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Features
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| Introducing NEM3SI$’s new label Infinite Resistance! | | Mindbenderz talk ‘Lord of the Rings’ and fishing, as well as the creation of their new album ‘Celestial Gateway’! | | Iono-Music artists One Function, Eliyahu, Invisible Reality and Dual Vision talk Robert Miles, kids, dogs and vinyl, while we chat about their current releases! | | Luke&Flex talk influences, the Irish rave scene, why Flex wears a mask and Play Hard, their new EP out now on Onhcet Repbulik Xtreme! | | Lyktum expands on his new album ‘Home’ – talking about his love of storytelling, creating new harmonies and the concept behind his musical works. | | Pan talks getting caught short crossing the Sahara, acid eyeballs and tells us Trance is the Answer, plus shares his thoughts on his latest release 'Beyond the Horizon' - all from a beach in Spain! | | Miss C chats about living with the KLF, DJing in a huge cat’s mouth, training her brain and the upcoming super-duper Superfreq Grande party at LDN East this Saturday, 16th September! | | NEM3SI$ - 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! |
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The clock is counting down to the Hard Dance Awards!
Reported by HarderFaster
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Submitted 27-02-08 19:51
With little more than days remaining, the voting is now closed, the shortlists have been prepared and the potential winners are geeing themselves up for the biggest night in hard dance. It’s the 5th Annual Hard Dance Awards powered by trackitdown.net this Saturday and here for your last minute perusal are the final 3 presenters, Andy Whitby, Kieron Gallagher and Kutski. So, who want’s fish and chips then?
Andy Whitby
Tell us about your love affair with hard dance, when, where, why, how etc.
My love affair with hard-dance is borderline obsessive, I absolutely love it!
It all started when I heard Fergie’s Let There Be Hardhouse mix on the front of Mixmag in March 2000. From that second I was hooked. I’d spend every penny I had on records and I used to cut out the features and photos of the hard-dance DJs in Mixmag, M8, Ministry Mag and DJ Mag and stick them on my bedroom walls.
As things begin to pick up I realised I wanted to dedicate my whole life to hard dance and I’ve never looked back. I still get excited about a hard dance record now as I did when I first heard it back in 2000 and usually when I do find a new special track I listen to it about 20 times in a row, haha!
Who do you work with / for now and how did that start?
I have a whole team of people that I work with, from producers to distributors, my agent to my management team. Most importantly I work with my fans; they are the driving force behind what I do.
Will Paterson took me on after hearing a demo of mine at the Frantic office. He rang me, asked me down for a meeting in London and from there I became Frantic Resident which has been an amazing time for me.
You’re presenting at this year’s awards ceremony, how does it feel to be on board?
It feels great, an honour! A few years ago I went to the awards as a clubber and now to be actually presenting at it is brilliant and extremely exciting.
The HDA has been in London the past few years. What do you think of it moving up to Sheffield this year?
I think it’s great personally. It’s giving a lot of people who can’t travel as far as London a chance to see what the night all about, the excitement around it and how for one night an entire scene comes together under one roof.
Which awards are you most excited to be handing out?
I have no idea what awards anyone is handing out, as we haven’t been told yet! I’m not fussy, haha!
Who are you tipping for HD stardom this year?
Well, I never vote in the hard-dance awards, I’m not sure why. I know a lot of DJs vote for themselves but I believe in karma, and voting for yourself is just not cool!
Who do I think will win in each category? I’m not sure really, hard dance is so rich with exciting acts now, each award could go to a whole list of people. I guess we’ll find out very soon.
Who do you think could break through and be a star next year?
I’m really excited about 2 new producers on the scene; Matt Lee and Klubfiller. Both guys have been cutting their teeth in other genres for years (Matt is also known as Gammer, Klubfiller is Ministry Of Sound’s Stevie B) and now they’re making hard dance. Their sound and ideas are based on what made our scene huge to begin with; the fun factor, but with new twists and ideas never heard before. I see them both going far!
What key / funny / amazing thing happened for you in HD last year?
There have been more and more crazy things happening when I go out. If you check out my gallery on www.andywhitby.com you will be able to see an array of photos sent in from my fans, there is definitely a lot of stuff there that keeps me smiling!
Quick quiz:
Fish and Chips or Pie and Mash?
Fish & Chips all day for me please!
Pigeons or Greyhounds?
My uncle races pigeons so I’ll go for them.
Nelsons Column or The Angel Of The North?
Angel Of The North, it’s a bit prettier to look at!
Top hat or Flat cap?
Flat cap’s a bit more stylish nowadays don’t you think?
Dinner or Tea?
It’s breakfast….lunch…..DINNER.
Grim up North or Soft southern jessies?
Ha! This one could get me in trouble, as I’m from the North (born in Chester) but live in the South, so I’m a bit of both really! The weather does appear to be grim up North; it’s always raining when I’m in Leeds. You defiantly can’t call people from the South jessies; they’re still clubbing hours after everyone has gone to bed!
