As London Fashion Week kicks it's high heels into full pace SOS will be gathering all fashion mavericks, unfashionable trendsetters and head-turning traffic stoppers to experience another underworld party where style is definitely not over substance. Dress up, dress down, dress to express, or even undress - it's your call.
SHOE GAZING MUSOS
SOS always welcomes dance music pioneers pushing the boundaries and this month's guest DJ NEVILLE WATSON is certainly a man who does that with his unique brand of raw, deep and jacking house. He has released on numerous influential labels including Clone, Dissident and Mule. He also records under various pseudonyms, is one half of electronic boogie duo Midnight Steppers, and has a live project with Bulgarian housemeister KiNK. Neville has an extensive history playing in sweaty basements from London to Moscow, and main floors including Twilo, Berghain and Panorama Bar.
Joining him in the main room will be globetrotter ILONA INTERNATIONAL and residents WARBOY and ANDY BLAKE, who has been busy launching his new label In Plain Sight. Look out for the first release due out any day now.
EARTH-SHAKING BOOTIES
Dupés Den, hosted by the hot promoter MARK-ASHLEY DUPÉ, welcomes back the iconically stylish NIYI MAXIMUS CROWN and SOS cutie LAYO onto the decks. As always, this room will be bulging at the seams.
TRANS TWISTED BEAUTIES
SOS may never be the same again as JACQUI POTATO (AKA fashion expert, JULIAN J SMITH) brings her tranny mash-up DJ skills to the silver sequined I Love This Song room with JONATHAN BESTLEY! Expect irreverent pop hits... pure classy/ trashy fun!
STARGAZING MUSES
DOGHOUSE made an impact in the early days of SOS with their lunatic Vogueing and unique flair on the catwalk. This month the backstabbers of couture will be taking to the catwalk to give away a limited number of tote bags full of Doghouse goodies. Check out their prints at www.doghouseprint.com
CATWALK ROOM - HOUSE • TECH • ACID
Neville Watson
Warboy
Andy Blake
Ilona International
DUPÉS DEN - UKFUNKY • GARAGE • RnB
Hosted by Mark-Ashley Dupé
Niyi Maximus Crown
Layo
I LOVE THIS SONG - POP • SHOWTUNES • TRANNY MASH
Jacqui Potato (AKA fashion expert, Julian J Smith)
Jonathan Bestley
With Valentine's Day turning all things red during February, love is certainly in the air at Heroes, Egg's monthly club night that combines glamour and quality dance music.
As well as inviting international DJs hailing from two countries renowned for romance, love and untamed passion, Egg is also creating the Valentines Dinner and Dance, a pop-up restaurant for one night only.
The Spanish are infamous for their passion and Oscar Mulero is no exception. His love of music has established him as one of the most relentless techno producers and remixers around today.
Upstairs in the terrace comes Alexander Fog from Italy, the romance capital of the world. With an impressive series of releases and remixes for quality labels, he is rapidly becoming a strong name in tech house music.
Earlier in the evening, the Valentines Dinner and Dance will be the perfect opportunity for people to indulge their partner, Valentines date or special somebody with an unforgettable and romantic three course pop-up experience. This will be the perfect way to start the evening dining in style and then going on to dance late into the night.
Well 2011 was all about starting new things for me, including three distinctly different monthly club nights. One thing I always try to encourage is new talent and ideas. This year was all about taking that to a new level and breaking out of my boundaries to reach new people.
SOS www.sosnow.co.uk The year kicked off with the launch of SOS at the stroke of midnight NYE/NYD. The first few months in Shoreditch quickly attracted a lot of new faces and having a catwalk in the main room provided a central platform for peformances from resident host Scottee, Ashley Ryder pulling 20 metres of red ribbon out of his ass, and the House Of Sergeant voguers.
It was clear that people couldn't quite work out what SOS was about and that was a good thing! The mix of open sexuality, shows, and encouraging a new music policy aimed to stir things up.
