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Features Mindbenderz talk ‘Lord of the Rings’ and fishing, as well as the creation of their new album ‘Celestial Gateway’! Iono-Music artists One Function, Eliyahu, Invisible Reality and Dual Vision talk Robert Miles, kids, dogs and vinyl, while we chat about their current releases! Luke&Flex talk influences, the Irish rave scene, why Flex wears a mask and Play Hard, their new EP out now on Onhcet Repbulik Xtreme! Lyktum expands on his new album ‘Home’ – talking about his love of storytelling, creating new harmonies and the concept behind his musical works. Pan talks getting caught short crossing the Sahara, acid eyeballs and tells us Trance is the Answer, plus shares his thoughts on his latest release 'Beyond the Horizon' - all from a beach in Spain! Miss C chats about living with the KLF, DJing in a huge cat’s mouth, training her brain and the upcoming super-duper Superfreq Grande party at LDN East this Saturday, 16th September! NEM3SI$ - I Live for the Night – talks superficiality, psychopaths, and bittersweet success, ahead of a plethora of evocative, emotional, and passionate upcoming melodic techno releases! Psy-Sisters Spring Blast Off! We talk to DJ competition winner ROEN along with other super talents on the lineup! Blasting towards summer festivals with Bahar Canca ahead of Psy-Sisters Spring Blast! Shyisma talks parties, UFO's, and Shotokan Karate ahead of his upcoming album 'Particles' on Iono-Music! SOME1 talks family, acid, stage fright and wolves - ahead of his upcoming album release ‘Voyager’ on Iono-Music in February 2023! The Transmission Crew tell all and talk about their first London event on 24th February 2023! NIXIRO talks body, mind and music production ahead of his release 'Planet Impulse' on Static Movement's label - Sol Music! Turning the world into a fairy tale with Ivy Orth ahead of Tribal Village’s 10th Birthday Anniversary Presents: The World Lounge Project The Psy-Sisters chat about music, achievements, aspirations and the 10-Year Anniversary Party - 18/12/22! A decade of dance music with Daniel Lesden Earth Needs a Rebirth! Discussions with Psy-Trance Artist Numayma Taking a Journey Through Time with Domino New Techno Rising Star DKLUB talks about his debut release White Rock on Onhcet Republik! PAN expands on many things including his new album 'Hyperbolic Oxymoron' due for release on the 14th April 2022 on PsyWorld Records! Psibindi talks all things music including her new collaborative EP 'Sentient Rays' on Aphid Records, her band Sentience Machine and 10 years of Psy-Sisters! N-Kore talks Jean-Michel Jarre, unfinished tracks and fatherhood! Celebrating International Women’s Day and Ten Years of Psy-Sisters with Amaluna A Catch Up with John Phantasm ahead of his upcoming set at the Tribal Village 4 Day Outdoor Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022! 'The Maestro that is Tristan talks barn owls, Shazamming and keeping it Psychedelic ahead of his upcoming performance at the Tribal Village 4 Day Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022! DJ talk with Psyrenzo ahead of his debut set at Tribal Village, the Steelyard this Friday 14th January 2022! TENZO aka Overdrive talks freely about launching his new act which will be showcased at Tribal Village, Steelyard on 14 January 2022! A long overdue catch up with JourneyOM ahead of his next Tribal Village party this Friday 14th January 2022 at the Steelyard, London! Goa based party animal and artist extraordinaire Nirmal talks punk concerts, metal sculptures, flying and rippin' it up on a High Tide! DJ Wired talks to us about the Rise of the Hope and parties, ahead of his upcoming set at Tribal Village on 14th January 2022!

