New Years Eve at the River Bar was nothing like I expected. I thought it would be a good night for me and my mates to go and enjoy ourselves. However it turned out to be the best night of the year with the promoters pulling out all the stops to transform the bar for one night only and making you wonder how £14 a ticket paid for all this! I guarantee you there was no better night to be had this New Years Eve, as anyone there will tell you!

In the Marquee Lounge, leather settees, plants and flooring meant that no matter where you were in the River Bar you could always find luxury. Upon entering, the energetic and polite bar staff treated everyone to a glass of champagne, and tasting it made it clear that no expense had been spared on making this a special party. Phil Belzar was singing and playing guitar later on in the night as the marquee was filled by clubbers taking a break to reflect on the year gone by and chill out!

This was not the only change to the already very classy bar. Downstairs Camo netting had been put up around the room and club lights had been added, it seemed as if the sound system had got louder too! Heaters outide on the patio meant that standing outide wasn't cold and made the venue seem 5 times as big. Upstairs; balloons, drapes and even more crazy lights created a trendy club atmosphere whilst moving the settees to the marquee freed up loads of space to dance in!

As usual, any regular to the River bar, Club Class or Sounds Heavenly will know that the people who attend are just up for a good night and nothing else. I didn't see one bit of trouble all evening which is the only time on New Years Eve this has ever happened! The clubbers were amazing and everyone just mixed and blended like the music! All the staff did really well in making the night easy going with ques for the bar never being longer than a couple of minutes and the place never getting untidy. And they worked over 10 hour shifts!!

In the lower bar Sounds Heavenly were spinning funky, soulful and upfront house all night with tunes to dance and sing to! Dj's like Lauren Taylor were banging out soon to be classics such as 'Precious Love', whilst later on in the night played host to some of the best tunes of the year like Martin Solveig's 'Rockin' Music' and 'Last Night A DJ Saved My Life.' The crowd downstairs were well up for a night to remember and the DJ's made sure this happened.

Upstairs saw Sam Gregory kick things off with some good quality tech house. The dancefloor was rammed before Gregory was halfway through his set so everyone knew that this night was to be something special! Next on the wheels of steel was Club Class resident Sam Ball, lifting things with some techno influences and a few 'Skylark' re-rubs such as 'Drop the Beat' and a stormer by 'Akabu'. 11pm saw the return to Club Class of Justin Robertson. A true legend in House beats who is much to blame for the life changing music they call 'acid'. Entering his set with with the Chemical Brothers, Robertson soon dropped his own mix of Chicken Lips 'Do it Proper' and the place went crazy. The atmosphere was electric and as the countdown to midnight struck, Soul Central's 'Strings of Life' put an uplifting and reflective point on the new and old year respectively. At 1am Sam Ball was back on the decks and doing his thing until about 2 when George Andrews of Offset Music intervened to leave a harder mark on the nights proceedings. All night you could tell the DJ's were loving it but the energy form Andrews was amazing! He didn't stop moving from start to finish and his set was perfect in taking the clubbers where they wanted to be... out of there heads! Nick Carter stepped up for the breakfast set until 6 and prooved only too well that he knows his way around the effects on a mixer, messing with tunes to get the most out of them and really working it for all in attendence. It really was a shame it had to end, then again Saturday 8th sees the residents special at the Loft where DJ Tang and Nic Fanciulli are battling it out, Hip Hop vs House with Sam Ball warming up, sure to be something truly mind blowing!

See you all on the 8th!

Harvey

What a night! Your couldn't be more right. Great night, great atmosphere, great people, staff were working there arses off, and the music as always was top quality. All the regular faces were there and the marquees opened up the whole place.

Just wanted to say well done Club Class, another banging night.

See you all on the 8th.

Biscuit.

Hey i agree with you both The River Bar rocked just like last year. Good work

Totally agree! It was brilliant! Great nite with all my favourite people! See you all this Saturday.

Claire

This night was awesome. Well done to all that organised it!!

If anyone wants pictures then be sure to check out www.club-class.org. They're all up now for us to enjoy so get on the site now!!