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‘They’re coming….and there’s 2 of them!’ The scene’s next big thing? HF meets WID & BEN
Reported by taktikal london
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Submitted 09-06-05 16:28
Andy Widdop & Ben Thomas aka Wid & Ben have had the hard dance spotlight planted firmly on them in recent months. Having laid claim to both sides of the hard dance world with their DJing and production they are 2 of the Midlands favorite sons. Exploding into London in 2005 with bookings from Frantic & Most Wanted among others they have caught the attention and made impressions on some of the scene’s most prominent figureheads.
Described by Andy Pickles from the Tidy Boys as 2 of the rising stars of hard dance their blend of tough, energetic hard dance combined with their unique charisma and on stage antics has made even the most die-hard clubbers sit up and take notice.
Based in their Kettering hard dance stronghold they are now making regular raiding missions across the UK and abroad. Ahead of their return to London for Basic’s 1st Birthday we intercepted the dynamic duo to see how life has been in the era of Wid & Ben.
WID (Left) & BEN (Right)
HARDERFASTER: Like all great double acts you are 2 very distinct characters who have been brought together by a shared passion for hard dance. How did Wid & Ben first come about as a DJ partnership?
BEN: We get asked this one a lot and I have to admit it never stops getting funny. I was at Passion with another mate of mine at the time. This must have been about five or six years ago I guess. I was near one of the Podiums in the middle of the room. And some absolute nutter with a pair of goggles with lights on, ran up to me and dragged me over to one corner of the room shouting THERE OVER HERE. He dragged me over to one of the bars. And low and behold as I suspected, I had absolutely no idea who these people were. We all looked at each other briefly with a funny look, I said hello and then promptly buggered off.
WID: Yeah, we met briefly at Passion and then met again a few months later at the tidy shop in Kettering. We started hanging around together and going to the same parties. It was at one of these parties that we found our selves DJing together. After mixing together a few times we realized we clicked behind the decks and the Wid & Ben duo were formed!
HARDERFASTER: You’ve made a shotgun arrival into the hard dance spotlight. When did it all start happening for you?
WID: Crikey, it took a fair while for us to get anywhere really, we’d been djing together for a few years and we were looking for ways to further our career. It seemed a fairly obvious route for us to go into production and try to make tracks that we could have just for ourselves to play out at the gigs we were getting. We had no real ambition to make something for a record label. But as it happened, Amadeus Mozart from Tidy Trax heard our first effort, Absolution, and loved it. I’d say this was this point where it real started kicking off for us.
BEN: Yeah I actually got a call from Amo at about 5am in the morning. They had just played promise in Newcastle I think. Amo said he loved the track and it had blown the roof off. We quickly finished the b-side and the rest is history!
HARDERFASTER: On the production note you have been responsible for 2 of the biggest hard trance anthems in the last few years: Absolution & Point Blank. Both carry very distinctive and bold rifts. What is your inspiration when you start work on tracks like this?
BEN - It’s definitely a funny process. We try not to get too serious when we’re in the studio and we always have a laugh with it all. Our mornings when we start work on a track are usually pretty useless. I suppose our inspiration generally comes at around lunchtime. We normally go down to a pub round the corner, which we’ve named the Caesar Palace. Its actually a bit of a sh*thole, definitely no palace. But they do serve some amazing Caesar salad sandwiches. Get one of them in the system and the rest of the days usually a whirlwind.
WID- The beer also helps, we should name it the Stella Palace.
HARDERFASTER: As a double act you seem very balanced in your input when Djing. Is it the same in the studio or is one the technician and one the creative?
BEN: I think it's pretty balanced really. We both generally have 50/50 input. We'll usually spend the week before we're going to tackle a track bending each other’s ears with ideas. And it sounds sad, but usually also scribble a rough timeline on a bit of paper. We stick all our notes on it, for what should be happening at a certain point in the track. And this also sounds even more stupid, but if we get a melody into our heads, we'll record it on our phones and then sing it back in the studio... this is probably why collaborations are so hard. People must think we’re loopy at points, but it works.
WID: Yeah I think we both have our strengths in both djing and production. Although I'm obviously the tighter mixer ;-)
BEN: Of course you are Widdop. W*nker 
HARDERFASTER: You've been in the studio working on a remix of legendary anthem ‘Generator’. BK was once quoted as saying 'Its easy to remix most tracks as they have a lot of flaws that can be rectified and improved. With anthems there is little wrong so its much, much harder.’ Do you agree with this and how did you find working on ‘Generator?
