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Features
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| Introducing NEM3SI$’s new label Infinite Resistance! | | Mindbenderz talk ‘Lord of the Rings’ and fishing, as well as the creation of their new album ‘Celestial Gateway’! | | Iono-Music artists One Function, Eliyahu, Invisible Reality and Dual Vision talk Robert Miles, kids, dogs and vinyl, while we chat about their current releases! | | Luke&Flex talk influences, the Irish rave scene, why Flex wears a mask and Play Hard, their new EP out now on Onhcet Repbulik Xtreme! | | Lyktum expands on his new album ‘Home’ – talking about his love of storytelling, creating new harmonies and the concept behind his musical works. | | Pan talks getting caught short crossing the Sahara, acid eyeballs and tells us Trance is the Answer, plus shares his thoughts on his latest release 'Beyond the Horizon' - all from a beach in Spain! | | Miss C chats about living with the KLF, DJing in a huge cat’s mouth, training her brain and the upcoming super-duper Superfreq Grande party at LDN East this Saturday, 16th September! | | NEM3SI$ - I Live for the Night – talks superficiality, psychopaths, and bittersweet success, ahead of a plethora of evocative, emotional, and passionate upcoming melodic techno releases! | | Psy-Sisters Spring Blast Off! We talk to DJ competition winner ROEN along with other super talents on the lineup! | | Blasting towards summer festivals with Bahar Canca ahead of Psy-Sisters Spring Blast! | | Shyisma talks parties, UFO's, and Shotokan Karate ahead of his upcoming album 'Particles' on Iono-Music! | | SOME1 talks family, acid, stage fright and wolves - ahead of his upcoming album release ‘Voyager’ on Iono-Music in February 2023! | | The Transmission Crew tell all and talk about their first London event on 24th February 2023! | | NIXIRO talks body, mind and music production ahead of his release 'Planet Impulse' on Static Movement's label - Sol Music! | | Turning the world into a fairy tale with Ivy Orth ahead of Tribal Village’s 10th Birthday Anniversary Presents: The World Lounge Project | | The Psy-Sisters chat about music, achievements, aspirations and the 10-Year Anniversary Party - 18/12/22! | | A decade of dance music with Daniel Lesden | | Earth Needs a Rebirth! Discussions with Psy-Trance Artist Numayma | | Taking a Journey Through Time with Domino | | New Techno Rising Star DKLUB talks about his debut release White Rock on Onhcet Republik! | | PAN expands on many things including his new album 'Hyperbolic Oxymoron' due for release on the 14th April 2022 on PsyWorld Records! | | Psibindi talks all things music including her new collaborative EP 'Sentient Rays' on Aphid Records, her band Sentience Machine and 10 years of Psy-Sisters! | | N-Kore talks Jean-Michel Jarre, unfinished tracks and fatherhood! | | Celebrating International Women’s Day and Ten Years of Psy-Sisters with Amaluna | | A Catch Up with John Phantasm ahead of his upcoming set at the Tribal Village 4 Day Outdoor Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022! | | 'The Maestro that is Tristan talks barn owls, Shazamming and keeping it Psychedelic ahead of his upcoming performance at the Tribal Village 4 Day Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022! |
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becomeone:Forever - Interview with becomeone
Reported by Sharon B
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Submitted 03-03-04 21:50
In April 2001 Simon Winstanley, Shaun Rowland and Jonathan Edwards threw a birthday party that was so successful it led to the birth of what is now known as becomeone. From it's simple concept of musical progression, mixed in with an atmosphere that always achieves that intimate, friendly party feel, to it's recent move to Turnmills last month, becomeone has slowly but surely made its mark on the London clubbing scene. With a devoted following of fans and more and more new faces at each event, this is one little party that knows how to cater for an eclectic and wide-ranging taste of clubbers. 2002 saw becomeone voted as Best New Day Time Promotion in the HF Annual Poll, and in 2003 becomeone went global with their first ever party in Australia and 2004 has seen them hosting second rooms at both Frantic and Wildchild events at some of London's top venues. Sharon B spoke to Simon and Shaun from the becomeone team to find out a little more about their promotion and their hopes for the future of what is arguably London's best daytime party!
