As featured on Brighton Fusion: Slacker's 5th Birthday
by Amy the Filmmaker

"Happy birthday, Slackers, and here’s to more music, fun and sheer nonsense!"

To protect the innocent (and you know who you are), there are many things I won’t be writing about that I know about the night. But, being the fair person that I am, I’ll tell you the things I’m not going to tell you:

1) Slackers Convention was started in 2002 by Jeremy Thomas (Jez) and Jamie Butler (also known as Jamie Black, just to be confusing). They say it all began in someone’s sitting room, and having had the chance to talk to Mr Thomas and Mr Butler briefly over the years, I can believe this is true. Luckily for the rest of us, Mrs X suitably kicked them out of her sitting room and said “get your own bleeding speakers”. I don’t believe either Mr Thomas or Mr Butler had two pennies to rub together so they borrowed the ones at a drinking establishment called the Pressure Point, which coincidentally had a sitting room above their bar, separated of course by a floor. This was the start of a very good relationship and many people gathered once a month to, as they say in this country, “dance their tits off”. The music policy has always been equal opportunity to musical genres of all shapes and forms, but being strict musicalists, Mr Thomas and Mr Butler firmly agreed: “only Good Music can grace these walls”. It was very lucky that they had many friends who collected only Good Music records and were willing to leave their houses in the dark and come play these records to lots of people. In excess of 225 hours went by when Mr Thomas and Mr Butler got bored of Pressure Point’s sitting room and decided to move to a drinking establishment with a bigger sitting room – and many more as well ! Henceforth, Slackers Convention participants march down the seafront once a month in the dark to “dance their tits off” in the Concorde 2 and apart from going on a boat trip in London and eating barbecue in the Hub, have been fairly loyal to the new sitting room arrangements.

2) It wasn’t just the DJs and bands who made Slackers 5th Birthday happen. I know – that’s what you were thinking. But it’s not true. However, being the fair and generous person that I am, I will make two lists for you. See below.

3) I help the Slackers guys as much as I can with the running of the night because I like the music, the friendly community, and the cool t-shirt they gave me. This means I do stuff “behind the scenes” as well as front of house. “Behind the scenes” means stuff like flyering once a month (Kensington Gardens, next to Alex & partner’s Polish amber jewellery stand), going to web design meetings and not saying anything, and listening to the main organisers talk about future plans and sometimes saying one thing. I also get to the venue early and watch everyone doing stuff – like Charles setting up his laptop for the visuals, Clare and Jez hanging up the banners and staff getting tills ready. Front of house duties include standing at the ticket box and holding the guest list clipboard.

4) I drank too much and went home early so I didn’t get to the after-party, but I hear it was pretty special.

Saturday 18th August 2007 was a pretty special day for Brighton. On this warm and sometimes sunny day, the first ever Loop Festival took place in the centre of Brighton, sprawling across the grassy meridian next to the Pavilion and over to the University of Brighton’s Grand Parade buildings. Neon green was the trademark colour for the event, and on hindsight, I now think that Jason from Loop and Jez from Slackers made a secret pact on the colour palettes for the events, as the Slackers flier was a beautiful acid day-glo pink, orange, purple, turquoise and of course green. Although, Slackers green is a bit more olive and not the neon, but whatever.

I went to Loop. Despite having to queue up for about an hour outside the fenced festival arena, I did catch Bonobo’s set (albeit on the otra lado) quite well and overall I had a very enjoyable time. There were two music tents, but also loads of food stalls and Audio had drinks stalls (oh yes) and my absolute favourites of the event were the kids’ area and All Time Top 100 ice cream van. Have you heard the story about the ice cream van in Tompkins Square park in Manhattan? It plays two tunes: one for when it’s selling ice cream, another when it’s selling drugs. Well, this van was playing some music that could sell an army jeep to your nan. I just remember dancing in the near dark with a sizeable crowd next to the pretty in pink van. A guy took my picture. A woman danced with an umbrella. People were smiling and warm. I couldn’t get into any of the tents to see the bands, but that’s okay, I only really like pre-recorded stuff, and my main regret was that I didn’t get to catch the film and video art in the University side of the event. Next year I guess. After flyering the exit of Loop for about 1.5 hours and then getting pushed out of the way when the paramedics and ambulances turned up (shame about that), I headed down to the Concorde 2 in a taxi with Niall (my all-time favourite festival buddy of the summer), definitely in a much better mood than I’d been in previously. It must have been the dancing that shook the cobwebs out of my work-cluttered mind.

