It was the night of Scandinavian Invasion. RA:SKL got his first gig in LDN - booked by Wobble Squad, which is a Copenhagen-based bass crew. The venue was Star of Kings, a nice little pub, just near Kings Cross. When you looked from the outside it looked like your regular pub, same interior as most of the local after-hours joints you see all over the city. And we were excited, and ready for a good night full of BASS! A night where the Kings rocked the dancefloor, made people rave, and the crowd go wild!
When we walked in to the Star it felt a bit like going to a secret party, cause there were absolutely no people, inspite the fact that there was an event at this venue. It was almost like we wanted to give the slightly bored bartender a password so we could go through the hidden doors and enter the secret vault. Cause what didn’t meet the eye, was the basement, but we knew the party was down there, so without any passwords or hidden doors we headed towards the stairs.
Is was a gem, the perfect place, and just on the way down you could feel your blood pumping in the same beat as the filthy bass that was growling up the stairs and into your veins. And then it hit us, not the heat from the massive crowd, or the sweat stink of people dancing all night, but the emptiness. There were no people! The place was dead. And suddenly all of the excitement dropped to the floor. There was no party and of course not, cause a secret party isn't a secret party before the rumor gets out.
It was never meant to be a hidden affair, but a great bass event, that would exceed your expectations. And it’s truly a shame that the outcome was completely different. Cause here we were, with some of the greatest dubstep dj's from Scandinavia, local stars from Hackney, and a sound system that made the roof come of. All of the dj's ( and MC's) were absolutely MASSIVE, they did what they were supposed to, and the few people that actually found their way to the hidden cellar, did their very best to support. But it just doesn't cut it.
It could have been massive, cause the best place for a rave is always the small black caves, where the sweat is dripping off of you just by entering the room, and you have no other choice than to dance cause it's impossible not to follow the crowd and stand still. It could have been, buuuut to get this, you need a crowd.
So who's to blame. The booker, the promoter, the venue...?
Maybe all of the above. It takes a true effort to create an event and actually making sure that it's going to be an "Invasion". Cause there's literally 100’s of other places you can go, and you need to give people a reason to go to your event. Just the matter that you're from abroad doesn't help your situation, it might only make it worse, just for the slight fact that no one knows you around here. And then you have a venue, that's the absolute perfect place for the event, despite the from-the-outside-looking-dull-average-bar but with the only proof that something's actually ongoing in there is the small poster next to the door. That just isn't good enough.
So there was no rave, no crowd or no Scandinavian Invasion.
We had a party though and a great evening, cause we were there to support. So we did our very best, not to let the absent crowd ruin our night. But after RA:SKL finished his gig, we moved on... to a crowded place :)
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