Belfast eats Manchester - WHP 12/11/11
A week previous, the music world invaded Belfast. But all year round, Belfast invades the world. On Saturday night/Sunday morning, at around 1.45am, Belfast took over The Warehouse Project - a mammoth, uncompromising series of raves in Manchester. For a couple of hours, we ruled that place.
It started with poor quality cocktails. Myself and a handful of equally excited punters are over to see Nile Rodger's Chic, the undisputed kings of good time disco. This bar is pretty rubbish and the DJ is playing Seal. But we've just worked out who those five men at the next table are. Granted one has a 'Chic Crew' hat on - but the mixture of mullets, piano scarves and world weary faces had already given the game away. We introduce ourselves and, hugely impressed we've journeyed from another country (which they seem to think is a lot further away than it is), they deal out plectrums and set lists, buzzing off our enthusiasm. They have words with Lisa, a disco obsessive who's mere moments away from her birthday. Three hours later and Nile Rodgers is dedicating 'Le Freak' to 'everyone over from Belfast', wishing Lisa a happy birthday as she and her friend are invited up to dance (alongside Johnny Marr).
It sets the tone for what's to come - five minutes later and DJs from Northern Ireland are tearing apart both rooms at one of the biggest clubbing venues in Europe. With Jeff Mills pulling out in bizarre circumstances, Jack Hamill aka Space Dimension Controller received a call and agreed to play the main room right after Chic, arguably the showpiece slot of the evening. He instantly unveils his mammoth kahunas, opening with (and I'm not making this up) Phil Collins. Keeping in mind Chic have just riled us towards oblivion with the likes of 'We Are Family', 'Like a Virgin' and 'Good Times', it's odd to here the full 196 second intro to 'In the Air Tonight'. During which…well, very little happens. Then it kicks in, explodes into a growling monster of a remix as Space Dimension Controller instantly grabs hero status. 2000 people lose their mind, utterly taken by surprise. Laughably brilliant.
A few metres away and two guys (also from Belfast) have a few hundred punters in room two loving every unpredictable moment of their set. This is Bicep, muscly princes of the blogosphere, legends in the making. They're re-rubbing and mashing up disco and house classics, mixing the wonderfully familiar with the deliciously obscure.
During the day this enormous complex is grey and dusty, industrial and unwelcoming. But for two hours on Saturday night it was drenched in colour and mayhem, courtesy of Belfast City. We rule.
Rigsy
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