Club Reviews: Smartie Partie - Turnmills

3

Last Updated 04.12.07

Add to Favorites

Set as Homepage

Smartie Partie - Turnmills
	Date: Saturday 10th November 2007 Address: Turnmills, 63b Clerkenwell Road, EC1, London Occurrence: Monthly Hours: 10.30pm - 7am Ticket Price: £8/£10/£12/£15 Genre: House Dress Code: None Capacity: 1500
Line Up: TBC

The first thing I saw as I approached the clubbing Mecca that is Farringdon, or to be exact 63b Clerkenwell Road, was three jam packed buses full of buoyant party-goers. Where are they off to I thought, as they stopped right outside Turnmills causing road block! This was a large group or 3 of happy people on their way to help Smartie Partie celebrate its 12th birthday in style. The second thing I saw was the huge SP logo being flashed, rotated and twisted on the buildings across the road; I hope nobody was trying to sleep in there! This was undoubtedly the busiest and best SP of 2007, and the club was looking top notch with lots of balloons and shiny party stuff very much on display tonight. So…there were 1..2..3..4…5…6 or was it 7 rooms?…any advances on 7? Whatever number you come up with, it was good value for your money nonetheless! You couldn’t navigate through the club very easily due to the sheer volume of clubbers. The bouncy happy party spirit of T2 at the bottom of the stairs was back to it’s liveliest best and triumphantly showed why everyone loves it so much. The main room at Turnmills is supreme and always will be. I’ve been zillions of times in the past but the lights and the vibe is second to none in there, and you always get excited walking in through one of its many entrances. I love the techy, tribal and minimal house music they play, very underground. Any night I’ve been to Turnmills, I always think that room is what a club should be like…it is underground (literally), its dark, it has the best lights ever, a unique shape, and a very intimate DJ booth…how close do you wanna get to the DJ?! Just to keep the music flowing through the labyrinth that is Turnmiills, the old chill out or cinema room, is now also banging out the tunes…so that was room number 4? At the back of the club is the Juno room, which has fast become the most popular room at Smartie Partie, just going by the number of people who populate it from start to finish. Hosting it were new promoters Sinsation for the early part of the night, followed by the relatively new but rapidly growing Licked. I always find it surprising how busy that room is early on. There’s no warm up, its all systems go from the off! It also maintains that pace all night, there’s no let up. Sinsation did a splendid job and had the room very busy before Licked took over at 1.30 am. Another reason the Juno room is so popular is due to the extra lengths taken by Enhanced Events, with a little help from Licked, to decorate the room well beyond the course of expectancy. There were flames, dancers, Roman pillars, massive banners, huge UV cannons, drapes, lollipops, podiums everywhere, free CDs and a mind-boggling laser show. That room always seems to have an extra bit of sonic boom about it, maybe due to the wooden floor, and the sound reverberating more? Or maybe the DJs crank it up when nobody is looking! I remember the Marchant boys dropping Dave Spoon’s remix of Felix’s classic Don’t You Want My Love, which sounded estupendo! (sorry, I am learning Spanish and can’t help myself). When they dropped The Prodigy it was time to cover your ears, due to the crowd’s vociferous appreciation! Next up was another DJ duo called Filthy Habit. I’ve seen these guys before and they always play quality tunes; filthy as the name suggests but they’re also fond of a little bit of techno and prog house, which went down a treat. Following on to close the night and also maintaining the duo theme (I was half expecting Batman and Robin to make an appearance at one point) was Licked’s very own Rob Loco and Jason Chance. You couldn’t fault any of the DJs in there and again they kept the room rocking right through till close or sunrise, in fact, a little birdy tells me they had to keep the room open an extra half hour due to popular demand. Check you out boys! It’s testament to SP that I have written a fairly lengthy review, full of wit, wonder and joy, and not even mentioned any of the bigger named DJs or fully covered every room. Anyway, time is not on my side as there are only 40 or so shopping days till Christmas so I’d better get cracking. Hasta pronto en la discoteca mis amigos!
Venue: 9 Music: 9 Crowd: 9 Sound System: 9 Total: 36 / 40 Rating: Gold Award
Review written by: Kevin Boyle	kevin@uk-cl.co.uk

No part of this website can be reproduced without prior consent.
Copyright © UK-CL 2007, All rights reserved.