Ministry of Sound - 11th Birthday Party

Ministry of Sound - 11th Birthday Party image

2002 - London, UK

We all love a good birthday bash, so when we were invited to Ministry of Sound's 11^th Birthday hosted by Defected Records we knew we where in for a very special evening! We could look forward to hearing sets by the the likes of Groove Armada, Sandy Riviera, Kidstuff, Junior Jack & Kid Crème.

Defected Records image We met up at 9pm and settled into our local for a couple of drinks to get us in the mood. By 11 o’clock three regular guys had transformed into three party animals of the beat, hell-bent on having a night to remember.

After a few minor de-tours, due to the lack of concentration of our driver and a distracting faulty windscreen wiper we arrived at Ministry at 2am (better late than never eh?) a little distressed but no less excited.

We were greeted by some of the friendliest door staff we've ever met, their extremely welcoming nature made us feel at home straight away. After a brief search we were ushered into the club, where we could feel the familiar bass line of Junior Jack and Kid Crème reverberating down the corridor.

As we read the order of play we unfortunately found out the GA boys were unable to attend due to recording commitments. This was obviously a tad disappointing but still eager to enjoy the party we concentrated on the people who were there!

Wanting to get straight in to the action we headed for the darkness of the Box room we were lucky enough to catch the last hour of the talented Kidstuff. They were grooving the crowd with some of the finest funky tribal beats... towards the end of their set we decided to fuel ourselves with more drink but as we entered the Rulin Bar the drinks were soon forgotten as the pumping sax of "Love Jam" by the Lab Rats bellowed out of the speakers! This caused us to completely forget about the Box and the next hour was lost as we continued to rock to Junior and Kid’s funky grooves! Junior's mixing ability was a little disappointing, the Kid seemed to carry him through some shady mixes.

Next we headed back to the Box to catch Sandy Riviera who you may also know as Kings of Tomorrow. This is what we’d been waiting for, a chance to hear one of the USA’s finest DJs and producers. He treated us to a great mix of dark tribal house and vocal US garage. This guy really got the crowd rocking, one of the highlights was the full length Masters at Work Mix of "To Be In Love". He played an amazing set and made sure he rebounded the thanks to the crowd when he finished at 6.30am..

This left MoS resident Gareth Cooke to play us out for the last hour or so, after Sandy Riviera you might say that the hard work was already done but Gareth managed to keep our now wasted legs going with some wicked chunky tunes!

As the last beat played the lights went up the crowd cheered and Ministry of Sound became another year older! A great night with a wicked atmosphere and we’d like to thank Ministry for letting us come along and would like to wish them all the best for the next year and of course HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Reviewers: DISCO DAVE / DANNY CHASE / TONY WALLER