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Features
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| Mindbenderz talk ‘Lord of the Rings’ and fishing, as well as the creation of their new album ‘Celestial Gateway’! | | Iono-Music artists One Function, Eliyahu, Invisible Reality and Dual Vision talk Robert Miles, kids, dogs and vinyl, while we chat about their current releases! | | Luke&Flex talk influences, the Irish rave scene, why Flex wears a mask and Play Hard, their new EP out now on Onhcet Repbulik Xtreme! | | Lyktum expands on his new album ‘Home’ – talking about his love of storytelling, creating new harmonies and the concept behind his musical works. | | Pan talks getting caught short crossing the Sahara, acid eyeballs and tells us Trance is the Answer, plus shares his thoughts on his latest release 'Beyond the Horizon' - all from a beach in Spain! | | Miss C chats about living with the KLF, DJing in a huge cat’s mouth, training her brain and the upcoming super-duper Superfreq Grande party at LDN East this Saturday, 16th September! | | NEM3SI$ - I Live for the Night – talks superficiality, psychopaths, and bittersweet success, ahead of a plethora of evocative, emotional, and passionate upcoming melodic techno releases! | | Psy-Sisters Spring Blast Off! We talk to DJ competition winner ROEN along with other super talents on the lineup! | | Blasting towards summer festivals with Bahar Canca ahead of Psy-Sisters Spring Blast! | | Shyisma talks parties, UFO's, and Shotokan Karate ahead of his upcoming album 'Particles' on Iono-Music! | | SOME1 talks family, acid, stage fright and wolves - ahead of his upcoming album release ‘Voyager’ on Iono-Music in February 2023! | | The Transmission Crew tell all and talk about their first London event on 24th February 2023! | | NIXIRO talks body, mind and music production ahead of his release 'Planet Impulse' on Static Movement's label - Sol Music! | | Turning the world into a fairy tale with Ivy Orth ahead of Tribal Village’s 10th Birthday Anniversary Presents: The World Lounge Project | | The Psy-Sisters chat about music, achievements, aspirations and the 10-Year Anniversary Party - 18/12/22! | | A decade of dance music with Daniel Lesden | | Earth Needs a Rebirth! Discussions with Psy-Trance Artist Numayma | | Taking a Journey Through Time with Domino | | New Techno Rising Star DKLUB talks about his debut release White Rock on Onhcet Republik! | | PAN expands on many things including his new album 'Hyperbolic Oxymoron' due for release on the 14th April 2022 on PsyWorld Records! | | Psibindi talks all things music including her new collaborative EP 'Sentient Rays' on Aphid Records, her band Sentience Machine and 10 years of Psy-Sisters! | | N-Kore talks Jean-Michel Jarre, unfinished tracks and fatherhood! | | Celebrating International Women’s Day and Ten Years of Psy-Sisters with Amaluna | | A Catch Up with John Phantasm ahead of his upcoming set at the Tribal Village 4 Day Outdoor Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022! | | 'The Maestro that is Tristan talks barn owls, Shazamming and keeping it Psychedelic ahead of his upcoming performance at the Tribal Village 4 Day Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022! | | DJ talk with Psyrenzo ahead of his debut set at Tribal Village, the Steelyard this Friday 14th January 2022! | | TENZO aka Overdrive talks freely about launching his new act which will be showcased at Tribal Village, Steelyard on 14 January 2022! | | A long overdue catch up with JourneyOM ahead of his next Tribal Village party this Friday 14th January 2022 at the Steelyard, London! |
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Frantic Brings U MORE — Frantic’s unsung production hero Gary Baker!
Reported by benz
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Submitted 23-11-05 15:26
They are the unsung heroes of clubland. They work tirelessly to create the perfect clubbing environment to lose yourself in every weekend. Sure, you might think of all the hard work the promoters and artists put into staging the events you attend, but how often do you spare a thought for the production team? Without these guys clubbing events just wouldn’t have that all encompassing feeling of sensory overload that makes them so special. And especially in a scene such as hard dance, where arguably more importance is placed on the visual and decor side of things than in any other dance music scene, these guys are absolutely essential. And if you’ve been to a Frantic event in the last couple of years, you will have witnessed the hard work of their erstwhile production manager (amongst other things!) Gary Baker.
