There are a heap of welcomes to the yard in 2011. Welcome back to all our great clients who have stuck with us for years (even before Hoults Yard was trendy – as one put it to me today!). Scroll down for the hot gossip, though.
And, welcome to some new folk – to name six new clients…
- The agency tasked with developing the music business in the north east, Generator, is opening a DJ/music production school.
- PR giants Bradley O’Mahoney have shifted their office out of the city centre.
- TV production supremos Steve Hunneysett and Phil Greenwood have hopped out of the Robson Brown stuff to launch their advertising offer as Re-Production TV.
- I’m supposed to keep it quiet too, but we have ‘in vogue’ street artist Hush setting up studio on site.
- Not forgetting, Caroline Theobald’s Bridge Club, the entrepreneur networking group.
- Ex-Falcons player, Spencer Davey, has launched a fitness firm called Storm Fitness, running full strength programme of classes.
All here now. All very creative.
That’s business. On the events front, in December, we carried off the PR industry’s Event of the Year PRIDE award, for last year’s World Cup in a Warehouse. Of course, we deserved to win top honours. We put on sunshine, hog roast and the only England World Cup win… as well as Metro Radio, BBC TV, 500 city types. We had Viz founder Chris Donald arm-wrestling with Blair Babe Dame Hilary Armstrong. And the beer flowed.
I’ve waited this long before breaking the full story of Hoults Yard’s 2011 events programme. Our latest welcome. Last year, we were test-driving the venue spaces and were awarded our alcohol/ents licence by the city council. This year, we can announce a partnership with local legendary promoters Shindig. They are taking over where Habit left off with the town’s most credible DJ-music programme for my musical education. 2010 was all about German Techno DJs breaking into the Euro scene. This year, we are kicking off with more Germans, a half-Japanese woman and one famous Frenchman: Laurent Garnier.
We’re opening with events in Feb26 and Mar12 – and expect to sell out. Get in early if you fancy shaking off the January blues. We can guarantee you’ll lose pounds in our Byker sweatbox!
Sorry the two launch events are so close together, but if Laurent says he’ll even dare come to Newcastle, we’ve got to take the dates he offered us!
Because this is quite big news, we’ll be making a big effort… we want to give Newcastle something exciting and a ‘going out’ experience to be remembered.
The Shindig press release reads as follows:
Recrafted, Re-invented and remixed since 1992…
Shindig is incredibly pleased to announce one of its most exciting projects to date not to mention one of the cities worst kept secrets…As the next chapter in it’s two decade history, February sees Shindig present their first ever warehouse event…SHINW34/001
As a creature of habit: Shindig has always crafted the direction of its events in favor of the listener; celebrating its past yet looking firmly into the future and now continues its events through 2011 delivered with an adventurous edge. Highly allergic to trends Shindig now translates from the Newcastle’s finest purpose-built clubs to the city’s newly revered creative space that echo’s Shindig’s excitement and long lived enthusiasm giving rawness to the rave.
After an outstanding appearance last summer alongside Claude VonStroke we welcome back Get Physical’s lady of tech-house, Heidi who with her charismatic and energetic personality behind the decks has since continued to embrace her Detroit and Chicago influences on her monthly BBC’s Radio 1 In New DJs We Trust show. Systematic’s Robert Babicz joins to play musical puppet master from the helm of his 100 per cent live set up. Moving between the genres of Electronica, Techno and classic House, Robert Babicz is one of the most versatile producers and true pioneers of minimalistic sounds as well as raw grooves and since his fourth full-length album last year continues to reveal his energy, talent and skill as one of Europe’s most essential techno producers.
Completing the SHINW34/001 lineup Shindig invites London’s newest house talent Maya Jane Coles to step up for her Newcastle debut. With her new EP out next January on Mobilee, ‘Beat Faster’, a DJ Mag nomination for “breakthrough producer of the year” and an exceptionally impressive RA Podcast under her belt, London-based, half-Japanese producer Maya Jane Coles has been simply breeding perfect tech-house and recently made her biggest splash on the house world with ‘What They Say’ EP.
For our second show in March; SHINW34/002 we are very excited to present the legendary Frenchman and one of godfathers of techno Laurent Garnier to Shindig at Warehouse34 with his tour entitled “L.B.S”. L.B.S – Only three letters but several different meanings: ‘Laurent + Ben + Stephane’/ ‘Live Booth Sessions’ / ‘Loud Bass & Samples’…
Laurent Garnier will be conducting collaborations and spontaneous improvisations with a crispy selection of house, techno and more woven throughout his set for his new club project that brings together Laurent himself (DJ & machines), Benjamin Rippert (keyboards) and Stephane “Scan X” Dri (machines), to quite literally create before your eyes and ears. Straight out of the DJ booths of some of the best clubs on the planet, L.B.S offers the best of both worlds by combining the versatility and flexibility of the DJ set with the ability to experiment tracks live. Two decks, a Rhodes, several keyboards and machines will be used to create an organic improvised set guaranteed to work Warehouse34’s dance floor.
Straddling house and techno our future events at Warehouse34 aim to capture what makes underground music events so special in the first place, here we are now in 2011 and it would be difficult to imagine Shindig anywhere else…
