Renaissance 20 years on... VOX Leeds

Well I thought that I would, first say a big thank you to Renaissance for bringing this to Leeds, and I have to say it has been without question the best ever reunion party of 2012, or that I have been to ever! Renaissance is special to me because of the music, the atmosphere, the DJ's and the whole Renaissance scene. In the past I have been put off the idea of old school classics retro nights, as I believe that in the day just being there and being part of the legendary nights were for me very fond memories and have a place in me always, but should stay where they are as a memory and a good one at that. However I was compelled to get involved from the start with this, Dave Seaman posted a new mix CD which I acquired and quickly began to think about old times back in Mansfield to digging out my Masters Series CD's and old mixes from Mixriot for Ian Ossia and John Digweed.

A result of which I really started getting into this whole scene again and low and behold Paul rings me to say that there is a 20 year anniversary at the VOX in Leeds and also in Birmingham, tickets were so cheap at the time we could not say no. Looking back at the flyer online I noticed a typo which seemed to suggest that both nights were over the Easter break Saturday and Sunday, as the tickets were so cheap we thought we would do both nights, after all this was Renaissance, Sasha/Ian Ossia/Dave Seaman.

Short lived that was, I was gutted, however what was to develop later in April would be one of the best nights of my clubbing days all over again, it was absolutely monstrous. The Venue @ the VOX looked like a proper warehouse club with plenty of space and the toilets were so clean and the people were friendly and the service was excellent, no moody gangsters or shady characters creating bother or giving attitude either. before the back room was setup I nipped into the back to see the layout of what would be the best 3-4 hours of clubbing retro heaven, looks simple enough Pioneer CDJ 2000's and a Pioneer DJM 800 mixer, (Standard)I thought, but this coupled with the sound system made this delivery of absolute quality and crisp sound...

As the night started to unfold I welcomed old friends and new here at the VOX R20 and chatted about the old days and it soon emerged that people had come from far and wide to see the same as us and hear those old Renaissance classics. Earlier in the week when the set list was announced, I was a bit gutted that Sasha was to only visit for a few hours and Birmingham got him to play till the end, also people were taking the piss saying it was a warmup set for Brum, well how fucking wrong you lot were...Hahahaha In the main room Sasha absolutely smashed it so many tracks delivered to such outstanding quality only Sasha can do, And I kid you not this set was off the scale both technically and musically, and further to all the Sasha haters out there this was truly a masterclass nothing short of genius, you missed out no really you missed out! the sound system was top quality also which made that main room just perfect.



When Sasha eventually left for Birmingham, everyone piled in the room at the back for the Classics set from Ian ossia & Dave Seaman, and what happened in there can only be described as pure magic, Ian Played an absolutely phenomenal set alongside Dave Seaman between them just put on the best performance ever, It was like they were back in an F1 car leading the pack only adding more and more every time, the performance, set-up, tuning & Precision through the decks was without peer. Here is the classic smash Yeke Yeke.... got goose bumps now! so much energy in that room, soundsystem was outstanding real sounding full on bass driven atmosphere. at times crowd participation full on singing plenty of whistles place was electric.

Dave Seaman was in a world of his own clearly involved in every track he was playing, singing along with the crowd and loving every min of it! here he is smashing it up in the back room with R20 classics, so many played the next track even better & bigger than the last driving the crowd into a frenzy, Dave Seaman played approx, 90 mins over his allocated time and was loving it so much you could see the man was in his element, the podium to the left of the DJ console was ram packed with folks dancing their sox off and going nuts!

I love this shot...

A great night had by all I can't wait for PT2 and I have to say Renaissance without Ian Ossia & Dave Seaman for PT2 would be a huge mistake, best £12:50 I have ever spent, roll on R20 part two, hopefully at the VOX in Leeds Smashing venue awesome music, fantastic crowd, and DJ's that were born to do this in their sleep... nice one, again a big thankyou to all who made this happen! :-)

Here is my little tribute mix to Venue 44 with some old Sasha Renaissance classics... enjoy

Rob Knight (DJ Robbed) Renaissance 20 year Anniversary by Dj Robbed on Mixcloud

Okay Folks as an update here Ian Ossia & Blue Amazon will be doing it all again this time @ the VOX in Leeds 14th July, for a top Quality Night of the best Venue Atmosphere and Music in Leeds if not the UK.... See you at the front :-)