I’ve always jumped at the sight of D.A.V.E the Drummer records and enjoyed pounding them out in my bedroom to the invisible masses. But I’ve never heard any of his sets or even thought of him as a party DJ. So when I found out about his visiting Factory I was very interested to hear what he had to offer.

So when the night rolled along I made my way to the city and started to wander up to the Colonial Hotel. Along the way I bumped into some mates that had just come out of a concert. They ended up dragging me into a few pubs and threw me horribly off course. After slipping out of their whiskey soaked grip I continued the pilgrimage up King St. to the awaiting music and beer.

When I finally arrived I made a beeline for the bar to wet my whistle with a nice refreshing beverage with the intent relax into some solid techno. The music that was playing in the main-room was neither relaxing nor techno, so I decided to mosey on through to the side-room where Robert Anthony was spinning some tunes. Those tunes turned out to be acid, deciding it to be the better option; I got comfortable on top of a bass bin and sipped away at my drink. After awhile it got a little too much for me, so I moved back into the main room to be closer to my beer supply.

After listening to the DJ for a couple of mixes I came to the conclusion that he was either really drunk or really bad. He obviously enjoyed a bit of a scratch, but instead of the conventional method of letting one record play and scratching another over the top in time. He just wound it (the record playing) back and forward at any given time, with no precision at all. That’s when I turned around to the person next to me,

‘Where did they get this guy from?’ I said.
‘UK,’ he replied.
I then glanced at the set-times and sure enough NICK LUNN (UK) was printed up there. But, everyone seemed to be bouncing away and enjoying it. So I kept my mouth shut and full of beer.

When Lunn finally toddled off stage, a much taller man loomed over the decks. It was time for D.A.V.E The Drummer. Without any messing about he slammed a tough track straight in and raised the tempo. People seemed to be coming from the walls and within no time at all it was nice and full. Being 4am in the morning this was an accomplishment in itself. Even better was that just about everyone was dancing away.

Dave’s mixing was superb, with crisp cuts and pin-point accuracy. It would’ve appeared like he wasn’t even trying if he didn’t have an always expanding dark ring of sweat on his t-shirt. He played a lot of his own tracks from some of his labels like Hydraulix and RAW, as well as some other classics that went down a treat. His track selection made for a thumping set and didn’t loose momentum for the 90mins he was up there.

By the time he’d finished everyone looked very satisfied indeed. And for those who weren’t, those crazy Forklift kids were up next to give the trance-heads nightmares and the tech-heads an early morning grinding wake up call. Being and grinding wake up call fan, I tried to keep my little eyes open and my feet a tapping. But (beer induced) fatigue got the better of me, so with some slurred goodbye’s I stumbled out onto the footpath to start the long adventure home.
As always the Factory posse threw a great night that will defiantly remain in a lot of people’s minds. It was great to see a lot of people there all rocking away to the wee hours of the morning. The highlight of the night was seeing Dave the Drummer slam it out and Lunn’s artistic expression. The lowlight was Lunn’s artistic expression and the bar staff for letting me get so ‘jolly’.