In their second act as Guest Editors, The Aston Shuffle have truly proven their chops as investigative journalists and undertaken a study of jaw-dropping proportions.

Not ones to do anything by half, the duo have spoken to the owners and promoters of major clubs in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide and Perth for their take on the dance scene at the moment. After all, who better to shed light on what it takes to be successful DJ, defining records, the impact of harsh licensing regulations on venues and the future of dance music than those in the thick of it. Yep, there’s more to The Aston Shuffle than infectious, pulsing tunes. There’s also two probing minds.

From your perspective, what percentage of your punters are there to see the act you’ve booked and what percentage are there more for the night or the venue itself?

Adrian Mezzina – Oh Hello/Arcade Creative (Brisbane): I think it really depends on the type of venue. At the moment, the strongest venues seem to be those that consistently attract good crowds each night they open, regardless of the acts. I would say that there are only a few acts around today that will pack clubs like they used to. As operators, you just can’t rely on your bookings to keep the crowds coming back – you need the whole experience to be spot on, and a lot of that comes down to image as well. I would say approximately 50% of the crowd are there for the act and 50% of the crowd are there as a result of the hype, or just for a good old party.

Stuart Duckworth – Electric Circus/Rocket Bar Adelaide: To be honest, I would say it’s on average about 50/50, but it always depends on the act. We pride ourselves on hosting new and upcoming artists, who bring with them fresh tunes, and so their profiles are sometimes still underground and may go over people’s heads. But when you have high profile artists, you’re always going to get some groupies losing it at the DJ Booth. Keeping the artists new and fresh is what it is all about, I would never want to run nights where everyone there knows the artist back-to-front, or every tune they play – that spoils the fun, no one would party and there would be no surprises.

When we travel around the country, it’s sometimes the case that local support DJs see their role as to play as many hits as they possibly can “to get the party started”, as opposed to slowly building a vibe and holding back a bit so people have something in reserve for when the main DJ plays. How important do you think it is to a successful night to “program” the DJs in this way, or you do you think it doesn’t really make a difference to your average punter?

Paul Azzopardi – Chinese Laundry (Sydney): I have always been a firm believer in programming a night properly; building a vibe from the start and not playing hits early so they are saved for later in the night. I tend to book more experienced DJs who know what to play and when to play it.

Adrian Mezzina – Oh Hello/Arcade Creative (Brisbane): Programming the night is always extremely important, especially when you book a guest artist. You need to create a journey throughout the night for your patrons. How well you do this is reflected by how long you can keep them in your venue, and how much money they are likely to spend on the bar. You need to make sure the peak of the night happens while the guest act is on, not before, and definitely not after. We like to think of it like a story or a movie – in three stages – it has an intro to set the mood of the night, slowing building to the act, a climax when the act is on, and the conclusion, when people stick around to finish the night off.

Micah – Ambar/Villa (Perth): I think it’s essential to a solid club night for all DJs to play appropriately for their allocated set time, and have some humility and realize it’s not all about them. When a guest or headline DJ is playing it’s vital that they are the focus of the night. But also when it’s just a regular club night with all local DJs, you need to still have people cranking at 4am and that’s never going to happen if someone’s dropping Nero at 11pm.

Stuart Duckworth – Electric Circus/Rocket Bar (Adelaide): This is the absolute bane of my existence. If a DJ drops bombs before an act I have booked they will never play before 3am again, if at all. This makes a massive difference to the vibe of the night and is once again something we pride ourselves on. A night revolves around your local DJs as much as the guest act, but they have to know where the boundaries are. If your DJs don’t know what to play and when to play it, your night is doomed… Having said that, in recent times, younger crowds have required more of a “party” style early set, but there are still limits a local shouldn’t step over.

Nick Foley – After Dark Social Club (Melbourne): It’s funny you bring this up, because it seems to be quite a regular topic of conversation for all the old DJs/promoters of the scene – it’s a social lubricant to stand at the bar with someone from “the old days” and talk about how the scene has changed, how there is no such thing as a warm-up DJ any more, that the drugs aren’t like they used to be, etc – and it’s all true! There is no difference to the average punter, but times have changed and there’s no going back – warming up and programming your set died with vinyl.