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| Southport Weekender |
Date:
Friday 9th - Sunday 11th May 2003
Address: Pontins Holiday Centre, Shore Road,
Ainsdale, Southport, Merseyside PR8 2PZ
Occurrence: Twice Yearly
Hours: N/A
Ticket Price: £108
per person
Dress Code: N/A
Genre: See below |
| Arenas:
The Powerhouse - House and Soulful Garage, The Funkbase
- RnB, Soul, Hip Hop and Urban Grooves, Bacardi
BBar - Jazz, Funk, Drum n Bass + Soulful Melodic
Garage, The Connoisseurs Corner - A Quality Selection
of Soulful tunes, The Motel - Smooth grooves from
Sound Architexture DJs |
Southport Weekender
32 was set to be a stormer, with an always amazing
line-up of DJ’s from around the globe and
the formidable Southport party crowd; I found it
very hard to keep my excitement under-raps as I
finished off the mornings work!!! The drive up to
Southport from Birmingham was a bit HEAVY, as it
took 8 hours; this was mainly due to a 1.30 hour
stop off at Asda for the weekends shopping and a
hunt for a few lost bottles of vodka!!!
Driving up the coastal road to Southport at about
8.30 set the scene nicely for the weekend ahead,
the sun was setting and we were already getting
in the mood with a little bit of Gilles Peterson
taped from his World Wide Wednesday radio show.
The hour’s wait outside Pontins wasn't too
bad as we prepared ourselves for the weekend ahead.
Pontins is a bit of a strange place, it's the sort
of holiday camp that you last went to with your
parents in about 1985 and played bingo!!!! The scene
hadn’t changed much since then, but the antics
had, but I was a little disappointed to see that
some of the best DJ's didn't start their sets until
4am, but I could live with that, or so I thought!
First off after a few cheeky Vodka Red Bulls, I
headed off into the room that was to be my home
for the next 3 days, the newly refurbished alternative
room, now sponsored by Bacardi and aptly named the
Bacardi B Bar! First up to wet the appetite was
the original Southport DJ, Snowboy, looking very
like Morrissey with his hair do!, he got the Jazz
dancers doin’ their thin’, while everyone
else looked on in amazement, appreciating their
every move, even if we were all getting covered
in their sweat!!! Snowboy was lovin' the vibe and
so were the crowd! He played a dance floor mix of
Jazz and a few Latin and Brazilian tracks for good
measure. HOT!
Next up was DJ Spinna playing his debut set at Southport
and boy did this man impress, he playing Galaxy
2 Galaxy by Hi Tech jazz along side the vocals of
Errol, Change for me! HEAVY. Osunlade with his very
distinctive facial, African nose piece!!! Played
a cool mix which included one of my favourite tunes
ever, Let it go by Shawn Escoffry (Jazzanova remix).
Next I thought it was time for a little walk around
to soak up the atmosphere, while passing the FunkBase
room I heard a remix of a Blue song !!! So I kept
on walkin’, I popped my head around the Ice
Bar to see what was goin' on as it’s supposed
to be the chill out room, but to my surprise it
was bangin’!
While on my wanders I noticed Norman Jay was everywhere!
I'd seen him DJ'ing’ in 2 separate rooms,
having a bite to eat and general having a good time
and chatting to the masses! His set in the connoisseurs
room was a rare groove treat, with him finishing
on 'It seems to hang on’ by Ashford &
Simpson, unfortunately he though it was the 37th
Southport and not the 32, never mind he has been
to a few! Also I spotted Danny from Hearsay, skinning
up and generally looking a bit batter! Good Lad,
just goes to show you what failed stars get upto
after they've have their day!!!
I caught a bit of Jon Cutler in the Funk Base room,
who played a lot of US Garage, DJ Gregory who's
tune Elle was played by almost every DJ and was
probably the defining tune of Southport 32, also
got an airing by it’s creator, alongside Tropical
Sound Clash and a few other familiar 4 to the floor
beats, while going a little tougher later on!!!