In May, SOS became a monthly resident night at East Bloc, one of my favourite basement clubs, and helped establish Mark-Ashley Dupé as an energetic new promoter by launching Dupé's Den in the back bar.
It's amazing how much variety we manage to cram into the venue and the mix of people we attract is a something I feel very proud of. Diversity, interaction and positivity are the key things that inspire me here. Check out these photos.
Probably the highlight of the SOS year was the crowd singing along to Beth Ditto's impromptu performance of Back To Black on the day Amy Winehouse died. A really moving experience.
HEROES www.egglondon.net
At the start of the summer I was invited to get involved at Egg in King's Cross and help develop some new ideas for the venue. This was an exciting move because I've always loved its different spaces and being able to put on bigger club nights gave me a lot more opportunities and support to create new things.
I immediately got involved with Egg's resident night Heroes. The aim was simple: to create something fun with a strong dance music policy and integrate more outrageous personalities like Chrissy Darling, Scottee, Jonny Woo, Sami Knight, Titus Groan, Oozing Gloop, Jack France and Lily Dean.
In just a few months it's been great booking so many headline DJs including Christian Smith, Honey Dijon, Kaiserdisco, Bloody Mary, Patrick Chardronnet, Hermanez, Coyu, Deepgroove, Smokin Jo, Willie Graff, Claude Monnet, Uner, Lottie, and Hannah Holland.
The night has built up steadily and I feel that it's carving out something fresh in mainstream clubbing. It's also given me the chance to play regularly in a club with a big soundsystem and to a new crowd which has helped me push my DJing further.
THE FUTURE NOW! www.thefuturenow.info
In September The Future Now! launched as a series of nights at Egg to explore the emerging ideas in dance music and fashion. The first night hosted Egg's bi-annual fashion party Wearable Art, and also had the after party for designers Basso & Brooke in the Loft.
In November TFN hosted the official afterparty for the launch of Central Saint Martin's huge new college in King's Cross.
It's been great working with resident DJ and programmer Joe Robots and headliners so far included: Sinden, Housemeister, Greenmoney, Capracara, Zombie Disco Squad, Idiotproof, Hannah Holland, Ikonika, A1 Bassline, The Lovely Jonjo, Justin Robertson, Dexter Kane, Palace, Funkystepz.
The Future Now! ended the year throwing a wild NYE party in Dalston with Destroy Culture. Check out Billa Baldwin's photos.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
The track i recorded with the amazing Andre J got released on Batty Bass Records. The making of this track was a great experience and it was such a good feeling to see the track and remixes come out.
DJing at Lovebox, plus Ada Zanditon and Kokon To Zai's London Fashion Week after parties.
Working with Matthew Glamorre and Bishi again on Kash Point's 9th birthday party and the afterparty for the Alternative Miss World film premier of 'The British Guide To Showing Off'. Check out KCTV photos.
In between everything else I managed to find the time to write the RVT panto directed by Scottee and starring Jonny Woo. QX Magazine said it was 'a twisted and surreal story that leads you down a path that you do not expect to be led down' - The story of my life really!
So now for 2012
January sees the launch of a new look SOS with flyer images by Belgian artist Piepke. Diversity and positivity will remain the central driving force as SOS moves forward and encourages new talent and ideas around sexuality and music.
Heroes has some incredible line-ups booked for the year. The aim will be to refine and grow the night mixing a lot more glamour and performance with an uncompromising dance music policy.
I'm currently planning a new series of The Future Now! in the East End. Expect some very explosive parties.
I'm already working on creating a lot more music, which will result in producing an album and touring show. I want to harness my creativity working with some of the amazing people I have met. This project will be bigger than anything I've done to date and will take up a lot of 2012. As a result, I won't have time to attend any of the Olympic events or the Queen's official Jubilee party.
Btw, I'm always looking for people who want to help out with things I'm working on. Any volunteers or if you think you're doing some that would fit any of the projects then email info@warboy.co.uk
