TECH-TRANCE CONCEPT The Venue, Edinburgh, Fri 8 Mar
The Venue has been through a few managers, a fair few scheduling changes and a hell of a lot of turbulence lately. The cornerstone of its mission to reclaim Friday nights is fortnightly tech-trance night Concept. Promoter Scott Pearce thinks the club is finally heading in the right direction.
‘lnitially it was really rubbish and we were going to move elsewhere,’ says Pearce. ‘Then it got taken over by Stuart and Lloyd [Mackinnon and McDermott, who run the venue with Mike Templeton] and since then it’s been brilliant. They’ve done everything they said they were going to do. There’s great new soundsystems on the top two floors and the Cooler’s got the old equipment, which is more than enough for a small room.’
Concept has gone a long way since it started two short years ago as Cerotonin, a midweek bash at Wilkie House. Cerotonin moved to The Venue when Wilkie House closed its doors, and this date is the first under the new Concept banner. The old name was scrapped because the venue and the night were keen to distance themselves from its drug connotations.
‘When we started out we went with Cerotonin because of the idea of enhancing the senses, because of the head massages and so on that we had in the club,’ says Pearce. ‘We’ll still be doing that, but the Venue wanted to push us and didn’t want people inferring that the night was about drugs.’
Germany’s Thomas Schumacher is headlining the birthday celebrations. The 29-year-old started out playing pop and indie in his home town of Bremen before founding the NIP collective, who span breakbeat and acid house. Since their split in 95 he has turned increasingly to techno, releasing acclaimed tracks like ‘When I Rock’ and ‘Schall’ and DJing across the world. This, surprisingly, will be his first time in Scotland.
In a world where many DJs are about as well-read as
German techno DJ Thomas Schumacher
your average porpoise, Schumacher is a cheerful
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RADIO STATION FORTH ONE
It's been all change at Edinburgh- based radio station Forth One recently. The changes began with the separation of what was Forth FM into Forth One and Forth Two with a marked change of programming following in hot pursuit.
These programming alterations were rolled out in the multiple shapes of ex- Hacienda resident Graeme Park. Scottish tech-trance veteran and Sublime resident Kev Wright and trance don Trevor Reilly, most recently known for his now defunct show on Beat 106 and his ever popular residency at Privilege in Glasgow.
It seems that the times are a- changin'. and not to be left in the pits. FOrth One have cranked their machine into first gear. 'I think the mainstream is changing.‘ says station boss Richard Wilkinson. ‘To use a stock cliche. dance is the new pop. The best selling acts of the year may well have been people like Shaggy. but if you look at
70 THE LIST 28 Feb—14 Mar 2002
anomaly, having scored the soundtrack to a production of Hamlet. ‘It took three months. We sat in this tiny room with no windows, the rehearsal tapes and a VCR, and tried to come up with stuff. When I finally went to Bonn to see the performance, they had installed a full- on soundsystem in the theatre and it really worked. But no, no one was dancing.’
That shouldn’t be a problem at Concept. Schumacher is aiming to keep the floor moving with an eclectic set. ‘In the early 905, techno was sexy and cool,’ he explains, ‘but in the last few years it has become more of a guy thing, especially with clubs just playing full-on banging techno. I prefer it when it’s funky and diverse. And I’m a big fan of bass.’ He’s not the only one. (James
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Radio jock Trevor Reilly plays ‘all kinds of dance music’
who's getting the most airplay it was the likes of Ian Van Oahl and Roger Sanchez. and most stations are embracing that'
The expanSion of FOrth One's dance music content is set to continue With a second weekend show for Trevor Reilly when he fronts the Friday evening 7—lOpm slot. going on air on the opening evening in March. So what can Friday pre-club listeners expect from this seasoned spinner?
Trevor Reilly unfolds his battle plan: 'I play all kinds of dance mUSIC. though I w0uldn't play a lot of that filter disco pish. Really. anything from proggy house to German trance and right up to hard techno.' It seems that Forth One Will have even more dance flavoured nuggets for its listeners to tuck in to soon. (Dave Allan) I Forth One broadcasts in East Central Scot/and on 97..)F/V7
clubs@list.co.uk
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WORLD DJ DAY? IT'S A beautiful thing. DJs. promoters and venues across the globe make the selfless sacrifice of donating their fees and revenues on or around Saturday 9 March to a joint fund that's then divvied out to various children's charities. in the UK. the main beneficiary wrll be Nordoff Robbins MUSIC Therapy and big name DJs on board include Pete Tong, Roger Sanchez and Danny Tenaglia to name but a few. Club nights and venues in Scotland contributing to the fund include: Lit. Joy. lvlingin'. Luvely. Behave’?. Audio Deluxe. 3 Sisters. Peppermint LOunge. Bar Oz. Biblos. Opal LOunge. the Beat Jazz Basement and Beluga (Edinburgh) and Quanta (Glasgow). Well done Glasgow. WHILE THE IRONY OF having young people, many of whom take drugs, raising cash for drugs for young people is not lost in all this, sick kids in Scotland are set to benefit further from The Fun Clubbers’ Calendar. Edinburgh venue, Ego, and its club night The Fun have produced a highly attractive calendar, running from March 2002 to March 2003 and featuring ‘comedy’ portraits of Edinburgh DJs. Photographer to the stars, Reuben Paris, has taken the pictures and done a peach of a job as we can see from the stylish portrait of Taste DJ Mark Price (pictured). The calendars, priced £5, are on sale now at Underground Solu’shn, the Outhouse and Ripping Records and all proceeds go to the Sick Kids Friends Foundation.
EDINBURGH NU-JAZZ DADDY.
Joseph Malik. Wlli at last be releasing his debut album fOr Compost Records on Tuesday 26 March. Titled Diverse and featuring the promotion talents of DaVId DonneLy aka Dem-asphere. Maiik Will be promoting tne album With DJ dates at the Venue. Edinburgh on Saturday 16 Marcn and Mish Mash at the Arches. Glasgow on Saturday. 20 April.