January 2013 - Newyear Entry for Rob2Paul

Hey Folks,

Happy NewYear




Well went to Hardtimes, Music was outstanding, big thankyou to all the Hardtimes folks, Leeds was awesome, here is the moments I captured,





Robert Owens played a really good session on the decks and also smashed out an epic live PA session, great part about this for me was that I just happened to be in the right place at the right time to capture a full 6 mins of the actual Live act, simply awesome,  Owens was really in the zone...





Next on for Hardtimes is a trip to London for the 3 Kings, not sure if I can make that one yet but never say never, found out last week that Danny Krivit will be at the Warehouse in Leeds in February, which has got me very excited indeed, well who knows what will happen before Saturday but this will be a good night for sure :-)

After Christmas and into the new-year then it started with a bang, a few new tunes from some of the early Sasha sets, deep house was all a wash and after watching the sets from Never Say Never Sasha was on the prowl again once more, getting ever closer to that release date for the Involv3r Album sometime in the new-year I had the pleasure of playing a gig with Lee Softley of Blue Amazon and Convert Recordings.
















Lots to look forward to already then, the Retro Scene is still booming up here in the North as ever and it was nice to See a local Lancs lad from up this way burst into the limelight after he became an internet sensation with his keyboard and piano classics, nice work there Davos, most people have seen the footage by now I guess but for those that have not here it is again, In addition there is another bit of footage I found on the tube, amazing what people power does...... :-)






This post below was put out by Davos when things started to gather pace and the media & sun newspaper got involved....

Davos - Makes it Big - Read More..............





The next Retro party  is already proper planned and looks very well organised tickets are about all sold! its  at the Musiquaruium a retro night with Brad Kells @Joy loads going on in Leeds, this is a smaller venue and I have heard great things.

As I attended some of these nights I was not a regular at these events and it will be a good opportunity to see this one in full flight, Looking forward to going over and support Brad the Joy night  February 23rd, and do a write up.





But until then, Paul & I decided to travel further out towards the coast and I got the call to play out in Scarborough for my birthday with Lee Softley (Blue Amazon) Nic & Toby from Method and it was a really good positive gig, nice to see so many new people and have a good old smashup in North Yorkshire :-)


















In Scarborough I was lucky to have access to the Funktion One at Vivaz, and it was lovely to meet up with various people from Leeds and locally in Scarborough, Ian Ossia is to play next month, should be a good night again and already a buzz about Renaissance when Ian Ossia is in town love it!!!  :-)


Lots to look forward to then already and its only January.

In other news both Paul & myself had some big discussions before Christmas with our music subscription to Soundcloud, and we have worked together on a project to consolidate and cut our losses, as personally we feel that it is an over-hyped, overpriced piece of crap which everyone seems to think is where its at, but after discussions about prices and what you are getting for your money, the hideous new layout and all the downtime it has, we are gonna pull the plug on Sound-cloud as our main music provider, no doubt we will have a basic account with about 3hrs or so, but in the main it will all be found here to listen & download, with track-listings and other stuff we might like to share, Fuck Em, we are gonna have a crack at doing it ourselves... :-)


Also it would appear from the Copyright issues we have been getting after posting a mix on Soundcloud even when all the tracks have been purchased, it suggests they don't want DJ's on there really which is a bit rubbish so another reason why we are kicking it in the bollocks and leaving it for dead....







Below  is an article about Soundcloud also which makes for interesting reading and set the ball rolling a few years back when we saw and first started experiencing this awful service, what is even more annoying is that people are actually selling likes and can for a fee get you so many thousand plays on soundcloud, well we don't need it, and deffo would not pay for it either, in a word absolutely shocking enjoy the article below... ;-).....


Why You should   NOT    Use Soundcloud



Well enough about the Sound Cloud negative aspects and on to other news, January sees the Launch this week of Nick Warrens Entry to the Renaissance Masters Series


I have already put out a Renaissance Masters Series Mix from the last batch of tracks by Hernan Cattaneo which were absolutely superb, Below is my entry which I managed to upload onto YouTube without too much Hassle over Copyright however it is blocked in some countries??? but here you go!