Kieron Gallagher
Tell us about your love affair with hard dance, when, where, why, how etc.
I suppose it started way back when I found a copy of Tony De Vit's Global Underground Live In Tel Aviv, popped it on in the car and was pretty much hooked straight away. Being in Scotland at the time made it difficult to go a proper hard house night cause they were nonexistent! I finally managed to fulfil my cravings when i made the 800 mile round trip to Insomniacz at Europa in Sheffield then to Que Club in Birmingham on the same weekend in '99. I did that a few times then luckily ended up in Leeds at Uni and its all been downhill since then, haha.
I still see the scene as hard house though, I can't stand the term hard dance! I just think it’s a very non descript term and means you always have to describe what genres are included in it when speaking to someone outside the scene.
Who do you work with / for now and how did that start?
I am the Events Manager at tidy, have been here for a little over 3 years now, its a bit of a long story, but through University I managed to start off as a Stage Manager at the first Magna and then it evolved from there, the first events manager left and Russell Pate who was MD at the time, came to Glasgow to interview me and the rest as they say is history.
You're presenting at this years awards ceremony, how does it feel to be on board?
I was heavily involved in the lead up to and running of the event last year at Brixton Academy but to be asked to present this year is an honour and somewhat nerve wracking but I'm sure I'll settle my nerves with a couple of gallons of cider beforehand. Just hope people will understand my accent!
The HDA has been in London the past few years. What do you think of it moving up to Sheffield this year?
Its good to see it back on the road again, the scene in Yorkshire at the moment is fantastic with tidy, GoodGreef, Parlez-Vous?, Vicious Circle, V14gra, Hi-Oktane amongst others all pulling off good events at the moment. The northerners know how to party and I’m sure they will show the southerners how it’s done properly!
It should be a good gig, the GoodGreef team are fast catching up with the tidy team (sorry Barry, haha) when it comes to events and Plug is only a taxi journey away for me so on a completely selfish level, its great!
Which awards are you most excited to be handing out?
It’s a closely guarded secret, haha! I don’ actually know yet, I’ve been told that I will find out next week, so hopefully it will be the first couple so I can get on with the rest of the night and enjoy the music.
Who are you tipping for HD stardom this year?
I’ll be remaining impartial on this one, as long as tidy wins best one off event for the last weekender I'll be happy, there are so many new faces emerging this year and so many positives that it would be unfair to highlight one!
Who do you think could break through and be a star next year?
There are quite a few DJs emerging on the scene at the moment, Scott Fo-Shaw, Jon BW, Nathalie, Caz Wood and Velos who are all great DJs and have been patient and worked hard to get where they are today and I can see them getting tongues wagging next year.
What key / funny / amazing thing happened for you in HD last year?
I think the key highlight for me personally has been the new buzz around the Weekenders, TW12 was fantastic and TW14 is shaping up to be even better.
Quick quiz:
Fish and Chips or Pie and Mash?
Pie & Mash, Friday is Pieday in the office
Pigeons or Greyhounds?
Pigeons
Nelsons Column or The Angel Of The North?
Angel Of The North
Top hat or Flat cap?
Flat Cap
Dinner or Tea?
Tea
Grim up North or Soft southern jessies?
Being Scottish I’m going to agree with both!
Kutski
Tell us about your love affair with hard dance, when, where, why, how etc.
Started off with hardcore really, and as I got to know the ins and outs of that scene I started to spread my wings in the late 90’s and got into the underground hard house and trance, the stuff Bunter and Jon Doe were knocking out!
Who do you work with / for now and how did that start?
I try not to spend too much time collaborating with loads of different artists, more just personal friends that it just makes sense to work with. I have always had a strong working relationship with Bunter and Doe and we are always working on projects together. With regards to studio work, me and hardcore producer Alistair Storm have been doing quite a bit together of late as a result of the work we did together for the Ministry album last year and after the success of the Depth Charge track, me and BK are getting back in the studio together too. Later on in the year I’m looking at doing a double mix album together with Alex Kidd (so watch this space for that), as well as myself, Scott and Matt (Organ Donors) are gonna do a few more live dates of out turntablist take on hard dance, Dance Valley being one of them!! All that said, I’m still very much a solo artist with a lot more going on in my own world, this is just an insight to how crazy things are at the mo!
You're presenting at this year's awards ceremony, how does it feel to be on board?
Yeah, it’s cool, but I still don’t really buy into this whole awards thing, top 100 DJs etc. For me personally, I don’t need an award to feel confident that what I do is worth while and a lot of these polls are simply won by whoever has the best marketing strategy, which is kind of ironic when what we are involved in is underground dance music. But saying that, the HDA provides much needed exposure for hard dance in general terms so it can only be a good thing for the music! Let’s just not get carried away with it and remember that it’s people voting with their feet on the dance floors that really counts!
The HDA has been in London the past few years. What do you think of it moving up to Sheffield this year?
