“Reb’da… reb’da… reb’da reb’da reb’da reb’dareb’dareb’dareb’da… REWIND!”
The Smirnoff Inthemix Party Series touched down for its latest instalment at Rise Danceclub on Saturday the 15th of October. On this particular occasion there would be an added ingredient to the recipe featuring a selected venue, the number 1 resource for dance fans for news & inside info on dance music and one of the most popular mix drinks around; the secret ingredient being the Revolution Rewind theme hosted by Rise.
Simon Barwood, Greg Packer and DJ Rousa were the DJ’s on hand for the night, each playing sets of trance, old skool jungle & hardcore and happy hardcore respectively. As the name “Revolution Rewind” implies, on rotation would be tracks from as far back as the early 90’s. Old skool nights are the closest thing we’re ever likely to see to a time machine, as people who were too young to go to the raves of the early days would love to travel back to those ground breaking and culture defining times.
I arrived at Rise in time for the first beat of the first record as Simon Barwood got the proceedings underway. I met up with plenty of ITM’ers, those who I have been acquainted with and those whom I haven’t. Every word in this event’s title rang true as there was an excellent party atmosphere and the Smirnoff Ice’s flowed plentifully. Early on Simon Barwood put the stylus to “Café del Mar” by Energy 52 and BT’s “Flaming June” (original mix.) The expression “oldie but a goodie” often sprung to mind.
Simon Barwood’s set picked up the pace quickly as more and more punters entered Rise for the Revolution Rewind Smirnoff Inthemix Party experience. I made a very swift move to the dance floor to move my body to one of my all time favourites; Tiesto’s “Urban Train” (it seems there is a bit of confusion regarding the name of this tune, some say the title is “Suburban Train,” this might well be true but each of the two names may refer to the length of the track.) The dance floor at this point was packed but seemed eager to rock things even harder.
More classics followed like Mauro Picotto’s “Lizard” and the energetic and euphoric floor filler “Tomorrow” by Dumonde. Speaking personally the tunes on offer by Simon Barwood were excellent and they brought back memories of my first visits to Rise back in 2001 when I first got into dance floor. Back then the dance floor was always packed and the energy high and even though Rise gets just as full these days, it was great to reflect on my earlier experiences.
A time machine is what I really want though… so that I can go back to those early days when people danced in the hills all in the name of the music and making a very loud statement to the world. Those were the days when the words “rave” and “raver” meant something very different. At 2:00 Greg Packer stepped up to the turntables and he provided a set that would be the next best thing to a time machine. For those who were able to attend those true raves well over 10 years ago the music on offer would no doubt bring back the memories whilst for the young’uns like me; we got a good taste of the music from that era.
The Rewind theme rang true as Greg Packer span a plethora of tunes laden with pianos, jungle beats and spine tingling melodies. The dance floor by this time was in full form and why not? This was turning into an occasion to savour! Greg Packer picked up on the energy levels of the dance floor and ripped the roof off with the Pendulum remix of The Prodigy’s “Voodoo People.”
As they say, there’s no rest for the wicked! The Smirnoff Ice’s still kept on flowing as the crowd (including myself) needed more sugar for more energy. 4:30 saw the energy rise to ballistic proportions as DJ Rousa assumed control of the 1’s & 2’s. A night dedicated to old skool and rave party anthems just wouldn’t be complete without a healthy dose of warp speed euphoria! Foundation shaking, memories in the making highlights from DJ Rousa’s set included “Get the Feeling” by Kinetic Pleasure and the hands-in-the-air happy hard anthem; “Pretty Green Eyes” by Force & Styles.
6am arrived bringing to an end what was a fun filled and fantastic Smirnoff Ice Inthemix Party held by Revolution Rewind @ Rise. A huge thanks must go to Rise, Simon Barwood, Greg Packer, DJ Rousa, Inthemix and Smirnoff for what was a well promoted, organised and highly enjoyable night out. This was my first experience of a Smirnoff Inthemix Party and it most definitely won’t be the last!
