UPROCK on Saturday night was good fun. It's always nice to hear/see people react to the music we play - a friend of a friend posted a Facebook status calling it 'immense', we had a drum n bass dj pop his head under our window to say hello, and there was some impressive dancing from a trio of women in the pub.One of the issues (used in the lightest possible sense considering what real issues there are in the world) we have is on how dancable we should make UPROCK. In the Cock & Pye days we had a dance floor and it was great to gauge that instant connection with what we were playing - but it also meant we could get stuck in floor filler mode.
On Saturday I played TEETH's Stolen Spaces and it reminded me of this quandary.
One of the enthusiastic dancers told me it was too dull and requested something more danceable, like The Jackson 5's I Want You Back.
We all love the Jackson 5, and still play stuff from them, but a big part of our original aim for UPROCK was for eclecticism, the joy of not being confined to one genre and the freedom to play what we want. At the Cock & Pye, once people were dancing it could be difficult to move away from classics.
At The Swan we get the best of both worlds - the laid back atmosphere means groups are often comfortable dancing amongst themselves, but we don't have the pressure of keeping a dedicated dance floor happy all night and so we can jump between genres and tempos to our hearts', and hopefully all of those present, are content.
So we get to play stuff like Wu Lyf:
Which I think sounds amazing but appreciate it can sound harsh or out of place for people wanting a good time on Saturday night.
So if we leave you disappointed, we apologise. We don't do it out of spite or to be pretentious.
And if you stick around, there will always be a song come along soon after which will make you dance.
And finally, we had a rare disagreement in music on Saturday, with Andy calling this track rubbish.
I like it. Comments welcome below or on Facebook.
Richard
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