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Introducing NEM3SI$’s new label Infinite Resistance!
Mindbenderz talk ‘Lord of the Rings’ and fishing, as well as the creation of their new album ‘Celestial Gateway’!
Iono-Music artists One Function, Eliyahu, Invisible Reality and Dual Vision talk Robert Miles, kids, dogs and vinyl, while we chat about their current releases!
Luke&Flex talk influences, the Irish rave scene, why Flex wears a mask and Play Hard, their new EP out now on Onhcet Repbulik Xtreme!
Lyktum expands on his new album ‘Home’ – talking about his love of storytelling, creating new harmonies and the concept behind his musical works.
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NEM3SI$ - I Live for the Night – talks superficiality, psychopaths, and bittersweet success, ahead of a plethora of evocative, emotional, and passionate upcoming melodic techno releases!
Psy-Sisters Spring Blast Off! We talk to DJ competition winner ROEN along with other super talents on the lineup!
Blasting towards summer festivals with Bahar Canca ahead of Psy-Sisters Spring Blast!
Shyisma talks parties, UFO's, and Shotokan Karate ahead of his upcoming album 'Particles' on Iono-Music!
SOME1 talks family, acid, stage fright and wolves - ahead of his upcoming album release ‘Voyager’ on Iono-Music in February 2023!
The Transmission Crew tell all and talk about their first London event on 24th February 2023!
NIXIRO talks body, mind and music production ahead of his release 'Planet Impulse' on Static Movement's label - Sol Music!
Turning the world into a fairy tale with Ivy Orth ahead of Tribal Village’s 10th Birthday Anniversary Presents: The World Lounge Project
The Psy-Sisters chat about music, achievements, aspirations and the 10-Year Anniversary Party - 18/12/22!
A decade of dance music with Daniel Lesden
Earth Needs a Rebirth! Discussions with Psy-Trance Artist Numayma
Taking a Journey Through Time with Domino
New Techno Rising Star DKLUB talks about his debut release White Rock on Onhcet Republik!
PAN expands on many things including his new album 'Hyperbolic Oxymoron' due for release on the 14th April 2022 on PsyWorld Records!
Psibindi talks all things music including her new collaborative EP 'Sentient Rays' on Aphid Records, her band Sentience Machine and 10 years of Psy-Sisters!

Lisatime: The First Birthday review

Reported by littlemissgenki / Submitted 26-08-04 21:53

It was with an anticipative mix of excitement and déjà vu we approached the Coronet on July 10 2004 just before midnight for Lisatime: The First Birthday. Having been almost first in the door for the venue’s opening as a superclub almost 15 months earlier on and at the first Lisatime at one of my favourite venues of all time, the infamous Camden Palace, and having been unable to do much clubbing lately due to a spate of work and personal commitments, I’d really been trying not to build this night up to too much—in my experience the best nights are always the spontaneous ones, and those you plan and look forward to for weeks inevitably end up turning into a pile of poo that you fall in unwittingly in the corner of an overcrowded sweaty dancefloor unable to escape from without some sweaty topless munted grunter trying to grope your arse. Would the long-awaited much-hyped newly refurbished VIP mezzanine offer respite from the hot concrete dancefloor of the Coronet? And would the first lady of hard house impress me as much as she had at the first Lisatime, where I’d finally been converted by her superb tune selection and ability to work a sell-out over-enthusiastic crowd and most importantly—ability to mix for a full three hour set without any major f*ck ups or headbutting incidents . . . (but let's face it, if some bloke photoshopped me or one of my mates onto a porn video he’d get at least the same response. You go girrrlll!).



But I digress: could Frantic and Polysexual, two of the country's—if not the world’s—most innovative hard dance promotions turn on a party of the scale of the first Lisatime? Could the Coronet shake off its earlier teething problems and become a new Camden Palace? Or would the overheated concrete dancefloor all get too much, and we all end up limping around Charlie Chaplin-style, as we had some 15 months earlier? Unfortunately the hyperpunctuality of the previous year’s launch wasn’t to be repeated thanks to my dear friends National Rail & London Transport and we didn’t arrive at Lisatime until just before midnight, catching the tail end of Tin Tin b2b Zana Mills—surely a hardhouse match made in heaven! Queues for both the club and cloakrooms were speedy and well-organised, and before we knew it we were on the main dancefloor waiting for one of my all-time favourite djs, Mr Eddie Halliwell.



