I was lucky enough to be just about old enough to sneak into some of the old raves of the late 90s and early noughties, so my first exposure to clubbing was very much underground and off the radar, where most people came to parties purely for the music.
On that journey with me was a very good friend of mine, and the pair of us often reminisce about the rawness of our early clubbing days. One night, while getting ready to go to Fabric, we were taking a trip down memory lane, playing some tunes on the decks in my bedroom. We we’re also calling various friends and Skyping a few around the world, and soon people were talking about us having a bedroom rave. That night was pretty random and funny, and we didn’t think too much of it at the time.
Fast forward a couple of months and a few more of these occasions had started to occur as more and more people in our network of friends had started to talk about the infamous bedroom raves and the fun times that were always guaranteed when people packed out the bedroom for an impromptu party. They always seemed to follow or proceed nights out, but among what was quite a wide network of friendship groups, it quickly gathered a reputation as one of the best clubs in East London – albeit with a capacity of 10 at a push!
Fast forward another few months and many of our friends wanted to be at one of the parties, so I decided to take it on the road to a venue in East London. We called it Bedroom Rave Goes Big. The party concept was simple – friends invited like minded people, everyone was equal (no VIPs) and they attended purely for the music. The location was a very basic basement with a killer sound system, just like some of the best parties in the late 90s.
Word spread quickly and before we knew it we are receiving random enquiries about tickets for this secret underground event that people had heard their friends were going to. The irony is the party was free and the DJs played for free, but everyone wanted to be there because it offered something very raw and different for London. Anyone who found out about the event was more than welcome, but we kind of put the fun and the grittiness back into clubbing. We had about 100 to 120 in the basement and the party went down brilliantly, so we vowed to do another one the following year.
This brings us to where we are now with another event in the pipeline, although this one will be at least twice as big. We have stayed true to the Bedroom Rave’s roots, though – friends and friends of friends spread the word, and that’s it. We have a secret East London location and currently there are a number of business cards in circulation with a password printed on one side and the address of the venue on the back.
Our music policy is underground deep house or techno. If people want to listen to MK, they can go to the usual spots down the road in Dalston (The Nest, for example). We’re catering to real music fans. Our DJ line up consists of Adam Asenjo, The Violent Blondes, Ken Aki, Miss Mills and myself. I’m really excited about our final line up because they just get what we are trying to achieve with the Bedroom Rave, and every one of them brings something a little bit different to the party.
The future of BR looks bright with plans to do another bash in the UK later in the year, before taking the party abroad next year, with as many of our friends and friends of the party as possible in tow! A circa-150 person road trip would also be really cool, so if we could host a small stage at a growing festival, that would be ideal.
Right now though we’re just getting warmed up for another East London bash, so to get you all hyped for that I’ve put together a special Bedroom Rave preview mix. Player, download and full tracklist available below… Catch you at the party!
Nezza.
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Track list:
1.) Trentemoller – ‘Moan’ (Radio Slaves Remix For K)
2.) D’Joseph, Fredy – ‘Lightsaber’ (Original Mix)
3.) Bajka, Hunter_Game – ‘The Island’ (Baikal Remix)
4.) Matteo Milleri – ‘Direzione’ (Original Mix)
5.) Conrad (CA) – ‘Discrimination’ (Chris Larsen (CA) Remix)
6.) Ten Walls – ‘Gotham’ (Original Mix)
7.) Wokeye – ‘Roll The Dice’
8.) Nina Kraviz – ‘Pain In The Ass’ (Alexkid Remix)
9.) Djosos Krost – ‘Chapter One’ (Trentemoller Mix)
10.) Einzelkind, Christian Burkhardt, Frost (OF) – ‘Seamless Pattern’ (Original Mix)
11.) Alan Fitzpatrick – ‘Skeksis’ (Original Mix)
12.) Savas Pascalidis – ‘Interlock’ (Maan Mix)
13.) Jaydee – ‘Plastic Dreams’ (Sergio Fernandez & JP Candela Remix)
