When a mate called me saying he wanted to hit the town on the weekend, I found myself suggesting we try out Onelove, as I thought it’d no doubt prove to be a bit of fun at as neither of us had been there before? It would also a good opportunity for me to check out some of the DJs who ranked highly in this year’s inthemix50 (*Grant Smilie* for instance), as the night was part of the celebrations for the inthemix50 month. We arrived just before 11:30 and relaxed in the front bar with a decent crowd for that part of the evening, before the main room opened up about twenty minutes later. After a brief stint on the podium to show off some moves, we boogied away on the dancefloor to tunes like Pnau’s Embrace, a remix of Bryan Adams’ Run To You (which I got told off for not recognising), which all got the crowd going.

On the topic of the crowd, it was a bit of a surprise to see that apparently fleuro is out and flannel shirts are in for the guys. It’s funny how times change, and looking around the club I was thinking that five years ago there was no chance any of the guys would have gotten in with some of the outfits the guys had on. The girls more than made up for it though, strutting their stuff and the risk of ankle injuries far from their minds. The music was a suprise too. I was expecting a lot more of that ‘bassline fart’ kinda stuff that people call electro house, but while it was definitely on the commercial side of the equation, things there was a lot more melodic and driving. There was even a few progressive house tracks thrown in there!

The crowd lapped up the vocal anthems, singing along to tracks like Dirty South’s Let It Go, Morgan Page The Longest Road and various other Onelove hits. However, whenever the DJ’s tried to take things in another direction or go a little deeper, the crowd seemed to grow restless and demand another hit of vocal love. Even Children by Robert Miles seemed to get a subdued reaction, but that might have ahd more to do with the fact that it was the uninspiring remix from Inpetto. One exciting moment for me was when Grant Smilie starting mixing in Lola’s Theme by Shapeshifters. I love that track and the crowd loved it too, however we didn’t get as much of it as we would have liked as it was only a quick sample loop on the CDJ.

The side room (or ‘microclubbing’ area as the poster puts it) was going pretty well too. The tiny broom closet was packed with everyone having a boogy to a variety of tunes throughout the night. Nick Foley and Generik were dressed up in the latest womens wear from the Salvos, and in the space of about 30 minutes I heard them drop Young MC Bust A Move, some disco and retro 80s, Switch A Bit Patchy, some techno, breaks with handfuls of scratching, X-Press 2 Lazy along with some tech house. It was crazy stuff, but nobody cared as it was all in the name of fun and everyone was getting into it.

By the time 4am rolled around, the crowd had thinned a bit but the dancefloor was still going strong. Eventually the DJs seemed to tire of the anthems and stuck to some more techno-style tracks, which weren’t all to my taste but the dancefloor never stopped. After another half hour it was time for me to head home. Overall we enjoyed it muchly, it was a fun night and while the music was a bit inconsistent because of the crowd, it certainly wasn’t difficult to enjoy yourself. While Onelove might not be the kind of event I’d regularly attend, it’s not too bad for a guilty pleasure every so often.