Laurent Garnier

Laurent Garnier – Live Booth Sessions
(Live improvisation & DJ set)

Get your tickets here: https://www.concorde2.co.uk/bookTickets.php?pageName=Laurent+Garnier+&dateTime=2010-11-12

Straight from the Concorde’s website:

Hold tight for possibly the biggest electronic music gig in Brighton this season, starring the mighty Laurent Garnier supported by a one off coming together of DJs from Stompa Phunk, one of the longest running and best loved parties in Brightons clubbing history . Between 1998 and 2009, Stompa Phunk delivered some of the most memorable sessions this town has ever seen every Friday for over a decade at Funky Buddha and Audio, bringing numerous legends of house and techno to town week in, week out. And out of all those who came to play, Laurent Garnier was arguably the biggest and best of all and certainly the unanimous favourite of the SP team.

Dance music royalty doesnt come much higher than Laurent Garnier, and we are honoured to announce this exclusive Brighton gig with his current Live Booth Sessions project. Working live with collaborators Scan X (a techno legend in his own right) and newcomer Benjamin Rippert Rocco, the trio rework Laurents original tracks in real time, incorporating fully improvised jams with Laurents peerless DJing. Already a highlight of festivals the world over, it goes without saying that this rare UK gig is absolutely not to be missed.

From early days hanging out at the Hacienda to his current role as worldwide ambassador for house techno, electronica and club music in pretty much all its forms, Laurent Garnier has earned a reputation as one of the finest dance musicians and DJs of all time. Famed for his 6,8, even 12 hour sets, he spins everything from the freshest undergound house to classic techno, soul, and even drum n bass, while his extraordinary productions (including classics such as Acid Eiffel) have earned him the respect of not only the staunch underground but the wider club world, too.

More recently, hes been touring in support of his epic Tales of a Kleptomaniac album, and his latest project, the Live Booth Sessions, sees him join forces with Scan X and Benjamin Rippert Rocco for a next level DJ-live-jam show of typically astounding proportions.

Stompa Phunks veteran residents and regulars count among their number some of the most respected names in electronic music today, including Radio Slave, Serge Santiago, Evil Nine, Kenny Hawkes, David Parr, Tula and more lesser known but equally devoted house and techno fanatics. The full line-up is being kept under wraps for now but be assured that a crack squad of SP faves old and new are primed and ready to hit Brighton once again..

www.laurentgarnier.com

12/11/10

Photo by Marek Richter

Feeling dirt poor, broken and a bit SAD?

There’s always at least one night that comes along in January, just when you thought ‘I’m not going out for at least another two pay cheques’ and ‘I really should rest up/drink less/stop blacking out’ and by the end of the month all of resolutions you made on the 1st seem stupid and pointless. It’s time to go out.

On 23 January, BLACKBOX have pulled together a night of dirty bass music that won’t break the bank – 3 quid before midnight down at the Concorde 2.

DJing on the night is the legendary Phil Hartnoll (Orbital), who’s apparently taken a break from gigging since the band re-formed last year.

In Room 1, there’s Coin operated Records founder Mustard Gunn playing bass heavy wonky techno,  Sicknote resident, techno anarachist Sketchy Steve, and BlackBox residents Tony Montana and Jiminy Clackett.

In Room 2, it’s all about the psy-trance, hosted by Wonkay Music, with DJs Hugoblin, Dez, Hugo Nation, DMT, and Kayaman.

They say:

Complete club transformation
Lazer and Light show
Massive soundsystem
Cheap Drinks deals all night

Saturday 23 January 2010, 11pm – 4am Concorde 2, Madeira Drive, Brighton

£3 Advance tickets – only available online at www.concorde2.co.uk
On the night : £3 Before midnight, £5 After

Breakestra

A rainy Sunday night in November may not seem the ideal time for a storming bundle of funk and soul but no surprises really that the fine men from Playgroup did not disappoint.  Arriving windswept and drenched is not the way I would have chosen to begin my evening, but nonetheless, the Concorde was bordering on full, and fiery support from The Impellers and Brighton based The Grand Majestic soon had the place getting their soggy feet into gear.