Steve Nichols – Australasian Tour Diary Winter 2001/02 Reported by Steve Nichols / Submitted 19-02-02 21:26 Steve Nichols, resident at Turmoil and a regular on London's Antipodean clubbing scene gives us the lowdown on his ongoing tour of Australia and New Zealand. It's gotta be tough out there with all those beaches, babes and the 40 degree heat so try not to weep when you read it Australia Sunday 4th November 2001: Left London today just in time as the weather, which had been holding off for so long finally took a turn for the worse. First stop Thailand for 2 and a half weeks of rest and relaxation on remote beaches of the west coast islands. For some reason the more I fly the more I don’t like it so the flight to Thailand wasn’t the best. But after touring Thailand and picking up some ‘sleeping tablets’ I was able to sort that out for the rest of the trip to Oz. Having 4 seats to myself to stretch out on also helped! Thailand was wicked but unfortunately the trip didn’t coincide with any full moon parties so didn’t get to experience that… but still always next time! Thursday 22nd November 2001: Arrived at the healthy hour of 5:55am this morning into Melbourne International Airport. Needless to say the first thing we did was seek a bed to get some more sleep at a friends house. Tonight I was booked to play for Altitude, which is a new ‘dance bar’ in central Melbourne (actually across the road from Hard Kandy). It is a wicked club on the first floor. Well thought out decor etc. Holds about 400 people at capacity but unfortunately, like London, Thursday nights are pretty quiet. Still had quite a few people come and see me play though due to the extensive newspaper and radio advertising Altitude did. Had a great time playing and as the DJ before me played a bit more progressive stuff I was able to play a much more structured set building it up from funkier and trancier beginnings right through to banging hard dance. The bar closed at 3am but we stayed on drinking until 5 with the promoters/owners. Best thing about the night was that the promoters loved what I played so much that they offered me a residency for when I return in February… Nice!! Friday 23rd November 2001: Once I finally woke up headed into town to check out some of the local record shops. One Stop Dee Jay was the only one that had any hard house and trance although I didn’t find anything new. Aussie is supposed to be on par with the UK for record releases which is reassuring to know. Headed down to Hard Kandy at about 4am for my set at 7:30. Crowd there was a lot different to what I’ve come to expect from a London crowd. It was a lot younger and there were lots more glow sticks and flashing glowing clothes than I’ve ever seen in one place before but they definitely go off. Played a good set and everybody loved it. Another interesting thing about the Melbourne scene was the prevalence of German Hard Trance. Seems to be quite big over here… not my thing though. One thing I will never forget seeing is some clubbers pulling out talcum powder to sprinkle on the ground where they are dancing!! Apparently it is quite common over here?? Saturday 24th November: From Hard Kandy it was straight to the airport to fly to Sydney. Nice short flight which was good! Got off the plane and as we entered the terminal I turned around to see Lisa from Nukleuz and Andy Farley! Turns out they were on the same plane as us from Melbourne! An interesting aside is the efforts I have to go to, to ensure my records end up on the plane with me rather than in the hold. They are in a thick padded UDG bag which might be OK but not going to risk it. Trick is to leave the bag with other people or hidden around the airport and smile sweetly and say no when they ask if I have any hand luggage. Works every time though Although Frantic in Sydney wasn’t one of the clubs I played at I do feel compelled to write about it. We got there fairly early and had a good look around the venue. Seems to have a lay out very similar to Solid Sunday but on a bigger scale. Slightly raised stage and ground floor and mezzanine level. It definitely is a wicked venue! Nice and clean too. Didn’t take long for the crowds to arrive and the place fill up. Great atmosphere in there and the closest thing to a London club I’ve been to outside of London. As for playing there… booked for March 16th so will have to tell you then! Saturday 15th December: Had a break for the last couple of weeks, which was good (as if I needed more r&r, but who’s arguing?). Spent a week in Sydney catching up with friends from London and a week with my family at the Gold Coast. Drove up to Brisbane in the early afternoon. Stopped in at an old friends place for the afternoon and caught up with him which also involved some fine tuning of my mixing which was handy as I hadn’t touched a record or turntables since Melbourne over two weeks ago. Another aside… one of the biggest differences between playing at home and being on tour is that you don’t normally get to play anyway on tour except where you are booked. In most cases I didn’t get a chance to play any new records I had until I was at a club. Next I headed into the city to check into the hotel that System 6 had organised for me, which by the way was nice!! Another good thing about