06 02 MATT
TOLFREY TOP THREE CLUBS
01.FABRIC LONDON, ENGLAND “Nothing tops this club for sound, organisation, family feel, musical ethos, and CD output. I have been playing there for eight years and I have still not played anywhere with the same vibe.”
02.SUB CLUB GLASGOW, SCOTLAND “I played here recently for the first time and it lived up to all the hype. It reminded me of the Bomb in Nottingham, which was my first residency when I was 23. Small, intimate, with a powerful soundsystem, and a hugely up-for-it crowd.”
03.ELECTRIC PICKLE MIAMI, FL, USA “Been playing here since the start and I have seen it grow into a central focal point for underground music in Miami, which isn’t the easiest of cities to tackle.”
HAVINGcelebrated its 20th anniversary last year and weathered the economic downturn much better than the property developers threatening to close it down to open flats opposite, Ministry Of Sound continues its reign as one of the most famous club brands on the planet. Boasting the kind of killer, skeleton-shaking soundsystem now so rare in London, and still pulling in the biggest names from the rolling tech house of Nic Fanciulli’s Saved Records to the gigantic trance of Cosmic Gate, with Michael Woods,
“ZOUK CLUB is one of the reasons I like to tour in Asia. It’s one of my favourite clubs in the world that never lets me down,” says big room electro cat Hardwell. And it’s no big surprise. While Asia continues its rapid growth into a global clubbing colossus, with an increasing number of the world’s best venues spread across the continent all battling for dance music supremacy, Zouk’s the one club that looms large above all others. 21 years young, it remains the No.1 Asian destination for the best DJs across the dance spectrum; Sasha, Derrick May, Armin Van Buuren, Danny Tenaglia, Steve Lawler and underground techno don Surgeon all played in 2011 alone. Attracting an enthusiastic, dedicated and young crowd week on week, the nation state’s pre-eminent destination club is state-of-the-art. Boasting three mini-clubs that jostle for position within the confines of the futuristic structure, Phuture is all smooth curvatures and alien spacecraft, hi-tech aesthetics; Velvet Underground has pop art masterworks adorning its walls, upholstered finery and a plush house soundtrack, while Zouk Club has ornate tiles, stucco stylings and a Dave Stewart-designed soundsystem. Recently celebrating their second decade, their festival Zouk Out expanding at an exponential rate, this one is set to run and run.
Cosmonauts and Joe & Will Ask? as residents, its spot off the roundabout at Elephant & Castle may not be the most glamorous setting, but the maze of rooms and walkways within are perfect for losing yourself in hedonistic abandon. Throw in a design inspired by Larry Levan’s revered Paradise Garage, a history of being the first to bring over America’s greatest jocks as highlighted on 2011’s ‘Live and Remastered’ compilation last year, and you have one of the world’s most iconic venues.
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MINISTRY OF SOUND LONDON, ENGLAND
CAPACITY: 1500
ministryofsound.com
ZOUK SINGAPORE
CAPACITY: 3000
zoukclub.com
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FABRIK MADRID, SPAIN
CAPACITY: 5000
grupo-kapital.com/fabrik www.djmag.com
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LONDONERSare apt to bang on about their own material monikered nightclub, but you’ve not experienced the sheer scale of afternoon-to-evening warehouse-styled clubbing until you’ve hit the arid outskirts of Madrid and thrown a K into the mix. It’s not just the aircraft hangar dimensions of the main room, which sports carefully choreographed stage shows, matched to the visuals and flyers, around the DJs, drawn from the cream of global house and techno acts, with everyone from Plastikman to Fatboy Slim having looked down on the distant crowd, or the giant engulfing ice cannons and lasers. It’s the scale of the entire club, which takes advantage of its site in an industrial estate on the city’s outskirts. With a second room equal to the capacity of most other clubs, a third room in a kind of rave greenhouse and VIPs on a double decker bus in the sprawling outside area, which also sports shaded beds, a water slide and ducks (yep, ducks), there’s plenty for spangled party-goers to explore. And with brands such as Supermartxe, CODE, Vertigo and the Sunday-to-Monday carnival of Goa all in residence, there’s no excuse not to make a day and night of Fabrik.
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