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| Feel |
Date: 30th
November 2002
Address: Feel, Union Square, Flyde Road,
Preston
Occurrence: Fortnightly
/ Saturday
Hours: 9.30pm 3am
Ticket Price: £9
NUS / £12 Others
Dress
Code: TBC
Genre: TBC
Capacity:
TBC |
Main Room:
Nick Warren, Da Mentalistz, George Thompson
Back Room: Funktion |
Feel, in Preston, is run in conjunction
with the University of Central Lancashire's Students
Union and is widely regarded as one of the better
nights in the North-West. Top-name headlining DJs
and good crowds are regularly drawn by the fortnightly
parties, and for good reason the venue boasts a
large amphitheatre-style main room, with tiered
levels climbing to the DJ booth in the middle. The
smaller back room is found through the club's bar.
Not having been to Feel for a good six months, anticipation
was high as we prepared for the night in Base, the
pre-club bar situated just down the road. Highly
rated resident George Thompson was manning the decks
when we arrived just after half ten; Nick Warren
was set to play the closing two and a half hours
from twelve thirty 'til three.
After getting some drinks inside us in the bar and
listening to the early part of back-room residents
Da Mentalistz' set, we went in the main room to
check out George's set. Varying from vocal progressive
house to dirtier beats and breaks, the music was
banging from the off - the sound system, newly installed
since our last visit, sounded pretty good, though
not up to the standards of benchmarks Sankeys and
Fabric.
As we got the groove on at the top of the tiers,
Feel looked emptier than normal the fact that you
can now get tickets at the door rather than only
in advance seemed to mean that the crowd consisted
less of true clubbers. This may explain the surprising
lack of the typical Feel atmosphere the area to
either side of the booth is normally heaving by
the end of the night, but tonight it seemed somewhat
bare.
Still, George played a consistently good set before
Nick Warren took to the decks. The Way Out West
DJ lived up to expectations, with the mood characterised
by driving beats and tough tunes. Often played as
the closing tune at Feel, he dropped Mory Kante's
Ye Ke Ye Ke half an hour from the end. This got
the crowd going more than anything else throughout
the night even the mostly sedentary flanks of the
main room were on their feet for this one. Warren's
set was as professionally pulled off as expected
with his live performance outstretching his studio
mixes which never seem to reflect his presence like
his club sets.
Overall the night at Feel was a good
one, though undermined by the lack of crowd and
atmosphere: while Nick Warren was playing I asked
George Thompson how he thought the night was going
and he too complained that it seemed unusually empty
perhaps the fact that the night is closely linked
with the University meant that the end of term work
and money pressures were keeping some of the students
away. While the music was of a high standard, with
everything we've come to expect from the Feel sets,
the normal buzz at the end of the night just wasn't
there. Normally all the clubbers have their hands
in the air for the epic last tune, but as the last
mix came in many were already leaving. |
Venue: 7
Music: 8
Crowd: 4
Sound System: 7
Total: 26 / 40
Rating: Silver Award |
Review written by: Andrew Jeffcoat andy_j@uk-cl.co.uk |
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