Thumping beats, adrenalin pumping anthems, people dressed up in crazy fluorescent clothes, the friendliest clubbers around; those are just some of the things that we love about Hard Dance. That’s why Trackitdown are staging the 5th outing of the Hard Dance awards @ The Plug in Sheffield on Friday the 29th February. Oh and of course, they’ll be some awards going as well: who was the best resident spinner; which artist came up with the coolest re-mix; which jock was seen as simply on top, that plus eleven other categories will be declared on the night as voted for by you the clubber!
The main man behind it all? Somebody who’s been involved in dance music since the early nineties from his days of promoting a night in Portsmouth, to spreading the hard sound across the globe; who’s mixed a whole host of high selling compilation albums and being one of the most charismatic and energetic players in the scene. Oh, and did we mention that he’s responsible for co-founding Riot! Riot Recordings and Trackitdown.net; the worlds largest supplier of legal MP3 digital downloads. That’s right: Mr. Ed Real!
So with that in mind, we grabbed hold of him, held him down and told him that we have ways of making him talk about it all…….
Ed, it’s that time of year again for the biggest event in the Hard Dance calendar and you are going to be the presenter; how much are you looking forward to that?
For me it’s the launch party for another madcap year of hard dance. Sure there are parties before the Hard Dance Awards but nothing that compares to the anticipation and the meeting of the tribes that the ceremony presents and this year it’ll be no different. It’s been brilliant to see so many DJ’s, labels and events really get behind the awards this year and it feels as though the project has come of age – and after five years it should be! I’m not looking forward to the hang over afterwards though; I hear that Northerners like a drink or two!
For the previous two years the ceremony has been held down in London, but this time it’s up North in Sheffield – an area that’s got quite a few hard dance routes; what made you choose the Plug as the venue?
For the last two years we held the party in London and need to take the show on the road. Hard Dance is healthy all over the UK (and beyond) and we need to reflect this and showcase it. Our promotion partners at Good Greef proposed Sheffield and we instantly agreed. It’s one of the spiritual homes of the scene and I have lots of hazy memories of Insomniacz and other wicked parties back in the day. Tidy and Vicious Circle labels are both based there and The Plug venue has carved a great reputation for itself since opening.
In terms of travel, Sheffield is right on the M1 and so is easily reached from midlands and the North which satisfies our desire to showcase the scene to as music of the UK as possible!
Hard Dance doesn’t get that much media exposure as a whole, so the awards are a great way for the best talent to be recognised. Does it make you proud to be such an integral part in it all?
My perception is that the more exposed a scene is the more of a fad it becomes. Hard Dance had a period of saturation in the dance press which leads to a boom in the short term but we’re still here five years later packing out arenas with not a lot of attention proving that the great British raver likes it hard – despite what rubbish the media likes to herald as the next big thing!
This is one very big event and must of taken years of planning and preparation, as well as a lot of hard graft. Can you give us an insight in to the organisation and promoting of it all?
During the previous summer we (the Trackitdown.net team) start to speak to promoters and venues to find the ideal location for the awards event. This year it’s been quite hard to find a three room venue large enough to cope with our demands as a lot have recently closed or gone ritzy. We then re-build the website incorporating as much resource-based stuff as possible so promoters and people involved in the scene can present their companies and DJ’s can give us their charts.
Once taken care of its all systems go; book the DJ’s and get the show underway. We have a lot of help from media partners like DSI, Harderfaster, Galaxy FM and M8 magazine as well as promoters and artists who want to get involved. They help us spread the word and get everyone excited about voting and the ceremony. Without the help of the scene – both industry and raver – there wouldn’t be much point in this celebration.
A lot of various media outlets, record labels and club brands have signed up as club partners for the event; what role will they be playing in it all?
Media partners like DSI, Harderfaster, Galaxy and M8 help us to spread the word about voting and the ceremony and promoters and industry players love entering into the spirit of things by getting fans to vote etc. Trackitdown.net overseas the whole project and ensures that the site works and the awards are conducted properly.
In the line-up this year, there seems to be quite a few DJ’s that have come a long way recently such as Lucy Fur, Kym Ayres, Rodi Style and Vandall. So would you agree that this year’s awards are a great showcase for fresh talent?
Always! Over the last couple years there’s been a new generation of DJ’s and producers like Andy Whitby, Alex Kidd, Technikal and the folk mentioned in your question who have become high achievers. The scene needs to let these folk through as they’ve raised the game for all performers. I think these Internet 2.0 artists have shown us all how to communicate with the fans via Myspace, Facebook and of course DSI and that’s been really crucial for hard dance to evolve and stay in touch with a new generation of clubbers.
Signed copies of the HDA album are going to be sold on the night and it will be fully released the following Monday. You’ve played your part in compiling and mixing the tracks for the album; how has that project been going?
Following from the success of last years album mixed by myself and Tidy Boys, we at Trackitdown proposed to Tidy that the Best of 2008 disk involved more than just one key artist. This idea evolved into a disk that contained future hits selected by the most important DJ’s and producers on the circuit. I’ve taken the biggest tracks voted for by the fans through the website and created an awesome disk of hard dance, hard house, hard trance and hardstyle and then these 17 or so heroes have all proposed one track each for the other. It works and sounds wicked.
This event is of course powered by your company Trackitdown.net. Who else in the Trackitdown team deserve a special mention for their input?
My business partner has a lot of input and one of developers Kris Noble has created a brilliant website. Tristan, one of our marketing team has project managed the promotion of the event with Barry from Good Greef. A dream team for event management that’s gonna result is a killer night out!
The first two years of Trackitdown’s life were spent getting the word out, but then things tipped to the point where you’ve now got 350,000 tracks on-line. What sort of work did you have to do in those two years?
