- Having taken a sabbatical from Back to Basics over a summer that saw Miss Fitz, Inland Knights, Daniel Stefanik, a Jamie Jones album launch and an afternoon with Josh Wink, I was anxious to discover the big change in the venue: A newly fitted, rather plush smoking area, complete, oddly, with a retired ice cream van, had replaced the sinister dilapidated backyard and the lawless underground bar that had become the hallmark of a good Basics.
Thankfully the club's music policy is still intact, with the same deep and steady groove that hasn't stopped pulsating since the night's conception in 1991. Resident Tristan Da Cunha, perhaps somewhat inspired by his remote island namesake, played muffled obscurities with very few of the flourishes, build-ups and drops that most DJs get drawn into: just rolling house music.
Headliners this time round were Terry Francis and Nathan Coles of London's premier underground house night Wiggle, celebrating its 15th birthday. The Wiggle sound corresponded well to Basics' guidelines: deep and dark house grooves with heavy bass and very little up top except for the odd tapping, minimal-steeped hook.
Francis and Coles played adequate sets, but with Francis having also played The Magnet in Liverpool that night, it didn't really feel like they were digging too deeply. The atmosphere in Basics is so special, however, that the music needn't be mind-blowing. The club has the perfect mix of old-timers and newcomers, yuppies and students, the beautiful, the dignified and intoxicated, all tuned in to the same grooving rut. Due to its consistency and regularity, Basics has earned a lot of trust from its followers, the sort of trust that keeps everyone moving even when the lights are up and promoter Dave Beer is purring and growling over Terry Francis' closing track.