Oz… you really get looked after! After some dinner I headed to the FM 102.1 4ZZZ studios to play on Crucial Cutz from 9-10. Got in the car and tuned in to the station only to hear the presenter, Peter Mogg, saying they were having technical difficulties as the mixer had died. That will be handy then! Fortunately he had sorted it out by the time I got there! Set went well. I tried to concentrate on playing a range of music that showed the different styles of hard dance I prefer rather than going for a traditional progressing set, although I did do that to a certain extent. So played a funky hard houser, trance, tech trance, hard dance, anthems and banging hard house. All ended well and from here went back to the hotel to meet up with some old school friends. One of which is responsible for me being a DJ in the first place! Spent a bit of time catching up and the rest getting on it in preparation for the night ahead. Nothing like a few drinks to calm the nerves I say. And in answer to that question, yes I still get nervous… not as much as when I started but still a bit… mainly the waiting that does it. Once I’m up there it all melts away. It’s a good thing though!! Keeps you sharp. It’s been a long time since I went to a rave at The Arena and it hasn’t changed much. Still a wicked venue. Ran into Amanda and Leanne (ex London) who had both come down to see me which was great. Checked out a few of the other rooms for a while and then went to play my set, 1:30-3am. The guy they booked to play before me decided that playing Hardcore was the better option for some reason?? So that was interesting to play after. Got through it OK and despite the change in tempo the crowd wasn’t affected too much. It was a difficult crowd to play to. They definitely liked it a lot harder than I normally play, (probably had something to do with the rest of the line up which included Scott Brown and Hixxy), but managed to dig around in the box and pulled out plenty to satisfy them. Once again (as it has been every time I’ve played it since August) the Paul Glazby remix of Dreams was the biggest song in my box. Shivers up the spine…again. The remix of Bring it Back was a close second in the crowd response stakes. An interesting thing I noted was that the crowd (which was once again younger and more colourful than London)generally didn’t like to stay in one spot. They had four rooms to explore and wanted to enjoy all of them. So no matter what you played the number of people in the room always fluctuated. I originally misinterpreted this a spent a bit of time trying to adjust and hence my set didn’t progress as much as I would have liked. It was, however, well received and flawless so ultimately I was very happy. After I finished I handed on the reins to RR Fierce and headed down stairs to check out Scott Brown and Hixxy. Was interesting to see how people responded to Hardcore but surprisingly (to me anyway) they loved it… must have been the reason they liked the harder stuff! Next morning I joined a few of the crew and RR Fierce and his wife at Brenton’s house for a crack on. Was a very amusing day. Johnny spent a fair bit of time sleeping but soon woke up and immediately tackled a bottle of wine, impressing both Brenton and myself for his choice of morning drinks! Brenton seriously impressed me in the mean time by the number of things he was doing at once! While going though digital photos from the night before on one computer he was holding a conversation with me, talking to Scott and Hixxy via ICQ on another computer, dubbing and burning CDs on the same computer, and checking e-mail. Nice work mate… you must be the most efficient man in the world! Great day that culminated in another set next year but I eventually had to return to the car… and drive to the Coast. Weekend Over! Friday 21st December: Weekend started at 3:30am Friday morning!! Had a 6am flight from Brisbane and had to drive up from the Gold Coast to get there. Arrived in Adelaide for my 6 hour lay over before my flight to Perth. Kristian from System 6 picked me up from the airport and we stopped in at his house before heading down to the pub for some lunch and much needed beers. If you ever happen to be driving around in Adelaide and see anyone waving Light Sabers out the window of there car… wave it’s probably Kristian ;o) Made it back to the airport in time in a much happier state and headed to Perth. Arrived there and was promptly met by a tall blonde haired vixen who promptly lead me to the Rolls Royce… hang on a second… just checking to see that I’m not dreaming… nope… guess this rides for me! Made our way into town in a very new Rolls Royce in a scene reminiscent of an Offspring video clip. The promoters decided to put me up in there place which was a lush apartment with all the essentials: beer, decks, CD players, beer, records, CD’s, beer, DJ’s, people, speakers and beer. A few of the other DJs turned up and we had some b2b fun while, you guessed it, we drank beer! Saturday 22nd December: The next day I helped set up a bit and then chilled out for the rest of the evening before heading out to the party. Caught up with a few friends including Mad Paul and Shiobahn, which was great. Never thought I’d say this but it was actually great to hear an English accent again