Being a northerner I think its quality, haha! Seriously though I think it should be in a different part of the country, the UK in fact, every year! It’s a UK award so it should travel, then it is not tarnished with the sound of one particular area. Hard dance has always had a strong presence in Yorkshire, so it is ideal this year!!
Which awards are you most excited to be handing out?
Fittest Dancer would be a good one I reckon!
Who are you tipping for HD stardom this year?
Kamui are gonna be massive and have had an amazing year but are we talking international? There are loads of amazing UK producers just waiting for the big break, like Joe-E, Louk, Kid Kaos but I don’t think they’re on the radar enough to win anything this year. Vandall deservers to be in the top 3 producers, so I hope he gets in! Three from Whitby, {Pin Up, Lashes and Alex Kidd will probably make up the top 3 DJ’s in some order. Donors, Vinylgroover, BK, Dbd, Technkal etc have all been doing excellent production so they’ll probably be in the producer category. I can’t see there being any major shocks to be honest, but that’s not a bad thing, just shows these people are still on there game.
Who do you think could break through and be a star next year?
As I mentioned earlier, Vandall, Joe-E, Louk, Kid Kaos, Scott Fo-Shaw are all representing themselves very well at the moment! It will be interesting to see who catches peoples ears.
What key / funny / amazing thing happened for you in HD last year?
Matt Donor getting his knob out in a lift in Austraila! He needs an award for that!!
Quick quiz:
Fish and Chips or Pie and Mash?
Pie and Mash
Pigeons or Greyhounds?
Greyhounds.
Nelsons Column or The Angel Of The North?
The Angel innit!
Top hat or Flat cap?
Flat cap (unless the top hat is purple and I have a fur coat)
Dinner or Tea?
Tea.
Grim up North or Soft southern jessies?
It’s the southern fairy’s innit!
Who will win this year? Find out this Saturday.
Photos courtesy of the HarderFaster archive. Not to be reproduced without permission.
The Hard Dance Awards
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On:
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Friday 29th February 2008
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At:
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Plug [map]
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From:
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2100 - 0600
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Cost:
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£15
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Website:
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www.harddanceawards.com
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Ticket Info:
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Ticket Web
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Buy Online:
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Click here to buy tickets
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More:
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The 5th Annual Hard Dance Awards powered by Trackitdown.net have got off to an unprecedented start.
Thousands of Hard Dance fanatics from a staggering 42 countries have already cast their vote and with so many new names making their mark in the last year every single vote counts towards this poll of polls for the scene we all love!
The Hard Dance Awards is a celebration of the biggest and the best in the world of banging beats from the past 12 months. Featuring 14 categories voted for by the public via online portal www.harddanceawards.com , the 5th Annual Hard Dance Awards Powered by Trackitdown.net is yet again set to be the first massive event in the calendar for the industry and fans alike!
The main event and ceremony is happening on Friday 29th February @ Plug in Sheffield. It’s pay day weekend and the day in the leap year where girls are allowed to turn the tables and proposition the boys so there’s no better excuse to attend alongside all the movers and shakers from the world of hard dance.
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Region:
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N England
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Music:
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Hard House.
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DJ's:
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Guests include:
Lisa Lashes (Lashed), Andy Whitby (AWsum), BK b2b Scott Attrill (Riot!), Alex Kidd (Kiddfectious) Kutski (Radio 1) vs. Organ Donors – Audio Surgery Live, Nu Energy Collective Live, Ed Real (Riot!), Dark by Design b2b Phil York (Hardtimez), Andy Farley (Red), Cally Gage (Frantic), Kym Ayres (Slinky), JP & Jukesy (Deprivation), Ben Stevens (Vicious Circle), Garbo (Storm), Tidy DJs b2b Morgan (Tidy & Goodgreef), Avaline (Tranzaction), Vandall (Trancewarez), Jason Cortez (Nuclear Puppy), Rodi Styles (Storm), Mark H (Polysexual), Brian M & McBunn (Bionic), Steve O’Brady (Parlez-Vous), Jimmy Dean (Xstatic), Marc Johnston (Flashpoint Records & Tripoli Trax), Lucy Fur (Cyberkitten), Neal Thomas (Native), Steve NRG (Sundissential), Tony Duzzit (Extreme Euphoria), Andy Jackson (Mayhem)
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Other Features By HarderFaster:
HarderFaster Awards 2016 - The results are in!
HarderFaster Awards 2014 - The results are in!
Lashes, Dimples and the Brighton Music Conference
HarderFaster Awards 2013 - The results are in!
HarderFaster Awards 2012 - The results are in!
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.
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Comments:
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From: Nathalie B on 29th Feb 2008 09:53.00
What a great interview! Thanks for the mention Kieron! Can't wait for the HDAs tonight to see who has won! xXx
From: Caz Wood on 29th Feb 2008 19:04.21
Great interview, thanks for the mention Kieron! xx
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