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Wildchild’s 3rd Birthday review

Reported by Winter Pheonix / Submitted 02-11-05 21:48

For those who like it short and sweet I have made a choose your own adventure style ending. Please click and scroll to the chapter titled IN BRIEF for those lazy or bored…

Everybody else get comfortable…

Where to start, where to start? Well at the beginning would make sense now wouldn’t it? You are at the beginning of the review for Wildchild’s 3rd Birthday. I can hear a resounding “Duh” as I continue typing but judging by the states of a good few of you, my fellow party people, it might not hurt to state the obvious. The beginning for me is some time back, before the official relaunch that was marked by the event held at SEOne on the 29th October. I’m proud to say that although never a useful contributor to Wildchild, I have been in attendance since they were a group of friends having a good time in a small bar somewhere in London. I have asked myself if with the growth of Wildchild it has lost its identity as a night with a bit of difference, but have to say even though the group of friends has become a frenzied bunch of indeed wild spirited children, and the small bar has become one of London’s biggest clubs, the heart of the night still beats the same.



As I’m starting at the beginning and so that you can join in the journey with us, I’m not starting from the minute we get to the venue, but from the point we set out.

First stop, the home base. Our mission, gather the troops and march to the hot zone in order to meet allied forces. After cleaning off the dirt from the day and the remaining from the debauchery at Sets in the City (which is still clinging you filthy lot) I do a quick check that the crew are all alive and well and grab something to eat. Then with glitter and mini and make up and magic all tucked away in the boot, myself and my charming man hit the road to collect the first of the fall out from Friday and my chosen partner in crime for the evening. We arrive and after a short shuffle about we have one cream crackered little cookie in the back of the car and we’re on the way to collect the rest of the dishevelled troops. At the alpha site and base for the rest of the weekend, we find the remaining crew have been badly damaged in the Sets in the City operation. They had very successfully fulfilled the duties laid out in the mission brief for Friday, but would they survive the night ahead that was bound to be a full on assault for the bravest of soldiers and perilous to the ill equipped?



We all know when the names of the big boys spring up, Koko, Canvas, The Academy (and Wildchild’s chosen monster) SEOne, several things hop into mind for most. Is it going to be like the last time we went to that night where we had to bring oxygen masks to breathe and dig latrines in order to relieve ourselves? We’ve all been on missions like those folks and lord only knows how we survive them. The lord and our pharmacist. Back to the Alpha base and rounding up the troops to tackle the night ahead. I put my face on and change from my recovery clothes to my club comfort clothes and boots. The troops look nervously around all wondering if they have enough fight left to brave what would be at the very least a bold struggle, at most an evening to finish them off. At this point I have to be honest and say that as I knew I’d be writing this review, I had gone lightly and snuck out the night before. My darling little army however had taken on the fight for me and done a tremendous job that left me wondering if it was cruel to lead them to another stomping ground in such a weakened state.



Then I came to my senses. This is the third birthday of the night that opened me up to the club scene! Although not part of the official Wildchild family, I sure felt a special connection and if any of the big clubs could make this a good night, it was SEOne for me. So we packed the survival kit and set off on foot. With a happy little chatter between the troops we arrived at SEOne around 00:00 hours. With all of about a 1 minute wait, I was in but some of the group had divided. Assured that they would be in before long we headed for the bar and then to the first set of the night. One of the boys in the know was keen to hear Phil York back to back with Jason Cortez, two Djs not as well known in the south and completely unheard of to me (not a surprise as I do marching orders and messes, not names and faces very well). At this point early in the night my feathers were feeling a little ruffled from the trip down and I was a little agitated that I had been separated from the tired team of trouble makers I had set out with. My partner in crime decided that it was a little to early for a hectic stomp so set out for a sofa in the chill out section. The boy in the know and I settled with a spot on the dance floor to get comfortable. I must say I was almost immediately impressed by Mr York and Mr Cortez. Their stage presence was lively and exciting, which for me is 50% of what makes a decent Dj. Everyone’s favourite I can’t get no sleep was mutating in that morish way to a mix of Agnelli and Nelsons (note to self must catch their set) Everyday which soon had me bouncing about with both Dj’s and crowd alike. It wasn’t long before the half empty room started to fill out as people wandering through found themselves caught up by the lure of the dynamic Scottish duo on the decks. By the time the troops had regrouped and come after us I was happily wiggling away with the good vibes of the Sundissential, Storm and Big collective.