It’s hard to believe that when we launched in 2004 as Europe’s first dedicated dance download store there was so much resistance to the prospect of legal downloading. Following on from 4 years of sounding like a broken record we’re very happy to be in a position whereby over 100,000 professional and bedroom DJ’s are supporting not only Trackitdown but the dance scene in general by legally downloading their music. Our 350,000 tracks from nearly 9000 record labels never go out of stock and can be delivered straight away quickly and efficiently without having to wait for the postman!
As you can imagine, building up this momentum from standstill has been really hard work but now we employ a team of 10 passionate music lovers to keep on top of all the developments in technology and music. It’s only the beginning…
One downside of the digital revolution has been some producers knocking out low quality productions as it costs them far less now; how have Trackitdown.net managed to combat this problem?
My content team work night and day to feature and highlight the best music that is published on site. They trawl through 4000 new tracks EVERY WEEK so you don’t have to! Each genre has its own specialists and we work with labels and the media to present the best. But, music is subjective and so it’s difficult not to stock some stuff as it’s up to our customers to decide.
Your other business project Riot recordings has now merged with Traffic. What positive elements do you think will come out of that move?
More excellent music! Both BK and Vinylgroover are production powerhouses and the scope of amazing music coming from the studios has to be heard to be believed. The music is the source of the dance scene and the aim is to step up the supply to make more fans.
Last year Riot! hosted the official after party at the Tidy Weekender. Did that end up as a bit of a messy affair?
I shuddered when I read that question! It took so long to recover from that party I went into the next weekend back to front – not nice! Credit to Tidy and our new progressive licensing laws for letting the chaos unfurl on Sunday morning in the back end of Wales. I’ve been booked to play same slot again and really can’t wait – to think that some people slept through it, you better set your alarms this time lightweights! hahaha
One other gig that you had last year which seems very interesting was ‘Detox’ near Newcastle, which you described as being like ‘Byker Grove’ on acid! Which had a woman running around trying to cut the power off, so the event would be stopped. Just what happened there?
My god! Imagine an outward bound centre near Hadrian’s Wall about 20 miles from Newcastle… complete with pool room, bunk beds and an assault course. Then bus in 350 lunatics and let them loose for 12 hours with a sound track provided by Ed Real and friends and it’s gonna be carnage. Mon Calamari the promoter and his crew deserve respect for finding crazy venues out of the way and putting on old skool raves.
Apparently there is talk of a rave in a castle sometime this year so stand by your beds and definitely make your way North if it’s on!
There’s a vicious rumour currently circulating that you are going to be dressed up as a Shriek whilst playing to a load of fetish style PVC clad clubbers when you go on a DJ tour in Japan later this year. Can you confirm that for us?
It’s no rumour! Just got back from spinning at the legendary Torture Garden fetish party in Tokyo last weekend and all sorts of dressing up went on. My favourite UK party where anything goes. My traveling companions were psycho cyborgs who pierced and hung themselves from the lighting rig – blood and guts everywhere! Not for the faint hearted…
So besides that, what other things does Ed Real have in store for 2008?
The DJ diary hasn’t been this full for a few years now and it’s interesting that at the time a commercial ‘hardhouse’ record tops the charts a lot of promoters are coming out of the woodwork and putting on parties. Bring it on!
Trackitdown continues to be my main focus and we’re launching two new departments offering new products and services within the same field that we’ve become one of the market leaders. Digital downloading and technology will continue to grow and we have plans to capitalise on this.
I’m personally looking forward to the festival season again. Events like Sonar, Dance Valley, Def Qon One, Global Gathering and Glade have all played a big part in my rave calendar and I enjoy the spectacle and scale of these mega-parties. Bring on the sunrise and stay away rain!
You’ve said before that you think music related social networking sites such as MySpace and DSI are only the very beginning of what could happen in that field. So in ten years time, how do you see like minded souls getting together?
When I started raving in 1991, the events were the be all and end all of the meeting of the like minds. Apart from a trip to the local ticket outlet or record shop the community centered around the dance-floor. Now it’s possible to immerse oneself in dance culture 24-7 through websites like DSI, Facebook etc. In some respects its information overload but technology has changed the world in only 15 years.
I just bought an iPhone and the ability to be at a party and connected to the internet surely takes the interaction between dance fans around the world even closer. What’s to say that I can’t plug my PDA into the decks and transmit my set not only to the dancefloor in front of me, but to the world via my group online? Its 2am in my club but my friends in Australia are listening to my set live at their desks or at home in the afternoon. Feel the vibes!
It’s been a tough time for Hard Dance in the past couple of years, but there are a lot of high profile events taking place this coming month. Do you feel now that things are on the up again?
Looking at my DJ diary and getting excited chatting to new promoters planning their entrance into the scene is a buzz and there’s so much music about – whatever your peccadillo. I’m looking forward to small parties and big festivals and really hope that the hard dance awards see a crystalisation of these hopes. Certainly, looking at the partner page on the www.harddanceawards.com page there’s tonnes more outfits presenting their events than last year. A good omen for sure!
And finally, you’re going to be wearing your promoter and presenter hat that evening, but for your set in the main-room, will we see you donning your sombrero hat that you’ve been known to wear?
If the hat fits – wear it!
Remember to catch the man of many hats – Ed Real @ The Hard Dance awards, Friday the 29th February @ the Plug in Sheffield and don’t forget to get your votes in!
Hard Dance Awards Album mixed by Ed Real & the biggest players in the scene is out on Tidy Trax on Monday 3rd March 2008
www.harddanceawards.com
www.trackitdown.net
©Greg Lynn 2008
Feature by Greg Lynn
