It’s the end of term. You’ve just finished your last piece of work, either forever or just for the next few months. What better way to celebrate than with a huge rave. Hospitality answered Portsmouth’s prays with a huge line-up in the shape of Danny Byrd, Netsky and Brookes Brothers.

Queues tonight were out the door like I’d never seen, this was clearly a night people had been planning for a while.

The crowd at Portsmouth are always up for a laugh, and it’s great to see a mix of hardcore DnB fans and kids just up for a party, making for a very friendly atmosphere. Massive tracks like Sub Focus – Stomp were always going to please the crowd, but they didn’t just stick with this side of things. Ranging from deep jungle-esq sound to jump up tracks that most radio listeners would recognise, each DJ made sure not to alienate each crowd too much.

Halfway through the night and the place is heaving. Green lasers dance across sweaty faces, and just as you least suspect it, the Brookes Brothers drop the one and only Bob Marley ‘Jammin”, which went down an absolute storm. This then swung straight into a huge DnB track, before launching into dire straight’s ‘money for nothing’ and even a little bit of Snoop Dogg. By this point, the cheese factor was through the roof in my books, but this went into overload with the likes of House of Pain being played to huge cheers.

Amongst all these classics, the one and only ‘Chopper’ was dropped, which lit up the faces of a few dance aficionados in the crowd. A personal highlight was a remix of the James Blake cover, with low bass and rolling highs.

Overall, Hospitality put on a great show, catering for all fans and newbie’s alike. The cheese section was a bit of a shock though, and quickly lost its appeal for me and many others. Recent releases like Rusko’s ‘Everyday’ got dropped two or three times, which started to get annoying, especially when there are some much better tracks out recently.

By Mark Allen

This mid-week comedy night and the incense-scented, iconoclastic opulence of the venue all seem out of place in this ambivalent area of West London. Headliner Andrew Lawrence pointedly voiced his bemusement at this corner of the capital.

The paired terraces of Kilburn Lane have an air of God’s waiting room about them. Fittingly, the laughter loft at Paradise has also adopted a limbo-like quality. A Soho-style crucifix glows red behind the performers and the crowd seemed quite content to sit at the celestial stop light for a couple of hours.

Compère Jeff Leach revelled in being in rutting control of this event, offering up choice titbits of last summer’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival show and gleefully welcoming six diverse and accomplished comedians.

Joel Dommett was breezy and affable in his delivery as he kicked off the evening’s entertainment in earnest. The audience softened to the detestable dance that is getting around London as he laid out his own delightful recent experiences on the city’s streets.

He was followed by Matthew Highton who showcased some daring and different material, proposing some games and proffering some curious David Bowie poses from the past. Tom Webb presented a well-executed haughty demeanour as he put ticks against successful new material and toyed with those at the front.

Eric Lampaert confessed he was off his game having had a day of duelling with poison-tongued tweeters. All stared on as the gangling Lampaert indulged his inner torment, which seems to have arisen from the antipathy he has received following recent appearances on ITV2’s OMG! With Peaches Geldof. Intermittently his impromptu catharsis was a bit of a giggle but it was a shame not to see him at his truly unique and striding best.

The aforementioned bill-topper, Andrew Lawrence, was faultless from start to finish. He unleashed his honed snappy monologues with characteristic enmity, each one a long incisive sigh of personal and universal disappointment.

The real treat came in the form of a stand-up return from regular BBC face-twister David Schneider. He injected music, dance and physical comedy into the middle of the night, assuming the role of the jam in Jeff’s donut.

It was a polite and somewhat timid audience on the night but an undoubtedly impressive line-up. If more raucous regulars latch on to Leach’s supply of quality comics then this night has the potential to become a weekly slice of comedy heaven in Kensal Green.

