Pacha Hotel - New Year's Eve @ Pacha London

Pacha Hotel - New Year's Eve

Another manic year seems to have flown past, one that would start at Ministry of Sound @ The Dome and end at the fabulous Glitterati @ Pacha London. Don’t ever let anyone tell we don’t do things with style here at Clubbing UK.

On route to London it became apparent this was probably the first New Year’s party I was attending in nearly a decade without really knowing the full line-up inside out. With Glitterati in the house at Pacha, I knew there was no real need for concern, it was gonna be sexy, raunchy and funky house music all night long - an ample guideline for that super special NYE.

Coming out of Victoria we spotted the queue of about 200 lining the road (and bus lane) just outside, the usual confusion of where to queue for which type of guest/ticket-list ensued. Once we met the lovely, but merry Christa from Alist (the promoters behind Glitterati and a host of other top London parties) around 11pm we ordered ourselves a beverage and soaked up the liquor and the ultra amazing party vibe like a sponge in a bath. Venturing briefly around the club, the funky room upstairs still comes fully equipt with a queen size bed for those who like the ultimate chill.

Armed with another drink (costing approx the same as 1 week’s food bill in Thailand), we checked out the main room with Pacha resident Kid Bachelor on the decks. A little techier than I had expected, he went at it Chicago house style before dropping a more uplifting selection including a remix of ‘In And Out Of Love’ by Alicia Keys played just after midnight.

As the clock struck 12am, glitter fell from the sky, well ceiling, as everyone hugged, kissed and cheered - love is definitely in the air tonight…

As the next DJ hovered in the background, his silhouette looked increasingly like that of Lee Dagger who I got blown away by and met a year or so back at a South Coast Weekender (more recently the Devious Weekenders in Camber Sands, Sussex). After that initial meeting I checkout him out down in Brighton at the infamous Zap Club to see if I’d imagined just how good he was... Nope - every time he’s on the decks he plays the hottest tunes and blends them so uniquely in an unprecedented stylee.

A rework of ‘E-Samba’ by Junior Jack got a huge response, certainly a tune of the year as did the timeless classic ‘Young Hearts’. People were dancing on chairs, tables, whatever they could find as Mr Dagger let down his hair while posing for photos with adoring fans (namely Suzie & myself).

It got to around 3am and just as I thought about my tiring bones having a well deserved rest, moments before my arse would impact on a comfy chair and LD would drop another… I just couldn’t sit down throughout his set and indeed the night.

On top of the tunage, once this man finishes you’ll often see him jumping on the nearest podium to join in on the shenanigans, this time however he had to jet off up north for another high-flying gig.

Flight controller DJ Nippa took control of the decks and steered us all the way through to this first morning of 2004… I think NYE should last longer from now on, maybe more New Year’s Week? Wonder how much we’d all spend then?