tvc15

20 Years

As If There Was No Tomorrow

Some birthday parties are more memorable than others. Last Saturday was one to be remembered for a long time. It was possibly the best since the one in London 1995. And that is a long time ago. You´re blessed when you have such good spirited friends.

Ice Ice Baby

The fridge is very well stocked with beverages, alcoholic fluids and ice cubes, could be there is a party marathon  waiting around the corner. So please don´t be impatient, this blog will be back sooner or later. Cheers!

Cologne Chili Club 2

Cologne Chili Club  2

Saturday, 20.09.2008

from 14:00

Ifficial Art

Gladbacherstraße 49

Cologne

DJs:

Scrumpy Jack Soundsystem

All Aboard

Michael Mayer rocked the Pollerwiesen boat yesterday evening. Two stops were needed to get casualties back to the land, possibly suffering from sea sickness...

Back To Odonia State

Tonight we´ll be back at Odonia State, the wicked arty/party site in Cologne.  The local label Traum is celebrating its 100th release, bringing Dominik Eulberg and other DJs along. The weather could warmer, but this might result in the ever important burning oil barrels during the night!

Hail Howells!

We must state that Danny Howells is a really cool DJ! Sorry for the delay, but we already saw him last Monday morning, blowing a mediocre party mood away and making us dance ourselves well into the early hours. Needless to say daylight came up when we finally returned to Cologne. So in between we did have to recover from this party fuelled long weekend... Please do remember, if Danny Howells is close to you, go out and see him!

Boing Boom Tschak

Boat

DJ Dixon

Dixon seems to be the DJ of the moment. We´re looking forward to hear him play for the third time this year at the c/o pop next Thursday. Especially as he will be joined by Âme and Marcus Worgull for the night. More about his  posse can be found here.

Polygonics

This years c/o pop festival will coincide with the second coming of Christ for some people. Because the Pollerwiesen people finally will have Sven Väth back, playing at their long running Sunday open air session. Spinning under a sort polygon roof, shielding off 3000+ people from the "may be raining, may be not" summer of 2007. Before you wonder, this also coincides with a 12-15 Euro entrance fee for the usually free party. The website states: "All hail the king", which is a good description for the state of the former underground dance scene...

Somatime

Once more it´s time for the S.O.M.A. festival, celebrating 10 years of existence in 2007. Compared to recent years it´s back to the roots, because they moved to the more intimate site of Odonien instead of the huge park besides river Rhine. Where it rained for long hours last year and where we saw Herbert play for less than 50 people... So this time they concentrate on party on Friday night and I´m looking forward to see DJ Dixon playing. Turn up the bass!

42nd Revisited

Sorry for the lack of posts, I´m recovering from the birthday party...

The Annual Excuse

If one in Cologne needs an excuse to party in the open air, it is always around by the time of May. Or better said TODAY. First of May, sun is shining and Pollerwiesen starts another summer of mayhem (no pun intended) with an open air party just besides River Rhine. 11.00 to 21.00 hours, that´s what we read... Be there or enjoy working without any hangover tomorrow!

Tattoo Found!

A tattoo was found in our flat after the recent after party on last Saturday morning. Please contact the 24 hour information desk if you are missing a colourful tattoo ever since Saturday.

Turn It Up

The open air season started early yesterday, the weather felt more like August than April. Needless to say two officials came down and wrote some tickets, because the party was not granted a license. Ah yeah, that´s just a big birthday party where people somehow pay for their drinks... Anyway, before the volume had to be lowered we listened to this:

If I could just hide
The sinner inside
And keep him denied
How sweet life would be
If I could be free
From the sinner in me

Could be the anthem for the party generation...

Late Start

We did know that clubbing starts late on the Iberian Isle, but the two clubs we saw in Lisbon topped it all. Don´t expect much going on before three or four in the morning! While the wannabe super club Kremlin didn´t pull a reasonable crowd all Friday night, Lux Frágil on Saturday (or Sunday morning...) saved the weekend from being very boring club wise. Lux Frágil is a very decent club spread over three levels which plays solid music on two floors. While one served the funky and breaky side of things, the other came along housey,  minimal and techy - which made us stay for long hours. We saw loads of people being turned away from the door, but in a acceptable manner. Therefor Lux Frágil has been added to the Essential Clubbing list on the right side. Groove on!

Public Health Warning

Whatever you think about global warming, I can not advise you to already attend open air parties in February. At least if they´re taking place in Germany. The location on Thursday was on the atelier site of this artist, so it was the kind of industrial rave surroundings you thought they would not exist anymore. We didn´t know it was outside, free of charge too so we ended up there dancing in the open and some windy sheds. Hidden between the rail tracks and Europe's biggest brothel the party drew so many people it was impossible to make a guess about their numbers. The biggest floor in the open was packed from start to end and looked quite spooky. Besides people were standing around a burning oil barrel for a bit of Bronx flavour. Drinks didn´t need to be cooled as it was freezing cold during the night. And yes, I caught a major flu, if you want to know. So sadly the local show with Tony Humphries and Âme is a no no for me tonight, even if it´s indoors...

Strange Note

Found this strange note attached to the ATM machine in front of Zouk in Singapore this September. This cash point was just around the corner of our hotel so we´ve been there a couple of times. One morning I saw this note on the machine and took it with me. Dunno if this is a bad joke or whatever but came across the paper again just today.

Hew Haw

The Total Confusion party on Friday night, first mentioned here was  a great success. The Bogen 2 venue was not totally full so it was easier to dance around and still meet your friends now and then. No one understood why Michael Mayer was playing that early, but this fact could not prevent the posse from partying hard. I heard we all made it back home in a big taxi for eight persons but sadly can´t remember this part of the night. At least I must have opened the door to our flat, the after-party lasted until midday (which I can remember...).