In Regard to the new Nick Warren mixes & tracks me and Paul have spoken briefly about this and I will keep giving it a listen, as the first part is very sound garden and down-tempo, this I would definitely say is a signature mix of Nick but got to give it some more ear time, I have now all the tracks and will do some mixes of my own soon enough and post


The other part of the Mix on CD 2 to which I have not checked out yet are some clips below, its more upbeat and a lot more like the Warren we know I guess if you did not know about his Sound-garden sessions,


for more on this latest release see here:



Well what do you know! I just found out this week that the Garage in Leeds have the pleasure of Andrew Wetherall and Leeds own Ralph Lawson, so I decided to buy a ticket, its been many years since I have seen Andy Wetherall & last saw Ralph Lawson Play with Sasha @Basck2Basics at Victoria Works in 2009 so it will be a fantastic night can't wait for this one :-)




Always loved some of Britain's finest DJ's and these two are amazing live, Wetherall has a new Album coming out early February too here is a cut from it...




I love all the eclectic taste of Andrew Wetherall, here is a recent mix that he did on the BBC live at 6 series....





Ralph Lawson over the years has delivered some quality productions and as a Leeds Back2Basics Resident he has played some really fantastic parties there and in London, here is a Mix I particularly liked from we love Space in Ibiza always plays great sets both in the UK and abroad....




well if that is still not enough for you I have just uploaded the Live Set I did in Scarborough for Method @Vivaz....





Well below is the Mix and there is also a link if you would like to download it also, track-listing is included for you to mull over Enjoy folks.


Tracklsting:

• 1.Good Love Sweet Love (Shadow Child Remix)
• 2.Her Song
• 3.Back to Basics (GR1N Remix)
• 4.Flashmob - NInety Five (Dirty Channels Remix) (D. Gudinin
• 5.Layo & Bushwacka! - Raw Defined (Aidan Lavelle Remix)
• 6.Calling Me [School]
• 7.Graffios (Wehbba Remix)
• 8.Everything feat. Meggy (Mark Fanciulli Remix)
• 9.Regrets We Have No Use For feat. Name One (Original Mix)
• 10.Lazer Beams (Original Mix)

DOWNLOAD LINK
So I might See you about somewhere Stay Safe Folks..... Enjoy the music
Rob 2013.......... :-)

Shine Leeds Warehouse 23-06-2012

Hey, thought I would add a new entry for June, its been great this week and as ever I have been so busy with music on many levels also the radio show at PickeringFM, speaking to lots of people from all over the world, spent less time on Face book this week I guess…...not.

That being all said, I have been seeing the efforts that Leeds promoter Micky Reilly and his team have been putting out with a night of Retro Classics including a Live PA from the mighty KKLASS feat BOBBI… after speaking to local Scratch DJ, Tyrone Mclaughlin, Mark Watson & Linda and Mark the Ledge Holliday, I thought I best pop along just to see what it was all about, I thought I’d take my camera and just soak it up.

Again as I have said in previous blog posts I tend to think that unless these are done very well, these nights can have very limited scope to the broader audience, me I love my cutting edge Techno & Progressive, something that has stayed with me from the early days of renaissance and the warehouse.



Having been clubbing since about ‘88/89 to the present day, the ethos is still the same, its about the Music, Soundsystem, DJ, and the crowd get that right and it will be packed to the rafters everytime. Having been to the Warehouse many, many times over the years I dunno what it is, but I just love this club, the people the atmosphere, even the Door staff are just happy people and I managed to have a chinwag with a few of them, at Shine if not to keep them awake and alert later in the evening.




After Arriving to meet Tyrone in Leeds, we had a coffee and a chat about many aspects of the music scene in Leeds and Europe and the night that would be, even having some sensible debate on Guetta and his achievements and downfalls… then off we went to the Club, Sound check was already underway and we met up with Micky and the crew and had a chat a beer & a laugh.

Earlier sets of the night in the main room I witnessed were Marc Osikka and Mark Alexander, both smashing it up in the main room, the dancefloor full and that Soundsystem proper is doing its job. Both focussed on their craft and serious about what they were delivering, real quality stuff.

Here is Mark Alexander in action on the 1210's


Marc Osikka seen here focussed and smashing up the main room.






As the night unfolded it was just insane, upstairs were Steve luigi & Mark Holliday and Carl Whitehead & Tyrone Mclaughlin they were on fire, Steve was all over the Vinyl’s and not having time to listen to his entire set, from what I heard it was floorless, Carl Whitehead also delivered a quality pumping session, see some of the footage I captured here, quality....








