Review: SWAMP 81 at Fire, Vauxhall
By Kezia (@keziafrances)
Every once in a while, a night comes along that is so big that if I were a DJ, I’d be begging to be put on the bill. What at first seemed to be a straight-up Swamp 81 line-up at Fire in Vauxhall soon appeared to be becoming a beast of a party, with Schl Records taking over Lightbox next door and Skream announcing he’d drop in for a techno/disco set. Even during the notoriously quiet study period of May, it would have been rude to miss out.
Schl Records is the tartan-clad little sister of Swamp 81. In an odd way it reminds me of Effy, Nicholas Hault’s naughty schoolgirl sister in Skins (the one that didn’t say anything for the first two series but knew the best warehouse raves in Bristol). Schl’s very own Mushy kicked off the night, complete with his tune Ladykiller, which according to my sources has been doing the rounds on Rinse FM and getting crowds going at Vibe bar on Sundays. Klose One hopped on the decks to take over what was a pretty tight Schl line-up, all hosted by Johnny Banger.
Over in Room One Mickey Pearce was finishing up and Zed Bias was starting, so I tore myself away from Klose One as the whole room was singing, “come on, let’s jack” to go see them. Breach’s Jack is one of the undisputed tunes of the summer, but I wasn’t too bothered about leaving the rest of Lightbox to it as I knew someone was bound to drop it in the other room at a later stage.
I went back to the Lightbox portion of the club to see one of the massive names on the Schl Label, Dusky. Flo Jam was an underground smash for the duo last year and they’ve been keeping busy on the club scene ever since, building up a massive following and flawless set. As I passed through Room 2, Norwood Soul Patrol took over with a feel-good palette cleansing mix of R’n’B and old school anthems such as Michael Jackson and Usher. Everyone had sweaty smiles plastered on their faces, proclaiming non-pretentious raving is alive and well.
The whole main stage was a running, jumping hive of DJs and MCs as the crowd was invited to wish Sgt Pokes a happy birthday. No wonder it was such a party. As predicted, during the final stretch in Room One, well, the final squeeze (the place was packed) Skream dropped Jack, and to finish up, his remix of the banging no.1 Need You (100%) by Duke Dumont. The single has been somewhat overshadowed by the release of Get Lucky, which is a shame but it means that the Dumont remix still sounds fresh on the dancefloor.
Loefah turned up the bass and dropped his new track Veal, which samples Bad Habits and is another soon-to-be summer anthem (I hope). I ended up making a swift exit before the crowds and security got too messy and headed to Dalston for After, a new late night/early morning event on Kingsland Road. It’s a hidden treasure, a place where the majority of the DJs came for an exclusive mash-up of back-to-backs. As well as exports from the Swamp 81 and Schl night, there were DJs from Hot Creations and Troupe on the decks. When school’s finally out for summer, I hope plenty more nights like these are on the cards.
