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Choon! @ Klubi, Finland – The Review with Pics & Videos!
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| JohnWright |
What a weekend! The review is a little delayed, but the pictures and videos are ready so I thought I’d share how it went with everyone. Forgive me if you think it’s a ramble but I’ve got to try and put into words how good that was!
The eight of us got to Liverpool for 11am on Friday morning for the Ryanair flight to Tampere in Finland. Opting to carry my record bag on as hand luggage rather than having it trashed in the hold, we took off at 1pm for the 3 hour flight to Finland over Norway after fuelling up on a few beers. The excitement on the flight itself was a sign of the madness which would follow as we learned some common Finnish phrases from some of the passengers, got the plane singing selected verses of some extremely random songs and, true to form, the scousers disembarked the aircraft with a complimentary life jacket or two.
We touched down in Finland at 6pm local time, the passengers broke into applause and we just knew it was going to be a great weekend. The weather was just like we had left the UK so it turns out the balaclavas, thermals and ski poles weren’t needed after all. Jussi and our driver, Passe, met us from the airport in a minibus stocked with beers and we set off on the very dark two hour drive from Tampere to Turku with a few stops on the way. We checked into the Turku Holiday Inn (which was a very impressive place), dumped our bags in the rooms and headed out for a 9pm dinner reservation at a lovely Italian resteraunt. Afterwards, Jussi and Passe took us to the Sports Bar not too far away which just happened to be hosting a night of some wicked prog house where we really got to know the locals and shared some black vodka, as well as meeting some of the Choon! regulars who were already well in the party spirit! We turned in about midnight to save our energy for the main event and we made Saturday our sightseeing day.
Bearing in mind that Aki had only got back home at 8am after playing in Helsinki the previous night, he met us at the hotel at midday and gave us the tour of the centre of Turku as he lived locally. We stopped for lunch in Amarillos for pizza and fajitas then went to take our first look at the club itself named ‘Klubi’, which was originally built as a venue for live rock music events, where Jussi and the promoters had been setting up what would prove to be an absolutely magical light and sound rig since early Saturday.
After a couple of hours sleep back at the hotel before getting ready, we headed out to the club via a brief stop at the Sports Bar, picking up a few of the locals on our way. We arrived at 9.30pm, about half an hour into Aki’s warm up set which set things up perfectly. The guys had made some real old-school trance-esqe ‘Choon!’ signs which were waved throughout the night to great effect, and we were treated to some specially baked gingerbread which spelt out the letters of Choon. The tough electro house sound seemed to work really well and the floor quickly started to fill. Aki had been waiting to play at Choon for a long time, so the night was a special one for him too. Jussi took over at 11pm and moved the sound from electro house, through chunky progressive trance, up to melodic trance. Then at 12.45am, it was my turn.
The smoke had given the whole room a fantastic underground feel and the stage and beam lighting was some of the best I’ve ever seen in a club; the VJ’s Tricolor and Jayfish did a superb job. The three band laser that they had picked up on Saturday morning was worth its weight in gold as you can see from the footage, and the acoustics were just perfect. The atmosphere of the room was soaring by the time I stepped up and the crowd had been worked into a frenzy by Aki and Jussi. The setup was ideal with 2 x 1210 Mk3’s, 2 x CDJ 1000 Mk3’s, a DJM 600 mixer and two crystal clear floor monitor speakers. Here’s how my set sounded:
Cass Fox ‘Touch Me’ (Koglin vs. Grant Remix) [Artist CDR]
Vascotia ‘Avalon’ (Adam Nickey Remix) [Real Music CDR]
Static Blue pres. Maava ‘Ice Lake’ (Original Mix) [Total Digital CDR]
Johan Geilen ‘Magnitude’ (Original Mix) [Maelstrom]
Renovatio ‘High Definition’ (Digital Nature Remix) [High Light CDR]
Art Of Trance ‘Madagascar’ (Domination Remix) [Platipus]
Hidden Logic pres. Luminary ‘Wasting’ (Ronski Speed Remix) [Armind]
Adore & Devote ‘Forever’ (Marcos Remix) [Inspired CDR]
Tenth Planet ‘Ghosts’ (John Wright Remix) [Artist CDR]
Unknown ‘Love Stimulation’ [White]
Gabriel & Dresden ‘Dangerous Power’ (Kuffdam & Plant Remix) [Organised Nature]
Airbase ‘Sinister’ (Original Mix) [Gesture]
John Wright ‘Helix’ (Original Mix) [Artist CDR]
Dogzilla ‘Without You’ (Original Mix) [Maelstrom]
Talla 2XLC pres. T2 ‘Lost Souls’ (Marcos Remix) [Technoclub]
Cosmic Gate ‘Should Have Known’ (Original Mix) [Maelstrom]
Miles & MORPH ‘Life Less Ordinary’ (Original Mix) [MOS]
Marco V ‘Red, Blue, Purple’ (Original Mix) [Maelstrom]
(Encore)
Gouryella ‘Ligaya’ (Original Mix) [Tsunami]
Rank 1 ‘Breathing’ (Breaks Mix) [ID&T]
Here’s some of the footage from inside the club itself.
Jussi Soro from the dance floor – 23.30
Jussi Soro from the stage – 00.30
Me having an absolute ball to ‘Should Have Known’!
Tearing the place down to Marco V . . !
I killed the power to the right deck at about 2.30am and spun a couple of encore tunes with beautiful clear white lights bathing the whole club like sunshine, during which Jussi brought me a souvenir Choon! T-Shirt which was put straight on to massive applause. We left just after 3am and headed back to our hotel for an after party which was entertaining to say the least!
Waking up at midday on Sunday, we headed down to the river to continue our sightseeing. We visited a Christmas market, saw Santa, bought some local goodies and finished off our day of recovery with a trip to watch the football at the sports bar (which by now we had adopted as our local). After packing away the equipment club from 8am on Sunday, Jussi and Passe picked us up from the hotel and we left for the airport at about 6pm. The roads were looking a bit icy but we got there in plenty of time to say our goodbyes and get thoroughly searched at check-in. We took off at 11pm and it was then that the unstoppable laughter kicked in with everyone. By the time we landed in Liverpool at 1am, we were thoroughly spent. As it turns out, we missed the winter snow in Turku by only a few hours but the day temperature stayed around 2 degrees and the sun was up from about 9am until 3pm.
The hospitality we were shown was genuinely humbling. Apart from my first time playing abroad and spinning one of my most enjoyable sets ever, it was a real pleasure simply seeing Finland and meeting some of its people. It is obvious that Choon! is run with passion, dedication and a real feeling for the music. A huge thanks to Jussi, Aki, Gavin, Passe, everyone at Choon! and everyone who sent me a text on the night! Next time, we will definitely be doing the whole traditional ‘hot sauna followed by a roll in the snow’ thing. Choon!’s next event in February 2007 is headlined by Sean Tyas, so all the best to the guys for that one, for Christmas and New Year, and for the future.
I’ll have the rest of the pictures and movies up soon.
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| SPANIARD |
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| JohnWright |
And a few more - These ones really show off the lighting in the place.
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