Here we had proper classics being played by an absolute Leeds legend DJ, I have to take my hat off to him, I would pitch this guy anywhere and against anyone on the 1210’s from the early daze, really enjoyed it, but not as much as he did… great to see this, and I have a lot of love for Steve both for his DJ productions & the countless records he has helped me purchase when I have been a little worse for wear over the years….;-)


Mark Holliday was whipping the people into frenzy with his set and his energy behind the decks, Mark would later Join Alistair Whitehead and KKLASS behind the deck in the main room later we caught up there and had a chat and a boogie

Coming downstairs from this the main room was packed and the bar area was over flowing with people buying drinks and dancing and having fun, smiles everywhere, it was so great to see so many people from the old daze and dedicated clubbers from around the UK.


I was now getting into the swing of things and taking plenty of photos and having a laugh and enjoying the non end of monstrous beats coming out of that funktion one Soundsystem….managed to hit the front stage just in time to see the live PA with BOBBI and KKLASS this was awesome, the crowd were really engrossed & focussed and She had them in her hand, everyone was involved here and it was indeed a focal point within the night (I am bound to say that coming from a DJ’s perspective)







That said KKLASS just seemed to play on and on…Russ Morgan was in his element and there certainly was a great atmosphere both out on the dance floor and behind the decks, lots of happy, happy faces everywhere.

After a while it was time to get upstairs for the Start of Tyrone’s set upstairs, so offski… Carl Whitehead is caning the decks and the room upstairs is buzzing once more, DJ Tyrone makes an entrance with something special and starts cutting up the 1210’s, again I could not stay for the whole session, but many people were asking and complementing on his style. This mixed with the classics and scratching made this a wonder to watch and listen, the opening two tracks and the intro was phenomenal 






By this time it was about 3am and I was asking who was up next in the main room, I was then informed that Alistair Whitehead had been involved in a car crash, but was still on his way too the gig. Luckily this was true and Alistair did turn up at about 3-3:30ish.




How he managed to play a set after that was beyond me, but he managed very well, also being constantly in demand by just about everyone in the building as soon as he arrived, naturally like a true pioneer he played his cards well and his mixing did not suffer and he executed some very big drops and soon the crowd were in awe and going mental…What a lovely fella, and a fantastic Professional



That set and just Alistair’s story ended up to be a classic Shakespeare story for me which made for just about every emotion one could ask for, both in the music and the events that night for him, however he was still all smiles and still very much alive & kicking by the end of his set, hard act to follow maybe..?
Alas for me......not……..



Last up to play was in my opinion technically the best delivery of the night which would be Mr Paul Murray steering the mothership home, this was simply a stunning display of precision and a smattering of brilliant DJ’ing the sequencing was fabulous and for me as I love my technology and new equiptment this delivered a very tight and flowing session this had to be technically the best of the night for me…Well done Paul….









Upon getting to my car at 06:30am I was shattered, but what an epic experience, can’t wait for the next Shine At leeds Warehouse, for me next will be another Epic adventure in Leeds this time at the VOX with Lee Softly (Blue Amazon) and the Mighty Mighty frikken Awesome man Ian Ossia for Unite, Lastime in the Same Place Both Ian Ossia & Dave Seaman Completely destroyed that back room, and I would not miss this for all the tea in China...



See you at the Front @the VOX..... this with out doubt will be the hottest ticket in the City of Leeds. Just to wet your whistle for the VOX in July, this is a clip from what happened lastime, with the Legend that is Ian Ossia

Hard Times - Leeds Warehouse Queens Jubilee 03-06-2012

Well just recovering from yet another fantastic weekend in the Best city in the world Leeds, So I hear you giggle and mock, but I have to say if you missed it you missed out big time, here's why? I Rang Paul a while ago after the Renaissance gig at the VOX and told him this was on at the Warehouse, I remember all these nights from Back in the Day and as I have stated in Previous posts I am not into big retro nights as I feel that they are hard to recreate, it was a time and a space way back when in Mirfield, or as I remembered Camden Palace (London) and Glasgow I have travelled to Hardtimes, on the point of back in the good old days I do remember Leeds when Armand Van Helden's Witchdocktor [possessed mix] was on the platter - I was a little worse for ware - I looked to the dance floor MIXMAG had huge cameras with t'aud VHS cassettes in lol spinning and circling round the dance floor, I looked right folks were choking and bouncers were rushing over to the fire exit..