after so long away from what to me is home. Paul’s story about his fishing trip was a classic! Played from 1:30-3:30am and the set went down really well. Wasn’t packed in the club but everybody who was there went off. Had lots of people comment on my set afterwards. Headed home a bit early to get some kip before the afterparty. Couple of hours was good and then straight back into the thick of it… only problem was the thick of it was somewhere other than the afterparty and unfortunately due to low numbers they closed it early. But that was cool, spent the rest of the day at Weavy’s (another DJ, and a mad Scot as well) talking bollox. Great day in all. Stayed in a hotel for my last night and then another long flight, with a six hour layover, home just in time for Christmas. New Zealand: On 28th December I headed to New Zealand. Flew Freedom Air to Dunedain. Interesting flight... came in towards Dunedain to land but flew over it. Kept on going and getting closer to the ground, which was just paddocks, and soon enough we touched down on a single strip of tarmac in the middle of nowhere. The Dunedain International Cowpaddock is what I have labelled it and a sure sign the NZ is ahead of the times... NOT! Anyway, spent a night in Dunedain and then a night in Christchurch before driving up to Takaka for The Gathering. Monday 31st December: Arrived in at the Cobb Valley site early in the morning to beat the rush of people. Had our car searched on the way in, this was an alcohol free event, and proceeded to the next tent where they issued me with stage passes and other relevant information. Found a likely spot for our tent and set up camp. The Gathering officially started at 12pm on the 31st and we headed up to the main area with all the music tents with the other 7 thousand people. Was literally a sea of humanity all flowing towards the sound of thumping beats in the distance. Course didn't take us long to find Sax and Steve Ryan amongst all the people (must be some sort of London magnet going on). The valley it was in was simply breath taking. Great place to have a massive outdoor rave. And massive it was. Saw heaps of ex-London people there, which gave the event, for me, a more homely feel. Played from 3-4:30am in the hard house tent and would have to be one of my most memorable sets to date. Place was going off and I was really enjoying myself. The end came too soon but that's always the way. Unfortunately, due to a tight schedule for the ferry to the North Island, we didn’t stay for the next night but what I had seen was fantastic so no regrets. Saturday 12th January 2002: Wellington, New Zealand. Arrived back in Wellington today after a little tour around the North Island which was wicked!! Pretty cool country. Met up with Blair & James from Fevah as they were setting up the club for the night and then checked into the hotel. Blair and James picked me up a short while latter and we went up to the aptly named Fever Hospital in Wellington. This is actually an old hospital with 3 different wings (where 16 people live), the Fevah office and most importantly a large room with stage, decks, sound and pool table… largest lounge room I’ve ever seen. Spent a few hours up there drinking plenty of Bourbon with Rosco in preparation for the night ahead!! Went back into town in time for Fevah to open around 10pm. Production was really good and the venue (Phoenix) was fantastic. Played from 1:30-3am which turned out to be the best slot of the night as the crowd numbers were at their peak during this time. Had a wicked time playing, crowd was really responsive, especially one over enthusiastic chick who continued to scream for every hook and/or riff of every tune right through Rosco’s set, my set and Ian Mac’s set. She was enjoying herself though Crashed out before the end of the night and when we woke in the morning we headed up to the Hospital again to see how everybody was pulling together after a long and sleepless night. Was quite impressed actually and spent the rest of the afternoon before our ferry back to the South Island playing b2b with Rosco. Tuesday 15th January: Christchurch, New Zealand. Tonight I met up with my cousin, Jason, who I had spent a bit of time with in London. We were out getting on the piss and stopped in to a bar called The Azure. Jason mentioned that the had DJ’s play on Sunday mornings at an afterparty called Wobble. So we decided to ask one of the staff about it and I thought I see if they wanted me to play… next thing I know all our drinks are free and I have myself a paid booking for Saturday night… NICE! Amazing what can happen when you ask. The night went really well. Played for 2 and half hours and in my mind it was the most technically perfect set I’d played on tour. Had a wicked night and impressed the management enough to have me back the following Friday before I headed back to Aussie. Conclusions: All in all a wicked trip. Thanks to all the promoters who got me to play!! Looking forward to doing it all again soon!! Steve Nichols will return to the UK on July 12th for a one month tour so be sure to look out for him then Share this :: : : : Follow HarderFaster :: The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable. Comments:

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