Knite Club 3 - What a NIGHT!!!!
Hello Everyone,
It has been a VERY long time since I did a blog. This is because I never have any time to do anything really, which is a problem, but I will circle back to that a little later. For now I want to talk about Knite Club 3.
What an amazing night! Honestly, I was sort of worried about it on the lead up. Any of you who follow the scene will know it is quite difficult right now.. if you don't know, the situation for many businesses, within our scene and everywhere, is not great. People in the UK are skint. The cost of housing, food, heating and so on have continued to rise, and the wages have continued to...not.
The result for our industry has been that record sales are harder to get, and events are harder to fill, and so you will likely have seen that some record labels are very quiet at the moment, and some festivals and events are closing or refunding tickets (or closing and not refunding, in the case of the more morally bankrupt organisations out there).
In a nutshell: Its tough out there.
Which makes me even more grateful for those who came to Knite Club 3 last weekend, and who actually made it the most well attended one so far. We are very lucky that the past two events were so well supported - the Knite Force regulars turning up in mass and brining an unbeatable atmosphere. But we are realistic, we knew this year was tougher for people than last year. This is why we did the staggered pricing. And it worked...and it didn't.
On the one hand, it worked because pretty much all the KF regulars paid the higher price - and let me tell you, that was so nice, my faith in you guys rewarded by your faith in us. As an event, Knite Club barely breaks even because I always prioritise having a good time with awesome people and amazing acts over actually making any money lol. But still, had we only sold the discount tickets, that would have been a greater loss than I would have wanted to take. I don't mind a small loss, that comes with the business...but a bigger loss would maybe have been harder to take. But no, that all worked out, and a huge thank you to all of you.
A huge thank you to ANYONE who bought a ticket early, in fact, because it really does make all the difference.
And that is also where the staggered pricing didn't work - I thought we would have sold MORE tickets on the run up to the night than the previous two years, but actually we sold less. Not a lot less, but...less. And so in the run up to the event I was a little disheartened. It takes a huge amount of effort to put these things on, and to see less ticket sales is rough.
However, we did WAY more tickets on the actual night than we ever have previously. So in the end, not only did we have more people overall, but those people stayed longer and partied harder.
It was absolutely brilliant. Perhaps the best Knite Club so far.
Every act pulled out all the stops. In the main room, Lowercase kicked the night off with his usual awesome style, and then The House Crew were, of course, incredible. Dj Force & The Evolution did a set and PA that will be long remembered for how brilliant it was. The Panacea turned half the crowd into ecstatic zombies, and terrified the other half lol. Nookie played a superb set which included Josh Winks "Higher State of Consciousness" and that was fantastic! Those of you who heard the new material in The Criminal Minds set will now know why I have been banging on and on about how good it is. And the night was rounded off by the one and only Jay Cunning doing a back to back with Ellis Dee - a Dj I have long admired but only recently met. And they had the room heaving from 4-5am, which, given that many of us are a little older than we once were, was just fantastic!
We also had the guest Dj - a lot of people entered that competition, so we may well do it again. The winner played a good set under a lot of pressure, and I am embarrassed to say..I have forgotten his Dj name. Thats pretty terrible. I'm sorry :(
ETA - It was Dj Mogley! Big ups sir, well done, I think you did great!
In the other main room, set of the night for me was probably Vinyl Junkie, but on the other hand, I only heard 15 minutes of it, and missed out hearing a lot of the others cos I was all over the place. Its the curse of being the promoter, you only get to hear a few bits of any given set! Fracus and Darwin bought a fresh sound to our little night, Dave Skywalker is always a don, Jon Doe's vinyl set was killer, I totally missed Amaretto AND Wonters set, which is very annoying, but I am told they smashed it. Wislov played exceptionally, and Ray Keith rounded off the room with the last set, in the way that only Ray can.
The Radio Room was epic, with all the KF Radio crew bringing their best. I heard all of the sets, and none of them, as I was in and out of that room all night, but a huge thank you to all who played, you were fantastic!
And our wonderful MC, Elmo, hosted the entire night on his own due to events out of our control, and we couldnt have done it without him!!!
There were some acts who sadly couldn't make it. Rave Alarm had to cancel last minute due to illness, but they will be here for the possible KC4. Radio Sam also was unwell - seems like the sicks is everywhere at, :( And Jimmy J, my old partner in crime, also had to bounce as he had unexpected family duties, which left me to play a Jimmy J & Cru-l-t set without Jimmy, and I was totally unprepared for that, which is why my set was a jumbly mess lol. That, and the fact that I had no time to prepare.
All in all, the night was a success because of all the help I had from everyone, my wife Cindy of course, and the Adam the new guy and the KF council, Paul, Glyn and John. But also everyone else who came and helped set up and manage the night, doing work on the door and just being there, being useful. I may miss some of the names, but yes, big thanks to: Rob, Rebecca Try, Malcolm, Marvin & Nicola, James English & Michelle, Brent, Justin, Martin, Excy, Elma, Martin, Buzz & Jam, Dean & Lisa, Ross, Michael Poole, Mark, Brent, and Alicia, and of course, Nigel and Marianne.
They all made a huge difference because frankly, I have been doing too much for too long. The result is many of the smaller things I would usually have prepared for the night got missed or fell away. For example, the very first time I thought about the goodie bags we do each year was as I was loading the van on the Saturday afternoon - which is about 8 weeks too late to remember that lol. I also had no time to practice a set, and forgot to bring the stylus's for the turntables and a load of other small things that on the one hand don't matter, but on the other hand made it evident to me that I have been doing too much, what with the shop and the distribution and the label. Doing an event as well was just...it was too much. Lets leave it there. The night was a huge success, I had a brilliant time, but if and when we do KC4, I am going to have to make sure I have more help with the other aspects of the business. Which, we already do have with Adam - who I know many of you will have met on the night. Its just the growing pains of the business I guess. Anyway...lets leave it there because the blog is already way too long.
A massive thank you to everyone at Scala - your professionalism is wonderful - and to Shine AV for the lighting, to Ben Killey on the promotion, to all of the KF crew and staff who I overworked mercilessly for the months leading up to the night, and especially to everyone who came out and made the night incredible. Big love to you all!
Here are some pics....:)
Amaretto gearing up....
Dj Force & The Evolution. One or two people seemed to think they played an okay set lol.
Me, photobombing Terry Nino, Amaretto, and Zak Criminal Minds lol
Floyd & Raymond from The House Crew, and Nookie!
Terrace and Ray Keith and Buzz and Ross Fader....
Bradders looking like he has never seen turntables before lol....
Considering how epic their set was, this is the least exciting House Crew photo I have haha!
Big ups,
See you soon!
Chris