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Digital, Brigh
ton/Newcastle
Marc Vedo’s h
AAA
omecoming
ACCESS
ALL
AREAS
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KA
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BETH CR
Pics:
A tale of two cities
DJmag joins Digital’s Dave Stone for a cross-country rave mission of their
fl agship venues
sk any jobbing DJ and the label that gave the world the — screaming into the noughties with a
A
they’ll tell you that certain prodigious talents of Shy FX and his multi-million refi t.
weekends will always raggalicious ’94 classic ‘Original Nuttah’. “When I saw it was up for sale, I knew it
bounce straight off the But it was always the buzz of putting on was something we could bring into the
diary. parties that struck the deepest chord with future under the Digital name,” he tells us.
Sure, every weekend is a dream ticket Dave. So it was inevitable that he’d take “The venue is quite dear to my heart,” he
when your ‘job’ consists of blitzing round the passion to its logical conclusion with a admits. “But the timing was right too.
the planet playing the music you love, but venue of his own — opening the There were defi nitely a lot of things that
it still takes a special something to get the multi-million pound Digital Newcastle weren’t being done in Brighton at the
rave jitters going like you’re a fi rst-timer with partners Aaron Mellor and Rob time. Or if they were being done, they
all over again. Cameron in July 2005. weren’t being done well.
And it’s much the same for us roving club “It was an opportunity to get all those “And there was a lack of hybrid venues
reporters. We’re not saying we’d swap a post-it notes that you’d built up on that ‘if that do really exciting live stuff and really
night cutting shapes for a sofa date with I owned a nightclub’ board, take them exciting club stuff all in the same day.
Simon Cowell, but every now and then a down and use them,” he tells us. Since we’ve opened in 2007, we’ve been
job jumps out and screams ‘lets be having “The space was good but the layout wasn’t able to cater for acts like MGMT, Graham
you’ harder than Delia Smith ever could. quite right and the soundsystem was Coxon, Ladyhawke and The Gossip… and
Major Lazer Soundsystem in Brighton one terrible… it really needed a clubber’s then proper club stuff at the weekends.”
night, Sven Väth and Erol Alkan at perspective on it.”
Newcastle’s Wax:On the next — this Tonight’s Blah Blah Blah party is another
weekend’s cross-country tour of the two Brighton measure of the clout that Digital brings to
Digital venues is defi nitely one of them. But while Newcastle is the city Dave now Brighton. The supergroup of transatlantic
calls home, it’s fi tting that our journey super producers Diplo and Switch, Major
Our tour guide for the jaunt is affable with him begins in Brighton. It was here Lazer made serious noise with the
joker Dave Stone. A driving force behind where he set up shop after he parted ways alien-age digital dancehall of their ‘Gun’s
the Digital mini-empire, Stone’s name with Movement — London’s legendary Don’t Kill People… Lazers Do’ LP and their
might not be instantly recognisable (if midweek drum & bass night that he Soundsystem arrival has sold out on a
you googled ‘Dave Stone Digital’ you’d started with V Records’ Bryan G — around school night.
uncover nothing more than a glut of the turn of the millennium, and he’s A perfect warehouse box with all the sleek
digital photographer namesakes) but he promoted at almost every venue in town sheen and sonic power you’d expect,
remains one of clubland’s true over the years. Digital’s main room is already stuffed solid
journeymen. But the affi nity can be traced right back to with trendy students, and it’s no cock fest.
Beginning his promotional days as a his formative raving days. By the time we arrive at midnight, local hours a dapper-looking Diplo smashes
poster boy for reggae and punk promoters “When I fi rst came back from living in boy Mumdance is dropping the sort of out everything from clattering dubstep
in Bournemouth, he then spent the ’80s Thailand with the band it was ’89 and I dutty mad scientist beats that have made bombs to rudeboy jungle and amped up
living the dream with his “proto-acid came to Brighton. The Zap Club was the him one of the hottest properties in global dancehall cuts from the album, while New
house band” Innaworld, before trying his fi rst place I went raving and got caught up bass right now. York’s Skerrit Bwoy puts in a mic
hand at label management with a group of in the acid house thing.” Last time DJmag came here, we got swept performance that makes The Prodigy’s
mates. Stuff of South Coast legend back then, by up in a crowd-surfi ng frenzy during a Keith Flint look like Joe McElderry —
They put out early-’90s rave bangers on the mid-noughties The Zap was a faded, 2Many DJs set, but the ensuing carnival eventually launching himself and his
their DJs Only label, which then morphed dilapidated relic of Brighton’s then riot of Major Lazer Soundystem amps up unmistakeable, bleach-streaked Mohican
into legendary jungle imprint S.O.U.R. (or withering club scene. Until, Digital the mayhem to another level entirely. into the adoring crowd.
Sound Of the Underground Records) — stepped in and dragged it — and Brighton Flanked by two carnival dancers, for two
064
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DJ482.AAA_digital.indd 64 15/1/10 15:47:18
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