LOVE
10 June 2009
Many of you may have bumped into Club Unity, Misc Management & The Circus venue’s new LOVE event series but here are some of my personal vibes about it. It’s quite a long post even if the story of LOVE is only about to begin…
We (Club Unity) decided last year that we would have the last Unity The Island in Uunisaari. Even though the island and everything was pretty much perfect we wanted some new creative things to work on. For us creating something new, being excited about planning and all that is almost as important as the event itself. Friends working on something - together. And we also wanted to end on a positive note when the parties are best which has been a tradition with Unity at pretty much every venue we’ve been - and there’s been quite a few!
As we wanted to try something new it was nice coincidence that Niko Hallamäki (of Helsinki Club, Stockholm Diskotek and Den Kunliga Klubben venues fame) contacted me to ask to do some events at a forthcoming venue in central Helsinki. I was blown away when walking to a massive empty warehousey hall right in middle of Helsinki. That felt like something truly international, reminding me of Amnesia in Ibiza, Heaven in London or E-Werk in Berlin. Owners Niko and Mehdi suggested doing couple special events per year with major foreign names and we thougth this could be something special… Right from the beginning I wanted Misc Management guys Oded, Asaf and Juska to be on board too so I think there is great bunch of people and talent on board and some pretty amaaazing events coming up!
But what about the concept itself? LOVE is probably the biggest word there is after all. The idea came from simple fact that “love” is also the biggest source of inspiration there is. We do art, music, books, paintings, events inspired by love or sometimes due love lost.. We go clubbing, do parties, do music, see friends cause we LOVE it. We’ve also had a longtime idea at Unity to ask finnish artists to deliver us their pieces of art to be used in flyer or ask finnish writers to deliver something for our events around a theme like “love”. So these ideas come alive in LOVE events. We hope them to blur the lines between “entertainment” and “art”, leaning more towards the latter than most of the club nights. These events also carry on our legacy of hedonistic summer events like Sun @ DTM and Jose Padilla at Kaivohuone. There is something special in summer Sunday clubbing that I simply love.
First event will have one of the most legendary and significant DJs ever: british DJ Pete Tong. His biography is too long to copy paste here, but putting together UK’s first ever house compilation, signing Orbital and Goldie to his label, being officially the most downloaded DJ on the planet, hosting world’s most listened dance radio show, giving name to blockbuster movie and being one of the main figures of the (credible) Ibiza club scene for almost 20 years are just slices of his amazing career. He is also one of the rare EDM legends who haven’t yet visited Finland and we’re honored to have him here. I think the timing will also be perfect for all us trainspotters and music lovers as in early July Tong surely has all the big (yet unreleased) tracks of the summer and has been road testing them for a month at Ibiza.
The event itself is also the official Konemetsä afterparty, runs for full 16 hours on Sunday 5th of at Mbar and The Circus with a massive line-up of finnish DJs and artists. Full details at Facebook-event and Klubitus.org topic of the event. Below are “Love Stories” telling more about details of the event. There will be close to ten stories all-in-all so please come checking here for the weekly stories. And I hope to see YOU smiling on the sweaty Circus dancefloor surrounded with 1000 smiling Helsinki people! 
10 June 2009
What is Love? (Read the weekly stories…)
Love Story 1: The Background
Helsinki is a city full of passionate people. There are countless individuals that doctors might consider crazy, but to others they’re truly amazing. They come out at night, looking to give birth to another memorable experience. Nothing feels better than finding yourself surrounded by them on the dance floor. When there’s a break in a song, the lights go out, someone in the back whistles, right on time. Like magic, a warm wave lifts your hands towards the sky, and it feels as if your feet lift up off the ground. You knew it was going to happen, but it still comes as a surprise. Time and time again.
‘LOVE’ brings together for the first time three passionate groups of Helsinki’s nightlife. They’ve all been here a long time and still get excited about the opportunity to give more than ever. Past experiences are not forgotten — A masquerade on an Island, a Rock n Roll Rave, an imaginary visit to Renaissance times, 16 hours in the Sun, the perfect day with Café del Mar, or only a One Minute Rave… It’s exactly those memories that drive these people to build something new. In one of Finland’s most astounding venues, they’ll have a chance to create yet another perfect new moment. And it all sounds better with you.
Love. Brings us all together.
10 June 2009
Love Story 2: The Artist
There are many reasons why Pete Tong has been called ‘The most powerful person in dance music’ by Muzik Magazine. Or even ‘The god of dance music’ by The Independent. It might be the fact that on a weekly basis, there are more than 30 million live listeners to his BBC1 radio shows ‘Essential Selection’ and ‘Essential Mix’. It might also be the fact that Daft Punk, Underworld, Tiësto, Basement Jaxx, Justice, Eric Prydz and pretty much everybody in dance music hope to get him to be the first to introduce their music to the world. Maybe it’s the fact that since releasing the first ever house music compilation in the UK — ‘The House Sound of Chicago Vol 1′ in 1986 — he has sold millions of compilations for brands such as Pacha, Ministry of Sound, Cream, Mixmag and his very own FFRR label where he’s signed such artists as Orbital and Goldie.