By Daniel Baird

LEACH ON SOCIETY COMEDY CLUB @ PARADISE BY WAY OF KENSAL GREEN
Every Wednesday, 19 KILBURN LANE, LONDON, W10 4AE
Join their Facebook Group HERE

The hugely anticipated Breakneck/Punchfunk has returned to Portsmouth’s South Parade Pier. This venue is fast becoming one of my favourite club locations, with cheap drinks, lots of space, and friendly crowds. What looks to be a bingo hall/dancing room by day, was transformed into a huge rave venue, decked out with sheets, nets and BRKNK skull projections to create quite an atmosphere.

Portsmouth has had a number of notable Drum & Bass nights, consistently bringing great lineups down to the seaside. Sigma, part of the Breakbeat Kaos crew, was something people had really been looking forward to, and he didn’t fail to impress. Great liquid DnB tunes, all backed up by a huge lazer shows, crowds pushing against the front and people giving it their all showed him their support.

I’ve caught Friction a few times in the past year, I he knows how to please the crowd. Personal highlights were the huge Next Hype by Tempa T, Sub Focus’s Stomp and Slow Down by Break, a real standard for any night these days. The MC was also doing great work, getting the crowd jumping and hyping things up for Doctor P.

Doctor P has come into the limelight recently with his distinctive production technique, pushing what is already a pretty saturated genre to new heights with tracks like Sweet Shop, which has some truly insane synth lines and some trusty house vocals in there too.

His tracks were really heavy, with the crowd even breaking into a mosh pit at times. Everyone was really feeling his set, with lots of great tracks dropped. The night ended at 2am, which seemed to be a bit to early for everyone, and being tantalised by one last song, only to have the lights come on and shunned out was a real shame. People clearly enjoyed themselves, and the Brknk/Pnchfnk guys put on a great show.

By Mark Allen

FRICTION (2HRS), ALIX PEREZ, BREAK B2B SPECTRASOUL, OPTICAL B2B FIRCE B2B MATRIX (Classic Virus Set), ICICLE, ROCKWELL – Cable, London // 19th Feb 2011

Cable London is located under the arches at London Bridge. These kinds of places make great club locations, because it’s pretty unlikely that you’ll irritate anyone, as trains rumble on over throughout the night. This was my first visit to the club, and it’s well designed and has a good vibe, with things like sofa’s to chill out on providing a great place to take a breather before jumping back into things.

Shogun Audio started life in 2004 by Friction and K-Tee, and now has some of the biggest names in DnB. They have exclusive deals with the likes of Alix Perez and Icicle, and have also put out tracks by heavyweights Noisia amongst others. Tonight was a Shogun Audio night, and as such there were some huge DJs on the bill.

Taking things in a more minimal direction to begin with, Rockwell and Icicle stripped everything back with some brilliantly simplistic tracks, laced with elements flying on the top and resonating your insides. It was these imaginative percussive elements and deep bass lines with lots of space in between that was so effective. Break b2b w/ Spectrasoul brought around the more conventional side, getting everyone up and dancing. Over in room 2, slow jams with deep basslines were resonating in their specially designed DJ/dance area, which is semicircular to allow the music to surround you.

By the time Alix Perez came on, Room 1 was in full swing, with him pushing the tempo even further, again with some great drops, all backed by Lowqui providing some great MC’in with real flow and rhythm (his reference to Lord Of The Flies was my favourite). Punchy snares and great rolling high ends went down a storm. When Friction came on for 2 intense hours, the walls of Room 1 were a bursting point. His intro, consisting of a fan fare designed to blow your eardrums showed he meant business, leading into some big drops like Noisia prompting rewind after rewind. Break’s Slow Down (Ft. Die) was a true highlight…sending the room into a hedonistic rave. I do love anything with house vocals on it though…

Cable is a great alternative to the big name clubs like Fabric, and is intimate enough that you won’t lose your friends that easily. Tonight was a very busy night, and like most DnB nights there was a problem with too many men coming in. Lots of people had queued for hours only to be refused for not being with women. These nights just keep getting bigger and bigger.

Shogun Audio