Vinyl Club, Thank you! You’ve literally restored my faith in new, fresh approaches and attitudes in the music scene!! Really, really loved everything about this ace new venture by Kiri and Kostas, the twins behind the Rhythmatic project. Rhythmatic being dubbed one of London’s most exciting and realest warehouse events (agreed by Mr Marco Carola himself) meant that the newest born, Vinyl Club HAD to reflect it’s big sister’s style.
After just rounding off my summer having spent the best part of 6 months in Ibiza and then following the beats to The Netherlands & Amsterdam Dance Event for a massive chunk of musical nourishment to break the fall from leaving Ibiza nicely, I had been findin it hard to dance my way back into the London scene (maybe it’s the cloudy Amnesia haze that I’m lost in, blurrin’ my view of London) but I just wasn’t feeling that anything new was brewing. Vinyl Club reignited my passion for London with it’s music (of course), venue AND attitudes and for me, brought back the ‘London buzz’ into my wee beat filled life and I’m delighted about it!!
Where do I start… Well I could start by saying there’s a first for everything… and I’ve just danced to some lovely music in a shipping container for the first and definitely not last time!! But I’ll get to that! OK, so the concept of Vinyl Club is a vinyl only (obvs!) terrace session to welcome new and undiscovered talents of the vinyl world to showcase their music alongside the residents and also guest sets at every session, experiment with their skills and exchange records as well as more well know DJ’s being invited along to guide new artists and perform at the Vinyl Club events. in the awesome new place PoP Brixton which is a recently made complex – like a South London version of Shoreditch’s Boxpark but better in my eyes – in fact it seems the quirky South is becoming the new East! It’s built from old shipping containers, stacked to make a fortress of street food, music and design with a vibrant look and feel.
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Vinyl Club graced one of the larger iron containers in the corner of the fortress. The use of the space was spot-on. As a place that you’d never imagine being used as a music venue it was a really really cool, unexpected surprise! The ceilings being pushed through the built up iron blocks to allow them to be so insanely high meant the place felt like invincible even though it was a boxxed in shipping container – the sound quality is ace!! That was the first thing I noticed when I arrived. Me being a vinyl-lover it gave me a funny feeling hearing that softer, more organic sound of vinyl (although still with a cushty bass) rolling round the metal sides. Perfect.
The line-up of the first vinyl serving straight from the turntables was a back2back session of hand-picked london talents Jasmin B2B Nat Wendell, Paul Gardener B2B Conor White, Benny Brown B2B Mathieu Mirande and Chaz Beazli B2B Chrissy Hope. I arrived at about 6pm and was instantly buzz from the sounds and the mix of people – all loving the vinyl vibes! It was a real feel-good party where everyone wanted to get involved and know who was who!! The residents took their victories behind the decks playing their sets of really nice, flowing house and techno, sometimes with a twist if they felt like it. Luckily for us Vinyl Club loyals, now we’ll get to hear more of these specials on rotation (Chrissy Hope being next session’s resident returner!).
The dancing space was ideal, even though the venue filled up at a steady pace, there was always room to flex my moves – and everyone knows I like my space to dance!! I mixed it up a little, getting lost in the groove up the front of the dance floor until I lost track of where I was and then takin’ a mini-break to have some banter and chats with the people enjoyin the beats from the outskirts of the concrete floor and iron-clad ‘room’. Above the turntables there’s some built-in windows that people in the container above can see down into the dancin’ space and proving how good a time every one was having and how inviting our dance moves clearly were, the people lookin down at us were part of the Vinyl Club crowd in no time! High five to them! Awesome!! Every single person I had the pleasure of chatting to at Vinyl Club was passionate about music, they had it in their blood it seemed – a proper melting-pot of music lovers!!
As the night intensified and happy faces covered the room, the huge heavy metal doors of the container were sealed shut, locking out any light out while closing us beat -lovers in and amplifying the music, transforming the venue into a real underground, mini-warehousey feel. Hands were in the air and that bassy vinyl music couldn’t have fitted the mood better. It’s this sort of energy that reminds me that music is the fuel for happiness, for some people anyway. Now bring those people together and what you’ll imagine is exactly the mood at Vinyl Club, injected with sounds that you wont hear anywhere else…
It doesn’t stop here! Off the back of the actual events there’ll be a whole world of Vinyl lovers and experts coming together to host talks and presentations from different areas of the industry for guidance, advice and people sharing wisdom on things like how to get your own music out there, record label and production tips and more. Also, for every session there will be guest slots and opportunities for people of all levels of spinnin’ the vinyl to share their love. Plus, following the concept of sharing the love for music, entry is FREE before 7pm and a cheeky wee fiver after – none of your crazy club prices!
Vinyl Club really did bring together the North, East, South and West of London in a way that you never really see in this city with it’s pockets of music love in all it’s corners that seem so far away from each other. Very nicely done VC – you left a whole lotta people very happy! Next up December 4th I’ll be back in that trusty container for some grooves. Although I really can’t wait til summer starts to shimmer onto us for the Vinyl Club sessions on PoP Brixton’s roof terrace!
