The Knite Club was INCREDIBLE blog post...allow me to enjoy the moment...
Hello Everyone,
Well, its 4pm on Sunday, I have had a few hours sleep but had to get up as I have two young and loud boys, and I am having a coffee with my wife on one side and Mr Arthur, who is staying with us for a week, on the other.
We are all in a sort of relaxed and happy exhausted fog after Knite Club. It is probably too soon for me to really collect my thoughts on the night, but I am going to try because I don't want to lose some of it which i might if I don't write it down now. With that in mind, forgive the sporadic, and meandering and inconsistent way this post is written. So, here is my basic feelings about the whole thing in simple picture form:
And here is my jumble of emotions post:
What an absolute joy that was. Knite Club will easily go into my top ten all time best enjoyable things ever for me in this industry. Despite being in this busisess for over 30 years now, I have never actually run a party myself. The previous events have been with the brilliant Elation crew or with Cris-E & Kingsize, so even though I have been heavily involved and seen the basic workongs of putting on an event, not to mention playing at thousands over the years, it was still a little daunting to do an event myself. Massive understatement.
And doing one as large as the Scala as a "first" event was, in the words of Jimmy J, "A bit insane really mate" lol. He did also say "if anyone can, Kniteforce can" which was a level of confidence in me that I thought was flattering, but also, maybe misguided!
And yet, despite it being overly ambitious and run by an amateur...somehow, despite the odds...the night went off very smoothly without a single issue or problem. And while everyone kept telling me to enjoy the night and not be stressed, I found I was really busy, but I very much DID enjoy the night, and I wasn't stressed. I was stressed to fuck for the weeks leading up to it, but the actual night? Fantastic. It was an absolute wonder and pleasure to put this party on, and the whole night was just...epic and beautiful.
Listen, and hear me: This night was my choice, it was my decision to do it, and I started that ball rolling. I did it because of my usual reasons. That is, stupid ones by anyone else's standards lol. My friend Jay said if we did an event we should call it "Knite Club" which is just super obvious and fucking funny, and I had never even thought of it. And that made me want to do one. And then I figured it would be a right laugh to do an event with all my friends. And that it would be a good excuse to meet the people I work with but hadnt yet met. And...those were my reasons. The start and finish of them.
So while of course it was me that made it happen, the fact that it actually happened was way more than me. I find myself 30 years into this industry and surrounded by the most wonderful people. I may have set this up and funded it, but I was maybe 20% of why it worked.
Here are the other essentail reasons it worked:
It was Isotonik Chris Paul for telling Scala I could be trusted.
It was the incredible, efficient, friendly and helpful team at Scala, who were unfailingly brilliant throughout the whole thing and happy to work with a relative newbie in the events world.
It was the impressive and tirless work by Ben Killey with PR.
It was the on time and epic videos by Paul Bradley.
It was the social media work from my wife Cindy and Glyn Lowercase.
It was John Zero and Jay, helping on all the merchandise and logos.
It was Relax And Bathe Soaps, making 500 idiotic soap bars by hand in less than 4 weeks.
It was Rebecca Try and her incredible artwork, and her tireless promotion of the event online.
It was Elmo and Whizzkid, both being the exact sort of hosts I needed before and on the night.
It was the entire Kniteforce Crew, council, radio Djs, and friends, who all worked so very hard to get everything from videos and banners to stickers and mixes, to turning up to help set up and, importantly, staying to help pack up at the end.
It was the brilliant professionalism that every act bought to the night, without fail, and with a huge energy and excitment for what we were doing.
It was all the ravers who bought tickets and trusted Kntie Force to do something that could be great.
It was my wife who helped with every aspect of all of the above with a calm and dedicated support for my strss levels and mental health - I loved doing this, but it was really really tough on me in that respect. I could not have done it without her.
It was a lot of things other than me, in other words, and I am profoundly grateful to everyone who helped.
For the rest, for the actual night as it hgappened? Let me tell you hit points of joy for me. I will number them as I write, because I am curious to see how many emotional hits I got last night. I am not an overly emotional man, so when something hits like that? It matters to me, and it is remembered. Last night was full of that. So this is a list in no order of things that I will likely always remember:
1. Playing a set with my old friend Jimmy J. The crowd response was glorious - I had figured as we were playing pretty early in the "other" main room, we would be playing to a smaller crowd. Instead it was rammed and it went off. I cant readily think of a set I enjoyed more, with people I enjoyed playing to more. And its been decades since Jimmy and I did that. It was impossible to wipe the smile off my face! And it set me up for the rest of the night, which at that point was already looking to be a hge success but...thats when I started to feel like "oh shit, this is gonna be something even more than I could have hoped for".
2. I met ACEN:
Listen, you might think "so what? you have been working with him for years" and that is of course accurate. But I tell you true: If you are lucky enough to meet your heros, and then to become friends with them, a weird thing happens. You realise they are just normal people, and you have normal conversations, and talk about whatever things you talk about. And yet, seperate to that, you remain in absolute awe of them. So yes, it was nice to see my friend and work colleague Acen. But also I FUCKING MET ACEN!!!!! And inside? I was the same as any silly over emotional fan haha. I just had to keep that shit locked down and only be that excited in my head lol.