The main event opened up with front man Miles Tackett on the microphone, whose vocals sit not uncomfortably next to those of any soul singer worth mentioning, which is not unimpressive, considering he’s a nice white boy from LA.  The raw groove continued unbroken as guest vocalist ‘Aphrodite’ took to the stage, where she remained, shakin’ her ass, for the next hour and a half.

The California based group set themselves apart from other ‘funk and soul orchestras’, largely by completely eradicating all the gaps from their set.  The endless parade of seamless funk largely consisted of breaks from their latest release ‘Dusk till Dawn’ but also included homages to songs from every great era of funk and soul music including James Brown, Sam and Dave and even (rather unexpectedly) Johnny Cash.

The sheer stamina that the band demonstrated on all fronts was stunning, playing for well over an hour and a half non-stop, with blistering solos, ceaseless groove and constant grin-inducing hip swinging led by the unbelievable Aphrodite.  When the evening came to a close amidst a positive sea of desperate desire for more, it was down to drummer Shawn O’Shady to inform us that it was down to the Concorde’s confused licence police calling a halt to proceedings.  I left as soaked in the funk-sweat as I had been by the rain upon my arrival.  Good times.

Words: Jon Waller

It was about 3 years ago when Brighton last had a taste of Peaches’s own blend of electronica. The now defunct Chaos Rocks had her down for a DJ set along with Erol Alkan. She threw in live performances of a few of her songs, “My dumps” being the most memorable, and is now back to do a full on live show. It sure has been a long wait!

This one’s gonna be a tough one too – taking place on a work night and costing a stonking £17.50.

We have noticed a rise in Brighton’s event prices and £17 is not out of the ordinary at the moment. Shocking indeed. Even during a recession, the die-hard fans will still fork out the costs no doubt.

Peaches’ last gig at the Concorde in 2006:

http://www.brightonfusion.co.uk/live/2006/03/31/chaos-rocks-peaches-and-erol-alkan-concorde2/

Doors: 8pm  11pm
Tickets: £17.50 + bf in adv

01/09/09

Photos by Marek Richter

Inside out are back for 2009 with a massive underground party, once again taking over the basement at Al Duomo’s. Yeah it feels strange dancing about in a pizza place, but in some way it feels so right. This is clubbing with its best intentions – no stupid VIP queues, not paying a grand for a drink and not having to deal with some coked up promoters on an extra high from their own inflated egos. It’s quite the contrary – great people, free entry, good music and no bullshit. You won’t find any attitudes here. The crowd is a mix of Europeans, music lovers and an array of Brighton’s DJ’s and promoters. You get the English bustling with the Czech’s, Spanish, Polish and whatever types can cram in to this pizzeria.

The venue was opened up on both floors with even the outside terrace turning in to a great smoking area. My only complaint would be the sound system downstairs could have a little more kick; half room is a little acoustically challenged. But remember, you are in a pizza place. I am more and more drawn away from Brighton’s established venues and it’s great to see things being dragged away from the shiny commercialization of clubbing in this town.

Eddie Richards, of Wiggle fame was the main DJ responsible for manning the decks. Eddie is a veteran of the tech-house scene, starting Wiggle 15 years ago, along with Nathan Coles and Terry Francis, in a dark and dirty club on Brixton’s notorious Railton Road.

Wiggle. At the time the UK club scene was in the last throws of the first wave of progressive house and the mainstream was dominated by cheesy handbag house. Wiggle was an antidote to all of that. It was something different, something new and something I, and others like me who had become so disillusioned with what acid house had been reduced to, could automatically relate to.

Said Dave Mothersole of the night. If you want to experience more of what Wiggle is about then you’re in luck. You only have to wait 1 week for the whole wiggle crew to be down at the Concorde with their 15 years of Wiggle Tour. They will joined by Brighton’s main free party institution – Positive sounds. So get your diaries out, jot it down and see you down there.

