Nervous: Ready to launch

Having attracted upwards of 5,000 dedicated clubbers to their past few events, the growth of Transmission since its inception in 1996 has been astronomical to say the least. In it from day 1, Nervous has always felt a special affinity with the Transmission brand, knowing deep down that it would continue to grow from its humble beginnings at the old Sublime venue on Pitt St, “I didn’t have any idea that the events would grow to the level they’re at now, but I always knew that it was a very special project and something that I’d work on for a very long time. The first one we did was live on the radio, the second one was live on the internet, it’s always been about upping the bar. The ideas have always kept coming, and thankfully through our team and our marketing and our production, we’ve been able to build the brand into something that stands for a lot of people going nuts having a good time to dance music.”

Prior to the announcement of the dual Transmission White and Black events, Nervous and his team had run their parties at the Homebush State Sports Centre, proving to be the one single over 18s dance event to attract a sizeable crowd, “All the other events that have been out there, Two Tribes, Utopia, Godspeed, they’ve all been all-age events, so I was totally terrified [before the first Transmission at Homebush]. To be honest, the venue hire fees out at Homebush are astronomical, and so your break-even is incredibly high. And because there wasn’t a model in place already, someone who we could look to and think, ‘well if they’ve done it, we can do it’, it was really scary. But, in doing that we learnt so much. We got it from 2,500 people to 4,500 people in one event. I learnt an amazing amount about marketing and how to harness the energy of a lot of people to an event. It was a fantastic experience to learn how to do that, but it was really scary. We’ve always kept it over 18s, I mean if we expanded our market to include people under 18 we’d able to reach our break-even point much faster. But in the long run the people who work with me are committed to doing over 18s events!”

Many clubbers, past or present, would have attended at least one Transmission event throughout their clubbing career. Whether it was one of the legendary parties at the Metro or Sublime on Pitt St, or one of the more fateful occasions such as the prematurely shut Sega World event, Nervous is now able to look back on them all with good humour in hindsight, “The best memory would be at the first Transmission having to leave the party to go to another gig, because at this point I had to play other gigs on the night, and hopping in a cab to hear Jumping Jack play ‘Seven Days In A Week’ on 2SER. So actually hearing my dance party over the radio, that was great. The worst one would be walking out of Sega World, after being assured for the umpteenth time that we wouldn’t be closed down at 5.30 in the morning, to see 12 policeman standing there telling me ‘we’re shutting it down’. That’s definitely my least favourite!”

Highly publicised, the Transmission White party is set to be one of the more momentous events on Sydney’s clubbing calendar for 2004. Following a similar design to the massive Sensation events held in the Netherlands, punters are being encouraged to embrace the theme and come dressed completely in white, “We’ve put a lot of faith in the idea. We’ve created a special room for people who get dressed in white, and we’ve created a lot of other incentives for people who are dressed in white. We’ve made it pretty clear all along that the people who get into the theme will be treated like royalty! I think the majority of people will embrace it, and I think it will be an amazing scene to see an entire dance party dressed in entirely in white! And I think that people will take that on and run with it – you can’t force people though. I would like to make it into the size and proportion of the Sensation parties, but I think we’re just starting on that route.”

Over the past few Transmission events many would have noticed the direction taken by Nervous and his team to introduce more varied sounds in the mainroom. Taking a step away from hard-trance and hardstyle, Nervous is happy to see people warming to the sounds of uplifting trance, “I think that Sydney and its dance party scene is incredible and exciting, but to keep the interest of people over the age of 20 the sounds of guys like Armin Van Buuren, Tiesto, Ferry Corsten, it needs to be played in the mainroom at big dance parties. On the same token, people who are younger and have only just started going out, they want to hear it hard, so it’s a bit of a delicate balancing act between the two, but I’m committed to introducing the uplifting sound more and more. It’s a more sophisticated sound.”

Taking place at the UNSW Roundhouse, Nervous is happy to see that tickets for Transmission White are moving at a rapid pace, “I went out flyering on Friday and Saturday night, just sussing how things are going for Transmission on the street. It’s looking very positive, we’ve sold about as many tickets as for our biggest events out at Homebush and this time we’re only two thirds the capacity, so it should definitely sell out before the event.” And, following the time honoured tradition of releasing details for their next party at the end of the current event, Nervous ends the interview with a mysterious laugh when asked about the finer points of Transmission Black (to be held in November), “I can’t tell you anything, except that it will all be revealed at Transmission White!”

Transmission White takes place this Saturday, September 18, at the UNSW Roundhouse. For more info on the event check out ITM Whatson. Nervous will then hit the road with 4Strings to launch the new Transmission mix album, out now through Central Station: