Pendragon @ The Fridge. 

Saturday 20th January 2001.

Drew goes tribal in "The best night of the year"^TM   A night whose aftershocks will rattle around the rest of January and certainly well into February...

The Prologue:

I have an unnatural, irrational fear of January. It's because each year ends on such a high note, and I always wake up on New Year's Day with a completely blank social diary, wondering what to do, where to go, what this year will bring, worrying that it will never be as good as last year. Of course, every year always tops the last, but it usually takes me to February to get into the swing of things. Well, things change....

This was to be my first Pendragon. Quite how I've managed to miss it so far is beyond me now. I've always thought the name sounded great, and I'd heard some wild tales from certain episodes at Tyssen Street. So when Pendragon at the Fridge popped up so early in the 2001 scheme of things, it was not an option. I was there. A little concerned at the possibility of over-doing the Fridge (this would be the fourth excursion in two months and I generally like to mix it up a bit more), but this was an event not to be missed, and the DJ line up, positively mouth-watering. 

So, frantically wiping away the drool with the back of my glove, I enter the Fridge on a freezing cold January night with tonight's bunchofcaners: Keith, Jez, Girds, Greg, Dom, Dan, Dave and Jonathan. And, in fine spirit, bouncing back from last week's Rudyarding: Claire. The scene is set, let's go inside...

The Nervous Opening Ten Minutes:

We pitch up at about 11pm. In the first ten minutes of putting coats and bags away, sorting out a drink from the bar and setting up camp somewhere - amazingly opting for that platform yet again - I felt considerably more disorientated than usual at the Fridge. I've only ever been to Samsara nights before, and the last 3 visits have all read from the same text book: we've been turning up early, to an almost empty club and on all three occasions had the sheer unparalled joy of Bellissimo, by DJ Quicksilver being played at about 11pm each time. Marvelous. 

So when Pendragon is already pretty busy and the music is harder and pounding away, it came as something of a shock. However, on closer examination of the dancefloor, it was glaringly obvious that the energy levels in the place were cranked up to a higher league. A few hundred people bouncing in unison so early in the night? Oh my God - this is going to be an absolute blinder.

The First Half:

Pendragon: Invokes the Celtic Tribal Spirit. Now, having crawled my way out of the South Wales Valleys to take up residency in London, I was pretty excited about the prospect of getting back to my roots and getting all Celtic on my neighbourly Londoners. It seems as if I was expecting a Male Voice Choir, or maybe lots of scenes from Braveheart on video projectors. I didn't however, feel particularly tribal about myself. There didn't seem to be that much in the way of the Celts about the place - although eating your own dead on a Saturday night is probably something best kept to the Drome. 

That said, the decor was superb. The removal of the large drapes gave the balcony and upstairs areas a much roomier feel to them. Lots of those dodgy Triffid things going of in all directions. Stilt walkers in green dragon paraphernalia. Plenty of cushions to sit on. Lots of stalls of glowing stuff.  Plenty to look at, plenty to comment on. 

We didn't half get around last night. I've never packed so much activity into a Fridge night before. Usually we camp on the platform and dance till 6am. Pendragon seemed to inspire us to move around so much more. We went through the tunnels; clambered over the railings; sat on the floor upstairs; chatted; lunched; mooched around. A totally different feel to the whole night. Not since Ibiza 99 have I spent a night so frantically off on various tangents at five minute intervals. Great fun and a welcome return.

The Music:

Not that it was all fun and games. Oh no. There was also the very serious business of the afore-mentioned killer DJ lineup. Lab-4 Live, Marc Sinclair, Jace, Oberon, Choci, Beamish. With a list like this, could Pendragon possibly fail to deliver the goods?

Well no of course not. I can honestly say that musically, it was THE best night since Jason Bye's infamous 10am shut-in at Amnesia in 98. The sheer energy of the crowd, coupled in to the intelligent  choice of tracks and mixing made this the most uplifting, bouncy and relentlessly good fun evening in ages. 

After supreme opening sets from Oberon, Beamish and Choci, we were treated to a live appearance from Carmen, performing her new single (didn't catch the name) which was superb. Lab-4 followed with typical vigour; these guys are such a top draw attraction, I'll go and see them anytime, anywhere. Jace kept it going and Marc Sinclair -well, words fail me at this point. DJing with blatant disregard for the 6am end of the night, he kept us jumping around the dancefloor for a good half hour more than my left elbow is prepared to contemplate under normal conditions.

All of which was aided and abetted by the seemingly better than ever Fridge Lighting. Mixed hues of reds, yellows and purples; that amazing strobe; the mysitcal greens; the Arthurian oranges (?!). There is no better Lighting in any club in London. 

Oh, and at one point, there were two Samurai Warriors going at it hammer and tongs at each other with huge swords. It wasn't quite 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon' but it certainly was a very cool distraction for ten minutes. 

The Second Half:

Some heavy duty website promoting got mixed results at Pendragon. Whilst I met loads of people (and Hi to you all) who had great things to contribute, there was one episode that was very embarassing. A gaggle of Japanese were clustered in front of a very large speaker, where they were last Friday in fact, and I decided that I should get an interview with one to get an oriental angle on the Fridge for this very review. So I approach, and in my finest British shout, say "HELLO! DO...YOU....SPEAK....ENGLISH? WHERE....ARE....YOU....FROM?" And I deserved the response, delivered in the finest broad Northern Accent: "We're from Doncaster Mate!" Love it.

There were more successful ventures though. Met Chris Allen, who had randomly signed our guestbook. Thoroughly good chap. Met lots of people who's photos are in the photo review. And of course bumped into Katy, JP, Richard among other, now regular faces. 

And all this action on our platform. Dancing hard for hours to the best music in town. The last half hour an absolute fest of grinning, hugging, back slapping building to an absolute crescendo of sheer brilliance, joy and pure, pure enjoyment. 

20th January 2001 : History in the Making:

A date that will go down in History as one of the landmark nights of the year for the reasons of:

1. The forming of the business partnership of bunchofcaners.com and Synthetic. Details forthcoming in the near future. 

2. The emergence of Claire, who deserves a special mention for bouncing around all night and, frankly, having an absolute blinder.

3. Drew finally getting to a Pendragon. In conclusion, THE best club night, in the THE best club, with THE best DJs. They don't come any bigger or better that this. And actually, at the end, I DID feel a little Celtic coming on. A nice sense of smugness. A sense that this is MY night, you're in MY back yard now. And before you can say "Oh here he goes again" - maybe it's just the forthcoming fest of Wales v England that has me feeling like this. Whatever. The point is, the gauntlet has well and truly been thrown down; my irrational fear of January blown out of the water; and a precedent set for 2001 that must be followed up. Make no mistake, if it's this good now, this is going to be the best year of our lives.

4. Oh and apparently, some new President guy was inaugurated. I'm told that's important. Dunno why though. Was he at the Fridge? No. Exactly.

Cheers very Now

drew

xx

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