- Not so long ago, an ill-fated attempt to get in to the ever popular FabricLIVE had forced us to abandon the night to the screaming hordes at the door. Frustrated, unsatisfied and doubly determined to turn up extra early, here we were only a few weeks later, hyped beyond belief at the realization that the line-up was even better than the one we’d missed before. On arrival we were met by the joint sounds of Tayo and Ali B. These boys were warming up Room One for what was destined to be one of the better nights so far this year at FabricLIVE.
Over in Room Two, the room dedicated to the masses of Drum n Bass fans, the Scratch Perverts were laying down some fine sliced up heavy beats. This was quite a change after only previously hearing the trio provide a mixture of hip-hop and breakbeats. Unfortunately we neglected Room Two for a majority of the night, and missed both Majik and Grooverider, but managed to catch parts of both Optical and Ed Rush’s sets, both of which were suitably impressive.
Our euphoria grew as the clock hit midnight, in anticipation of the Stanton Warriors who were about to take Room One. They definitely did not disappoint the happy punters, playing some great stuff, including their usual stylish combination of techy house, breaks and what not. They absolutely rocked the capacity crowd.
With the Plump DJs set to come on at 1:30, the Stanton boys had the crowd on their feet. However, being their FabricLIVE CD launch event it was destined to be a Plumps night all over, and they rose to the occasion, stepping up the fun factor and entertaining the crowd with their antics on the decks. They were getting into it more so than we had ever seen before and the crowd was lapping it up.
Rennie Pilgrim - who we had heard much about, but never actually seen play - took to the decks at 4am, and really hammered down some heavy sounds. He actually started with Ferry Corsten’s recent big tune – ‘Punk’ which we didn’t think we would ever hear in Fabric. Onwards from there he continued to provide some really banging beats.
Lavelle began on the plates at 4 and dropped some great tunes. But we were tired, after a huge Friday working and a crazy week behind us, it was time to fight our way home in a snow-covered London and get some well needed rest.
FabricLIVE continues to make its mark on the London clubbing landscape. My only hope is that Fabric can maintain this great thing they have going for years to come.