Unfortunately I missed Danny Krivit as he was on
at 4.30am and my staying power had run out! Booooooooooooo,
But I heard he played a hot mix of NY House.
Saturday day I was treated to the soul 2 soul Sound
System with Jazzy B playing an eclectic mix of tunes
in the FunkBase room from 12 - 5 with live PA's,
the only one I can remember is 'Every day is like
a battle’ by ??? Some UK Garage sing??? Anyways
it was HOT and the crowd loved it! Also about the
same time Colin Paterson was rinsing it out in the
B Bar, with an amazing bongo player, the atmosphere
was very Space, Ibiza, daytime raving in the sun,
with the crowd a mixture of fresh faced beauties
and a few casualties from the night before but all
having a good time. I also spend some time on the
beach which is literally 1 minute away from Pontins,
playing Frisbee and sand dune jumping! HEAVY!
Saturday night was set to be a big one, so I decided
to stay in as late as possible to save my energy
for Gilles Peterson at 12.45. Unfortunately our
peace was disturbed at about 11.00 when a deranged
guy burst into our chalet wearing only his pants,
socks and vest !!! he ran straight into our bathroom
unfortunately for him my mate was sitting on the
toilet and calmly asks him to wait! Instead of leaving
us the guy waited until my mate had finished and
then had a very long piss!!! He still never left
and started to rummage through piles of clothing
asking for a shirt??? 15 mins later we managed to
coax him out of our chalet, but we then tripped
out and thought it was an act and that he was casing
the joint to come back and rob us later so we got
all our valuables together and dropped then in the
car!
Once in the B Bar all was calm again and we caught
the end of Toisho Natsuura who was very good and
finished on Moonstarr’s Greed! It was hard
to tell if the next guy was actually Gilles Peterson
as he had a shite goatee beard, the kind normally
reserved for 16 year old kids who don’t really
need to shave! But never mind the facial hair, it's
all about the music, well thats what I kept telling
myself and what was that jazz jacket doing? Anyway
the jazz dancers now made way for the fist pumpers
and mouth woophers!!!! GP played all the classics
that have made him famous and RSL, RUDE! He finished
on Ifrane’s , ‘Just a little lovin’..........TOO
DARK! Vikter Duplaix then took the decks and mixed
up a similar blend but added his own live PA over
some of his own instrumentals. By this point the
place was rammed, I looked around and saw Little
Louie Vega and Kenny Dope AKA Masters at Work, Mr
Scruff and Giles P all shakin their asses next to
me..............HOT!
Phil Asher played a mix of vocal house and Broken
Beat in a lively set which got the amazing B Bar
rockin' once again! I then popped into the main
room to watch Little Louie Vega mix up his usual
bag of tricks to a swelling crowd in the powerhouse.
The power failed at 6.00 in the Connoisseurs Corner,
so I went back to hear Bob Jones last tune Phantasise
by Earth, Wind and Fire, Genius!
The Best Thing about Southport is that it is a very
mixed crowd, you have the R&B heads in the FunkBase
room, the Funky House Massive in the Powerhouse,
the old time soul heads in the Connoisseurs Corner
and finally the leftfield massive hanging out in
the B Bar, my home for the duration, the place with
the most atmosphere, best music and the HEAVIEST
sound system that might even give Plastic Peoples
a run for it's money!
The sun was out from the second we reached Southport
to the minute we left, which left big smiles on
everyone’s faces, the music was spot on, the
atmosphere was amazing as was the sound systems
and the very mixed, multicultural crowd was grooving
together in peace under one roof. What more could
you ask for? HEAVEN! Can't wait for the next one!
Over & Out! Woody. |
Venue: 7
Music: 10
Crowd: 10
Sound System: 10
Total: 37 / 40
Rating: Gold Award |
| Review written by:
Woody |
woody@uk-cl.co.uk |
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