Ahead of the Defected In The House New Year's Eve party at The Astoria Portsmouth, Defected's Ben Lovett looks at the changing fortunes of what is now a city that boasts a flourishing electronic music scene.
“Portsmouth has never really had the best reputation for its club and bar scene” local DJ Sam Bylett opens, “but things are changing. People are coming from London and Sheffield now, and everywhere between. It’ll take a while to fully establish the city but there’s a real buzz; I think it can become a truly popular club destination over the next five years.”
Bylett has good reason to be optimistic considering the rise and rise of party Amplified Sessions, to which he has long been lovingly tied as resident DJ for several years. Amplified, a local dancefloor brand founded by Dan Back (and several friends including Bylett and fellow resident Craig Abbott) in 2007, is big stuff in the south coast city these days, recent parties including scene movers ‘n’ shakers George Fitzgerald, Skream, Laura Jones, Hot Since 82 and MK as special guests.
What does Back think is behind its success? “House music is flourishing again, and there are a lot of kids – it’s the same all over the country – picking this sound up and running with it. Even the lighter variations of house that crossover to the charts are a way for the younger generations to access the wider electronic scene. We’re tapping into that trend, but then we’ve always loved house.”
Indeed - Back points to booking MK (AKA Marc Kinchen) years before the current resurgent interest in his dub-garage genius. “We slogged our guts out for years to get to this point” he explains. “We started out in Portsmouth’s Bar 17, a tiny space for around 100 people. But we weren’t always there; we were never able to build up one single base. There were a lot of different venues in the early days and not all of them great. We kept our focus and continued to fill whatever was in front of us.”
In turn Back and co. found a place at BarBluu (now defunct, originally Portsmouth’s hub for soul-house) and then Drift Bar, in Portsmouth’s popular Southsea area. “Craig and Sam always wanted the residencies and I wanted the business side of things” Back recalls. “I wanted to start connecting with bigger artists, and so started attracting names like Luke Solomon and Trevor Rockcliffe. We were gradually taking things to the next level.”
That pace has accelerated considerably over the past 18 months. Last year Amplified commandeered Southsea’s more sizeable Wedgewood Rooms for a series of ongoing monthly parties. DJ Sneak’s stellar appearance last June was an impressive sign of things to come. In February, the brand hosted All Gone Pete Tong at the Portsmouth Guildhall (one of the city’s major cultural venues) with Tong, Miguel Campbell and The 2 Bear’s Raf Daddy - selling thousands of tickets - and, as of this September, infiltrated new state-of-the-art club space The Astoria (the former Palace Cinema) with a weekly shindig balancing punch with poise. The Astoria’s weekly Saturday night Amplified Sessions are quickly becoming a centre-piece for the city’s quality electronic yearnings.
“The scene here is a pure one” Back suggests. “There’s a real trust thing, people willing to support the newcomers. There’s a real loyalty and a desire to stick with something. We’re growing with our crowds. That’s exciting. At the same time our local crowds are savvy; they know their stuff. From that we take a lot of confidence; we can be clever with our bookings and know that they will be appreciated.”
Future Sessions bookings include Adam Beyer, Matt Tolfrey, Aus Music’s Will Saul and, on New Year’s Eve, Derrick Carter, Nick Curly and Sonny Fodera - all playing under the Defected In The House banner. Nonetheless, Back is keen to retain focus on his talented residents. “We’re keen to support local talent, definitely” he agrees. “The big guests are important but so are our residents and, looking ahead, I want to be in a position where I can put on a residents’ night if I choose to and know it will go down well. There’s a lot of up-and-coming talent in Portsmouth.”
It couldn’t be more different to the local scene nearly 30 years ago when house first invaded English shores. In fact, Portsmouth’s earliest electronic rumblings occurred outside of city limits, centred on clubs such as Sterns in nearby Worthing and Ringwood Manor in Hampshire, over 40 miles to the west. “The old heads were usually to be found at out of town raves in the early days” Bylett indicates. “There wasn’t so much going on in the actual city.”
He continues: “I originally embraced the Portsmouth scene in the late Nineties; at that time there was only really Pure Sex on the South Parade Pier [residents like Colin Hud commanding a fiercely loyal audience] and the Kindergarten Klub [co-founder Martin Metcalf hosting infamous parties downstairs from BarBluu; he would later run house-friendly spin-off The Lollipop Factory at Bar 38during the mid-Noughties]. There were other bars and clubs but they were more commercial; the city still wasn’t too well catered for. It’s staggering to think just how far things have come in another 10 years or so.”