3. As above, but with NRG. So twice in one night, I got to meet artists that are not only my friends, but also people that I deeply admire and who shaped my entire career and musical tastes.
4. Oh, and Shades Of Rhythm. Honestly, thats...what do you do with that much awe and awesomeness? No idea. But it was really...I dont have words.
5. Dj Rap and Floyd Dyce (House Crew) came to the party even though they weren't booked to play. Anyone who works in this industry spends a lot of time in clubs as their "job", and while we deeply love this scene, we usually do not go to parties we arent playing at. Its not the same, but its sort of like going to the office on your day off - why would you? So it was deeply flattering that they did come and partied with me and the KF crew. Absolute stars, the both of you.
6. REDACTED came and I got to meet him (see 2, 3 and 4). I am not telling you who it is cos if we do a Knite Club 2, this act will be the central headliner. All I will say is old skool hero, not seen for decades, had huge hits, abd you simply wont believe they are back. And they are. I just havent mentioned it until now, nor did we meet until Knite Club.
7. Oh shit, I forgot, New Decade was there! This is what I mean, so much brilliant stuff happened, I cant even remember all the things!!! So add him to 2-6 lol
8. The Kniteforce Crew and friends. I pulled up to the club to set up with Mr Arthur and my wife, and various people had promised to show up early to help. And...they fucking did! Listen, often people say they will do that stuff, but they dont. We actually had too much help, I had to tell people the most helpful thing they could do was to wait outside lol. In the end, and I know I will miss someone, but we had me and Cindy, Lowercase, Alk-e-d, Bradders, Arthur, Buzz, Nigel and his family, Rob O, Micheal or Malcolm...err...or both (bad with names, soz), and then more showed up later on too. The result was setting up was finished early, as was taking down. It was a very exhausing night for me, so all of you were fecking heros and I am very, very grateful for that.
9. Every Dj and act showed up on time, and ready to play and with the perfect attitude. I felt very lucky to be surrounded by such great people.
10. Oh, Oh, Mr Tom from Smart Es came. I havent seen him for decades either. Amazing! Big ups Mr Tom, and thank you :)
11. Poosie and Spennie were there! My oldest friends came to enjoy the night with us. Likewise friends from so many generations...Dj Patience who did so much work to promote and played an epic set, Becky Try, Harmonee, Jen Spencer, all our KF artists, Beeno and Con-E and Dave Curran and...I cant list everyone, so many many people, but is was really like an enormous family gathering.
12. Everyone bought their A-Game. Pete Cannon and Jay Cunning smashed it with a child like enthusiasm that made me luagh in pleasure. Hyper-On Experience and Altern 8 smashed it in their own supremely unique ways. Ray Keith ended the night on a high note. Shades Of Rhythm and NRG and Nookie played timeless and fascinating sets. Danny Styles and Sunny and Deck Hussy played very different styles in different rooms but both maybe the toughest slots to fill for very different reasons, but were total fire. The Radio Room was one excellent set after another...It was like that all night.
13. Back to Acen again. I have never seen so many Djs and industry people watching an act before and just losing their minds. It was goose bump inducing. Acens set was...I mean if you were there, you know, and if you werent, I cant explain it. All I can say was it was so brilliant to watch all these industry veterans act like new ravers, me being totally one of them!!!
14. The visuals from Paul Bradley and the lighting from Shine AV gave the night a wonderful feeling, epic and intimate. Scalas sound guys were on point and the sound was superb in every room. The bar staff were so nice. Everything was so easy...
15. My wife Cindy and Buzz and Nigel TP and the others all maintained the merchandise stall in a professional and organised manner for the whole night, which it needed because it was heaving, while also allowing me a place to get a breather haha!
16. The crowd. So many people came and said hi. People partied hard all night with smiles on their faces. So much love for KF and all the artists and the music and the scene. The atmosphere for the whole night was exactly like the old raves back in the day, and you are who made that happen. That was...man, that is all anyone could ever hope for.
There is so much more, but each of the above just added a level of pleasure to the night I neither anticipated nor expected. And I am very grateful.
Okay, a few questions I am bound to be asked, and answered in advance!
1. We did not have enough goodie bags for th enight, but some people didnt take theirs home, so we have some to sell:
Knite Club Goodie Bags
2. We recorded most of the sets in most of the rooms. At this time I do not know what sets recorded well, and importantly., many artists do NOT want their sets made available, and that is fine. But once I know what we have, my intention is to see if we can get permission from each to do an old skool tape pack. yes, a tape pack. Failing that, we might do some downloads. Or their might be nothing. This is very much up in the air, and I will let you know as soon as I know.
3. We recorded a lot of video and pictures, I will see if we can do something cool with that, maybe a USB or a movie or something...
4. Yes, there will be a Knite Club 2. But it is going to be summer or later next year at the earliest. I will let you know as and when.
And now, some rest. Big ups, love you all,
Nice one,
Chris
PS My 4 year old is now 5. We are superheors today. I am Captain Sleepy-Legshurt Might Have A Cold Man.