Gary’s career in club world began when he was working at a club in Acton, West London called Zenith (which he lovingly describes as “a nightmare”). The promotions manager at Zenith, Raj, was friends with a guy called Ralph who was the promotions manager at The Fridge Bar at the time. In 1997, when Gary informed Raj that he wasn’t happy working at Zenith, Raj suggested to Ralph that The Fridge take Gary on to work in a management role there. The Fridge management, however, thought that Gary was too young and too inexperienced for the role at that time. Gary then went to Colchester to train as a General Manager for a corporate nightclub, and accumulated a wealth of training and experience. Around Christmas in 1998, he received a phone call from The Fridge asking him to come onboard as a General Manager. This is where he started to learn about the production side of running club event.
“I got involved in production just through working as General Manager at The Fridge, watching Cliff the production guy while he was doing all his stuff. It was really Logic and Escape From Samsara that were really into their production — they just rebuilt the club every time, and to watch what they did was just brilliant. So really I just learnt from them.”
It was the Golden Age of The Fridge’s history, which rapidly became London’s premier hard dance venue. While working here, he met Will Paterson, promoter of Frantic, around the tail end of 1999. It wasn’t until January 1st 2001 that Frantic hosted an event there, and from there on they established a strong working relationship. In 2004, Will asked Gary to join the Frantic team as their production manager — to help him realise his visions for the perfect sound, lighting, décor, visuals and staging set up for each event he put on. “Initially when I started working with Will, which was in June of last year, we were actually looking for a venue of our own. But to be part of that and to have a role in Frantic, I took over the production side of things. So it actually started with the first event we did at The Coronet, which I think was Frantic vs Polysexual South.”
Together, Gary and Will have staged some of the most elaborate, big-budget shows ever witnessed in London clubs. The Hard House Academy shows at Brixton Academy (billed as ‘The Biggest Show in Hard House!’) are well known for providing some of the most stunning production around. “With the Academy, it’s a bit of a baptism of fire when you go in there because you’ve got an empty building and you’ve got to start from scratch. When you first meet the Academy staff and you say what you want to do, they’ll let you know what kind of stage you need — how big you want it, how high you want it, if you want it multi-level, so it’s from the very beginning and you start from the ground up.”
Hard House Academy
Daunting enough as it is for an experienced production manager to stage an event at an imposing venue like this, Gary makes it clear that his experience was made ever harder.“It’s a lot of work, especially as I’d never been trained at doing it. It was sink or swim, using my knowledge from The Fridge. I always talked to different people there, whether they were doing lighting or lasers, or sound or décor, so for years and years I’d been chatting to them, and although I wasn’t actually doing it, I picked up what they were doing.”
When asked about his favourite venues and bits of production that he’s done, his well-known grin springs into action and his eyes light up like a kid in a toy shop. “The Coronet. I really like that place. It’s an absolutely wicked venue, and to walk in… it’s one of the best venues around and it just needs to be used. It’s bigger than Camden Palace/Koko but half the size of the Academy… and you can do some much with it. You’ve got a huge stage, a massive balcony, 3 rooms… Chemistry at SEOne was really nice — when we did N.E.C. Live we put a bigger stage into the main room than anyone else had ever put in there! So I was quite happy with that.” It’s evident from the way he talks about his work that, above all the stress that goes with it, the feeling of achievement from (literally) seeing and hearing months of hard work come into fruition is a massive reward that has kept him passionate about production.
Recently, he has started working with Paterson’s new venture, the sumptuous Hidden club in Vauxhall. Taking over the club was an enormous task, and it took a good few days after being given the keys to the place for him to get to grips with the place. Lots of equipment had to be replaced, and lacking a torch on his initial visit, he was forced to stumble around in the dark trying to figure out where all the light switches and so on were. “On paper, it’s General Manager and licensing, but because it’s a small venue I basically picked up the roles of GM, Bar Manager, Assistant Manager, Cashier… basically all the roles of everything I’ve learned from being a glass collector to being GM at the Fridge. You just use everything you’ve learnt to try and make it all happen!”. Naturally such a big venture has caused its fair share of stress, with Gary working tirelessly since the end of September to get everything at the club sorted. “The first week, obviously we’d just opened, that was hard. Plus I’d had the flu for a month…I lost over a stone in weight! It’s getting easier. Today is a busy day for instance, but it’s all done. There are just routines you have to get into... you just have to get used to it.”
After a massively busy event at the weekend, Gary stresses the importance of learning through experience — ironing out creases in the running of the club that are only evident once the club is operational and full of clubbers. Alongside these issues however, further development of the club is in the planning stages. “One idea we had for the main room, there’s quite a big area by where the engineer sits that is only partly in use. What we thought was that people could hire this area out for their birthday, like a private booth looking over the main dancefloor. We’re dressing it up obviously with nice lights and seats and so on.
