James Did Time

No don’t worry, I haven’t been to prison.  But I did watch Question Time.

However, this time I am talking about a little night called Time, run by good friends, JP and Martin, at Mango in Reading.

I missed the launch night due to sunburn post-Ibiza so I felt more than compelled to make sure I was in attendance this time, and avoided all possible sunburn/natural disasters last week.

I was a little wary given my musical snobbishness however I am pleased to report that I gained a healthy amount of enjoyment out of the night, and there was some good music.

Firstly, that I saw anyway, was my good friend Sam Red, clearly inspired from our Berlin adventure, though she had to cope with the DJ before playing horrid electro-house to finish which was anything but a warm-up, however she did well to calm it back down to a normal level, giving enough for a pre-midnight dancefloor, as I would expect.

Next was Tim Sharpe, who runs the Groovetech nights in and around Reading, and he definitely took it up a notch with some nice techno grooves – I only caught half of his set as I was busy socialising but I enjoyed what I saw.

Then JP and Martin, as Dark Matter – I was really hoping I would enjoy some of their set, I know they have a propensity to play more crowd-pleasing electro-house which is pretty much the antithesis of what I enjoy but I was pleasantly surprised, at least for the first half of their set by some good underground driving techno beats, though the second half was more what I was expecting and I struggled somewhat, but that isn’t to take anything away from them – I was at Mango – not fabric, and they had a fair amount of people dancing.

Fingers crossed they get their album sorted out in time for next summer, as they are starting to fulfil their potential, and have come quite a way since I first saw them play together over a year ago now.

And finally, erm, Janette Slack the headliner – the less said the better!  She probably was enjoyed by others but I hated it, just horrid ra ra ra electro-house – other people’s music, not mine.  But I expected no less.

Outside had a nice contrast of hip-hop for the first half of the night, again not my cup of tea but thankfully not something to scare me – unlike the dubstep which finished off outside.  Aaarrrgggh!  Again – other people’s music, not mine.

The were enough friendly faces in the crowd to keep me amused when I struggled with the music, though not quite as busy as one would have hoped for two of my favourite promoters – but considering November is never the busiest month in clubland, I think they should be satisfied.

In summary, it is a good little night, with something for most people and I look forward to my next time.

This coming Saturday is another night at Mango (3 in a month – who would have thought it?!), with 3 more good friends DJing, Matt, Dan & Rick.  I look forward to it.