Rocketing up the F3 motorway to Newcastle in our little red car, we were all very excited indeed. Not only was this the first time we’d ever been out in Newcastle for three out of the four passengers in the car, we were also heading to see Luke Fair – one of my fave progressive house DJs who hails from Toronto, Canada. And we were making a night of it: the vodka was premixed, the hotel room was booked and crew in tow. Yep, it was going to be one fun evening.

The King Hotel in Newcastle has to be one of the easiest pubs in the world to find. Our directions were ‘just drive straight til you see it’ and that’s pretty much what we did all the way from Sydney. It’s a cosy little venue: two well-stocked bars downstairs and one upstairs in the club area. It has that ‘charm’ (for want of a better term) of a non-Sydney hotel – cheap drinks, meat pies for sale at the bar, pokies in the back smoking room, pool table converted into a bench for the night and your typical dodgy bathrooms.

Heading up to the club at 10pm we caught Jimmy Dau banging out some wicked beats. An ex-Novocastrian himself (check the Urban Dictionary for a definition), Jimmy is definitely someone worth checking out. As the winner of the 2006 Sweetchilli DJ comp and organiser of Bowlarama he’s a bit of a regular in the scene, but he’s far from jaded. He played a cruisy warm set of deep tech house, and although the locals seemed more inclined to guzzle their VBs, we were happily bopping and basking in the sounds.

Luke Fair’s set could only be described as ‘fun’. Happy, deep, driving and uplifting, it was everything I had hoped and better than I was expecting. I will admit I had my reservations after being gutted by the overdose of cheese he served up at last year’s We Love Sounds. But this was perfect, reflecting where he is moving musically following the release of his Balance 011 CD.

Funky, groovy sounds with a hint of tech and a taste of progressive, the music was house, and definitely played the way that house should be. Not too much electro or big room vocals, just rhythmic, delicious traditional house – it was an absolute pleasure to listen to. I’ll be looking forward to seeing what the organisers of Neon can pull out of their hat for their next Newcastle party.