Some of Portsmouth’s current success can be found in its creative ties to other south coast resorts including Brighton, Bournemouth and Southampton. Far from cultivating a scene it has never truly experienced and then, understandably, trying to guard it from all others, the city has opened relations with like-minded set-ups in other, nearby locales – the Junk team in Southampton, Audio and Digital in Brighton, and new space Halo in Bournemouth. Accessibility and community is, according to Back, the way forward.
“We were apprehensive when Junk got going” he admits. “We were worried that they would impact our success with bookings...with trying to pursue our own agenda. But there’s space for us to co-exist and both put the wider area firmly on the map. It’s not always so easy to attract big names down here so if a number of big parties and brands are able to build the south coast up as a destination then we’re all going to benefit. Right now, the south coast scene is flourishing; there’s money coming in, crowds and, crucially, the right music.”
Bylett has played Halo in recent months and last year Amplified threw a sell-out rave in Southampton with MK. Emerging Pompey player Concrete, meanwhile, has been helming the ‘backroom’ for Bournemouth’s premier Get Satisfied crew (at regular haunt The Old Fire Station) and jackin’ at Junk. Concrete co-director George Gwinnell similarly supports Portsmouth’s open-border positioning. “Portsmouth isn’t working that closely with the other cities but there is definite crossover and that’s a good thing in terms of us all pushing on.”
Concrete, another smart project envisaged by student friends with a shared passion for electronic groove, has been around for nearly three years now. Small free parties led to slight bigger ones for £1 or £2 entry, and then firmly rooted nights at The Registry, Southsea, and eventually (on Tuesdays) The Wedgewood Rooms. Guests, across the edgier spectrums of house and bass music, have included Paul Woolford, Route 94, and Gorgon City; next spring, Dirtybird’s Claude VonStroke is expected to swoop sensationally in.
“The colourful mish-mash of people, largely students, attending our parties helps make them special” Gwinnell, 24, urges. “We’re going from strength to strength. We’ve got parties coming up in Brixton now and the Concrete label already on its fifth release. Our booking agency should launch next year; it’s an exciting time for Concrete and for Portsmouth.”
That excitement should be further bolstered by another new Registry night, The Electric Playground. Boasting a Funktion One soundsystem and (since its September debut) visiting DJs Luke Solomon, MK and Waif & Strays, the student party has, by all local accounts, rocked it through until 5am closing every single night. Elsewhere, recent ‘pier’ nights for Kry Wolf (under the Sumo banner – Clarence Pier) and drum & bass-ers Breakneck (run by Owain Skope – South Parade Pier) have added thrill and diversity in equal welcome measure.
All of this is accompanied by a sure surge in fresh DJ-producing talent. Back, Bylett and Gwinnell recycle the same future-facing house ‘n’ tech names – Kry Wolf, Reset Robot (AKA Dave Robertson), John Gurd and Junior Gee – the latter was singled out by Nick Curly after a previous visit to Portsmouth and is now dropping tracks on his label 8 Bit. That’s not forgetting Moda Black and Food Music fave Shadowchild (AKA Simon Neale; already with presenting ties to Radio 1 and, as second alias Dave Spoon, output for Dirtybird.)
“I’m really optimistic about the future” Gwinnell stresses. “There’s a lot of people and nights coming through. Everyone is supporting one another and working hard.” Back shares the sentiment if urging a little caution. There is still, he feels, work to do: “It’s still a struggle getting some artists booked because we’re not London or Berlin. We have to concentrate on making the city even bigger and better so that that changes. We’re on the right track; certainly more people are switching on to Amplified. We’re only 80 miles from London so we’re accessible to those crowds and the bigger DJs alike; the bigger names can play early for us and then get back to the capital for another set if they need to. At the same time, we’re doing some pretty unique things. Our beachfront day parties at the Glashaus last summer offered some of that Ibiza mentality; they were crazy!”
If that sounds surprising then Portsmouth’s work is done. “There’s never really been a scene in Portsmouth, and therefore no expectations,” Gwinnell suggests. “What the city is doing now is taking people aback; the surprise factor is a powerful thing for us.” Bylett adds: “Like our football team here; there’s huge support for the music from far and wide, and little or no trouble...just positivity. Everyone wants to put Portsmouth on the map.”
Words: Ben Lovett
Click here for more information on Defected In The House’s NYE party at The Astoria, Portsmouth
