Photos by Marek Richter
Having spoken to Adams management before hand, on entry the hard working Ocean Rooms lady firmly tells us Adam does not want any flash photography, and close up shots are not allowed. A bit odd I hear you gasp, a few words with Adam and the go ahead is in place – we can work like normal. Arriving at around 11:30, in classic Ocean Room’s style the tills were out of order. Shuffle, check the list and huddle inside. Downstairs we find what can only be described as a “Jack Osborne” look-a-like warming up the already growing crowd. It’s at this point when something hits me as a miss, looking through the small entangled crowd I could clearly see a rather munted Dave, 303TillIdie, throwing shapes and in-depth B’boy moves on the dance floor. So munted infact that the man had to even retire from the night – choosing his own bed for salvation. My lord, only if he knew the dramas which where to unfold. Mate, you should have drunk the water I got you.
Chatting to the DJ’s I could not find out whose night this was, someone tell me who was the promoter or was it an in-house promotion from the Ocean Rooms themselves? The DJs did not know, and no one seemed to be around to monitor the night and keep structure. All staff a bit confused, the night went on.
Adam comes on after a few warm up drinks with his brother. Makes his way into the DJ booth – entourage clutching a large jug of some suspicious looking cocktail. From the outset there seemed to be a few technical flaws with the sound system. I’m afraid to say it but where was the bass? The speakers at the front did not provide nearly enough power to fuel on a heavily bass driven set. Not exactly what a DJ needs when he gets in to the booth! A little investigation and the word on the street is the Ocean Rooms have had many complaints from the neighbours about sound levels, maybe forcing them to keep things slightly more conservative. Frankly if this is the case something, somewhere, somehow drastically needs to change. We want more bass, bit of a let down.
Once over the lack of punch Adam gets stuck in. He played a varied mix of tracks ranging from his signature produced tracks like the door’s “hello, I love you” (Freeland rip) to Fischerspooner’s – “Kick in the Teeth”. Not a track I wasn’t expecting to hear in such an environment. But nice, well executed and perfectly received from a crowd more then eager to move in, out and around the breaks genre. Something that really offsets Adam from many of the Nu-skool breaks regulars.
To my despair a bottle of vodka was snatched out of my grubby paws by lady Ocean Rooms. Yet to make the situation worse, Freeland’s bottle of vodka then smashed to the floor in a last move to make drinking a no go. But we shall never despair; time to hit the wine.
We leave the Ocean Rooms at around 5:30 or maybe 6 and panic about finding a late night boozer. We head to the murky streets of Kemp town and find our selves in the homo-erotic paradise that is the Bulldog. Puckering up some heterosexual confidence we mingle and take advantage of the 24 hour licence, revelling till some god awful time. This is where the night takes a turn for the worse, a bottle of wine is purchased and the next thing I remember is finding myself swimming half way up the pier and a life guard cannoning past to see if we are okay. The water was surprisingly warm, must be all the piss.
As you can tell, when Freeland plays you don’t miss it. Well, unless you are a horrendously drunk socialite called Dave.
A quick note from Adam Freeland’s management: He will not be playing the Suicide salon at the Ocean Rooms on Sunday the 4th of June. Must be a miss-print. Thanks
The Ocean Rooms
http://www.oceanrooms.co.uk/
1-2 Morley St
Brighton,
BN2 9RA
01273 699069
info@oceanrooms.co.uk
Words: Marek the Czech
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