Few brands can boast that they have, beyond all expectations, lasted a decade of ever changing music trends and lulls in dance music. Even fewer can boast that they have travelled to over 30 countries across the world in their ploy for world domination, and only one brand can boast the title of longest standing weekly Friday night event in the history of UK dance music. This brand is, of course, Slinky.
Early May 1997 saw the launch of Slinky upon the costal city of Bournemouth, already famous for its seaside, seniors and students. Friday night had generally been a difficult night to get people into clubs all over the country (and still is today), so the decision was made to put on a core night using guest DJs, a first for the south coast. The early Slinky events boasted some of the era’s biggest names in house with drum & bass in the back room but as the scene grew and progressed the brand broadened its music policy to include trance and eventually the harder side of dance. Quickly becoming a massive player in the superclub scene, Slinky experienced a meteoric rise, and due to the popularity when the first birthday rolled around, at the then 9000 capacity Bournemouth International Centre, tickets sold out 8 weeks in advance. From the very beginning Slinky strove to provide the biggest and best parties possible and now as it enters into its 10th year it will be no different. With events taking place across the globe; a string of critically acclaimed albums and the Slinky label with its big releases, without a doubt it is a brand that has stood the test of time.
It's now public knowledge that the brand has recently been sold to Amadeus Mozart, the attractive, plumper half of DJ legend 'The Tidy Boys', Richard Skaife, creator of the Tidy Weekender concept and Darren Hurrell, owner of Addictive Interactive. But just what is in store for the brand for the future? All working together in a previous life at Tidy, the new Slinky team now find that even after combining this new venture with their other businesses within the creative industries they all still have a drive, energy and passion for clubbing and music. As a side note despite the fact Amadeus was always intimately linked into the Tidy concept he never did become an owner of the brand, even after trying to buy it from its parent company. It always remained under the commissioning of the company he worked for; The Music Factory Entertainment Group, home of the Jive Bunny and owned by Andy Pickles, the other half of the Tidy Boys. This became by the by in December 2006 as the opportunity to buy Slinky came up and the fledgling team, bristling with respect and admiration for one of the strongest brands in clubland, realised it was something they just couldn’t turn down, it was also something very exciting to get their teeth into as a major project.
Successful projects were written all over the guys CVs. Mentalists all over the country have Richard to thank after he became brand director in 2001 and spawned the infamous Tidy Weekender party holidays at Pontins. Forget Yellowcoats and knobbly knee contests, this was Hi-Di-Hi for the harder generation. That’s not all though as together Richard and Amo worked on all Tidy’s creative output and events up until 2005 when Gatecrashers Russell Pate was brought into take control of some of the new projects. Before Richard left in 2005 to become the managing director of a US based mobile media company, he introduced Darren Hurrell from Addictive Interactive to the company. Addictive Interactive, for those in the dark, is a new media company specialising in social network website development and market research and is one of Google’s top 20 UK companies being watched for internet innovation. Now Darren and his Addictive team will develop all of Slinky’s online activities, Richard will be lead consultant on all of its new projects, while Amadeus will be doing the same roll as he did at Tidy, which is creative director and head of A&R for the new Slinky labels.
“One thing that I am keen to do is to develop new talent in both producer artists and DJs,” says Amadeus. “I’m very conscious that clubland is very stale with the same names appearing at events. As a promoter its hard trying to put together exciting line ups that will bring in enough people to make the night pay for itself. I think nurturing talent through the early stages of their career is important and clubs and labels like Slinky are the perfect vehicle for this, its an instant jump up the ladder for many people to appear at one of our events or feature on our new label.” And with a new website with exciting new services acting as a portal and gateway for the whole world to find out about these new acts and DJs, it seems everybody wins. The artists get seen and heard while you get direct access to the hottest tracks and acts. But then there are more ingredients to the new direction, with something a bit fresher and maybe even a little spontaneous.