At a point in the record a fog horn goes off, I look at all the chaos, then look at everyone enjoying themselves on the dance floor, fire doors fling open I am grabbed and ushered outside, Apparently some buffoon put a CS gas tablet in an ash tray left a ciggie on it and left. folks were getting gassed lol. Well soon back inside and we carried on till the early morning.... needless to say first chance Steve luigi's record shop opened in the corn exchange I was in - looking somewhat spangled, I said I am after a toon ....something about a witch and a doctor.. £6 quid later it was in my bag and I was heading home... very special that track is for me, truly Awesome night, another time when HardTimes went to Glasgow I would witness a mad Glaswegian pull off Barbara Tuckers Wig... but that is a blog on its own...lol
a couple of months before the gig at Leeds I decided to do a little tribute session to get me in the mood, the memories of 1994/5 for me were awesome at Hardtimes.. below is the Mix for you to checkout :-)



So after a few radio shows and the hype of Hardtimes gathering momentum I eventually persuaded Paul to get some tickets, Young Hollie from Pickering who is an excellent clubbing partner also wanted some of this action, so I have two people going who are not that convinced right... Speaking also to Mark and his missus Linda and meeting up with many clubbers on FB and a fellow DJ Tyrone McLaughlin who has already played there arrives with with Nicole, Tamsin and her friends, through FB we decided to meet up at Distrikt - Euan Mitchell & Malcom we love Lewis's Den... We had Joked about a Flag as its the Queen's Jubilee and lo and behold Mark and Linda turn up with this bag containing the biggest flag ever... it was/is fantastic - I am now the proud owner of this legendary artifact.....

Malcom We Love Lewis @ Distrikt is in action right here alongside Euan Mitchell :-)


It was lovely to catch up with these guys finally, I have seen all their hard work that goes into their productions, we had a couple of drinks here, reason I was smiling so much was that I had 2 pints of Duvel...9% proper strong beer, I loved the atmosphere it was pumping, great music & upfront pressure :-)



So here is the Handy work of Linda & Mark Fantastic mates from Guisley in Leeds, absolutely fantastic people and as a couple, really looked after us, proper clubbing community people, this is how it should be... :-)



Me and Young Hollie having a magic moment, without her dazzling good looks and speed at technology I would not have got in cheers for sorting out my ticket sweetheart :-)



Here we are, Army Pal's and have stayed intouch ever since, Clubbing, Mixing, Technology & Fine music is the Glue that keeps us Dancing into the future, still got lots to do my lad! Love ya man! :-)



So we all piled down to the Warehouse it was a lovely evening quite warm summer evening! chatting to each other about the days of the Warehouse and who we had seen there etc..Gets to the queue we have a ticket issue, easily rectified in the end as the door staff were more brains than brawn tbh and we were pleasantly surprised at how swift they handled the situation and sorted it out, everywhere was clean including the toilets, a nice friendly atmosphere and a great crowd a mixture of young and old.

we soon got our dancing spot at the podium in the back corner over looking the decks and the dance floor, had a walk around and saw some old old faces, smiling bright and everyone was well up for this.. Have to say hats off to the Warehouse on this one, no trouble, even the big Muscle Monsta in the Pink T-shirt was in the zone and had a boogie with us!

So Jason Shaw is on the Decks and I started gathering footage with my Canon compact which captured some fantastic stuff, the majoriy of the footage can be found on You-tube here:



with this in mind and now being 40 year aud my ears are not what they used to be but I will say that the sound system in the Warehouse is second to none absolutely stunning sound, I would really love to play on it its on my list of things to do before I die (play at Warehouse) Check....lol anyway here is a little picture of it cos I am such a geek....



By this time I am being weaved into a dream by the Hardtimes DJ's what a fantastic night, just once again have to say a big thankyou to all the DJ's and the Boss Steve Raine for keeping this dream alive, We have Little Louie Vega next in the August Bank Holiday 26th 2012 and I can't wait.... Right I think that's about it but only to leave you with my favourite clip of the Gig at the Warehouse, which is simply staggering:-)

I hope you enjoy it, I sent it over to DJ's in the States such as John Julius Knight and Sheldon Prince, also got a lovely Reply from Morales saying how fantastic it was, and as I said it was such a fantastic Moment I sent the clip to A scottish Auntie of mine who lives in the US Ar Julie McKnight - Finally you getz it...hahahahaha onwards and upwards people, see you on the 26th at the front..... lets make this even better.... LEEDS I LOVE YOU.....XXX



So this is it for Hardtimes till August 26th for 19th Year Anniversary - I feel both a mix and a flag comming on strong, See you lot at the front, as an update I could not resist it and have mixed up a Hard Times Session for you all to Enjoy please feel free to Listen and share, see you on the August Bank-Holiday 26th :-)

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 :-)