Music
The DJs who've performed in unlikely places
From techno on the Great Wall Of China to acid house at Stonehenge, Nina Kraviz, Paul Oakenfold, Fatboy Slim, Goldie and Mathew Jonson have performed in places around the world you might not expect.
Once upon a time, long before super clubs and enormo dance music festivals were the norm, intrepid DJs and rave enthusiasts would look for fields, farmland, woodland and abandoned warehouses in which to bring euphoria to the masses. But as clubbing has become more organised and more regulated, DJs are now usually restricted to performing in clubs and on stage at huge, fenced-off events.
Despite this, however, there are still instances in which today's superstar DJs perform in places you might not expect. Below are a few examples that hark back to the open-minded, freewheeling spirit of rave's earliest days.
1. Paul Oakenfold and Carl Cox at Stonehenge, UK
The start of these veteran DJs' careers can be traced back to the early days of UK acid house. Paul Oakenfold was part of that fabled group of holidaymakers, including Danny Rampling, who wanted to recreate Alfredo Fiorito’s '80s Ibiza vibe in the UK. Carl Cox, meanwhile, played at the first-ever Shoom – Rampling’s era-defining London club night.
A DJ set from Oakenfold and Cox at Stonehenge – that world-famous collection of prehistoric stone monoliths in Wiltshire, UK – might seem a little detached from the pair's early days. Especially now that Stonehenge is all fenced off as a tourist site. However, if losing yourself in dance music is a hedonistic ritual, then performing a back-to-back set at a UNESCO World Heritage Site that was (probably) the venue for some mad old parties 1000s of years ago seems quite apt.
The site is also situated just off the A303. And is there a more acid house number than that?
2. Nina Kraviz at the Great Wall Of China
Russia's techno and acid wonder Nina Kraviz is no stranger to bringing up the sun. Indeed, she seems to relish her sunrise sets at festivals and clubs around the world. But doing the same after a bit of a hike and on a slightly chilly morning is a rather different proposition.
In early 2018, Kraviz set off in the wee small hours of the morning to entertain clubbers dancing in a tower, on a wall, that was built by no less than the Ming Dynasty of China.
By performing a set of unreleased bangers from her own Trip label, as well as tracks by Shackleton and Addison Groove, Kraviz joined the illusionist David Copperfield in bringing magic to the Great Wall Of China.
3. Paul Oakenfold at Mount Everest Base Camp
If Paul Oakenfold ever tells you that he's performed at "the highest party on earth", it's a reasonable claim.
To commemorate 30 years since the fateful Ibiza trip that inspired him and his likeminded friends to kick off London's acid house scene, producing the spark that changed clubbing forever, Oakenfold took another far-out trip.
After four weeks of altitude training, Oakenfold set up his decks at Mount Everest Base Camp alongside Nepal’s DJ Ranzen for a special performance raising funds to help the local Nepal community after 2015's devastating earthquake.
It gave new meaning to the oft repeated dance music phrase, gonna take you higher.
4. Peggy Gou and Artwork at Y-40, Venice
Whales and dolphins know the score. Sound is louder underwater. That's because, below the surface, sound waves pass directly through the water and into your head. It's why most pool parties miss a trick. Forget prancing around by the water's edge – immerse yourself completely.
Elrow's Deep House event did just this by inviting clubbers to wear a special diving helmet and lower themselves below the surface at Y-40 in Venice, "the world’s deepest swimming pool". Once they were way down, deep down, they got to hear Peggy Gou play a set of bumping tech-house after a turn from Artwork.
5. Andrew Weatherall at the Sydney Opera House
Rockabilly-loving techno punk Andrew Weatherall has never followed a straight path. He was an early acid house pioneer who went on to remix Primal Scream, St Etienne and New Order. He also went on to explore darker and more awkward fringes of electronic club music with Two Lone Swordsmen and in his own mixes promoting disco-not-disco no wave and post-punk.
For Weatherall electronic music and clubbing has ultimately always been about intensity and attaining transcendence through the ritual of dancing to the groove.
It's apt, then, that Weatherall was offered the chance to explore this quasi-spiritual idea further from the bowels of the Sydney Opera House – a building inspired by the designs of temples built by those masters of transcendence, the Maya people.
6. Horse Meat Disco at London’s Orbit Tower
Horse Meat Disco specialise in bringing a unique and vintage disco exuberance to their long-term home, The Eagle in Vauxhall, London, as well as to festivals and other bigger clubs around the UK and Europe. But their sound is tailor-made for a venue or location that matches their flamboyant sound.
London’s Orbit Tower, built for the London Olympics in 2012 and designed by Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond, is just that place.
Hearing Horse Meat Disco's booty-shaking funky disco in a building that looks like it might sashay across the London skyline at any point just about sums up the Horse Meat Disco experience.
7. Logan Sama, Skepta and Stormzy at London's ICA
Grime is now an established part of the musical mainstream. It's also a fully-recognised art form that's come as close to representing the voice of UK youth as anything else since acid house in the early '90s and punk rock in the late '70s. In fact, grime's parallels with punk aren't just in its no-bulls**t ferocity, street-level angst, and social commentary.
A year before the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977, the Sex Pistols performed just down the road from Buckingham Palace at London's ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) venue. It was a symbolic middle finger to the establishment. The same might be said of grime artists whenever they descend on the venue, too.
This clip, from 2015, shows London grime in its element. DJ Logan Sama brings Eskimo Dance to The Mall and gets a helping hand from a young Novelist and his Lewisham crew The Square, while Stormzy and Skepta tear the place up at the end.
8. Mathew Jonson and Isis at Teufelsberg
During the Cold War, being aware of Teufelsberg's mere existence would have got you blacklisted and tailed everywhere by shifty-looking people in raincoats. The building, which sits on a man-made hill, built of rubble, in what would have been West Berlin, was once the site of a US listening post known as Field Station Berlin.
Nowadays, though, the hill is covered in trees and the abandoned building is covered in graffiti and offers a spectacular view of all of unified Berlin. From time to time, it also hosts arts events, like this hypnotic live set from the masterful Mathew Jonson and Isis. A much better use of the space than listening in on people's phone calls, we're sure you'll agree.
9. Fatboy Slim at the Houses of Parliament
In the 1990s, electronic dance music was held in contempt by the British political class. Tabloid newspapers stirred up fear about acid house and raving, and in 1994 the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act legislated against "repetitive beats" played in public spaces to prevent outdoor raves across the UK countryside.
But in 2013, electronic dance music is in a rather different position. It's a money-spinner for the music industry and both a major export and import for governments around the world, which means politicians are now rather more accommodating.
And so, in March, 2013, Fatboy Slim became the first DJ to play the House Of Commons – the beating heart of UK politics.
He was invited to explain why Everybody Needs A 303, Right Here, Right Now, by Conservative MP Mike Weatherley as part of House To House, a parliamentary initiative encouraging 16-25 year olds to become more involved in their communities through local music and dance projects. Dance music has come a long way, baby.
10. Goldie on the London Eye
In 2011, and then again in 2013, Red Bull Music Academy took over London's giant ferris wheel by the Thames and gave each of the London Eye's pods over to a collection of iconic British club nights and their DJs.
So it wasn't just the Metalheadz and drum 'n' bass don Goldie who performed while the wheel turned a full revolution. So did a stellar line-up including Richie Hawtin, Skream, Erol Alkan, Todd Terry, Gilles Peterson, Derrick May, Boy Better Know and many, many more.