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| The
Redlight |
Date: 25th
January 2003
Address: Sankeys Soap, Jersey Street, Manchester
Occurrence: Weekly / Saturday
Hours: 10pm - 3am
Ticket Price: £10
/ £12 Selected Events
Dress
Code: TBC
Genre: Sleazy dirty house
Capacity:
TBC
View Current Listings: Click
Here |
Main Room:
Krysko, Groove Armada
Upstairs: Bucky and Migs |
For anybody who still doesn't know
the score when it comes to Northern clubbing, or
British clubbing for that matter, you could do a
lot worse than heading to Sankeys at the weekend
to hear sets as good as anywhere in the UK these
days. With line-ups over the early part of this
year including Steve Lawler, Chemical Brothers,
Jon Carter, Danny Howells and Plump DJs to name
but a few, pretty much every night is guaranteed
to go off with the venue, though small in terms
of the gradually dying "superclubs", full
to capacity with knowledgeable and trendy clubbing
sorts. Last time I wrote a review of Sankeys I got
abused by the regulars on the message board for
'only' scoring the night 35 out of 40, but we'll
see how we get on this time.
Groove Armada are one of the big names in dance
music at the moment, with huge sales figures for
their albums worldwide. The prospect of seeing them
at Sankeys was a good one, particularly with their
recent 'Another Late Night' mix giving an indication
of the sort of music they play outside of their
own releases. To say we were looking forward to
it would be an understatement. With the doors opening
at ten, we made our entrance at about half past,
with Krysko, the Saturday night resident, already
giving the Phazon soundsystem a run for its money
with some tasty house basslines. After getting into
the music and knocking back a few drinks, the sound
of Stetsasonic's 'Talkin' all that Jazz' enticed
us onto the floor, where we remained for the rest
of the night.
As usual, Krysko's opening set was slick, and set
the mood nicely for the night's shenanigans. The
floor filled up at midnight - and Groove Armada's
set loomed; the crowd were obviously eagerly awaiting
their arrival. As soon as Andy Cato brought in their
first tune the anticipation was rewarded with a
set of high quality. Starting with some epic instrumental
melodies backed with a bit of funk the night continued
in expected Groove Armada style typified by disco-feel
house and some more tech-edged tunes, the dominant
style was tasty driving beats and bass-lines. With
some well-known gems like 'Glitterball', as well
as some cheekier mixes 'Born Slippy' into 'Billie
Jean' anyone? - the night was everything we expected
and more. Everyone in the crowd seemed well up for
it, and the atmosphere matched the quality of the
DJs. Not for the first time at Sankeys there was
every intention to head upstairs to check out the
tunes, but with such a great display in the inordinately
hot main room, it was all too easy to forget.
This
trip to Sankeys had been planned well in advance
the idea of seeing Groove Armada taking to the decks
at what is arguably the best club in the country
was appealing stuff and on the drive home (before
we broke down on the motorway!) everyone agreed
that it was the best night we'd been to for a while.
I can't think of many better combinations for a
night of dance music than Sankeys Soap + residents,
the Phazon soundsystem, one of the best production/DJ
duos in the world and a friendly knowledgeable crowd.
As an annoying sample might say, 'essential'. |
Venue: 10
Music: 10
Crowd: 10
Sound System: 10
Total: 40 / 40
Rating: Gold Award |
Review written by: Andrew Jeffcoat andy_j@uk-cl.co.uk |
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