Sharon B: becomeone started off as a birthday party for one of your promoters, what was the first party like? Who was in the line-up and has it always had the same form of progression over the event or have you learnt by trial and error along the way?
becomeone: Our first party was held in the basement of a pub called The Griffin which is in Charing Cross. It was Shaun’s birthday party and we had about 60 people squeezed in there and it ran from 4pm – 11pm. The line up consisted of a few friends who played a variety of genres. Tim Davison, miss c, Shaun and Stewart Rae all played (who all later became residents) as well as Sarah Ancell. As it was just an informal birthday party we didn’t put much thought into the line up so we had hard dance before progressive house which was very interesting! It dawned on us then that we needed to really think about the progression of music more if we were to continue with this as a serious club.
SB: Did you ever think that one day you would be moving to play at one of London’s classiest venues, Turnmills?
b1: No way! It is a dream come true for us to be putting on our party at our ‘home’ of clubbing! We both really got into the scene by going to the Gallery every weekend so we both feel really proud that we are putting on an event at the same venue. We have always been of the opinion that Turnmills is one of the best venues London has to offer and is perfect for the type of party we are trying to create
SB: What was your last party at Sub Logic like for you personally? After finding such an intimate and friendly venue as Sub Logic was it sad to say goodbye or are you more excited by the prospect of things to come?
b1: It was a little sad, as we had made so much progress with the party there but at the same time it was exciting to be moving onto the next chapter of becomeone. With Turnmills our crowd are guaranteed quality sound & lighting, something that wasn’t really up to scratch at Sub Logic.
SB: What was your original ethos as a party, and how has that changed over time as your event has become more successful? Do you feel that becomeone has evolved with the scene and naturally progressed from a small birthday party to an organized event, or was it a conscious decision to move the party up from being an intimate gathering of friends to a paying monthly event?
b1: The original ethos was the same as it is now. We wanted to create a day time club that was set in a quality, central London location with excellent musical progression. We wanted to create a club where hard dance could be heard in the same room as house and prog could build to trance – this is something that wasn’t happening in the scene when we first started. The decision to go more professional was conscious but we have always believed in organic growth of becomeone.
SB: How does it feel to have achieved so much in such a short space of time, especially considering how fickle the dance scene can be and the recent drop in numbers at most clubs?
b1: Sometimes it is mind-blowing. Seeing Scott Bond playing in the becomeone room at Chemistry lately really rammed it home how much we have achieved. We are a small party though and so the clubbing recession that is occurring at the moment affects us less than a medium or big club.
SB: Until now you have catered for a very small number of people at your events, around 100, with your move to Turnmills you are opening up the Becomeone experience to more clubbers; what do you think your event has to offer that will entice more people to come to your party?
b1: We hope to offer people a clubbing experience that is a bit different to norm, where they can hear all their favourite types of music in one session and be amongst what is, in our opinion, the friendliest crowd in London. Going to Turnmills should allow us to experiment with our line ups more and hopefully get some bigger djs who usually play outside of London down to play for us.
SB: This year in particular has seen becomeone collaborating with some of the biggest hard dance events in London – will this be a continued theme from now on? What benefits does this have for your parties and how did your initial collaborations with Frantic and Wildchild come to be?
b1: At the moment we have a few more collaborations with Frantic on the horizon and hopefully a few other promotions as well. The benefits are enormous for us since we are reaching a huge audience. Every time we have done a room for Frantic or any other promotion they have gone extremely well and both parties have benefited – as well as the clubber of course! Our initial collaboration with Frantic came from us contacting Will Patterson to ask if we could host a room for him, he then got back to us several weeks later and asked if we would definitely be interested, when we learnt that this room was to be the 800 capacity trance room at Chemistry we were over the moon !
SB: becomeone has it's own unique sound and style, how would you describe it in your own words?
b1: A typical becomeone consists of 3 hours of house, breaks and prog, 3 hours of trance and 2 hours of hard dance. We are probably most well known for the trance element but the other elements are just as fundamentally important to us as a promotion.