WID: Mmm, I suppose BK’s right in a way, but, what one person may class as a flaw may be another persons favourite part. We donít really do a remix to take out we what we think is shit, we just try and make something that we think rocks and that we could see working in a club!
BEN: I agree with what BK says. It obviously goes without saying it’s pretty hard to improve upon big anthems. You have to be very careful too. If it’s a track a lot of people hold dear to their clubbing memories you can end up ruining an already rocking track. We were super careful with the generator remix. Although the breakdown was possibly quite risky! But after seeing it in a club it still does the damage now!!
HARDERFASTER: Collaborations are something you’re moving away from for the time being for a number of reasons. But if there was one artist you would like to work with right now who would it be?
BEN: There’s lots of artists we would like to eventually collaborate with in some way. My favourite producers at the moment are people like Colin Barratt, Greg Brookman and Ingo. I’m told Greg also has a fantastic taste in dinner jackets.
HARDERFASTER: London has always been a hot bed of hard trance with its strong trance-loving Antipodean community. Its been said in the north and the Midlands that hard house rules the roost. As Midlands based artists do you find this to be true?
WID: Where ever you go, be it north or south I don’t think you can really pigeon hole the clubbers into one style of hard dance. Some will love the filth where as others love the more melodic side. We try and cater for most with our sets, usually starting with the funkier side of things, working through to trance and then nailing them to the walls at the end
HARDERFASTER: Ok so we southerners have our cockney ways etc but the Kettering based hard dance masses seem to have some dialogue, which takes some deciphering. Can we have a Wid & Ben crash course guide to the following:
‘Good Shovelling’ - As far as I'm aware this is actually some proper northern slang. But recently we've adopted it along with Gav from Kernzy&Klemenza. It basically means ‘good stuff’ or ‘good times’. If something’s pretty amazing I've even heard the term ‘Shovelism’ and ‘Shovel Attack’ thrown about.
‘Chop mate!’To be honest we've still no idea what the hell this one means ourselves. It all originated from one of our mates Lee Chop. A lot of our mates seem to have adopted this one ‘get your chop on’ or ‘chop it up’. Very silly and it usually starts appearing after a few pints.
‘Spam Purse’ You can make your own minds up on that one!
HARDERFASTER: While we’re on the topic what is it that is it about Kettering that appeals to hard dance artists?! Not only do you both live there but so does Amber D, Ben Kaye as well as Kernzy & Klemenza. What’s the chop?
BEN: Hahaha. I've got absolutely no idea. It’s pretty strange really. Kettering is basically the land that time forgot. Itís a very small and very boring town. There must be some kind of secret energy that attracts hard dance artists. Not only do all the above live here, but Amo of Tidy Boys fame lives down the road. And even the legendary producer Paul Janes.
WID: I've heard that Brisk of Stimulant DJs is also planning to move this way soon too. I think it’s more about the location of Kettering more than what it has to offer. Kettering can be carnage though with all of us lot out! Spam purse’s beware!
BEN: Yep Brisk is moving very close soon. Hahaha, spam purse. I love it.
HARDERFASTER: You’re launching into the promotional world with ‘An Evening in with Wid & Ben’ in your hard dance strong hold of Kettering. Is this the first time youíve promoted a party?
BEN: It’s the first time we’ve promoted a properly advertised event. We actually ran a pretty successful Thursday night bash for about three years, which saw all sorts of guest appearences and dragged people from all over the shop.
WID: We had Amber D, Shaun M, Lee Gash, sorry Pasch, K & K, Ben Kaye and guest appearances from the Tidy boys, Lee Haslam and the like. It made work on Friday a nightmare though!
‘An evening in with Wid & Ben’
HARDERFASTER: ‘An Evening in with Wid & Ben’ sounds like a curious name for a club event - what's it all about?
BEN: We didn't want to try and be too serious with it. All of our old partys were quite small and always had a pretty banging atmosphere. I suppose its quite a cozy name, you can imagine yourselves sitting in with us having a Chinese or something. The reality of it actually is about 200 people in a nice intimate venue, lots of great loud music and getting hot and sweaty. The way it should be!! I suppose it’s a bit of self indulgence too!
