Who: Glitterbox by Defected Records
What: Its spellbindingly sparkle loaded closing
Where: Space
When: Friday 25th September
Why: We're at the ‘why' which is of course the most vital of the W led prompts in this preview. It's the point at which I'm going to be digging deep into the toolbag of convincing chips to lure you through a tunnel of trust, until I believe I've dropped you at Space's doorstep, otherwise expect to be swallowed-up into a Groundhog Day-esque universe of reading this preview over…and over…and over.
But with the kind of chat that's been flying around this Friday flaunt, it's very likely that this closing has already been stamped so far into your carved up closing chronology that the rest have been blurred into obscurity. If you fall into that camp our ‘why' roasted nuggets will just make you that extra 100% confident in your selection. For the rest, the pointed fence perchers and those who might have marked this with a black cross, here's why surrounding yourself in the stuff that shines is a plan which reeks of sheer brilliance.
The Defected team said they wanted to start 'a party that creates anticipation, that you make an effort to attend, and where you can get lost in the music'.
GLITZ GOBBLING GLAMOUR
One word that's been chucked down and laid out repeatedly in Glitterbox related chatter is ‘glamour.' You can't escape it and why would you want to? This is a night of visual excess and that ingredient wants to absorb you within glitz coated layers of fetish fabulousness. When everything and everyone around you look so damn good, you want to feel a match on that. Legendary New York haven, Studio 54 was a big inspiration in its concept and the likes of Andy Warhol, Jerry Hall, Bianca Jagger, and Debbie Harry pushed at the boundaries of fashion with a raucous rod of risk. Glitterbox harks back to that time when you dressed to impress as a form of self-expression, but it is evidently minus the nose suspended airs and graces that often litter club VIP spaces. In Bossa, where the bars and clubs are packed with droves of both sexes looking like they've been kicked through '90s pop band style wardrobes of catastrophic coordination, seeing frolickers with a slathering of sleek, enviable individuality is a breath of fresh air. Decadence baby. Wear what you dare.
SAVAGE MEN IN HEELS
Nothing quite reminds you that you've completely lost it when it comes to executing an eye-goggle worthy high heeled parade to the dancefloor before you go for it in whichever way your body feels than when men are doing it better than you ever could. The stiletto might have been created for the benefit of our shapely legs, but they've become a genderless tool of flaunting your inner sex. Club collective, Savage, in its turbulent whirlwind has gathered three transfamtastic dance crews, Sink the Pink, Hot Heels and Nutbags. You can take the name of the first pack of stage stormers as literally as you want but shades of pink, heels and nutbags are united and balled up into a tastier combo than sausage meat coated Scotch eggs. Grade A+ attitude is smacked in your face as they dangle their angles in arse bearing attire with their fierce frolicking being able to uplift the most sour faced specimens.
SHINY DISCO BALLS
Who remembers Who Da Funk's fireball of a track, Shiny Disco Balls? You maybe sang along to this early millennia track thinking about scenes of the ‘70s, all those shiny disco balls strung up ready to be hit by the glare of a spotlight, before it reflected down on the multi-colour cubed dancefloors that John Travolta graced. Synonymous with the ‘70s maybe, but they've been sparkling since the ‘20s, all it needed was the right formula of music, lights and colours to transform this silver shiner into what it is today. They're everywhere. Queen of pop, Madge has had one of gigantor portions on her stage and psychedelic rockers, Pink Floyd weighed in on its power with a beast ball during their Division Bell tour. From rock to pop and hanging from your earlobes, they might be everywhere, but like with other novelty objects, they haven't lost their magic ability to mesmerise. So come and be mesmerised you disco dandies.
POLICING MUSIC POLICY
If you didn't already know, Glitterbox is the baby of globally renowned UK based house music label, Defected Records. It's a baby whose dummy was coated in a ‘music first' policy and its godparents are an international hit list of DJs. Glamour and the visually and outrageously tantalising are vital organs, but at its heart, is the music because it was felt that club atmospheres have become a little clinical. The words ‘clinical' and ‘Ibiza' once repelled each other, but you'll have no doubt heard the grumbles of something being lost. Glitterbox has flown in to capture that original spirit of the Balearic Island. “Bring back the feel-good power of timeless dance music," they cried and that's what they're hitting us with in records overlooked and forgotten. You only have to have had two minutes tops with someone who has been through Glitterbox's doors to know aplenty have been raving from fairground to playground about this badboy. You want to miss out on the finale of its beastly second season? One which has brought in the likes of Fatboy Slim, Todd Terje, Hercules and Love Affair, Todd Terry, Tensake, Joey Negro and Soul Clap? Don't be mental you lunatic.
THE LAST LINE-UP
Glitterbox's final thrust into disco house layered dust is bringing in the packing. Off, up and in is Dimitri From Paris, Todd Terry, Greg Wilson, Horse Meat Disco and island legend DJ Pippi. There's barely an ounce of a doubt that this line-up hasn't already wetted your appetite into a saliva heavy paste but with closings, to be able to offer something a little exclusive and a little unique is the real icing on the sponge cake. You can be well assured that the Defected crew are on decorating duties because lathering the glitzy glam under the giant globes, in his only date this season, is Greg Wilson. Considered a pioneer within the UK dance scene, a man who brought the post-disco ‘Electro-Funk' sound of New York across the Atlantic and a master of re-edits, boy what a champ booking this is. He's been nominated by DJ Magazine for outstanding contribution and his edits and mixes continue to ebb through the playlists of DJ's in every continent. His feats could fill Madge's giant disco ball which is a claim only few DJs can make.
You in? You glitz gobbling, nutbag chasing, disco ball breaking music heads?
WORDS | Aimee Lawrence PHOTOGRAPHY | Glitterbox
