fabric – 3rd December 2011

After going to fabric 3 times in 5 weekends not long ago, I did promise not to go again in 2011.  I like to think that I am a man of my word but somehow my arm got twisted quite easily into conveniently ignoring said promise.

The crowd wasn’t quite up to it’s usual recent standards at fabric, probably due to the lack of a Jamie Jones type figure and generally a lack of anyone well known for house music – it is also office Christmas party season and clubland does generally suffer from the usual clubbers having to sacrifice nightlife decency to spend time with people that they despised for 40 hours the previous week, and also those with a slight sense of daring managing to persuade people after said office party to come to a nightclub for the first time in 10 years since they were last dragged into perhaps a Time & Envy type establishment against their will.

There is one word to best describe the crowd on Saturday and I will use picture form:

Unless you are gay, I think for everyone concerned, a dancefloor is much better with a men to women ratio around 50:50 – not 95:5.

The music is of much more relevance, of course, as is the company of my excellent dancing partner who somehow managed to get me to break my promise of no more fabric in 2011 – such a bad influence on me 😉

The first people we saw were Brandt Brauer Frick – just the 3 of them, and only one on playing with a classical form of instrument which was a slight disappointment but I guess there is only so much potential on the stage at fabric for live set-ups.  They would be much more impressive in a proper concert hall – I would definitely love to see them do something like that – with their full ensemble.  A very impressive video here of their full ensemble.  But they were still good.

We spent a few minutes in room 2 with proper full-on banging techno, it was way too much for us, and we left after about 5 minutes.  I didn’t even bother to find out who it was.  Found solace in room 3 with Clockwork and Thugfucker playing some nice chilled-out house but room 1 is my favourite dancefloor in the world when I am there…well favourite in the UK for definite…favourite dancefloor in the world without ice cannons!

Shaun Reeves was good, he played house to start but much more tech-house and even some techno towards the end, which I wasn’t expecting but he was definitely good.

And then Craig Richards came on and played an absolute masterclass of a set.  Starting off with getting rid of all the idiots in the most superbly amusing and effective way by boring them to death with some very hypnotic Ricardo-esque grooves which worked a treat – those with more patience and more understanding of fabric resident DJ stayed long enough to hear one of the best DJ sets I have heard all year, moving into more tech-house and techno territory before calming it down from time to time, teasing the crowd with recognisable snippets of tracks from way back, some house, some acid-house, a track with this crazy clapping going on which sent the crowd crazy followed by some full-on beautiful disco moments – with the lighting guy on absolute top form too.

Sometimes Craig Richards can be a little frustrating especially when he spends 3 hours in the middle of the night calming down when you want to step it up a notch, but he is definitively one of the most accomplished DJs in the world and knows how to work that fabric dancefloor like very few others, probably more than anyone – and plays some of the best music in the world, hardly any of which I have ever heard and hardly any of which I will ever hear again!

See you in 2012, fabric.