Kidology has become one of the most recognised clubbing brands of the capital. With a feminized philosophy of fun, dressing up and music that absolutely bolts you to the dancefloor it’s not hard to see why Mark Wilkinson and the Kidettes now rule the London house scene with a dainty, manicured hand inside a neon pink fishnet glove.

It’s easy for us to think from the outside that great nights like this just luck into existence, but as one great woman of our times said “luck is where hard work meets opportunity…” and if you take the time to look back on the history of Kidology, through its daddy, Mark Wilkinson you’ll see that getting involved is something he’s most definitely involved in.

Mark started his musical education as a young man through his parent’s record collection. You’d never think that he started his diet on such stalwarts as Elvis and the Beatles, but then again you’d say that their durability really is a testament to their success. These classic artists infected him with the music virus and within a few years he was obsessed enough to be buying vinyl and savouring the sleeve artwork and the notes.

Believe it or not Rap and the Hip Hop scene was very much Mark’s playground at the time, and then in a moment it all changed. He’s certainly not ashamed to admit that like so many young people at the time his musical view shifted with his very first ‘e’. Our bespectacled ginger hero with the wedge haircut had taken his first step into House.

It wasn’t long before Mark coupled his musical obsession with his new found love of the emergent House scene. Back in 1989 the UK’s Dance scene was pitifully small, but this didn’t stop Mark’s hunger to meet new people and form new alliances around his new found Musical love. One such meeting saw him soon working in Flying Records, where, by his own admission the majority of his pay-check never met his bank manager as he put rare promos and white labels to one side for his own pleasure.

Around 1996, it was through Flying Records that Mark met Ashley Beadle and Rocky of Xpress 2. Rocky was impressed with Mark’s mixing and musical nous and soon the two were working together as producers. Their energy and playful style soon prompted Ashley to tell the pair that they were “a couple of problem kids”… The name stuck and soon the new releases started flowing from the studio, the duo being of course named “Problem Kids”. It is a testament to the musical ability of the pairing that Rocky was eventually called back to Xpress 2 to produce the phenomenal “Wicked and Lazy” with David Byrne.

The next few years for Mark were spend as a DJ doing what he does best. His style and substance is something gleaned and treasured from the early days, meaning that he’s got that uncanny knack of producing and selecting tunes which give that happy, positive, uninhibited expression to a dance-floor. Any clubber or party goer worth their salt will know that a mixture of the mentioned ingredients will fuse to create a space where the ladies love to get their boogie on. It was one such young lady, standing out a mile from the average crowd, who was to help about change the course of Mark’s career for the benefit of everyone in the UK…

“Alexandra has always been a very visual person” Mark tells me. If you can’t work out that he’s the audio person in this partnership then you probably can’t actually read. His music was enjoying a tremendous success when Alexandra got involved; so what she did was cloth the naked body of the music in a beautiful montage of colours, mood and experience. With a kind of candy chutzpah wand Alexandra gave the night a feel of girls fun night out, lollipops on the dancefloor, electric eighties spandex and above all she redefined the zone around the music as an laissez faire garden of personal indulgence. What do I mean by this last comment? For me, as a clubber, it’s the most important part of any night; what Alexandra did was give carte blanche to express yourself however you like. Suddenly the little black dress coloured club-scene of London burst into a bouquet of colour and a riot of expression; no longer would it be safe to go down a club and stand in a corner laughing at the vibrant, alive people on the dancefloor. All of a sudden it was the chin-stroking men and clatter-jawed ladies of lurk who seemed out of place…

So Alexandra took the sounds and gave them eyes… and all they need now was a name. As Mark is a life long Chelsea fan he actually stole a quote (about Chelsea) from Alex Ferguson. The big man dismissed reports that Chelsea would win the league that year (which they did) as “Kidology”… This struck a chord with Mark’s earlier work with Rocky, he decided to grab the name whilst it was still free and lo and behold the first incarnation of Kidology was borne.

Once again Mark’s excellent contact book came into play as he managed to secure the first Friday night of every month at the now mythical (it’s one up from a legend before you start reaching for your dictionary) Cross in King’s Cross, London. The night then simply went stratospheric as it fitted into so many empty hearts longing for good clubbing. Alexandra and her girlfriends all started wearing the neon shock nothingness that’s become a trademark of the Kidology nights; she and her dancefloor sisters soon coined the tongue in cheek name, “The Kidettes” for themselves. This idea became infectious, as it wasn’t long before girls who’d never spoken to Alexandra and her crew, started to turn up in the same multicoloured garments… Finally, the Kidology party was in full swing…

When Mark and Alexandra realised the power of their event and the dedication it roused in what has been for many years an apathetic, too-cool-for-school London audience. They didn’t stop there however, with one eye looking back on the ephemeral parties of the early halcyon days of the UK scene and the much vaunted Ibiza movement Kidology kept on growing. No excuse was ever considered too small to add an extra note of spice to an event; we’ve seen all kinds of themes from circus to Halloween, and boy do the girls dress up accordingly. No expense is ever spared in the outrageous costumes for the dancers to wear or take off in an oh-so teasing manner. If there’s one night out there that’s remembered what fun is about, while the rest were all hiding in the toilets… Need I say more?

Looking back it seems difficult to believe it’s only been two years since the conception of the Kidology baby… And yet the young child has done so much… Rocking shores from Indonesia to Ibiza, they’ve seen greats such as Seamus Haji, Princess Superstar and Jonathan Ulysses electrifying their already super strong brand. If this is how much Mark and Alexandra can do in two years, the potential for a whole decade of this brand is beyond comprehension.

Ultimately you could pass this entire piece of writing off as a just another marketing spin blurb-vert that manages to say everything about nothing. However, you can really see from this that Kidology have caught my attention, and I’m some jaded, seen it, been there, given the t-shirt to my nephew type clubber… So if these guys can melt even my icy heart, convincing me to crack the frost off my face with a smile, just think of the places they could take you. Actually, tell you what, don’t you actually go and find out what’s so special for yourself. I can pretty much guarantee that once you’ve been, you might not be telling everyone else. When a party’s this good, sometimes you want to keep it all for yourself…

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