Stonelove : Ian Brown // Digital

Over the years I’ve become quite a tough clubber to please, this was possibly one catalyst for the birth of Fusion. When you rigorously trawl yourself from venue to venue, night after night, you start to look at clubs in a slightly different view. A club at the end of the day is there to make money and I personally don’t have much respect for sell outs. A prime example would be Brighton’s Premier; the Honey Club – these guys don’t care about music, they care about dollar bills and Judge Jules playing the same old shit to the same old people. The promoters are stuck in their own anus world of hats, hugs, pretensions and sambuca. It’s this that makes me want to never go clubbing again. Luckily in Brighton we have some hard working, determined venues and promoters too. Audio is one which sticks close to mind! This small 300+ capacity club can kick the buts of anything else in Brighton. The acts are fresh, the atmosphere intense and the punters friendly – with this high standard in mind we went to check out Digital.

The fact that they got Ian Brown down has already shown a great deal of determination from the Digital Management. The man is after all a “Legend”, and it’s surprising to see anyone more northern then Croydon hitting our shores. This without doubt was a night not to miss. The club looks well kitted out, much more professional then the Zap ever could. After a well managed queue session outside we were in. I’m not gonna go on and mumble about the exact layout of the venue, go look at it for yourselves. They obviously listened to people and moved the bar away from the dance floor, this results in a much better use of the space. But frankly who gives a shit… the wining alteration has to be the sound system. The brute force from that Funktion 1 rig is outstanding. An immense change from the crackly wank of the Zap, or poorly configured sound of Union. This truly is a beast of a sound system. Some people even complained of it being too loud?? Personally That’s a touch too far but as an example we couldn’t even set our drinks down on a table without the bass kicking the glasses around. Now all of Brighton shall suffer from tinnitus. You say what?

So we shuffle upstairs to drown a few sorrows as an entourage squeezes past. They run into what used to be the cramped upstairs DJ booth, which was more like the BBC broom cupboard minus Edd the Duck. Ian’s arrived and he’s about to come on. The crowd downstairs is going wild to a frenzy of indeed madness.

Ian Brown and his band lived up to every expectation. As the crowd huddled to the front, swaying and pushing in determination it began the Stone’s classic “I wanna be adored”. He weaved through his set with sheer professionalism and brought the venue to a ruckus its not witnessed for years. We had it all: “Set my baby free”, “Dolphins were monkeys”, “Corpses”, “Time is my everything”, collection of tracks most of us have only marvelled over on CD before. Digital is already leaving its mark on Brighton’s club scene – proving to be so eclectic and putting on a range of diverse nights. As “fear” came on it was all sadly coming to an end, everyone knew this was not a night that comes across often. If a year or 2 ago we said he’s be down playing at the Zap, we surely have been called a bunch of blaggers. Unlike many a forgotten club night, this evening shall be remembered by many.

As Ian leaves the night returns to the Indie formula. Now I might be the only person who doesn’t get Indie nights but I just don’t. I like the cheap drinks but listening to the same tracks over and over again gives me an arse ache. Don’t get me wrong I like Blue Monday, but I don’t feel the need to have it shoved down my neck every time I’m around skinny-jean people. I kind of got bored of it when TSB used it in their marketing years back… “I’m young, I’m cool, I need a cash point whenever, wherever…” No mate, your a cock!

I could be very misguided here (probably am), any DJ who can mix in The Kinks, The Beatles, White Stripes, The Jam, Hot Chip, New Order and Curtis Mayfield together must hold some talent. Then again maybe you could get the same experience with a free CD that came with the Daily Mail. Hmmm. I wonder if they will play any Blondie or Gossip even?

Love Ian Brown – yes.
80’s revival – not so great.

I’m looking forward to going to Digital again at some point. I’m sure the owners with so much investment, thought and backing can succeed. And we all now Digital is not gonna fail, we just hope that they can bring something different to the table and not end up being an alternative to the Honey Club. When Union was around they tried to book slightly different artists… they tried something slightly diverse and failed. Maybe what we are looking for in a perfect club in Brighton is not commercially possible without a change in our inhabitants culture and perspective. We are after all a standard UK beach side town that still needs allot of work. A club like Digital can only make our town better.

Go to Digital.

I’m sure we will see you there.

Digital
http://www.yourfutureisdigital.com

189-192 Kings Road Arches
Brighton
East Sussex
BN1 1NB

info@yourfutureisdigital.com

Words: Marek the Czech

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