Clubs
www.list.co.uk/clubs
‘IT’S GREAT TO SEE SOMEONE PUTTING ON A PROPER HOUSE NIGHT’ Hitlist THE BEST DANCEFLOOR ACTION*
✽✽ Forever Cookin’ Presents Danny Berman, aka Marlinspike and Hot Coins, presents soul remixes and disco edits under his Red Rack’em (pictured) alias. Billy Woods supports. Ivory Black’s, Glasgow, Fri 28 May. ✽✽ Highlife Slabs of the Tabernacle and Huntley & Palmers Audio Club team up to present guests Rebolledo (Comeme) and Capracara (DFA). Stereo, Glasgow, Fri 28 May. ✽✽ Doppelganger New night of copy cat eccentricity where every third track is a cover version. Plus Sir Jimmy Saville hosts the VIP room. It doesn’t get much weirder than that. Electric Circus, Edinburgh, Sat 29 May. ✽✽ Somos Cubanos Night of Cuban culture and music marking the launch of new networking site www.hangingrock.co.uk. Roxy Arthouse, Edinburgh, Sat 29 May. ✽✽ The Wee Chill One of Scotland’s most distinctive and dance-flavoured boutique festivals presents Âme, Dixon, Tensnake, Mark E and a bunch of Glasgow’s best DJs. Queen’s Park Glasshouse, Glasgow, Sat 29 May. ✽✽ Hung Up! The new Optimo- curated Sunday nighter kicks off where the legendary night left off, with Chrome Hoof playing live on 30 May. Sub Club, Glasgow, weekly Sun. ✽✽ Jackhammer Two nights of Jackhammer goodness as the techno night brings you Radioactive Man (Fri) and Rolando (Sat). Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh, Fri 4 Jun; Caves, Edinburgh, Sat 5 Jun. ✽✽ Coloursfest Scotland’s biggest dance festival welcomes Above&Beyond, Sander van Doorn, Dave Pearce, Kissy Sell Out and more over six stages dedicated to trance, techno, house and rave anthems. Braehead Arena, Glasgow, Sat 5 Jun.
Magical mystery tour Fitting in rather nicely with our Festival Special, David Pollock talks to Chicago house night Fiasco as they host another ‘secret location party’
W hen Fiasco’s Ed Marco says his club’s next date in Glasgow is going to be another secret location party, he really means it. Even gentle exhortations to give The List a little off- the-record tip-off are stonewalled. ‘Honestly, I really can’t,’ he says. ‘Not even anyone involved in the club knows. I like to try and keep it a surprise for everyone right up to the last minute.’
Fiasco’s last two annual secret location parties, however, have been at the Queen’s Park Glasshouse and the Glasgow Science Centre, just to give some indication of the possibilities. Although only 200 tickets will be available for those early starters being picked up by bus from Bacchus at 5pm, the party will continue back at the monthly night’s new regular venue after 11pm, the whole evening being emblematic of the kind of event programming that’s guaranteed to catch clubbers’ attention. ‘I’ve been playing jackin’ Chicago house music in my sets for more than a decade now,’ says Marco, ‘but there are far fewer nights which play it in Glasgow now, and it’s rarer that the artists who make it come to the city. So I started Fiasco just to play out this style of music, really, and after six months I began booking guests who played it too.
‘The idea started three years ago, when a bunch of us went to Chicago for a mate’s birthday to a club called Grizzled, which has since stopped [it’s now called Sizzled, and Fiasco namesake Johnny Fiasco was a regular there]. I knew of the night already from this amazing website they had, where they’d put up podcasts of their guest’s sets every month, and we
44 THE LIST 27 May–10 June 2010
expected something massive from it. It w a s phenomenal, but it was also a nice intimate environment of about 150 people, and the guys who ran it were really nice. They had us back to their house for a party. That was a real inspiration.’
It’s an atmosphere Marco has tried to recreate in his previous venues, including the Brunswick Hotel basement and the Admiral, and with the podcasts Fiasco would broadcast every month. One of the earliest of these was a set from Nottingham DJs and producers Inland Knights, who starred at last year’s secret location party and are back for more. ‘It’s a good night,’ says the Knights’ Laurence Ritchie, ‘and it’s always great to see someone trying to put on a proper house night and push the music that they personally enjoy, rather than just packing people in.’ Marco’s enthusiasm, international outlook and online presence have allowed him to subsequently extend the club’s appeal beyond a bunch of like- minded souls in Glasgow: ‘We get guys in Serbia and Romania saying on our Facebook page that they want to come to this event, and messages of support from as far afield as Ecuador and Taiwan. Of course it’s not like they’re all regulars, but we have had people visit the club from Europe and elsewhere in the UK, and it’s all thanks to the impression we give through our website and podcasts. It’s quite phenomenal.’ Arriving from overseas isn’t, however, enough to let you in on the secret venue.
Fiasco at a secret location, Glasgow, Sun 30 May (buses depart from Bacchus)