Page 36 - Zone Magazine Issue 006

clubnight spotlight [uk]
" I think the local north wales scene is buzzing at the moment with some quality festivals and party's popping up around the area and having our selfs giving local up and coming talent the platform to play with more established names. "
I lived in North Wales for a period of time, went to some great nights, and met some fantastic people, which I still know today. North Wales was a meka for underground nights, illegal raves in the woods, and parties in abandoned buildings back in the day, but of recent years the Underground seems to have ‘fallen’ away from North Wales, since the closure of Time Venue, which I had a small hand in promoting some nights, the Venue had some fantastic names, and events over the years, but closed down some years ago, and left a big hole where electronic music had a big presence.
Hendre Hall is a fantasitc venue also, and has been around some time, since 1860 in fact, there have been, and still has some great events and promoters in there over the years, although its not the spot for everyone, more of a rustic venue and an equired taste, perfect for hardcore clubbers, and set in lush green hills and magnificent mountain range of Snowdonia.
A couple of years ago, when I heard of a new night and a few dedicated underground DJs / Producers desided to try their hand at promoting their own nights, disalustioned by the club scene in the area, which, like many areas, has been overrun by commercial nights.
I remember being out one night, some time ago, and meeting Ramji, one of the founders of these new nights, when he
36 ZONE-MAGAZINE.IE
was just beginging to buy records, and glad to have spoken to him again to have a chat and check out one of the nights, while I was over in Wales recently.
“Strictly Underground” was formed in early 2013 by Ramji Nyirenda, Gavin Hogan & Mathew Jones. What started off as a small gathering of friends in their first party quickly grew as they switched their focus from evening events to all day parties and more recently larger scale parties at the legendary Hendre Hall. They have used these parties not just as a platform for themselves but also giving upcoming local talent the chance to shine alongside more established DJ's from all over the North West.
With their tastes in music ranging from house to techno and everything in between they have slowly shaped the scene in North wales and over the past 3 years brought in headline acts such as Ceri (Hot Creations), Sy Chan (Kosmophono), Mark Fanciulli (Saved Records), Pablo Marco (Kina Music) & Hash Hendrex (Cadenza) with even more big names in the pipeline over the next few months.
The success of their parties has seen them gain local and national recognition with gigs at festivals such as Creamfields, Gottwood, Parklife, Wakestock aswell as playing for local and national brands Manipulate, I:AM, Illiterate & Colour alongside a host of top talent such as Anek, Proudly People, Seff, Loquace, Samu.L, Dave Seaman, Billy Nasty and more.
I went to see Ramji, and fellow promoters, on the night of Mark Fanculli [saved / Rejected], with a host of other local and national tallent!
It was nice to be back in the old haunt, Hendre. The sound system was pounding when we arrived, and the place buzzing with ravellers, outside was busy too, where the garden and outbuilding cater for BBQ and chilling out, and on this ocation, some more laid back sounds in the far corner of the venue. The atmosphere is also always great at Hendre, and a full apriciation for the muisc is always present.
I had the chance to grab a few minutes with Ramji before enjoying a bit of time at the venue.
Tell us about when you first found yourself hooked on electronic music?
My first recollection of bin hooked on electronic music I was around 8 years old my older brother was heavily into the rave scene of the early nineties and was nuts for collecting different rave mix packs on cassette, sewing the seed I starting diving head first into listening to cassette mix tapes from all sorts of djs across generes from jungle to acid house and hardcore, a few of my favourite cassette mixes at the time were one fantazia pack mix by the legend himself Carl cox in 93 and two others which I played religiously