All was not happy with team trouble however. As myself and fellow soldier were escorted away from the maddening pace of the crowd toward the squaddies I could see frowns. It had been established that the collateral damage inflicted upon the group was taking its toll and a march back to the Alpha site had been planned. It appeared that there was no chill out section in the hot zone that was the SEOne battle field. Not having the usual spots as a chill out was a dangerous move for such a big event and on a Saturday night when clubbers are tired not only from the night before but from buzzing about such a large venue at full speed. But I have to say hats off to the Wildchild crowd for dedication to the party people. I have to smile in respect of the team for making every inch of the SEOne structure strengthen it’s arches so as not to bring the roof caving in. The message quite simply, this is a club and our night is for energy, dancing, screaming and storming. No place for lightweights and those already spent.



Although it saddened me to loose a few, there was still a mission to be done and acceptable losses were to be expected. The ranks were shifted and the man in the know, my new partner in crime, and myself parted ways with a tactical plan for recon in the early hours. It was after this point and initial grieving the night really took off for me. I have to say it was thanks to the Slinky noise of Tranzaction and the man Billy Daniel Bunter that shook off any half assed mood I was in and within seconds had me dancing like the floor was on fire, pulling those ridiculous sex faces you just can’t help when tune after tune is so good that you loose all sense of what’s happening around and become part of another organism that has it’s own life on the dance floor. Usually I’m not the best with knowing the music and as long as it’s good I’ll love it but in this set I recognised a fair few so would say he was playing the anthems set to lift us into the early hours and keep us energised for what was to come. It seemed to me like the shortest set of the night due to it’s ability to keep the crowd amusing each other with faces of sheer delight. The sweat was steaming off me so we decided go for a wander to the smaller rooms for a slightly less hectic bubble.

After a bit of confused schmoozing between here and there we trotted briskly onto JFK in the Trance Generation room. From here on in I confess, although I felt the regimented plan to see who we wanted was working very well, in hind sight (don’t you love it) I realise it was perhaps here order started to slip from our hands. My partner in crime may dispute this as he was in charge of timing, so I could remain responsible for my usual appetite for random disordered chaos, weather that be in my own head or in the world outside I’m never generally fussed. JFK had a nice following of dedicated dancers and was holding this particular roof up very well. In fact the club as a whole was damn busy. I did over hear a few mumbles from tired clubbers about this but at every given point during the night that I found a tune that made me jump up and down I found enough room to dance like I was in my living room, without limbs of the sweating enemy invading. Trust me when I say after time served in the clubbing military I do not bode invaders of my space well. Those who have tried have discovered my rare and special dance move ‘the ferocious limb shredding elbow dragon’ and never had the blind stupidity it would take to soil my dance space again…



MOVING SWIFTLY ON to Cyber Kitten Elevation SH&GG. Now, baring in mind this was the smallest back corner of the club and traditionally the quietest stillest spot as well, I have to say I was surprised. What are you lot on?! The Cyber kitten crowd are as charged as a mini full of pit bulls on steroids and twice as frantic as most claimants of the word. The faces around the well lit and pretty room were beaming and although I personally know my limits of physical movement there was a really happy crowd who didn’t and just having a tempered boogie along side the animals in here (beautiful ones I might add) was fun. The vibe was lairy while intimate, livewire while inviting. We caught a bit of Nastey Neil E playing with Steve Gillen who knew just how to keep their loyal lot happy. Now, there were prime candidates for loony tunes all over the Club by this point, I wouldn’t expect anything less from a night claiming itself as wild, but I have to say personally if there was a ‘Nutters of the Night’ award it would go to this room.



Before long it was 3am and I had agreed to meet up with another troop of ally clubbers that I knew to be stumbling successfully about the bedlam that had grown in the hours I hadn’t been paying attention. Funky was on my mind. A short skip and step sideways had our terrible twosome with the beautiful groovers of the Mothafunkin soul sugar kinky funkissential crew. OoooOoh those words just roll off my tongue like honey from the comb. I love a hard and nasty grind as much as the rest of you hard music lovers out there but house music of the different varying and mostly over classified kind always makes me feel sexy. I quickly converted to the saucy mixes Guy Hornsby was sliding out to us. I was instantly grabbed by the groove when Guy Gerber’s Stopping Time (Max Graham Remix) came in and had me forgetting the weary clubbers that had come in search of some soul food to restore them before they headed into the onward chaos of their own personal pilgrimages.



My personal journey was going well. The tactical plan for the rest of the mission was in mind, not mine however but that’s what friends are for right? Team work was called for. We had a little list of set times marked with who we wanted to see, although our personal favourites were completely different (remember note to self damn it girl!).

