Sydney has seen a number of high quality DJs visit under the Ministry Of Sound banner over previous years – Tall Paul, Ferry Corsten, Heaven, Lottie & Anthony Pappa are a few that come to mind. On Saturday night, Darling Harbour’s Home nightclub featured the latest two MOS acts to hit our shores, UK duo Rogue Traders and model/DJ/producer Smokin’ Jo.

Arriving just after 11:30 (having chatted to one of the friendliest bouncers I’ve ever encountered) I saw the main room already filling up. I’m disappointed that I didn’t arrive earlier as it seems that I’d missed out on what I could only imagine was a smooth two hours of funky deep house thanks to Cadell playing the opening set. Making my way through the crowd I could hear the eagerness, as a number of people were questioning, “when are the Rogue Traders on?”

Midnight saw the highly anticipated James Ash & Steve Davis (better known as Rogue Traders) step up to the decks. With an already packed dance floor they continued where Cadell left off with a couple deep tracks before picking up the pace with some more harder edged house tunes. Playing back to back for two hours, the Rogue Traders progressed through a number of styles of music – deep house, tribal, funky disco, even some electro courtesy of the awesome Felix Da Housecat remix of ‘Androgyny’. We were also treated to tracks such as Aphrohead’s very funky ‘Cry Baby’, a new remix of Fisherspooner’s ‘Emerge’, the classic ‘Plastic Dreams’ by Jaydee plus Underworld’s ‘Two Months Off’ (they stated they “had always wanted to play this out”) and even the Sex Pistols’ ‘Anarchy In The UK’! Of course they also played some of their own tracks with ‘One of My Kind’ and their new upcoming single ‘Stay’ thrown in the mix. The mixing was a little off in some parts but their enthusiasm more than made up for it with both of them grabbing the mic at various stages through their set and proclaiming what a great time they were having – the crowd responding with cheers, whistles and lots of hands in the air.

After playing their final track, the Rogue Traders stepped down to allow the absolutely gorgeous Smokin’ Jo to continue the musical journey – and what a set she played! Starting with some deeper house, her mixing was spot on as she layered track upon track and over the course of two hours built up to some driving bass lines and stomping tunes. For me, her set was definitely the stand out of the night and judging by the crowd’s reaction, there would be a lot of people who would agree. Always the model, I even saw Smokin’ Jo pose for a number of photos with some keen punters after her set! Alex Taylor took control at around 4am and saw the rest of the night out with a funky set, and even played the ‘I Feel Love bootleg’ – one of my favorites.

It’s unfortunate that I didn’t get the chance to see any of the other rooms, as I found my feet firmly planted to the floor of the main arena from the moment I arrived – from what I’ve heard, Illya played an outstanding set upstairs as well. All in all a great night was had and I’m sure there are a number of people out there who cannot wait to see both the Rogue Traders and Smokin’ Jo visit us again in the near future.