CLUBS

Ist Das – TB2’s in-house club night – continues its string of high-profile headline bookings as a modern techno icon arrives at the club on 17 Feb. Ben Klock is a DJ and producer who has served a seminal role in rejuvenating and…

Motion, Bristol (Sat 4 Feb) Just Jack, the mischievous local chap (club night) with great musical taste and an eye for the spectacular was always going to throw one monstrously flamboyant birthday party, so it’s with great…

Still hungover from Christmas and New Year? Adam Burrows is already looking forward to the next round of serious partying. If you’re reading this on New Year’s Day, a night of debauchery may be low on your list of immediate…

Forward-thinking party starters Futureboogie notch up a decade’s worth of mayhem this month. Adam Burrows blows out the candles. This month sees the 10th anniversary of Futureboogie, one of the key forces in Bristol’s club scene.…

Adam Burrows looks back on a vintage year in clubland. With the economy – and what sometimes felt like the whole of civilisation – crumbling around us, there were times in the last 12 months when dancefloor escapism felt more…

Joker’s much-anticipated debut album arrives this month. Adam Burrows gives the globe-trotting, genre-defying producer a call. Joker’s always been a wildcard. Ever since 2007’s ‘Gully Brook Lane’ G-funked its way into DJs’ record…

How do you put together a great line-up? Ed Oliver finds out from the tussling minds behind Bloc. Since its early manifestation in an attic above a nightclub in Norwich, Bloc has evolved into a Butlins-bashing behemoth, selling…

When Marco Bernardi took the helm at Bristol’s Timbuk2, it signalled a change of culture at the club. “The previous management didn’t have a knowledge of electronic music,” he recalls. “The drinks weren’t right, the staff weren’t…

There are those who will say that Tardis-like pub backroom The Black Swan isn’t quite the life-nudging force of raveology it was before it wrestled through a licence snafu a couple of years back. They may be right, but when local…

Liam Shrivastava looks in on Bristol DJ collective Panhead’s foray into the free, pop-up world of online clubbing 2011 has, in part, been the year of Ustream. Press conferences, Wimbledon tennis tournaments and even Charlie…

Adam Burrows meets Champion soundboy Danny Sanderson. In the beginning was the bassline. When Jamaican soundsystem culture tore through the UK underground in the early 90s, so did its lexicon of ‘drops’, ‘rewinds’, ‘burials’, and…

Adam Burrows gets the story from the creative quartet behind Bristol’s Multiverse Music. What connects dubstep, ‘Transformers 3’ and cats with thumbs? The answer is a recording studio on Whiteladies Road, home to seven record…

A field in East Knoyle, Wilts (Fri 29-Sat 30 July) There’s something in the air and that’s not a reference to the pungent Wiltshire countryside which surrounds the Underhill Festival site. It’s more of an atmosphere or a feeling…

Drum & bass? Dubstep? What comes next? Venue grabs a few words with the people behind Thekla’s new Friday session 51°27′. Adam Burrows asks the questions. Your guests so far have included Zed Bias, Jackmaster, Hyetal and…

Irreverent, potty-mouthed and morbid of humour – that’ll be Bristol rappers Bastard Sunz then, says Adam Burrows. Furious, foul-mouthed and frequently hilarious, Bastard Sunz are one of the most exciting rap crews around. DJ…

Bristol’s eclectic party collective go back to where it all began. “It was really a way for a group of bedroom DJs to play their records out,” says DOP’s Ross Chester. “It started as a one-off event to raise money for a charity…

Adam Burrows talks beats, rhymes and life with Bristol’s most evangelical new hip-hop promoter. “I’ve calmed down a bit now,” says Luke Gregory, “but last summer - before I had a full-time job - I probably averaged 16 hours of…

Rotterdam PRSPCT-er Gareth de Wijk’s turning out for Agro. Jordan Minnesota goes to the darkside. Bristol, as you may know, is a pretty important place if one is talking about hard electronic music with breakbeats. After the city…

  He’s the rapper’s rapper and a key influence on the likes of Tricky and Massive Attack. Rakim takes Stephen Dalton down memory lane. Many years have passed since the East Coast hip-hop legend Rakim last brought his sleek,…

From sticky-carpeted discos to dubstep domination via acid house, illegal raves, techno and loads else – clubland’s come a long way in the last 30 years. Adam Burrows looks back. When Venue arrived in 1982, clubbing as we know it…

Rory Gibb gets UK funky’d up for Crazylegs’ next outing at Blue Mountain. A couple of years ago, it looked as though the emergent sounds of UK funky were set to take over the charts, with tracks from the likes of Crazy Cousinz…

  Adam Burrows heads for the South Side. When Tony Williams (aka Headhunter) dropped ‘Footcrab’ at Outlook in 2008, hardly anyone in the crowd had heard anything like it before. By the time of its vinyl release 18 months later it…

Adam Burrows looks forward to snaffling some free popcorn as DJ Cheeba launches his latest AV adventure. DJ Cheeba has come a long way from those early Detectives of Perspective sessions at The Croft. Now Bristol’s link in the…

Progressive floor-fillers Empathy are marking their tenth birthday with not one, but three big celebrations. Dick Thornberg puts on his party hat. Over the last 10 years, team Empathy have become a byword for progressive dance…

One mystery venue plus one clubland star has made up The Breakfast Club’s menu these last 12 months. Adam Anonymous journeys into the unknown. The anarchic spirit of clubbing days gone by lives on in The Breakfast Club’s modus…