SB: What advantages and benefits does it have for a small party to link up with the biggest hard house promotion in London such as Frantic? Has the sound of becomeone managed to reach a wider audience and has being linked to London’s biggest hard dance event helped in terms of getting more people interested in your event?
b1: Our collaborations with Frantic have been hugely beneficial. Also I think it is a very positive move for clubs in London to embrace multi-room, multi genre clubbing – more choice and more variety is desperately needed in the scene and if we can be part of that movement then that’s fantastic.
SB: Who is responsible for what amongst the becomeone team? Who chooses the music and line up, who does the logo and art work and admin etc?
b1: We share the work really. All line ups are doing by consultation, the admin is shared between the two of us and the artwork is done by our fantastic designer Jonathan Edwards. We also have a superb team of helpers who generously give their time to help out.
SB: How do you feel you work as a team? Do think that by splitting responsibilities so clearly that this has made you more efficient as a team and a promotion?
b1: We would hope so. If everyone is involved in everything then that turns into a bit of an unorganized mess but very few decisions are made without consultation first. The fact that we have know each other for many years helps tremendously when making decisions or when trying to reach a joint decision.
SB: What type of crowd do you usually draw to your event and who do you mainly advertise to?
b1: We attract a lovely smiley happy crowd! Our crowd have definitely been key to our success so far. We advertise to a whole range of people from harderfaster users to people who read Mixmag to people who come to our rooms at big events, though most of our success, we would say, is down to word of mouth.
SB: You have managed to get some very big DJ names playing at your event, Marc French, Steve Blake, Ian Betts, Tom Allen, Gavyn Mytchel etc – who else would you like to see on your line-ups over the next year and in which direction do you think you will be going in terms of line ups? Continuing to pull in big names of Hard Dance or focusing more on Funky House and Trance?
b1: We are definitely looking to get more out of London DJs in to play for us this year. Line ups in this scene can appear to be very similar at times so we are looking to move away from this, we will be trying to get big names in from all genres to be honest. The whole Mixmag Future Heroes thing is quite an exciting development in clubland and so we are keen to support this. Over the next few months we have a future hero playing for us each party.
SB: What would be your ideal becomeone? Who would be in the line up and where would you hold the event?
Shaun: My ideal becomeone would be in Space, Ibiza. Trance and hard in the main room from Ian Betts, Me, Stewart Rae, Tiesto, PVD, Shan & Judge Jules. Then on the terrace Tim Davison, Ben Green, miss c, Cheshire Catz and Sasha
Simon: My ideal line up would probably all still be in one room, as I personally think that its easier to retain a great atmosphere when people can’t wander about too much, though a becomeone on the beach outside Café Del Mar or maybe at Bora bora would be pretty cool. I’d have PVD, Ian Betts, Tiesto, the becomeone residents, the Ignition Crew, Shan, arghhh, its too hard to cut it down to a party that wouldn’t be over 15 hours long 
SB: At the end of 2003 becomeone went global with becomeone: Australia, with residents Flash, Ben “The Scene” Green and Stewart Rae throwing the first ever becomeone down under. With Shaun Rowland moving to Australia at the end of 2004, what plans do you have for becomeone over the next 12 months and how does it feel to be part of a global promotion?
b1: There are no firm plans to start doing a becomeone down under but it is a distinct possibility. When we saw becomeone listed on www.inthemix.com.au that was pretty special! It would be funny though, as we would probably be the smallest international promotion ever!
SB: Each becomeone has it’s own theme, for example becomeone: With Angels, becomeone: With Love and becomeone: Forever – whose idea was it to always theme your events and how do you come up with suitable ideas making each party unique?
b1: We try to make the parties themed if there is a reason. Our Red Parties went down very well and most people made an effort to get into the spirit of things. Its all a bit of fun at the end of the day and helps give the party a strong identity. Ideas for the themes come from the promotions team and from suggestions that others give to us.