“The live element we want to bring into the new Slinky experience is not just about DJs with laptops,” Amo continues, “Its about getting some dance bands in, as many new acts combine live instruments with loops and percussion to great effect. We are currently working with some new acts who put on a full showcase, delivering something I have never seen before but I don’t want to give to much away at this stage.” We’ve already seen massive dance acts like Faithless rock the globe from their humble beginnings. Could we see the start of something similar? Exciting stuff indeed. There are also new album projects pencilled in for launch this summer, a soundtrack for the sun if you will. “For those that might be worrying about our music policy we can confirm that it won’t be changing too much, we will continue to provide a 360-degree music policy of hard dance, trance and hard house, it’ll just the live acts and bands will add new angles. Developing new artists is a key factor to the new way Slinky will be moving forward."
Those forward moving plans for the brand will really swing into action following the 10th birthday spectacular, with the team aiming to see Slinky moving to the next level and beyond. The trio certainly seem set to go already. “The three of us plus Alice & Kym and some old friends within the industry are very excited about the future, a few of us have started bed wetting again, something we haven't done since the early nineties! Slinky has a great history but you have to do more than just put great parties on, now it has to be a full experience and we want the Slinky experience to be something very special indeed. Alongside this we want to be pushing the brand into new areas of the UK and expanding on our worldwide projects.” So watch out for a party near you with regular forays to London and Leeds among other locations complementing their South Coast and Bristol parties. There’s also well developed rumours of a Slinky Cruise sailing in over the horizon and with other top secret events still to be revealed maybe you might just need to make use of a wipe clean mattress too. “That's just the things we can tell you about at the moment! If we tell you about some of the other stuff it will ruin the surprise and that's one thing we want to bring back to clubland - the element of surprise and excitement.”
So be prepared, for a little excitement, for something a little different, for something new. Slinky’s changing and they want to take you with them. So now you're all up to speed on what they’ve been up to, here's 9 (not 10, that would be pushing it) reasons why you should come to Slinky's 10th Birthday bash on the 4th May at Elements Nightclub in Bournemouth to help blow out the candles.
1. There will be a special birthday treat for EVERYONE who attends.
2. Andy Whitby has promised to snog (with tongues and everything) any girl (or boy) who comes dressed as a number 10 birthday cake.
Coach Service Available – Tickets include travel plus VIP entry (No queuing)
Available from Basingstoke, Chichester, Portsmouth, Southampton, Winchester and most other towns.
Call Ernie on 07973 551 177 for tickets, info and other possible pick up points.
Our 10th Birthday is finally upon us and it's time to celebrate a decade of Slinky.
Our birthday party will be taking place at Elements nightclub in Bournemouth where we will be taking over the entire club for total dance floor domination.
We welcome back our sister brand and the finest purveyors of drum and bass on the south coast, Cocoshebeen as well as Bournemouth's biggest house night - Frolic who are celebrating their first birthday to help us party in style!
May the 4th be with you!!!
Flyer:
Region:
SW England
Music:
Trance. Hard Trance. Tech Trance. Bouncy House. Deep House. Funky House. Hard House. Vocal House. Funky Techno. Breaks.
Room 2: Frolic (celebrating their 1st birthday)
Lisa Lashes (Breaks set)
Daniel Bailey
Danny Francis
CHAP
Basement: Cocoshebeen
Sub Focus
Chase & Status
Drumsound
The Upbeats (nz)
Prophecy
Deep
Judda
Dark Dean
Carlos
Whitey
MC’s: IC3, Fatman D, Skeez, Manic, Double L & Skydro
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: guy garretton 30th Apr 2007 16:19.57 Some very exciting times ahead! can't wait to see Slinky explode again.
From: Clare Mclarenon 1st May 2007 10:13.03 Sounds wicked! Good luck to you all
From: Ed Realon 1st May 2007 14:02.13 see you friday peeps! gonna be a stonkin start to the long weekend :-)
From: carl nicholsonon 1st May 2007 17:11.58 BRING IT RIGHT ON!",
From: ajayon 10th May 2007 13:19.06 Great to see an institution like Slinky still going strong and now taking a massive leap forwards! Exciting times.....
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