Andy Whitby and Baz & Butcher @ The Empire Club
Friday 7th September 2007

Frenzy present Andy Whitby and three floors of underground dance music

Three floors, three genres, one mad rave

There have been a lot of memorable events with Frenzy over the last month, but last weekend's gig at the Empire Club was up there with the best of them. Andy Whitby headlined in the Underground Lair, the Hardcore Marrows did their thing on the middle floor, and Destiny Records show-cased some new drum and bass talent in the attic. As a result we had a great party with the club the busiest it's been since New Years Eve with around four hundred clubbers crammed in the venue.

The crazy kids that love Frenzy

Hard bounce from Andriko... we like him!

Opening up the Underground Lair with his trademark 'hard bounce' was Andriko, who first came to the attention of the Frenzy Clubbers at the Future Heroes night in June. It was great to hear him on an improved sound system so he could himself justice as his style is quite unique. Andriko helped to pull the arriving hard house fans into the basement and entertained them for the next hour with a hard and bouncy mix of new hard dance tracks.

People are still having... fun

The Hardcore Marrows get the middle floor moving

Meanwhile on the middle floor John Black had opened proceedings with a bouncy hard house hour, followed by one of the Marrow's own residents Mal aka K12 playing a bit of Scouse house. It was as crazy as usual on that floor and they even had their own photo booth!

The middle floor @ The Empire Club during John Black's set

Cheeky Scott and Jo Jo limp into the DJ box for some Hard Beats

Next up was the Frenzy super duo of Jo Jo and Cheeky Scott. Scott needed a little bit of assistance getting into the DJ booth as he's currently on crutches after a rather nasty accident with a broken pint glass. Thankfully Jo was there to give him a leg up (or should that be leg over?) and they played a back to back classics set of Nukleuz Hardbeat series to a packed dancefloor.

Cheeky Scott and Jo Jo... they love each other

Baz & Butcher rock the Frenzy basement

Following on from the super duo were another lovely couple going by the name of Baz and Butcher. These guys have recently been paving a trail throughout the UK with their hard house beats and soon showed why we should have had them down a lot sooner. They rocked it and entertained which is what it's all about and have since received glowing feedback from the Frenzy fans... we'll get them back again I reckon.

Butcher by name, not butch by nature

Scouse house on the middle floor moving into hardcore

Back upstairs and the music was progressing in pace as MTech finished off his Scouse, making way for the hardcore DJs Exalt going back to back with Kickit who were then followed by Fusion resident Clodhopper. The last set of the night on the middle floor went to the competition winner Stu-E who went back to back with another Southampton lad, Davidov.

The basement in full flow to the Frenzy Sound

Andy Whitby the saviour of hard house delivers again

In the basement the crowd were welcoming back the Saviour of Hard House himself, Mr Andy Whitby. This was Andy's second time at Frenzy this year and he told us afterwards that he wants to come back very soon so we'll be arranging that! Andy proved what the consumate professional he was as during his set the monitor was all over the place, and even packed in at one point... did you notice though? I doubt it. Top work from Whitby who had the basement as packed as it's ever been at the Empire.

Andy Whitby being a little bit scary

Carl Phoenix... camp as tits, hard as nails

Following on from Andy was always going to be a tough act to follow so step forward Carl Phoenix. Camp as tits but hard as nails, he'd changed his style for this one and went for it giving those still able to stand a hard trance and hard house crossover selection of tracks. Carl's new style complimented MNKY & Ryki who came up for the last set to finsih things off with style.

Girls love Frenzy!

Frenzy's returning underground to Dusk Till Dawn for a party

All in all it was a fantastic night and the sign of how far Frenzy's come in the last year. Are you ready for the next installment? If you're brave enough then join us as we return underground next month when we go into Dusk Till Dawn.

The Frenzy glowstick tasting competition was in full flow

Dusk used to be Club Destiny where some of the most legendary Frenzy parties were held back in 2005 with Anne Savage, and the memorable Ed Real lock-in party. We're going to have Brisk from Next Generation records and the Stimulant DJs headline what should be a mad party. We're even going to put a bit of old skool in there as DJ Jedi will be doing an hour set on the middle floor. You can see the full details on this party in our forthcoming events section.

Some photos courtesy of Michael Azzopardi. Please visit www.michaelazzopardi.co.uk.