Club Reviews: The Last Dance - Turnmills

Last Updated 25.03.08

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The Last Dance - Turnmills
	Date: Sunday 23rd March 2008 Address: Turnmills, 63b Clerkenwell Road, EC1, London Occurrence: Last one ever Hours: 9pm – who knows! Ticket Price: £25 Genre: House Dress Code: None Capacity: 1500
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This was the Last Dance. This was game over for Turnmills after 23 years at the top. Easter weekend had been sold out for weeks, with The Gallery on Friday, Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim on Saturday, and tonight’s Last Dance. A happy but tearful occassion for many. Managed to arrive very early for a change and saw most of the DJs. The club went from quiet at 10pm to busy by 11pm to packed by midnight. Ricky Morrison was in the Main Room first and played nice house music with lots of vocals to get the party started. CJ Mackintosh followed on and I’ve got to say he was superb; saw him once before and thought likewise. He built on the first set expertly, and gave a great example of how to DJ. Some moments you just had to jump up and down and make loud woo hoo noises! The heat was insane by now and no space to move in the main room. Great light show as usual too. Big Frankie Knuckles then graced the Main Room with many people shouting “Living Legend”! Another good set, taking it back down a notch then building it back up again. The atmosphere was very happy, and the heat was insane! Meanwhile, over in T2, Ashley Beedle was on fire. He had most definitely stepped it up a notch and was doing some very cool stuff technically. The good thing was that you could actually hear what he was doing, with loops and tunes cutting in and out. Not sure how many decks he had going! He played a lot of techy house, then dropped the mighty Smoke Machine! Bedlam. After chilling out in Anexo for a bit, where we learned a lot about Karma and how to keep it from a very chatty young man, it was back down to the main room. Rampling arrived about half 5 for the final set at Turnmills! Danny started with some nice Lovegroove style vocal house and was gradually building it up, in preparation for what could be a 6 hr or longer set! Ok. The Masterplan was this: stay till the last ever tune got played, then chain myself to the decks so they couldn’t knock holes in the sacred walls, but my aching legs and common sense won the day. So, at about half 6, it was time to say goodbye to our beloved Turnmills, with tears streaming everywhere! It was up the steps and into the daylight for the last time and we got a free poster to remember the night by, plus the unforgetable memories. I loved going to Turnmills over the last 4 years (oh god, I’m using the past tense already!). A unique club, with a wonderful layout, décor, atmosphere, music and people. Just take a good look at the lights, walls, tables, decorations etc, which shows the time and effort put into making the club what it is. Check out some of the pics for proof! I’ll remember the phenomenal atmosphere that made The Gallery main room so special with the lights going bonkers. Ministry awaits. The brilliant Smartie Partie nights that were monthly fixtures for me for 2 years and became very special, (I even was lucky enough to play a set or 2) and will move on to great things at Scala. My best ever night was Rampling’s “last ever” (ahem) London gig in December 2006, which was his own personal favourite too. The atmosphere was in another world! I am wondering today what time the club eventually closed and I heard that Danny Newman would play the last tune. If anybody can tell me what tune this was I’d be very grateful. Adios Turnmills. Keep the karma.
Venue: 10 / 10 Music: 9/ 10 Crowd: 10 / 10 Sound System: 10/ 10 Total: 39 / 40 Rating: Gold Award
Review written by: Kevin Boyle	kevin@uk-cl.co.uk

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