The first hour at Slackers went by in a blur. Upon arrival, Sally grabbed my hand and pulled me to the dance floor in the front bar area. I remember seeing lines of people outside, and then suddenly the place started to fill up. The dj who was on was awesome and I remember having a chat to his girlfriend, who stood next to the booth. Elliot, the Brighton Fusion photographer, turned up and I went up to the door to make sure he got in okay. Camera in tow, he set off for the main room.

At midnight, I had to do the door, taking over from Clare. My god, I have so much more respect for people who do the door now. My hour was an endless flow of people: smiling, happy people, all showing me their neon green strapped wrists. Doing the door is fantastic because you see everyone at the start, before you’re too drunk or just too busy dancing – old friends, new friends, acquaintances, people you always see out but have never met, people who look vaguely familiar from some random house party you went to three years ago, people who know you but…., people you don’t even know why you know, etc. I loved it, but by the end, my calves ached from stretching up to reach the counter and I was tired.

At 1am, JFB was just getting into his set in the front room. Drum n bass and hip hop are par for the course with this boy, but when he pulled out the electro my jaw did the proverbial bounce on the floor. I mean, his technical talent is undisputed and official (as I’ve written before) but he was really playing a mean mixed up set and I was loving every minute of it. JFB is a hard-working DJ, playing out as much as humanly possible, and the fact that he can really play to the audience (in this case, 20- to 30- something’s loving their breaks and electro) as well as showing off his technical prowess is a testament to his talent. I’ve seen him play so many times over the years, but his recent sets are so varied – I’m thinking of his very techie set at Frequency Festival or his bouncy hip hop set at Slackers New Years Eve. Last note to the ladies: DJs actually really like it if you go and talk to them after their set. Especially if you liked it! Do it.

By about 2pm, I’d done a hamster-style run through the main room, been blinded by Subsource’s awesome-ness, felt the magic of Funkollectif and other DJs in the back room, and like a good club should do, the current pulled me in and out of pockets of music and people to catch up with. Harry was down from Nottingham. Barney was celebrating his 21st birthday. I caught loads of good sets, visuals, dancing. Evil Ben and posse holed up a good portion of the front bar area and helped me dance the right side up (another birthday). It was great seeing everyone, especially having some drunken conversations with Sarah.

Happy birthday, Slackers, and here’s to more music, fun and sheer nonsense !

Slackers Convention List 1: Si Begg, Merka, Subsource, JFB, DirtPoP, Medtronix, Squashgar, Strategy, Luke Vex, VJ Spank, Y-Inter Soundsystem, Funkollectif Soundsystem, Fat, Loop, Slackers Records, Flyercentral, Ticketweb, Swat, Don’t Panic, Noodles

Slackers Convention List 2: Simon, Tony, Clare, Jez, Jamie (USA), Kevin, Kevin, Matt, Matt, James, James, Julia, Sarah, Chris, Charles, Electric Playboys (Dan, Greg, Gareth), someblokewithrecords, Statikedge, Flawless, Beat Circus, White Rhino, Brighton, you, me and everyone. Did I catch everyone? Probably not.

Barney was celebrating his 21st birthday

You have GOT to be having a laugh....... I'm only 14.

Oh dear, who on earth started the "2 pairs of glasses" craze that seems to have taken hold this summer? I'm gonna blame it on you Barney !!

Hey -- at least this time I spelled your name right :)

I had no idea idea I'm such a trend setter (!) Yes, 10 out of 10 for spelling, although 'Barnie' has a certain cachet....

blimey Amy - you dont mess about with your reviews! It was Clares mate Dan on the decks when you arrived and his lady Sarah who you chatted to. Awesome funk warmup will definatly be having him back. Love the bit about you and our generally boozey meetings ;) as always your input most welcome.

Shameless plug time - Next Slackers is Oct 20th