Went to the re-opening party for the Sub Club last night. For those that haven't heard of it, the Sub Club is a legendary, long-running Glasgow house club that's been shut down for the past couple of years while the building that housed it was redeveloped. Having never visited in the past, but having heard countless tales of how amazing it was in its heyday, I was looking forward to checking it out, and wasn't disappointed - although it's not 100% finished yet inside it's a very impressive space, a fantastic low-ceilinged rectangular room with tasteful decor and great sound.
For the opening party, the original residents Harri and Domenic Capello were joined by some very special gusests: Jerry Dammers, who opened the night with some great reggae and dub; Fenetik's Paul Cawley, with a quality blend of deep Moodymann and Metro Area-type gear; Kenny Hawkes, who did his usual tracky house business; plus Trackmode's Brett Dancer and the legendary Larry Heard. Twitch, one of the men behind Glasgow's Sunday night electroclash sensation Optimo, also played, but I left after Larry and Brett finished to head down to a semi-secret warehouse party organised by Rubadub where they were also due to play. Had a great time at the Sub Club, but an even better time at the Unit, which started to fill up around 3AM, and where Larry Heard and Brett Dancer were still going strong when I left around 6AM. Loads of friendly faces (hi BT!), and between the Sub Club and the warehouse party it was like a who's who of the Glasgow music scene, with everyone partying hard. Great stuff, and a reassuring reminder that quality house music is still very much alive and kicking. Between them, Larry and Brett managed to drop a phenomenal range of stuff - big classics like 'Strings of Life' and 'Plastic Dreams', dubbed-out and hypnotically beautiful spine-tingling deep house, big New York vocal garage tunes, disco and funk classics, early acid house and more - great to hear such a mixture. I believe they're playing at Scuba in Sheffield tonight, so go and check them out if you read this in time... And looking forward to seeing the Moderator at the Unit next weekend. Hope to see some of the London 313 crew making their way up - hi Nicole, Tristan and co :) Cheers, Tom
