Clubland Live 2 - Manchester
Posted By: AATW | Updated: 8th Dec 2008 | Viewed: 6583 Times
In the words of MC Domino - "Oh my golly gosh" - the big day finally arrived. As well as being the venue closest to our home in the North West, the Manchester Evening News Arena is also currently the biggest selling concert venue in the world and regularly plays host to the biggest artists, groups and bands in the world. Bringing Clubland Live to the MEN is something we therefore see as being rather special and this date is the one that everyone has being particularly looking forward too for weeks.
Because of all this there was a fair bit more going on than there has been at the other gigs and to that end the day started quite a bit earlier than any over the past week, much earlier in fact. At 5.30am I left the Hilton at the NEC and was on my way up the M6 towards Manchester where I arrived just before the crew arose from their slumber on the tour buses in the MEN loading area. At 8am the clock started and from there the crew had ten hours till doors open to transform the arena into the biggest commercial dance event the UK has ever seen.
Although well drilled from the 6 dates already carried out the crews job was quite significantly increased. The MEN is considerably bigger than any other venue on the tour so more elements for the line array were delivered in to the venue along with a full LED panel video screen, an expanded 10 camera film crew, including dollys and jibs and a huge bank of VTRs ready to capture the entire night for a feature program that will be on Clubland TV early next year. More pyro was also brought in along with catering, drink, DJ booth and sound and lighting system for the 300 capacity back stage party.
Throughout the day the MEN was a hive of activity, meanwhile the artists tour buses departed Birmingham at 11am and made their way up to Manchester in time for the final sound check and run through. Come 6pm and save for a few minor emergencies the day had gone like clockwork and the scene was set, the doors opened and the public flocked into the arena. Being the home gig there was a massive contingent of AATW artists, DJs, friends and family in attendance. We also had many of our friends and colleagues from the industry come up from London and there was even the Green Eyed 1st Recon Battalion from SE1 in attendance. At 7.30pm the lights dropped, the walk in music faded out and as the intro kicked in the first roar of excitement rose from the thirteen and a half thousand people packed into the arena.
From the moment Lois from N-Force took to the stage till the pyrotechnic assisted exclamation of the Sheffield Jumpers closed the show the MEN was electric. A sea of people young and old rocked for 3 hours solid to Clubland Live's unique combination of commercial dance, donk, scouse, hardcore, house and jump style and a relentless wave of energy and excitement reverberated around the MEN all night. Each track's start and finish was welcomed with rapturous cheering, the unknown intros caused a tense anticipation winding the crowd up to the point that when Raindrops, Forever, Discolights, Come Running and Call Me Mañana dropped in the result was nothing short of a euphoric supernova only eclipsed by Scooters encore performance of Ramp! (The Logical Song)
All things considered the night was nothing short of brilliant and the party continued backstage for a few hours before the young and old went home and the rest of us retired to the hotel bar along with some stragglers who we can only assume can't have been aware that there was more than one bar open after midnight in Manchester.
The pictures below tell their own story, the video footage should be available in some form or other in the Spring.
Clubland Live 2 - Manchester Gallery
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