This year Christmas was coming thirteen days early – the legendary Solarstone duo of Rich Mowatt and Andy Bury were having their Australian debut at Heat nightclub. Despite Global Festival only being a handful of days beforehand, the Perth trance community flocked to see the men responsible for worldwide hits such as Solarcoaster, Speak in Sympathy, and the instantly recognisable classic, Seven Cities.


Walking into Heat Nightclub for the first time, I was pleasantly surprised by the club decor and Dreas’ Sonic Rush being played by the talented newcomer Lanithium to the approval of a fair number of people circling the dancefloor. Lanithium’s mixing was notably tight as he skillfully moved with panache through tracks such as Armin’s haunting Burning With Desire (Rising Star Dub) and the formidable Solid Globe – North Pole (Francis Blaid remix). After the breathtaking breakdown of Firewall’s Sincere it was time for Jon Noonan to step up to the decks.

After a shaky start, Jon enveloped the rapidly growing crowd with his enthusiasm and soon quite a number of people were eagerly taking up position on the dancefloor. This trend continued as the crowd lapped up great tracks such as Sun Decade’s I’m Alone (Ronski Speed remix), consequently ensuring a full dancefloor when Choice and Micah came to provide their unique blend of breaks, progressive, and trance.

Choice spun off Jon’s last record with a flourish while starting Paul Oakenfold’s piano driven mix of Born Slippy. Cass & Slide’s Perception initially raised a few nearby eyebrows, but the classic track certainly sounded great on Heat’s sound system and was a signal that they prudently were keeping well clear of what Solarstone would be playing later on. Tracks such as the breaks remix of Chable & Bonnici’s Ride and Hi Fi Bugs – Lydian & The Dinosaur blended together professionally as Micah and Choice worked in synergy over the mixer to great effect. Near to the end of their set, Rich quietly came onstage and queued up a cd-r, which caused a wave of activity amongst the crowd as they surged closer to the front.

Shortly after quarter to two, Solarstone’s DJ frontman Rich wound down the last record and, to the loud cheering of the crowd, started his set with their brand new remix of Whirlpool’s Under The Sun. This seemed to hit the spot perfectly as everyone settled into the sublime techy trance. Rich had a remarkable calm presence, akin to Bladerunner’s replicant Roy, and effortlessly moved into their worldwide hit Solarcoaster while Andy held up the vinyl jacket so that the minority in the dark knew it was their track. Rich showed restraint and careful forethought with his key matched track selection, temporarily resisting to plunge into the vocal tracks they are famous for.

Speak in Sympathy finally signposted a graceful change in the set, and considering that it had been relatively recently released, it was remarkable to note just how many people in the audience knew the vocals – even the Solarstone duo behind the decks couldn’t resist occasionally mouthing the words due to the very tangible relationship growing between the crowd and them. The flawless set continued ramping up as Motorcycle’s huge As The Rush Comes (sweeping strings mix) was ushured in to the obvious delight of the crowd.

Finally Rich wound down the record, while Andy teased the crowd with partially showing another record cover, but the secret instantly disappeared as the other deck started playing the first sublime strains of Seven Cities. For many of us, to finally hear the producers themselves play one of the most treasured trance tracks of all time was an incredible experience.

It was even more remarkable a set, and experience for all involved, considering that they weren’t even playing their own records – they were lost in their flight over from Paris. It was a remarkable effort that they pieced together and played such a fantastic set within a few hours of getting off the plane. Consequently it was rather fitting that Huey played the last record (Scott Mac’s blistering Damager 02) to round out an excellent night.