The Situation report was this: I had promised myself I would spend a good part of the evening in three rooms. So far I had failed miserably to even enter one of them and due to my partner in crime’s love of socialising and schmoozing we had spent what felt like a good part of the evening moving locations for what I could only guess would be a closer observation point. I’m more of a find the close quarters battle and engage the enemy until the last man is dribbling by my feet but each to their own. We had taken in a healthy portion of our rations to keep us going but there was plenty of fuel left. The will however was waning. I had achieved my main priority for the evening, having a dance until sweat covered me in the most primal sense and feeling random chaos take over.



We weren’t done yet though. Onward we moved to find the darling of Wildchild (in both the best dressed and sexiest of the promoters kinda way — no offence boys) Little Gem rocking the Noisy Tranzaction of the Slinky room with some roaring hard trance. Once again I found new stores of energy to move to, the music had my feet down hands up with the crowd that were going for it when the tune was dropped in. Lisa pin up was due on shortly and I was hoping to catch her set as I haven’t had a dance for her since Bagley’s rumbled with Freedom (and no, I still haven’t sitting here Monday morning — grrrrr. How I have managed to repeatedly miss her at various nights I cannot fathom). Lisa pin up did not come on when we expected so we figured we’d pop in on the main arena to catch up with Agnelli & Nelson. JFK was on (not that sorry to interrupt myself mid flow as much as the rest of you but did anyone else note he played in three rooms? Not at the same time of course but I’m still suspicious of some freakish club land cloning here, hats off to you all the same JFK) anyway getting back to the subject of jittering about all the DJs I wanted to see being late, Agnelli & Nelson were no where to be seen. At that point I’m sure some bells should have been ringing to tell us it was us going mad and not the rest of the clubbers but our confused and confuzzled little brains but before any logical explanation dealing with the changing of time came to mind I was distracted by the lights, which in the main room were brilliant.



I hopped up the stairs to the side platforms added since my last visit, to look out over the swirl of hungry dancers, fiendish in their flow. It was about this point, with gigantic inflatable symbols of Wildchild above, that I like to think if I was the kind of person to get all sentimental I would have cast a thought back and shed a tear or two at how much Wildchild has grown from the early parties at Extra time, how many friends I‘ve made and how I myself have grown as a person… I am not however, so instead I thought to myself that I’ve had enough fun for one evening and it was time to take the chaos back to camp and see if I couldn’t achieve the next stage, total annihilation. With tired feet and thoughts of those soldiers we’d lost along the way the recon mission called.

I did cast a thought to weather or not Wildchild was still special now it has firmly established itself as a leader in the pack. I heard a few people complain about all the usual gripes of the big clubs, rarara too hot, moan moan moan too busy, squeak squeak the toilets are blocked. Really I think how much you enjoy the night depends on your attitude on the way in and your ability to roll with things that don’t go your way during the night. I had a good time, despite loosing most of my crowd, failing to meet the allies in the funky room and not realising the clocks had gone back so I missed the Dj’s I thought I should groove to. I went out, danced until my heart was content (and going to fast to dance any more) and went onwards with a happy smile. Funnily enough any moans heard were by people standing on the sidelines looking tired. But that wasn’t me and it wasn’t the general vibe of the place or the people that know what Wildchild is about. They were with me bubbling about in their own way and dancing like they had the winning lottery ticket stashed away at home.



Yes Wildchild is still special, still does different things like making every room a dance floor. You guys still bring a crowd like no one else that have happy feet and happy faces. To all of you, happy birthday and thank you. You’re still delivering the payload like no one else and keeping clubbers like me marching on.


IN BRIEF for those lazy or bored…

…You find yourself floating momentarily above a trap door and look down just in time to notice the black perilous void beneath you that you are about to decent into…Only Kidding! Ok, you want short and sweet, I’ll try…

It’s SEOne, one of the big boys, so no, they didn’t manage to defy all the laws of super clubs and create the perfect night where 4000 nutters descend into 7 dance rooms with a lid and yet keep you cool, sweat free, surrounded by space to dance without feeling lonely. Shocker but the toilets and bars don’t vacate the minute you feel like approaching. Generally the crowd were up for it, loads of happy clubbers looking their best, loads of people dressed up and the ladies (particularly in the loos at the back) were fine ass fillies. The Vibe was brilliant on any section laid out for dancing and lets face it that’s why we go out. I was really impressed by the effort put into the lighting and decoration of main room, even though I only caught it at the end, I wish I had of spent more time in there. I’m not the best person to tell you all about the music and the funky, phat, filthy, hard and generally different sounds that came out of the speakers but I loved pretty much everything I heard. Top Dj’s who all gave it as much power as the clubbers breaking personal limits. Wildchild still rocks. It wasn’t the best night out I’ve ever had and I prefer Wildchild at heaven but it was a contender for most enjoyable night at SEOne and it was part of what for me has been a fantastic weekend. If you like large events you would have loved it and probably did. If you don’t like large events then you probably would have disliked it. I think the tendency with big events such as birthday events is that, like myself, the build up gathers so much momentum that the night cannot possibly live up to what we have made it in our minds. So to those I heard grumbling, did the event spoil your night or were you expecting the impossible? To those that made the night what it was for me and everyone else who holds the spirit of Wildchild in them, see you next time…
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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: Miles Gorfy on 3rd Nov 2005 07:59.27
Mad as a box of frogs, top night out Thumbs up