The Return Of The Minimal Macks

The Cologne party listings for December reveal that the legendary Total Confusion party will soon see a comeback at the new Bogen 2 venue. It will happen on Friday 15th. It´s a low key, back to basics location under the arches of a bridge across River Rhine, close to the central station. First time we went there with some friends we really enjoyed the place, it´s guests and the no compromise music. And they have got simply no problem with cranking it up there... Stay tuned!

Don´t Believe The Hype

DJ Nukem is a sad spoilt bastard from the Swiss. Maybe all the hype about him and the frequent bookings have gone to his head. He was booked for yesterdays Greenkomm afterclub in Cologne, turned up and stopped after an hour or so, because he thought the venue was not full enough and therefor was not worthy to hear him any longer. Looking miserable he stood around for a while and decided to leave and not to come back. Think this guy needs a quick reminder he is there to play and  get the dancefloor packed and not the other way round. Zero respect.

DJ Alien stepped in and saved the morning with a brilliant set, filling the floor, making everyone jump & jive. Full Respect!

The Mighty Zouk

Zouk is the club we want to go to next Friday, seeing Groove Armada playing a DJ set. It´s said to be one of the best clubs in the world, if not the best. The sound system is legendary and hearing Danny Tenaglia will play there again on New Years Eve says it all. We also heard that the Ministry Of Sound in Singapore is doing rather poor and might close down soon. Just as Ministry in Bangkok did...

So after all, there is only one true Ministry in the world, the one close to Elephant & Castle.  The original in London is celebrating it´s 15th birthday this weekend. Even Danny Rampling is leaving retirement as a DJ behind and comes out to play. Being in Asia we will miss seeing Danny Tenaglia there on September 23rd though. Boo!

Conversion Of The Week

Pollerwiesen can be nominated for the useful military conversion of the year, because they plan to use a military transport parachute for this Sundays open air party! As it keeps raining, dripping or even pouring down, the event headed by Richie Hawtin needs to be secured. So the plan is to rise the transport parachute above the outdoor dancefloor with it´s capacity of around 2000 people. Cool idea, dudes! But will the whole dancefloor fly away if it gets stormy?

Bling Fest

With the Ringfest in Cologne taking a break in 2006, Panjabi Bill came up witth the idea of putting up The Cunst 9 under the guise of Bling Fest. It will happen on Sunday the 13th of August from 14.00 onwards at the Ifficial Art Project site.

More information can be found in this pdf: The Cunst 9

Do we need to mention who DJ The Wizzard Of Memory Loz is?

No Fun With Kompakt

The widely promoted open air party of the Kompakt label in Cologne went all wrong on Sunday. Their slogan "Kompakt die Badehose ein" (play of words on the label name and an old German song about taking your swimming shorts with you in summer) was screwed in a most absurd way. People paid 12 Euros each on Sunday to get into this public bath - a local lake - just to be told they were not allowed to go swimming in the water at all, while temperatures ranged well above 30 degrees. The beach around the lake was monitored by the most unfriendly bouncers one could imagine, just as the main entrance was. People did however try to get into the water, but ever so often were told to stay out of the water. The ones that succeeded were lead out of the festival site. Music was good though, but people were put off by the circumstances. No cake for Kompakt.

Eplay

Bora Bora X-Press

More and more blogs are coming up with videos instead of pictures, text or whatever. The only video posted here so far, has been spreading around the globe very fast! Videos still consume a lot of blog space and just grabbing it from other sites is not too original. But coming across one from Ibiza a few years back, I can not hold it back. The madness, the pure genius, the true afternoon spirit of Bora Bora is available now. Grab it and make sure you watch the dude on the table!

672 Confused Once More

Total Confusion at Studio 672 started off in Cologne during 1997 and will close down at the end of this June. Featuring Michael Mayer and Tobias Thomas as residents, the bill during the following years saw DJs ranging from Craig Richards to DJ Tonka, Ricardo Villalobos to Theo Parrish, Superpitcher to Miss Kittin playing. Plus many more DJs, strange live acts and the ever up for it Friday night crowd. People did change, recently for the worse, but the spirit was the same for many years. Mayer rose from a local hero to a worldwide acclaimed DJ and remixer during the same period. So last Friday was the last session with the "original" lineup, four dates will follow with the final all areas event on June 30st! The pictures from last Friday are here.

Out In The Green

No, this blog is not just repeating itself, it´s the crap weather once again. The weeks pass by with mild to warm weather. And just in time for the weekend and the possible open air parties it´s starts raining, temperatures are going down and even the most experimental promoter opts for postponing the party for "one more week or two".

Talking about the weather again, the reported mass invasion of pollen is big news in the media here. Scientists are cited, saying the winter was quite long and now NATURE EXPLODES. Straight into my windows, it seems!

May Is Coming...

...and the first open air party gets called off straightaway because of the bad weather, as you can spot here. Sorry, didn´t we have this last year as well? Is history repeating itself? Is the climate change eating party people? Are there any cheap huts in Ibiza left on sale? Or will the UAE ever see a proper rave at Dubai Marina... We doubt so.

DC10

Until two weeks ago I did not know where Zgy-Om died. But I got to know it happened on the dance floor of the DC10 club in Ibiza! Time to give DC10 a credit, we visited this place full of crazy nutters last September for the first time. You can now too find it in the Essential Clubbing section. But it will be a while until it´s packed on Mondays...

Talking about Zgy-Om again, there is a nice site devoted to him now.