Their new album may be entitled 'No More Idols', but after crashing the charts, London production duo Chase & Status are fully fledged British stars in their own right. Adam Anonymous joins the dots between Rihanna and Bristol's…

The Los Angeles-based producer answers Venue's questions ahead of headlining Colours' veritable feast of artists from Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder label. Interview: Jordan Minnesota This night is almost a Brainfeeder showcase, in…

The last time Bristol saw Bonobo, he was leading a grandiose band. A year later, he's moved to the USA and is about to go uptempo for the dancefloor, discovers Adam Anonymous. If ever proof were needed that television scythes…

Critic-confounding threesome Darkstar have consigned their dubstep origins to the background of their subtly developing sound. Rory Gibb lights up. Given the sound of Darkstar’s early releases – not to mention their label…

Whatever your take on the BBC Sound Of... polls, they’re fairly reliable when it comes to picking out future successes. Jamie Woon looks likely to follow in that lineage. Rory Gibb find out why. Despite spending several years…

In business since 2008, open-eared Bristol label Drawn is about to host its first proper club night. Rank Aldy reckons it was well worth the wait. Subtitled ‘Deep, dark and destined for the dancefloor', it's probably not worth…

Just Jack and Futureboogie are sharing the love in Bristol's ever-cross-pollinating scene by going halves on one big birthday bash. Dick Thornberg holds out his hands for a slice of cake. It's all about the birthdays at Motion…

The highly eclectic How Come... series continues with Manchester-based record hoarding obsessive Andy Votel. Jordan Minnesota gets down on his knees to dig in the crates. Pretty much anything promoted by Bristolian titans of the…

Bugged Out! return with headline guest L-Vis 1990 in tow. Rank Aldy jettisons genre tags in favour of getting 'bashy bashy'. Bugged Out! are back for their first Bristol party of 2011. It’s almost hard to believe they are still…

Shit The Bed launch 2011 with a visit from Croydon’s Benga. Adam Anonymous gets ready to change his sheets. The dust may barely have settled on In:Motion's season-concluding NYE monster, yet only a fortnight later the Shit The…

Out with the old and in with the new – incoming Clubs editor Adam Anonymous looks ahead to how the big movers and shakers are going to rock 2011's clubbing landscape in Bristol and beyond. The dust may barely have settled on that…

Outgoing Clubs editor Steve D Wright casts his eye back over another hugely momentous and memorable 12 months on the South West clubbing calendar. As our Top Banana awards recognised, In:Motion dominated the clubland year. But…

In on dubstep’s ground floor, UK garage graduate Youngsta prefers to let his music do the talking. As Adam Burrows finds out. Few can lay better claims to dubstep’s throne than Youngsta, championing the genre long before it even…

Rising star James Blake has swiftly ascended to the UK’s musical elite. Rory Gibb is pleased to see him back in Bristol. If 2009 felt like the primer to the main event, 2010 was the year when dubstep and its offspring became…

Bristol-hailing, category-straddling, bee-favouring DJ/producer Parker’s coming home. Adam Anonymous puts out the flags. Though genre-splicing DJ/producer Parker is proud to call Bristol home, waking up in his own bed (let alone…

90s behemoths Leftfield are back but it’s not quite a full reunion, as Adam Anonymous finds out. Leftfield’s return hasn’t followed usual templates of long-awaited comebacks. There’s no new record or ‘Greatest Hits’ to promote.…

Qu Junktions’ regular club-and-gig gumbo is back this weekend with sonic spices to tickle any tastebud. Uncle Basic mixes it with Fuck Buttons’ Andrew Hung.  Bristol has a long history of musical experimentation: some quite…

Another week, another anniversary. This time it’s Ninja Tune blowing out the candles. Adam Anonymous joins the party. For its many followers, Ninja Tune needs little introduction. Ever since ‘Zen Brakes Vol 1’ hit the shelves…

Adam Anonymous talks careers and curry with local breaks champion and former Jedi Knight Mark Pritchard, aka Harmonic 313 Split musical personalities have dominated West Country boy Mark Pritchard’s distinguished career to date.…

DFA acid house maestro The Juan Maclean makes a welcome return to Bristol this weekend. Uncle Basic takes down his particulars. Bristol can be a strange place, you know. It’s a city full of surprises in all the most unlikely…

Adam Anonymous talks to the Polish-born rave-starter ahead of his date at the Mongrel vs Ago showdown. A flyer sporting a robotic crustacean claw welded to a grizzly bear means only one thing in Bristol: ear-blasting sound-fiends…

Uncle Basic grabbed a word. What have been your highlights of 2010 so far? Well, getting married! And work-wise it has been a combination: we have spent the most continuous time in the studio in the last four years; we have…

After eight years of party action, Play are calling it a day. Uncle Basic demands answers. One of the more interesting developments in Bristol over the last few years has been the rise of house and techno in the city's clubs.…

It’s dub. It’s live. It’s the Mad Professor, obviously. Adam Anonymous twiddles some knobs. A death and a rebirth in one night seems an overwhelming combination, though that’s the formula for Pama International vs Mad Professor…

Yet another legend of hip-hop is coming to town. Dick Thornberg can’t wait. Wow. Weapon Of Choice really pick their line-ups, don’t they? After the successes of the Sugarhill Gang and the Furious 5, WoC are moving on through…