HARDERFASTER: You've just signed to a new management agency, your DJ careers are exploding and your production credentials speak for themselves. Looking forward to 2005?
BEN- As you can imagine we're absolutely heart broken about being signed. Haha . No on a serious note, we're both properly chuffed about signing with Taktikal. In the short time we've actually joined them there's been some incredible stuff happening. And we're both more than looking forward to getting to rock some of the bigger stages!
Wid & Ben, Tidy Weekender
HARDERFASTER: There is talk of some of the bigger djs losing their way musically and clubbers are looking to the younger generation of stars to provide the soundtrack to their weekends. Who else in your peer group gets your juices flowing so to speak?
BEN: There’s so many really at the moment. We’re trying to give some of these people a shot at our partys. Lee Pasch is always top of the list. Cally Gage too bless her and my favourite for a bit of power trance is Seventh Heaven.
WID: I also think Shaun M is one of the best showman about. He puts a lot of energy into his sets!
HARDERFASTER: Your making regular raids into the London scene at the moment with your next port of call is Basic’s 1st Birthday on July 8th. This will be your debut in the Fridge Main Room - it’s quite a sight when in full flow: how you feeling about the gig?
BEN: Absolutely can’t wait! We got a taste of the Fridge back in February when we played the back room at Twisted!
WID- We’d got down a little bit earlier for some drinks and spent a while soaking it up in the main room. It’s definitely a pretty amazing venue! Expect to see a lot of shouting, silly dancing and gestures. Just like the smaller gigs but more pronounced! And we always enjoy showing the southern lot what we're all about!!
BEN- You can probably look forward to Wid’s techno hair cut too
Thanks to both Wid & Ben for their time.
Photos courtesy of www.paulunderhill.com
BASIC :: 1st BIRTHDAY
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On:
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Friday 8th July 2005
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At:
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The Fridge [map]
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From:
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22.00 - 06.00
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Cost:
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£12 + bf Advanced / £13 Conc / £20 O.T.D
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Website:
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www.basicuk.com
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Ticket Info:
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www.ticketweb.co.uk
08700 600 100
www.clubtickets.co.uk
08702 462 050
www.e-listlondon.com
07908 809 077
Mad Records
02074 390 707
Cyberdog Camden
02074 822 842
Maria / Never Enough
07813 684 399 / 02083 520 705
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Buy Online:
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Click here to buy tickets
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More:
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BASIC 1ST BIRTHDAY
UK EXCLUSIVE ALBUM LAUNCH: ILOGIK THE VJ ALBUM
“MY DEFINITION OF SOUND”
Friday 8th July 2005
The Fridge
22.00 – 06.00
There comes a time when a party must leave behind infancy and come of age.
We welcome you to Basic’s 1st Birthday. Live & Direct from it's new home at the Mecca of Hard Dance: The Fridge.
Sticking to its policy of no nonsense club-class-chaos, the party on everyone’s lips is back. Like the current hard house heavyweights Basic started life as a birthday party in the summer of 2004. Its supersonic rise to prominence has seen it outgrow not just one, but two venues in the space of just 12 months. Now finally it has found a venue that fits: The legendary Fridge.
Our 1st Birthday is something that little bit special. We believe birthday parties should be a celebration of what makes the event stick out from the crowd: and this one will be like a supernova! Not only do we have the World Exclusive launch party for Ilogiks new sensational VJ/DJ album: “My Definition of Sound” , we are also thrilled to welcome hard dance godfather Rob Tissera for his Basic Debut! And the night would not be complete without an appearance from Basic’s No.1 Resident, El Greko, performing a World Exclusive Hard Scratch set!….oh and did we mention a special classics set from new Frantic sensation Cally Gage!
The cakes being baked, the candle is primed, the balloons are on order and the streamers are flying. All we do now is wait for the guests. July 8th 2005, 10pm sharp. Bring a party hat!
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Flyer:
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Scratch my record and I’ll scratch yours!
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Yes yes! Rinse out the 1s and 2s with the bad boys of breaks! Tom Real does Steelo – strictly!
Young gifted male seeks like minded people for fun, frolics and wild nights of debauchery!
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.
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Can't wait to get you both back at Addiction 