Gary with the keys to Hidden
“The only other changes we’ll probably make will be with the lighting. We’re doing a lot of work with the company Visual Reality, so we just get stuff in as and when we need it at the moment. But we do have ideas for visuals in the Red Room and maybe the Purple Room as well — big screens, projectors and so on… we’ve got a lot of ideas. It’s going to take a bit of time. We’ve been open 5 weeks, and every week people see changes so hopefully it will all just fall into place!”
This Saturday sees another huge Frantic event take place at SEOne London — a multi-arena venue which is rife with possibilities for transforming into a truly magical space. So what can we expect at Frantic Brings U MORE? “Sound is always our number one priority. We work with a legendary sound company called 4D PA who are infamous for running the sound at The Fridge back in the day. Since those days they have invested in a large quantity Funktion One Sound, which we believe is the best way to hear the music we play at our events. It just gives a really fat, full sound. On the décor front, we are working with Tranceart. They do everywhere from The Gallery to SW4. They are going to be bringing in shedloads of inflabtables — we are looking at putting no less than 20 in the 2 main rooms alone! There will be loads of branded Frantic décor throughout the rest of the venue too. We will be running huge screens in the Main Arena and for the first time in the Funky Arena. We will have 2 live VDJs who will be mixing up live digital iImages throughout the night. And not forgetting the all important lasers — our trademark blue and green giant lasers in the Main Arena and a battle between 2 high specification lasers in the Cyberkitten Room.”
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Not bad eh! I think the quality and attention to detail that is evident throughout the hard dance scene is something that we can be very proud of, and with people like Gary striving to keep production standards fresh and on the cutting edge of technology, we can be assured that our scene will lead the way where such things are concerned. If you’re going to MORE, make sure you take a minute to appreciate everything that has been added to the cavernous venue… it’s going to look better than ever before!
Photos by Benz/Frantic/Paul Underhill
MORE
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On:
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Saturday 26th November 2005
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At:
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S.E.One [map]
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From:
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20:00-06:00
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Cost:
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Limited £14+BF Early Bird Tickets
£17+BF Saver Tickets
£20+BF Standard Tickets
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Website:
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www.franticuk.net
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Ticket Info:
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Frantic HQ 07949 618 035/ amanda@franticuk.com
Ticketweb: 08700 600 100 / www.ticketweb.co.uk
Clubtickets: 0870 246 1840 / www.clubtickets.co.uk
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Buy Online:
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Click here to buy tickets
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More:
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Frantic Brings U MORE
Saturday 26th November 2005
2000-0600
The SEOne Complex
www.seonelondon.com
ONLY Frantic has the Answer!
Frantic continues its God given mission to reinvent and reshape Hard House for a new generation. Gone are the so called big names and in is the unbeatable and scintillating next generation! ONLY Frantic has line-ups like this! We take risks, where others play safe! We promise ONLY DJs that really love Hard House like there is no tomorrow! All the DJs are handpicked for their ability to ENTERTAIN! We don’t want DJs who look moody and keep their heads down without so much as a smile to the crowd. Our DJs are chosen for their crowd interaction and technical ability! Nowhere sounds quite like Frantic!
Nowhere looks quite like Frantic either! 2005 has established Frantic as the Hard House Club that cares the most about the SHOW. MORE is going to push this vision to the next level! We will be totally transforming the mighty SEOne Complex like only we know how! Every Arena will look totally different from any other event at SEOne. Stepping into the venue will be like entering a magical all-night Palace of Hard House. There will MORE death star inflatables, MORE Frantic Décor, MORE Award-Winning Visuals, MORE Lasers, MORE purpose built stages, MORE Funktion One Sound and of course loads more 21st Century Hard House! This really is the brave new frontier for Hard House clubbing! If you want to experience the next step in Hard House clubbing - only Frantic has the answer!
MORE is powered by Funktion One Sound. This is the ONLY way to hear Hard House!
Limited £14+BF Early Bird Tickets
£17+BF Saver Tickets
£20+BF Standard Tickets
Frantic HQ 07949 618 035/ amanda@franticuk.com
Ticketweb: 08700 600 100 / www.ticketweb.co.uk
Clubtickets: 0870 246 1840 / www.clubtickets.co.uk
Get some Hard House in your life; www.franticuk.net
www.clubkurruption.co.uk
www.seonelondon.com
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The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
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![[HarderFaster] - Work Hard, Play Harder!](/images/mainbanner_top1.gif)
legend! Top top bloke 
Good to see the ppl behind the scenes! See ya saturday! 
xx