12►

Back Room Grooves feat:

Leo & Russ
Mike De Courcy & Mark Allister
Rammy & Matt

Fifteen years ago at a small beaten up, dark and dirty club on Brixton’s notorious Railton Road a true club land legend was born. Wiggle. At the time the UK club scene was in the last throws of the first wave of progressive house and the mainstream was dominated by cheesy handbag house. Wiggle was an antidote to all of that. It was something different, something new and something I, and others like me who had become so disillusioned with what acid house had been reduced to, could automatically relate to. I can still remember the flyer to that first party, printed in bright lurid pink it had the Wiggle logo in yellow accompanied by that all important strap line, House Rhythms. Sexy, cheeky and full of motion the name and sparse design suggested excitement and exclusivity. With no address given you had be in the know to be there, but once through the door it was all about different groups of people coming together. Right from the off Wiggle was more than just a party, it was a club in the real sense of the word. Something people felt a part of.

From those humble beginnings Wiggle went on to throw monthly parties across south London in a series of increasingly unusual locations. Goldsmiths College, an old night club once owned by the Kray twins, a converted pub by the river Thames and countless warehouses spaces. And from the first night onwards the music has always been controlled by Wiggle’s three residents; Terry Francis, Nathan Coles and Eddie Richards. Playing a sparse, striped down mixture of tough garage dubs, lush electronics and super deep vocal tracks they created a new style of house music. A style that rejected the frivolous, cheesy aspects of club music and concentrated almost exclusively on the groove. Drum rolls were banished and break downs mixed right over as bass lines and beats were pushed to the for front to become the stars of the show. It was all about those “house rhythms” and it was a sound that quickly became know as tech house.

Since those early days tech house has spread from the dusty south London warehouses were it was born, right across the world to become a major club land force. In fact it’s grown so big and gone though so many changes that a lot of what is now called tech house bears little if any resemblance to the sound that Terry, Nathan and Eddie first forged back in the mid nineties. Not that this is of any concern to them. They’ve just carried on doing what they’ve always done, taking on new influences along the way whilst always managing to keep their core sound intact. Terry’s weekly residency and Wiggle’s bi-monthly night at what is often called the world’s best club, Fabric is now in it’s 9th year, and all three of them continue to travel the globe independently, week in week out pushing that Wiggle vibe. And now that the minimal sound that’s dominated club land for the last few years is fading away and a back to basics approach to house music is coming back, Wiggle style grooves are set to take centre stage once again. Fifteen years on it’s still all about those wonderful ‘house rhythms’.

Words by Dave Mothersole

Doors: 11pm
Tickets: £7 + bf (adv)

www.myspace.com/wigglelondon
www.myspace.com/djnathancoles
www.myspace.com/eddierichards

02/05/09

Imagine all of last year’s festival dressing up box mixed with pink cheeks, glitter, crazy shambolic live klezmer-loving bands and throw it all into Concorde 2 and you basically have Playgroup.

This Saturday, the night presents Cuban Brothers . Cuban Brothers sound a bit like watching drag kings performances , but I’m sure this makes for fun fare on an evening like tonight and I hear they actually are funny. Don’t miss them!

Also playing live are7-piece gypsy swing Manjinga 7, Junkyard Scientists, Kry Wolf/Dad Disco DJs, Them DJs, and a Backroom Bazaar in the furthest reaches of the club.

Saturday 11th April 2009, Concorde 2, 11pm-4am, advanced tickets from C2 box office, Resident Records or £12 on door

They say:

Come celebrate Easter weekend with us, Cuban style! After hosting some of the best parties the world has ever seen, we kickstart the summer early with out usual mix of great music, amazing DJs and plenty of silly dancing, games, decor, hugs and bubbles, mojitos, rum and rhumba! Join the revolution now!

Take your binoculaurs, dress appropriately (fancy dress) and don’t forget your free massage.

De La Soul are nothing short of extraordinary. They have successfully kept people dancing since the 80’s and continue releasing fresh hip hop records to this day. After last year’s excellent appearance at Brighton’s own Beachdown festival, the guys return to Brighton for the festival’s warm up party.

With a new album also set to drop in 2009, expect classics mixed in with new unheard material. A real treat. 

