History of House rave tour set for Dubai, Ibiza and Marbella
The History Of House – which arrives in Dubai on March 7 – pulls together three heavyweight DJs from the halcyon days of the ’90s UK club scene and brings them together for a trip down memory lane in Dubai crammed full of club classics. Graeme Park, Allister Whitehead and John Kelly all played pivotal roles in the emerging UK scene, and helped steer the good ship dance music to mass markets back in the day.
Whitehead cut his teeth at the Koolkat club in Nottingham before moving on to seminal clubs Venus and Cream. As his DJ career took off and clubs around the globe came calling, Allister became a household name amongst Britain’s fresh-faced clubbing fraternity thanks to a number of mix CDs for Fantazia. John Kelly, meanwhile, helped ignite dance music in Liverpool where he once owned a club with James Barton, later of Cream fame. A regular fixture at the UK’s biggest clubs – Cream, GodsKitchen, Slinky, The Arches and Gatecrasher – Kelly also cemented his reputation at every major club in Ibiza.
Former Haçienda DJ Graeme Park celebrates 30 years as a DJ this year and his story mirrors the evolution of dance music and club culture. Parky was working in a Nottingham record shop when he latched onto the first house records filtering through from Chicago, Detroit and New York. Aside from his eight-year residency at The Haçienda, he was one of the first British DJs to take house music out to Australia, South America and Asia. Three decades on he remains passionate about house music, claiming: “For my entire career I’ve been finding good tunes that I want other people to hear.”
There’s also a PA from Rozalla, famous for her club hit Everybody’s Free (below), with extra deck support from Eat Retro’s Mark Pickup and Manchester DJ Jon Besant. The aural history lesson comes to the 41st floor of Media One Hotel next month before heading off to Ibiza and Marbella.
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41st floor, Media One Hotel, Media City, Dubai. Friday March 7, 9pm to 3am. Dhs100. Tel: (055) 8874126. Metro: Nakheel. Taxi: Media One Hotel