From: Andy Dunford on 3rd Nov 2005 09:10.04
Funnily enough I normally hate large events but I loved it just to put the cat amonsgst the pigeons! Three trance rooms and knowing loads of people going definitely helped.

From: Reece Elliot on 3rd Nov 2005 09:30.02
Many thanks for the review, many thanks to the thousands that made the whole place rock all night!!!

From: raving_pixie on 3rd Nov 2005 13:28.55
A review ooooozing style and personality, much like the author. Woooooot! Wildchild wasn't what I needed that night but it rocked plenty of peoples socks off! Thumbs up

From: HIGH SEEKER on 3rd Nov 2005 14:50.46
this was my first wildchild and i loved every minute! will definatly be going again thanks for such a wicked night!

From: hardhouse_21 on 3rd Nov 2005 14:52.25
top night wildchild.... cant wait for da next one!!!!
(hard dance room could have been a little less trancy though) lol.. hehehheeh

From: Alan-Banks on 3rd Nov 2005 15:06.39
Was a great night. So many rooms, so many people!!!! well done Wildchild for another stormer

From: anushka007 on 3rd Nov 2005 15:26.07
Wow Anna nice read Not worthy... and I hope to read some more reviews from you in future Smile Also enjoyed the night and you have made me realise that even tho there was so many clubbers there the toilets were spot on and I never waited for more then few moments to be served at the bar Wink

GO WiLDCHiLD GO

From: Tartipants on 3rd Nov 2005 17:05.27
Rolls On Floor Laughing Bloody superb read girl..well doneClaps Hands

From: little gem on 3rd Nov 2005 19:58.00
Many many thanks for the review! And of course thanks to the many many top clubbers that ventured down to SeOne to help us celebrate our birthday!!

Thanks guys!!!!!!!! Gem xx

From: GloomCookie on 3rd Nov 2005 20:14.58
Reading the review was a lot better than the night itself... Flees!

Fantastic read, girly, you have teh w00t Mmmwwah!

From: pookie on 3rd Nov 2005 20:37.12
That was brilliant chick!
Hofftastic!

From: pookie on 3rd Nov 2005 20:37.59
That was brilliant chick!
Hofftastic!

From: nuklearpuppy on 4th Nov 2005 12:31.42
I had a wicked night, thansk to Reece & Gem for having me down Smile
Nice to meet all the folk I did, sorry if I dribbled on you...

From: Reece Elliot on 4th Nov 2005 15:10.06
lol jason - you nutbag - cant wait to have you guys back down!

From: Intervention-UK on 4th Nov 2005 15:40.15
really injoyed playing this event, thanks for having us down reece mate

From: Hypermanic_Pants on 4th Nov 2005 17:31.13
Wicked review. Nicely done Thumbs up

From: Phil York on 4th Nov 2005 18:24.18
Awsome night! Big thanx to Reece & Gem ....3 new flavours of sambucca at them bar! quality!



From: James Ellis on 4th Nov 2005 19:01.45
Quality event and wicked crowd - loved the tunes in the Tranzaction room! Greg Brookman is a genius ;-)

Well done Reece and Gem - great to play for you guys again. Roll on the next one!

From: Steve Gillen on 7th Nov 2005 12:43.55
Top night. Wicked review and cheers for the mention Wink

From: FIGJAM on 7th Nov 2005 14:13.31
I am gutted I missed this one Frown to the next one!!Smile

From: ajay on 7th Nov 2005 15:15.04
Indeed it was a spanker of a night!! Top stuff all round - but as you say, the CyberKitten room was sure as hell going ballistic!!! Yay!

From: lol u no on 7th Nov 2005 17:02.08
Glad to see the CK mentalists doing us proud.

Hyper! Hyper!

From: KennyKen on 7th Nov 2005 19:33.50
Wkd review....Lovin the CK room aswell!!! NUTTERS!

From: guyster on 9th Nov 2005 19:47.03
Great review Anna Smile

Was great to see you down the front, hope to catch you soon.

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