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Features 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! DJ talk with Psyrenzo ahead of his debut set at Tribal Village, the Steelyard this Friday 14th January 2022! TENZO aka Overdrive talks freely about launching his new act which will be showcased at Tribal Village, Steelyard on 14 January 2022! A long overdue catch up with JourneyOM ahead of his next Tribal Village party this Friday 14th January 2022 at the Steelyard, London!

A few days in the life of a Tidy Weekender Promotions Manager Reported by Annabel / Submitted 17-09-04 16:10 The excitement is mounting. In less than a month from now thousands of dedicated Tidy Weekender fans and quite a few TW virgins will descend on a Pontin’s Holiday Camp in North Wales to enjoy TW6. These three days of madness and damn right silliness by the seaside have already become a institution and a must-do in many a hard dance fan’s ‘clubbing diary’. And October’s event, with its terrifying Halloween theme and secret line-up is no exception. But have you ever stopped to think about the organisation behind the event? To find out more I spoke to Robyn Hicks from Tidy who assured me that there's far more to running a Weekender than printing a few pretty flyers, booking a pile of djs and turning up at a holiday camp. In fact after you’ve read this you’ll be exhausted! What is your role in the weekender and what does that involve? My role prior to the Weekender is as the Promotions Manager so I am responsible for letting people know it's on and encourage them to buy tickets! At the Weekender my role is Daytime Manager and I work alongside Russell to ensure all the daytime activities run smoothly and that everyone is safe and well. How many weekenders have you been involved in? I've been with tidy a year now so this is my 4th Weekender (including the Summer Camp). I can't quite put my finger on it but for some reason I'm the most excited about this one! Tara and Robyn How many clubbers does each weekender hold? It holds around 3450 clubbers plus about 200 staff, DJs, guests and production crew. How long does it take the team to plan a TW and how far in advance do you start planning? Despite this Weekender being our 7th one it still takes us at least 5 months to pull it all together. Tickets go on sale three months before the event and the artwork and promotion needs to be agreed about two months before that. Simon Barrington, our inimitable Production Manager starts working on set designs about four months in advance and once agreed they take a few months to pull together. I thought he'd outdone himself on the Magna Revolution stage design but wait until you see the Main Arena at TW6 - it will leave your jaw on the floor. What is involved? We all know about booking djs and sorting out sound systems, but tell us about some of the stuff that goes on behind the scenes which we may not know about? Possibly one of the biggest is the filming of six hours worth of Tidy TV. Each Weekender has all new material filmed in keeping with the theme of the weekend and it takes weeks of planning to get it right. We have to co-ordinate DJs for interviews the length and breadth of the country and we have to find increasingly more bizarre settings; this Weekender the filming took place in the York Dungeons! We also spend many hours discussing the daytime activities and what we can do to entertain you. From daytime guests like Keith Chegwin and Timmy Mallett to "Tidy-fied" game shows like the Gong Show and the Summer Camp Road Show. On a personal level, I have to sew eight Grim Reaper costumes in the next 2 weeks so our staff look suitably scary for our horror theme! We also have to make sure that we are in position to look after 3450 people safely for the three days on site. This means continual meetings with the local authorities, Police, EHO etc, as well as the planning that goes into making sure that we have staff to cover every eventuality. Before Summer Camp there were 1000 paying Pontins customers on site and so the task of building the event, whilst trying to stay invisible, was very difficult. The Tidy Team stops work for a quick photo Is there anything special lined up for this weekender which needed special planning? The Tidy Boys Intro on the Friday night is always a memorable event. Special mention goes to the 'cyber gear intro' at TW4 and the 'flying intro' from TW5 so the pressure is on to top that for the horror theme of TW6! The fact that we've had to keep the line-up top secret has been no mean feat either. We actually had someone go to the trouble of hacking into our website and pretend to be Andy Pickles and release the line-up (albeit an imagined one!). We take enormous pride in the level of production we put into the Weekenders and the changes that we make over the course of the three days we are there. Believe me when I say the event fairies do not change the site around for us, we have to do that all ourselves. Do you have any fun stories from a Tidy Weekender? I think by now everyone has heard of the seagull being struck by lightening at the Summer Camp. This is not an urban myth, I saw it with my very own eyes! The atmosphere at Summer Camp was hilarious in general. I fondly recall clubbers doing the Mexican Wave around the chalet balconies each time there was a huge clap of thunder. There was also the hapless clubber who got stranded on the roof of his chalet and had to fork out £500 to the Fire Department for an 'unnecessary call-out' charge when we couldn't rescue him ourselves. At TW5 we had to delay the testing of the sound and lighting by 12 hours because Pontin's resident kestrel could not be tempted from his perch in the rafters. After waiting for at least 12 hours for the RSPCA to retrieve him we gave up and moved him with the help of a cherry picker and a long handled broom. We also proved at Summer Camp that promoters and event staff are not stupid by trouncing all of the opposition in the Pub Quiz held at Pontins whilst the site was still open to the general public. The Weekenders always