As the icon that he is, Tong was the inspiration behind the film “It’s All Gone Pete Tong”. As a producer he has assembled the music for movie soundtracks such as The Beach, Human Traffic and 24 Hour Party People, and has produced his own material under various guises. He’s one of the biggest crowd pullers in clubland, including his legendery residencies at Pacha Ibiza and Ministry of Sound in London, and headlining slots all over the globe. It seems as if everything Pete touches turns into a long-lasting memory. Which explains why he’s one of the most sought after figures in a scene that’s built around music that turns into an experience.
The dance scene has changed a lot since Pete started, but one thing remains the same: “People love music, make no mistake about that, whether and how they buy it right now is one thing, but people still want to party… it’s our job to come up with new parties, new nights, new venues, new themes to keep the scene fresh and exciting.” Pete still sees his vocation as he did when he started out, playing other people’s records to get an audience dancing. “We need to constantly remember why people want to come to clubs - which is simply to have a great time and feel the music.” And here we are, ready to do just that.
LOVE is delighted to have Mr. Tong play his debut gig in Finland on a night that will be remembered for a long time.
http://www.myspace.com/petetong - http://www.petetong.com http://www.youtube.com/user/InventaProductions http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/petetong
10 June 2009
LOVE STORY #3 “This is where the magic happens”
“This is where the dance-floor will be. And lets leave the ceiling really high, like it is. We will fill it with a lot of lights and leave plenty of space for people to really feel free. The DJ needs to be able to have fun too, so lets not put him far away. Right there, in a big white DJ booth!” Walking into an empty space and envisioning what will be sounds like a lot of fun… Like a little child you can plan a playground for your closest friends, and the ones you imagine meeting on the clubs soft sofas, sipping on a Piña Colada.
But having a strong vision is simply not enough. You need to believe in what you do, have the experience to do it and stand proudly behind each risk you take. More than that, you need to be living for the night. Niko Hallamäki and Mehdi Younes brought Helsinki some of this millennium’s most successful concepts and nightclubs and have now taken their biggest step yet. Millions of euros and over 20 000 working hours have turned a boring 2000 square meter grocery store into an amazing party venue. Over 3000 liters of paint, 19 kilometers of cabling, 740 light-bulbs, 6 bars on two floors and 3 private karaoke booths with a dance-floor view make The Circus a nighttime heaven.
LOVE is the exclusive club event in Finland’s most impressive nightclub. The Circus is very excited to give you love, on a night where there will be no need to think about tomorrow. It will be simply here and now. What better way is there to live, than to celebrate with 1200 smiling people on a beautiful Helsinki summer night…
http://www.thecircus.fi
10 June 2009
Love Story #4 - BASS! How low can you go?
I remember it like it was just last weekend. Me and my mates had been clubbing for 2 days and nights non-stop. The final leg of our clubbing crusade had come to full hault at the massive queue outside this abandoned warehouse just outside Vauxhall in southern London, people rushing and pushing from all sides trying to form a line while the bouncers the size of a mountain were screaming and shoving the punters to go back on the line, trying desperately to keep order, all the while chaos was just about to abrupt.
Had we been standing in the cold, autumn morning for an hour, two or three, none of us could really say. All of sudden, this young girl was standing in front of us. She said: “You guys look really cold. Come, I´ve got something to show you.” We glimpsed at each other in disbelief but followed the epiphony back in the alley, just behind the club, where a small corridor was barely visible. The girl said: ” Wait here, I´ll be right back.” She knocked on a huge steel door three times. The door swung open, and the sight of things blew us away. There was a man dressed up as a centaury, smiling, and beside him, a dwarf with a crazy ass grin on his face, smoking a huge cigar, dressed up as one the players from Clockwork Orange, with the cane and all. We passed the creatures - nervously smiling at each other, and followed the girl down a spiral staircase. I could hear the muffled echo of the bass growing louder…
What seemed like an eternity to climb down the stairs, was nothing to compare to the sight of things when we finally entered the club. There must have been thousands upon thousands of people. What once used to be an old railway pit-stop, had now been transformed to an mystical paradise of yestermorrow, a place where time stood still and all fantasies were about to come alive. Lasers swooping from all directions, a huge mirrorball in the middle of the room crystalizing every beam of light into the skins of sweaty clubbers. It was dark, it was underground, it was twisted, and we were just about to lose it. I could literally FEEL the bass, from the tip of my toes to the last hair standing on my neck. Final thing I remember was looking at my mates, hugging each other in unity, love and understanding, THIS was why we were, THIS was all we needed.. we let the music take control, and then it all went black..
8 hours later we´re sitting quietly on a train, smiling, all of our eyes half closed, on our way home. Of all the clubbing trips we took together, this was the one to write about, to tell our mates over a pint, of how one night can change your perception on LOVE, music and friendship. We were together, as one, our lives mystically entwined to the sounds of the underground. We had been on a journey that not only had enlightend our minds, but brought us to the roots of the ancient old ritual, the dance, the rhythms, the people coming together to celebrate LIFE.
-Antti “Mr.A” Eho (DJ, producer, bar owner, promoter and bass lover since 1990)
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