Crack

As Crack arrived at Southport Weekender at its new home Butlins in Minehead, it’s safe to say the place was buzzing.

As a starter, Crack made our way down to the Sun & Moon pub where there was a great anticipatory atmosphere with people dancing outside to some lovely soulful house music. Inside the pub was pumping, and acted as a butterfly in your stomach pre-cursor to what on paper looked like a great weekend.

With such a selection of stalwart DJ’s on the line-up, we were hoping for the best and were a bit disappointed to see there was a clash between two of the cherries on the bill; Chicago house legend - Derrick Carter, and Detroit’s finest - Carl Craig. Derrick Carter won out and didn’t disappoint with a wonderful two hours of Chicago grooves that proved to be the highlight of Friday. As he made his way to the decks and started to play, you could see during the course of his set he was bringing the old jackin' Chicago sound with the newer updated grooves. By dropping accapellas such as Rolling In The Deep by Adele and lesser-known soulful gems, this was comfortably the highlight of the night.

Earlier in the evening Crack had made its way to the The Beat Bar to see Gilles Peterson. Even though he arrived to a relatively empty crowd, things certainly picked up and he still manages to continually impress with his funky, soulful beats.

After Peterson, Dixon arrived and smashed it with an amazing set that left the Beat Bar rocking. His stature as a purveyor of pure house music was compounded further with a flawless performance. The vibe was complimented further by Theo Parrish, who when he isn’t mouthing off, is truly one of dance music’s most interesting and original talents.

Southport Weekender’s first foray to Butlins proved the festival’s movement south from Pontins in Lancashire hadn’t affected its ability to stage a great event. The added attraction of arcades (who does enjoy arcade games when wasted) and the unique charm of the resort was embraced by all that were in attendance and made Crack truly excited about what the Saturday had to offer.

Feeling rather jaded, Crack made its way down to the arena about 10am to get some food and have a look around. In doing this we heard some music in the distance, so we followed our noses and promptly found about 300 to 400 people partying in the middle of a chalet courtyard to a deep house DJ.

11 hours later, Crack still found itself bopping away and chatting to total strangers with not a sniff of security in sight and too many smiles to mention. Those that had partied in unison for such a length of time felt obliged to spend the evening with new found friends and everyone made their way down to the main arena. We were again quite disappointed to find we had to choose between Kenny Dope and Kerri Chandler as they were on at the same time.

At 1am we found ourselves in the Funk Base arena for Grand Master Flash, and he didn't fail to impress with his turntablism and eclectic selection that straddled far more than just the hip-hop that made him famous. After catching some of DJ Spen and Karizma in the Power House Arena, Crack was delighted to find when we looked round we were dancing right next to Kerri Chandler who was talking to a few people and soaking up the atmosphere before he played. When he did eventually come on he was simply amazing. House music that incorporated a vibe that stayed true to the soulful roots of the genre throughout, his set was the highlight of the whole weekend.

Despite work commitments meaning we weren't able to attend on the Sunday, the Southport Weekender showcased the UK's house music community in fine fettle. There was a superb vibe to the event all weekend and showed the age old thing that if you get a load of likeminded people in one place, great things definitely do happen.

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Words: Myles Matthews

http://www.southportweekender.co.uk/

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