Now don’t get me wrong dear reader, I’d just like to point out that I’m not just jumping on the bandwagon here. The first time I remember seeing Eddie play was at HeatUK's insane pioneering pilgrimage to Cardiff, and while his mixing blew me away, his (what seemed to me somewhat over-indulgent) scratching alienated me slightly. Then after not one—but two—storming sets at what goes down as the best festival for 2003 in my book, Creamfields, I was well converted to the techy twisted sounds of Mr Halliwell, and little bonuses like his Bosh cd had kept me wanting more. But a rather fluffy set at Gatecrasher@the infamous Republic on Boxing Day had let me down somewhat—young Eddie appeared to have got a few cds for Christmas, and unfortunately they seemed to stop and start in somewhat unpredictable places for the poor wee chap—or maybe there was confusion between the decks and the CDR's? Whatever . . . there had been a few too many pregnant silences that even the awesomely patriotic red and white up for it Crasher kids had started taking the p*ss out of. Had Eddie peaked too early?

Any doubts I may have had about EH getting past it were quickly laid aside as he dropped 'Loops & Tings' through a euphoric techy mix, and get it right he did. The numerous huge metamorphic orange and green spiky balls hanging from the historic ceiling while the massive cinema screen pumped out the Frantic logo heralded in a new age of extreme high-tech clubbing. A new Camden Palace? There was indeed a proper uplifting rave atmosphere in the main room as those crazy Polys cyberkids did their best to outrave the seemingly laid back Frantic crowd. But not for long . . .



It was high time we headed upstairs to the NuBreed room, where George-E had a decent-sized crowd going hard to Glazby’s remix of Miss Shiva’s 'Dreams'. There was plenty of room to dance and most importantly, it wasn't excruciatingly hot yet. For those who haven't been to the Coronet before, the middle floor is a dark intimate low-ceilinged wooden-floored room with a bar on one side and a largish dancefloor at the front—perfect for a dark hard-as-nails house den. Our initial plan to pop up for a quick look was soon trashed as we caught up with some of HF's coolest cats while George-E and The Prophet dropped tune after tune, including two of my favs, The Freak's 'The Bells' and Ian M's 'Crazy Pills'. If it had been a decent temperature when we walked up those stairs, it suddenly seemed to rise very quickly with George-E and The Prophet's tune selection. We took solace over by the Nukleuz stall, where Greg 'the new BK' Brookman gave us some hot hard house tips to listen to Andy Whitby later on, as rumour had it Andy was going to play Greg’s latest track hot from the studio with the talented Caroline Banx.

Impatient to see the mezzanine, we headed upstairs to Room 3, where FunkItUp had well and truly taken over. Now I'm not a big fan of funky house—Peter Ward’s quote that it sounds like something that might come out of a Japanese slot machine summed it up perfectly for me—and usually the sight of a heaving funky house room would have me heading for the hills. But this funky room was indeed heaving, and heaving full of happy dancing friends! After catching up with some mates I hadn't even realised were back in the country (Hi to Dougie & Rain!) it was up to the mezzanine, and what an incredible view from the balcony! It has been a long time in coming but was well worth the wait! What a perfect place to watch the smiliest man in hard house Mr Rob Tissera assuming command over the main room. The massive cinema screen was hypnotically mind-blowing from our front row seats, but unfortunately made photo taking difficult so you'll just have to take my word for it! The seating was clean and comfortable, although I did feel sorry for the poor bouncers had the unenviable job of trying to get people to sit down when all they wanted to do was dance! And I can only watch other people dancing to good music for so long, so it was back downstairs, via a quick trip to the darkside where Karim had the NuBreed room going hard and fast to his penetrating beats.



By now the atmosphere in the main room was awesome as Rob dropped his very own tune of the moment, 'Stay', and to say the crowd went wild would be an unfair understatement. Suffice to say that any suspicions I may have had about the Coronet lacking atmosphere were well and truly extinguished. The Coronet more than has the potential to be a new Camden Palace—it is a new Camden Palace, but with most of the trimmings of a new club to give the clubber a better night out—like clean useable toilets, friendly security and awesome lights and sound. I say 'most' as it was still very hot—unfortunately it isn't easy to install new air conditioning systems in listed buildings, but then you would it expect it to be a tad steamy in one of the world's highest energy hard house clubs in the middle of summer! It was now time for Bobby T to hand the decks over to our lady of honour, and Polysexual main man Madders grabbed the mike, introducing her as the queen of hard house. With lightening-fast reflexes perhaps betraying his secondary-school teacher past, Frantic's Will managed to wrestle the mike away from Madders with ease. Straight back to conventry for you Madders, you naughty, naughty boy!



