Time for two of the best promoters in the land to have a chat, well hello James Priestley and Giles Smith from… secretsundaze…
You have a your new ‘secretsundaze Vol. 2’ coming out – tell us about it.
Giles – “it was released on Monday 13th October on our own label secretsundaze music. Well I think we honestly felt the pressure a bit after doing ‘secretsundaze Volume 1’ which was so well received so we felt we had a lot to live up to – personally my mix is a little more focussed this time and is probably me showing a segment of my DJing, whilst the last one was a bit more of me trying to get across the breadth of what I play. James takes a similar approach to last time and moves between more discoey moments towards more housey stuiff. We’re really pleased with the art direction too which we think stands out in a sea of mediocracy in DJ mix album artwork.”
You scooped Mixmag’s Club of The Year back in 2005, pretty proud moment eh?
Giles – “It was a real honour something we certainly never would have dreamed of a few years before that. What was also cool was that the same year, we also won the same accolade in Time Out. Obviously two really quite different publications but both coming to the same conclusion. Class.”
Giles, you’ve not always been in London eh?
Giles – “I started at a rather different club from what I do now in 1996 called Sundissential in Birmingham, not so much house and techno – more people walking into the venue with a toilet under the arm or dressed as an alien. What is it with Sunday clubbing that always sees us wake up in random places on a Monday?”
So Sunday clubbing, it’s bonkers yeah?
Giles – “Well I think the most important thing is that Sunday clubbing definitely brings out a different breed of people that youre normal Friday / Saturday night crowds. People are more relaxed, a bit more clued up and have a different mentality. I guess a lot of people that can come out on a Sunday have more creative jobs so they have less conventional working hours too, so there isn’t that pressure to have to get x number of beers down you at a certain point in the night.”
I used to love you DJing at The Cross – memories?
James – “The most memorable time playing at The Cross was TDK Cross Central, Year 1. We were hosting the garden and one of the arches as secretsundaze. I think we started around 2pm and went all the way through till gone 6 in the morning. 16 hours plus of party. It was a glorious day, weather wise and the vibe was electric right through till the finish when the sun was coming up. Rare scenes for London unfortunately. We also played at the last party ever at The Cross, after our party at Canvas, last new years eve. We stumbled in after quite a heady session at ‘The Final Countdown’, a collaborative party we did with our friends, Bugged Out! and ended up playing in completely the wrong room at the wrong time – still don’t think we’ve been paid fully for that one but that’s another story…
Tell us about your crowd – they are f*cking bonkers.
Giles – “Well after 7 years of course the crowd are bound to change, people come and go but we are really lucky to have some really loyal supporters who have been coming regularly over the parties history. It’s really mixed, we have a nice balance of sexualities and its still one of the only parties that’s very cosmopiltan with a lot of colourful Spanish, Italian, French etc.”
What are the big tunes on your decks at the moment?
Giles – “Some tracks I like at the moment are: ‘Cirque De Soul’ by Kenny Larkin on Planet E, ‘Collici’ by Miss Fitz on Raum and ‘Time Reveals’ by Bernard Badie (Original mix) on Mojuba.”
Favourite London clubs of all time?
James – “Labyrinth, Horse Meat Disco, Swerve, Soulsonic, Faith, Lazy Dog, Space, That’s How It Is, Space, AWOL, Co-op, Destination Out. – All brilliant.”
What DJs were your inspiration to get into clubbing and DJing?
Giles – “Definitely a lot of the Junior Boys asscociated guys like Terry Farley, The X-Press 2 guys Rocky, Ashley Beedle and Diesel. Danny Rampling. All the London based DJs and also Ralph Lawson and many of the guests at Basics were influential such as Doc Martin, Sneak etc….”
What’s been your best secretsundaze EVER party? And which guest DJs have sent shivers down your spine you’ve had on?
James – “There’s been so many, hard to pick out one. But we had Ewan Pearson, our favourite DJ at the time playing our opening party at 93 Feet East in year 2003 – that was an absolute corker! The expectation for our relaunch / opening party is always high but this was still very early days for us…before it exploded and was a lot less stressful and carefree. I remember quite a few moments and shivers on the dancefloor from that day. Some of The Poet days will be hard to beat, as were some of the Shoreditch Carnival dates – we once had 5000 people at our stage once. The entire road was jumpin’ – I think the largest crowd Iove ever played to! And our party with Ricardo Villalobos at The Blue Marlin in 2005, that was off the hook – almost a dream come true. Weöve been lucky to have played host to some amazing DJs over the years, from the likes of Luciano and Ricardo through to a lot of the more underground ones. Around year 2, the likes of Ewan, Ralph and Ivan were really doing it for me, we had some great sets from them around that time, real electric stuff!”
What have you got up and coming up production wise for us all?
Giles – “I have a new ‘Two Armadillos; (my production monikor) remix for Steve Bug on Dessous. Have some new material that Guido Schneider might be putting out on his new Motiv Bank label and a few other quite old school sounding house bits that I have been sitting on for a while.”
Cheryl Tweedy or Britney Spears?
James – “I don’t see an either/or.”