On Saturday I helped host a Twice as Nice party at Xairo, the club where we have the Vocal Booth Weekender. It was put on by an outfit called UKG Spain.
I have been promoting the event locally for the last 6 weeks or so but didn’t shout too loud about the fact I was involved for several reasons, the main one being I need to keep total distance between that and my work with VB.
The promotion campaign was to try and pull out a lot of the locals who no longer feel they are clubbing age but definitely have something to offer, and the Twice as Nice brand would work well on that tip.
I enlisted the help of a couple of local lads James Arundel and Ricky Ghost who both played blinders. I had hoped to bring Adz back to the Costa Blanca but unfortunately that didn’t work out, mainly due to the flight costs. I also did a set myself and whilst the 2 step worked, the crowd where definitely feeling the 4/4 more and deep house (I played mainly sing-a-long tunes for the ladies), it was weird playing to a dance floor that ebbed and flowed depending on what people thought of the tunes, I haven’t had to do that in many years and I didn’t really enjoy having to “please” the crowd despite selecting a bunch of crowd pleasing tunes, makes sense ?
It was great to see Pied Piper and Unknown MC after at least 10+ years and show them around, they put on a great performance and took the roof off the place.
We sectioned off the upstairs area of the club and brought seating down to the bar area which meant that the 150 or so we had in made the place look pretty well attended. We had enough of a crowd to make a great vibe until 7am and everyone went home happy even though the night ended up costing a lot of money to put on.
I was satisfied with the club sound system which was boosted by a small system I have purchased myself although it is worlds apart from the lush sounds of Gillman Audio we ship over from the UK for VB.
It was weird pushing this event to a crowd that I really don’t have any connection with. Despite having a lot of friends around the world, I’ve never really made much of an effort in getting to know “the people on the scene” here. I like it like that. I have just a few friends that I really have anything to do with on a regular, Michelle is really the driving force behind bringing a lot of her friends and work colleagues out. It was great o have the few people we know out in support.
I also had a lot of help from a couple of key figures who brought a large proportion of the crowd between them and, despite much work with posters and newspaper adverts, there were no Spanish inside at all and I don’t think anyone outside of the local “clique” that are out on a regular basis.  From the crowd that attended, some are already VBW regulars although a few don’t get invited as they are a little too hot-headed. The night went without a hitch and I’ll be talking with the club again next week to see if we can tweak things to make it work for everyone without costing a packet.
There is a weekender taking place at Xairo in June with a host of UKG household names appearing as well as a bunch of DJs from the UK I’ve never heard of before. The Montepiedra is being used for rooms although they are not allowing pool parties. It will be interesting to see how the event works out.