The atmosphere was electrifying as Lisa teased the more than up for it crowd with some funky breakbeat before moving into some stock hard house anthems. What a star! But the heat was all getting too much for us oldies and it was time to head upstairs for a bit of a sit down to watch it from above, briefly stopping for a quick bounce to the Prophet who now had a packed room going hard to one of my favourite anthems of 2004, NRG's 'Never Lost His Hardcore'. Up in the funky room there wasn't a chill out in sight as the crowd went off to Richard Launch dropping Fatboy Slim’s 'Right Here, Right Now', then Phil Reynolds took things up as only he can.



We went out to the mezzanine to sit and watch the queen at work and reconfirmed my love of the balcony in the process. It's really good to see more emphasis on the visual in UK clubs these days, something I found disappointing when I arrived from the always aesthetically pleasing Japan a coupla years ago. Sitting at the front by the balcony with a clear view of the main stage, the 3D pics on the cinema screen and the screen behind the stage and Lisa banging it out felt like how clubbing should be. But Lisa was indeed banging it out and suddenly I really did feel like I was back at Camden Palace at 4am, waiting for someone to take it up a level. People were still dancing, but she was playing what my friend Yvonne calls 'the diggity diggity music', perfect for a hard stomp but with little bounce. But just when I thought Lisa was in danger of killing the night with her relentless hardstyle she went into a breakdown and the crowd all raised their hands to the heavens, just as the Frantic crew started giving out cds—flying off the balcony seemed like an option, but who says I have no self control! This got us heading down for more, via trackitdown honcho Ed Real who really got us dancing to some bouncing hard house in the form of Prime Mover’s 'Perfect Organism' and the Organ Donor’s 'Looking for Drugs'.



Ed's djing style is always high energy, even tonight when Nukleuz golden boy of the moment Andy Whitby was late—although having been caught speeding you could argue he had tried to get there faster! I went to look for some friends in the main room and caught Lisa dropping Jez & Charlie vs Digital Cowboy’s ‘Fire in the Sky’, surely one of the tunes of 2004?! The dance hall was going insane and Lisa looked like she was loving every minute of it.



The rumour quickly went round that Andy Whitby was finally on the decks in the NuBreed Room, and his bouncy hard tracks did not disappoint with such classics as 'Bass Keeps Pumping'. Whitby showed us why he’s taking the reigns and running with the Nukleuz crown, and I really did have to tear myself away to get back to the main room for the last of Lisa's tunes.



And what a finale! The best surprise of the evening was yet to come as Ilogik jumped back in the booth, closely followed by Rob Tissera, and what followed were some of the most magical clubbing moments of 2004 as Ilogic, Rob & Lisa went B2B2B. James Lawson & Carl Nicholson's 'Times Like These' is timeless at the best of times, but at the end of a night like this it more than hit the spot and literally had us begging for more. Amidst much cheering Lisa took leave and left the lads to play a very speedy version of 'Become1' and the stunningly uplifting K90's 'AXIS'. Talk about ending things on a high note!



For once this was a night that not only lived up to its expectations but exceeded them. LisaTime: The First Birthday was definitely one of my best nights clubbing of the year to date, and the newly refurbished Coronet shows all the signs of being a new Camden Palace, thanks to the awesome atmosphere in the main room and the stunning balcony.



Big thanks to the Frantic team for a great night out and to Dickon for the press pass so we could take some pics from the stage. Really sorry that you're leaving Dickon, but I have no doubt that your new pastures will all be green. Wink




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Other Features By littlemissgenki:
HeatUK (The DVD) – From The Backyard To South West Four - World Premier Preview: Interview with SnowBall Productions
Paradise City 001 Preview: From free parties in pubs to private jets—interview with Antiworld promoter Enrico Sorbello
Blatantly Brisk: interview with Paul Nineham
Paradise City 001 preview: interview with Mauro Picotto
Never Enough Maria: Interview with the Queen of Hard Dance
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
Comments:

From: Bosch on 28th Aug 2004 20:34.26
The girl rocks, it's a pity she gets such a hard time from the forums!

From: Uncle John on 30th Aug 2004 13:26.53
The Coronet ''the nu Camden palace'' your taking the piss.

From: littlemissgenki on 30th Aug 2004 15:12.02
yeah you're right, the Coronet is far too clean!

From: MaccLad1 on 1st Sep 2004 14:47.43
Yet again Miss Lashes delivered a superb blinder of a show! Good luck Lisa "One for you and you ya bad ass f***er!" Hee!Hee!

From: Ohana on 2nd Sep 2004 21:03.53
We love you Lisa!!!

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