BIO: De La Soul, a Grammy Award-winning hip hop group from Amityville, New York are best known for their eclectic sampling and quirky, surreal lyrics. Formed in high school, they have gone from strength to strength, with their colorful, neo-psychedelic collage of samples and styles, clever rhymes and goofy humor. With their debut album release in 1989 of 3 Feet High and Rising which brought with it playful wordplay, innovative sampling, and witty skits and was hailed as a hip-hop masterpiece, being voted Album of the Year by NME Magazine, a title better known for its taste in guitar-based music.

www.beachdownfestival.com
www.myspace.com/delasoul
www.delasoulonline.com

12/06/09

Photo by Marek Richter

Luckily for us, Brighton has enough clubs and bars to give yourself serious liver problems for life. Well, maybe not so lucky for the liver, but great for your social life. You’d think in a financial crisis our venues would be doing all they can in these digital days to get in new business. From what we have seen online, this really isn’t the case.

With the days of print publicity a thing of the past, promoters and clubs can focus their marketing attentions online, pumping the savings back into what’s important – offering a greater experience for the punters.

Running a profile on a social networking, be it Facebook, Bebo or Twitter, etc… is free, and these days is an invaluable marketing resource. The problem is if promoters and club owners leave these avenues to run stagnant they are in some way shooting themselves in the foot. It doesn’t exactly grab your attention. You would think during a time when money is tight, more work would be put in to getting these free systems up and working positively.

The problem even sometimes stretches to the venues’ own websites. The Ocean Rooms, for example, rarely updates its own website. This is a clear example of complete incompetence on a marketing level. You have a website, a direct representation of what you do – you should be showing off your events and reeling people in, not sitting back and waiting. Clubs need to fight for business and not take such a lackadaisical approach and expect people to stroll through the door.

The internet is full of event directories and none of these are kept current by the majority of Brighton clubs. Take Ents24 or electronic music magazine Resident Advisor, to name just a few. These are sites with masses of hits – if kept up to date they could make a real difference to a venue’s financial books

The Concorde is a great example of a venue which is proactively marketing itself. The website is always current and various profiles are up to date. Audio has a good presence on sites such as Facebook, yet has in the past struggled with updates on its own website. On the other hand it seems the Ocean Rooms is trying to not market itself as a main player at all. What is the thought process here? “If you book them, they will come” doesn’t cut it. 

Brighton’s inhabitants are picky, and the competition between venues is tight. If venues cannot be bothered to keep listing resources up to date, then they are casting aside a large amount of potential paying customers.

Venues! Use the internet for your own benefit; implement some Search Engine Optimization tactics, monitor and respond to the results. Of course, many other factors come in to play when running a club but to overlook things that are free can’t be wise. 

Remember, it’s not 1994 anymore! Keeping your online presence current is not hard to do: Google your club or events, this is exactly what potential new customers would do.

Matt Mixes

As Brighton Fusion dips its toe into the online social networking of Twitter, it has lent the opportunity to reach out to the masses and really engage in this web 2.0 carry on. So, thank you to Matt following a shout out that we need YOU has sent in a “progressive funky electro” mix to ease us all back into the week.

Matt was first introduced to the music of the growing club scene at the tender age of 14 by his older sister, but it was two years later, when he finally got his hands on a pair of turntables, that his obsession for electronic music really kicked off.

After setting up regular club nights in Brighton and winning a few DJ competitions, Matt started to attract a bit of attention. Nearly ten years later, he played at clubs across Europe and the US including CafÈ Alma in St Pete, Florida and Kanya on Ibizaís sunset strip. More recently Matt’s bookings have included supporting Danny Howells at Ministry of Sound and various venues across London, Brighton and the South Coast.

The latest mix is an upbeat, colourfull mixture of where he is currently at musically, slipping through various flavours of house with the odd dip into breakbeat.

Find the mix here:

After some issues with the link expiring… here it is again! Blimey, technology is quite mardy sometimes.

http://tinyurl.com/d3laqd

If you like what you hear, you can catch him keeping things happy in room 2 @ Concorde, Brighton, alongside LTJ Bukem, Fabio & Grooverider this Easter Thursday 9th April.

Follow Matt on Twitter here: Twitter.com/slipmatt

Be Matts myspace buddy here: www.myspace.com/mattmathesonmusic
Contact Matt here: matt.matheson@gmail.com

Spread the word, we need you, your nights, your mixes, your love.

Word, the Fusion Team x