produce the funniest stories, the list does go on and on and on.... How Tidy is your desk? It's always left spotless at the end of the day but I can't deny it can look a little like an explosion in a paper mill during it. Although, I'm very much a stickler for having everything in its right place and co-coordinated stationery (preferably pink). Lee Haslam has the Tidiest desk of us all, closely followed by the Label Coordinator, Adam who sits next to him. If they weren't actually sitting at their desks you couldn't really tell anyone worked at them. Russ, Chris, Robyn, Richard and Matt How far in advance do you guys have to go up to the Prestatyn site? It's a well worn track between Rotherham and Prestatyn! Usually Chris and Russell visit about six weeks before the event to brief the Pontins management on our plans and work out how to incorporate new ideas like, how to fit a fun fair on the site! Because Summer Camp was a new site there were at least five visits over six months before the event. It is important to us that no stone is left unturned when it comes to potential problems at new sites or how to make the most out of what we've got to play with. What do the people at Pontin’s think of Tidy? Do they find it strange to find all this bright and happy people armed with decks descending on their normally family orientated holiday camp? I think perhaps initially they were a little bemused but now they're quite used to it and look forward to the Weekenders as much as we do. We work really well with the Pontins team because they are a lovely bunch of hard working people and they appreciate and support what we are trying to achieve. How many people do you have working throughout the weekender? We have a staff of about 80 for each Weekender. That includes tidy staff, the extra helpers on Friday check-in, the medics and security and all the production crew. I don’t suppose Pontin’s has its own club quality sound and lighting system. How do you arrange this and make sure it all works smoothly? As I've already mentioned we pride ourselves on the amount of time and effort we put into production. We are one of the only clubbing organisations that have a full time Production Manager and his job is to keep us abreast of the latest developments in lights, sound etc. We now have a core team of contractors that provide sound, light, lasers and pyrotechnics and due to this they all work very closely to enhance each others bit for the general good of the event. We start the procedure for the look of the event around three to four months out and that gets fine tuned over time. The likes of the stage sets and the Tidy Boys intro will be version six or seven before the public see the finished article. Health and safety must be a top priority for you? How do you ensure everyone has a safe and happy time as possible? It is our utmost priority. Everything else pales in comparison to the responsibility we have to the care of our clubbers. From the check-in process to the set up of the lights and sound, to security and the medics. We value our clubbing community so much that we do everything in our power to make sure everyone has a safe and memorable time at the Weekender. We have medical and incident numbers advertised everywhere and all staff, medics and security are readily available to help with whatever incident may arise - including hedgehog spikes imbedded in your leg (yes, that was a real medical incident!). We have a clear level of management and everyone involved in the Weekender is fully briefed on clubber safety being the number one priority. Do you also have to work throughout the weekend? Ooooh yes! They are very long days and very long nights. The Friday check-in is usually an 18 hour day and although I do Daytime Management it inevitably runs past the 12 hour shift allocation and into the night. I think Russell put in 119 hours over 6 days at the last Summer Camp but then we all knew this job wouldn't be nine to five when we signed on the dotted line! Gosh – that sounds like far too much work. Do you get anytime to have some fun? Absolutely! The work itself is lots of fun anyway - most of the time! It's brilliant meeting everyone at the main gate as they arrive on the Friday because the excitement is palpable and I also enjoy driving around in the golf buggies (Russell doesn't find my driving much fun though) and visiting clubbers in their chalets. Although, it is difficult to turn down lager at 9am in the morning without seeming rude! We all let our hair down at the staff party on the Sunday night when Oblong can't keep us from 'Dancing On The Ceiling'. This year’s line-up is top secret? But we’re all gagging to know who is playing? Go on give us a tiny Tidy clue? No If you want to find out more about TW6 or see if there are any spaces left go to www.tidy.com Share this :: : : : Follow HarderFaster :: Other Features By Annabel: Twist with a twist prevew: Let's meet The *Ting* and Tommy Four Seven Scot Project Album Launch Preview: Interview with S.H.O.K.K Twisted’s Sixth Birthday Preview: Interview with Dave Parkinson, PrimeMover Extreme Ironing: Ed Real goes one step beyond! Interview with Pete Wardman in preparation for Blast at The Fridge on Saturday 14th where he joins his old mucker Ian M 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. Comments: From: littlemissgenki on 19th Sep 2004 15:40.55 a wicked interview with a wicked chick (said in my strongest nz accent...)! Hope to see ya both @ the next weekender! From: Macey on 20th Sep 2004 21:34.32 Was wondering what youve been up to since you left Frantic. Pleased to hear youre still kickin arse. Keep it up From: murraybeetle on 21st Sep 2004 14:12.22 i cant wait for it its my first time yessssssssssssssssssssssss From: Camden Nurse on 22nd Sep 2004 08:13.29 Cannot wait for this one! Good work Hun, CU soon! H.x. From: Maria on 24th Sep 2004 17:47.16 Hey Robyn I wish all the best for you and for Tidy! Do you remember when I asked you to work with Frantic? Thank you for your advices!!!

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