 (£4). Weekly. Club classics and party tunes in the main room with DJs Jim Downie and Sean Webster plus a more indie slant upstairs.
I Club 69 at Rocksy’s Basement. 10pm-2.30am. £5. Weekly. Martin, Wilba and Barrie of dance record shop Rub-A-Dub playing the best and deepest from the underground. Even though it’s in the function room of an Indian restaurant, it consistently finds its way into the best clubs in the country polls. Check with the guys at the shop (400 6967) for the latest low down, including whether they’re doing a bus out to Paisley tonight.
I Colours at The Arches. 10pm-4am. £15. 9 Oct and monthly. Here we go with another Colours spectacular, this month including Dave Pearce (off the radio), Darren Emerson (off of Underworld) and Phats and Small (off their heads). Joining this quartet of quality entertainment are the residents Jon Mancini and Iain ‘Boney’ Clark and thousands of Colours regulars. See Hit list.
I Cross Wired at The Cross bar. 8pm—midnight. Free. Weekly. Funked-up house and techno from those knights on the round tables.
I Cul De Sat: at Cul De Sac Bar. 9pm—midnight. Free. Weekly. Pre-club. Soma’s Jim Hutchison (well he works in the office anyway) with deep house and funky techno.
I Divine at Glasgow School Of Art (downstairs). lOpm-late. £3.50 (£2.50 GSA students). Weekly. Andrew Divine and Hush Puppy with real deal Northern soul, Hammond grooves. bubblegum pop, wah-wah funk, Moog power and chemical breakbeats now celebrating their ninth birthda this week. See Phactfile.
I Fire ird at Firebird. 8.30pm—midnight. Free. Weekly. Pre- club. DJs Marco and Norse Ned from Nimbus/Polar Polar Productions playing for beer and pizza.
I Free Form at The 13th Note Club (both floors). 9pm—3am. £3 (free before 10.30pm). Weekly. Steven and Paul Watt bring on two floors of more Latiny grooves. I Fruitfly and Under The Duvet at The Arches. 10pm—4am. £15. I6 Oct only. Special fundraising extravaganza for the Names Project (AIDS memorial quilt) featuring a quite staggering line-up. Top of the bill are Jon Pleased Wimmin and Anne Savage joined by DJ 0, Stevie ‘Sole’ Middleton, DJ Van Bellen and the Fruitfly residents. Then there‘s massage, fortune-telling, makeovers and the Sativa Drummers too. This is a night very definitely not to be missed. See Hit list. I The Garage at The Garage. 10pm—3am. £6 (£4); £1 off before llpm. Weekly. Big, brash and unashamedly happy to put the good time party groove into your Saturday night with a wide spread of commercial anthems in the main room and indie inspiration upstairs. I Firehorse Foundations at Bacchus Basement. 9pm~lam. £3 Tickets must be bought in advance from Bacchus, Virgin Argyle St of Fopp Bytes Rd. 16 Oct and monthly. New pre-club celebrating talent on the Firehorse DJ roster with the first night featuring Shu Hirata from Yang and The CuI De Sac and Fenetik’s Sidewinder influenced by jazzy drum & bass and harder hip hop.
I Graduate Club at g2. 11pm—3am. £4 (£3). Weekly. New night aimed at the kind of people who used to enjoy a night out at The Cotton Club in 89 or Fury’s 93, figure they’re a tad too old for the Garage, but don’t fancy staying in with the Horlicks and slippers. DJ Steve Davis mixing up all the classics.
I Groovejet at Trash. IIpm—3am. (£7) £5. Weekly. Dressy, slightly older (as in not just out of nappies) crowd with house and garage in the main room from DJ brother team Mathew and Peter, and soul, swing and R&B in the second room from Paul N’Jie.
I Home Cookin' at Babaza. 6pm—3am (DJs from 11pm). £5 (free before 11pm). Weekly. Pumping mix from Jamie Strang; funk, rare groove and hip hop and generally music of black origin.
I Kenny H at Russell’s Cafe Bar. 9pm—midnight. Free. Weekly. Pre-club. Soul and funky house from Kenny H.
I Knucklehead Presents My Machines at Glasgow School OfArt (upstairs). lOpm—Iate. £4 (£3.50); £2.50 GSA students. Weekly. A night of the pure and true underground funk technology from Jilkes and Hatch, their musical creativity ripping the roof off the art school for four years now.
I Living Room at The Living Room. 8pm—midnight. Free. Weekly. Pre-club. New York Alliance’s Colin Walker playing a deep house set.
I Love Boutique at Alaska. 11pm—3am. £8. 9 Oct and monthly. The legendary mixed night continues with residents DJ Roy upstairs with hard house. plus Kev and Mark downstairs with a more soulful set. Added attractions of massage, side shows and weird goings on.
I Polo Lounge at The Polo Lounge. 10.30pm—3am. £5. Weekly. Gay. The bar upstairs is open until 3am, while downstairs DJ Ina plays a camp mix of housey faves,anthems and the Trophy Room with Andy for 805 pop, punk and new wave. The Polo Lounge operates as a bar before all club nights with free entry before club starts.