SB: In April becomeone turns 2! You must already be excited at the prospect of a second birthday party – are you already making plans or do you tend to focus on one party at a time? How does it feel to be reaching your second birthday and how have the last two years changed you as promoters and your party as an event?
b1: We are very excited, particularly as it will be happening at our new home. We have been thinking about it for a while and have the line up all confirmed. No announcements yet but it includes 2 of our favourite ever guest DJs at becomeone alongside one DJ who blew us away with his sets last year. Should be a fantastic party! The last two years have definitely changed us, we are far more professional now than we used to be and are more focused on what we want to achieve.
SB: What are you hoping for in terms of this next party? It will be the second in your new home at Turnmills, what are your hopes for the event?
b1: We are hoping for the classic becomeone experience to be honest! As long as the club is full of happy people then we will be happy. Our line up has five becomeone debuts which is very exciting for us. We have two of the hottest trance and hard dance talents in the UK appearing for us in the form of Reece Elliot and Ali Wilson and other guest appearances from your good self, Sharon B, Pablo from Knowwhere and Richard Launch. Definitely one of our strongest ever line ups and its looking like a top musical treat.
SB: Any last comments
b1: We would like to thank each and every single person, be it clubber, DJ or whatever that has come along and contributed to becomeone over the last 20 months or so. Without them, we would be nothing.
becomeone
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On:
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Saturday 13th March 2004
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At:
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Turnmills [map]
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From:
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14:00 - 21:30
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Cost:
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£7 all day. £5 paying guest list before 17:00.
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Website:
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www.becomeone.co.uk
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Ticket Info:
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Pay on the door. Email names for the guest list to guestlist@becomeone.co.uk. Names must be in by midday on 12|03|04.
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More:
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This month we have no less than 5 becomeone debuts!
First up, Richard Launch will be kicking the party off in our usual funky style. Richard is a member of the Thirsty DJs collective and has rocked venues such as Ministry of Sound and Camden Palace! Straddling the house and hard divide, Richard will have his funky trousers well and truly on for his becomeone appearance!
Ali Wilson is one of Hard Dance’s most promising young talents, so much so that he has been chosen by Mixmag to become a future hero. Ali has rocked the dancefloors of clubs all over the place including Knowwhere, Frantic and Milk. Playing a very tech-edged hard dance sound this should be just the thing to give becomeone a banging finale!
Reece Elliot is the leading force behind the massive promotion Wildchild. Playing a fierce selection of trance, this year looks like it belongs to him! He was recently nominated by JFK as one of the best trance talents in the UK and this talent has seen him play the main room at Heaven alongside Judge Jules! Reece also is a fantastic producer and his new tune “Voiceless” has rocked becomeone frequently over the past 3 months. We can’t wait to get him behind the decks to entertain you!
Sharon B has recently been setting dancefloors alight with her uplifting hard trance tunage. Her meteoric rise over the past 12 months has seen her play for Heat, X-Static, Beat Retreat and she is playing at Tasty shortly. She is also resident at OHM and will be one to watch over the next year for sure!
Pablo is one of the people behind the fantastic trance promotion, Knowwhere. In two years Pablo has helped build Knowwhere to become one of London’s premier trance clubs. His sets encapsulate the knowwhere experience, namely “Banging trance&dance” and guaranteed to leave a smile on your face with his uplifting tunes!
We also welcome back Tim Davison this month and well done to Tim for his Gallery main room appearance on the 20th February! What an achievement…Also becomeone resident Shaun Rowland will be adding his usual trancey goings on to the proceedings.
So we’ll see you in March for London’s best daytime party!
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Flyer:
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Photographs courtesy of Shuffles and the becomeone team
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Other Features By Sharon B:
What's it all about? Alfie! - Getting Technikal with Alf Bamford
Heat UK presents....SW4!!! - Interview with Damian Gelle
Interview with TWIST promoter Steve Darragh
Interview with Innovate Resident Nick Sentience
Interview with Ferry Corsten
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
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Have had some wicked nights there in the past - espcially the NYE gig.... Well done B1 team.... looking forward to being a further part of your future parties. 
