Clubbing in the North - April 2014 Selections

Image: Andrew Weatherall (Credit Lauren Catherall)

As April and Easter rear their delectable confectionery-shaped heads around the corner, it seems that the North’s showcases this month are anything but fluffy and plucked from a pastel palette. If you planned a quiet month in pawing over your dissertations or catching up on that paperwork (I did until I composed this very piece…), then the club spaces throwing out the masculine chiefs and underground sizzlers, say otherwise. 

With the intrusion of the significant LA hip-hop label Stones Throw Records, quite literally submerging the North this month (read Skiddle editor Jimmy Coultas' wide eyed wonder at a Peanut Butter wolf set here), there's the opportunity to catch some of the label's new blood with Jonwayne heading over here for three dates. He'll be in Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester, bringing the illest beats, soulful undertones and fiercely intelligent flow to the northern metropolises.

Fancy your bass a whole lot more beefy and home-grown? Youngsta takes on a rubble-shaking, 90-minute set at the under-renovation Antwerp Mansion thanks to Hit & Run on Thursday 17th April, starting Easter Weekend off with a bang. You can listen above to some of the roughness he's been delivering via his Rinse FM show on the regular above.

Heading further afield Ibiza-head Josh Butler steps-toe-to-toe in an outer-city clash this month, flaring up behind the decks at Frodsham’s Mersey View on Saturday 12th. There's more greatness nestled in the less obvious destinations too when Chester’s The Live Rooms turns up the dial with the mid-tempo, deep sounds of Black Butters duo Gorgon City on Saturday 19th. 

Feel like you need to breathe into a paper bag should you step out of anywhere remotely central, never mind a place where the Tesco Extra’s don’t even stay open till 11pm? Don’t worry, me too but luckily Leeds have our backs should we ever be so silly again.

Glasgow’s Optimo nights have gained momentum for over a decade now, spinning out Sunday fun-days’ into a hedonistic powwow of diversity in Scotland, so their three-hour set at Wire on Friday 11th should tide you over to Theo Parrish’s Easter Thursday doubled, six hour extension for Nest. 

Golden Ticket

Cream-reunion affiliate 303 are making the necessarily bold leap away from traditional venues that hanker most regular evenings in Liverpool, bringing their ‘techno in the tunnels’ treat of accommodating eclectic master Andrew Weatherall, in the unique Williamson Tunnels heritage site.

It’s an wonderfully varied venture that puts-to-shame the saturated Warehouse-venue market the North over, whilst certainly not standing dubious from providing attendees with the rousing, scintillating evening they deserve; Plus it’s all held on Easter Sunday and if you need your arm twisting any more, then remember Weatherall's blissed out work as Sabres of Paradise above.

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