Full Circle MCR 23
2023-06-19
I recently had the opportunity to attend the, ‘Full Circle MCR’ deep house event in Manchester. I want to give a big shout-out to my friend Livvy for inviting me!
I was particularly excited about this event because it was a throwback to the old sounds of deep house from 2013, which is the era that initially got me into DJing. It was the first time I would hear some of my favorite tracks performed live on stage.
But before I dive into the main event, let’s talk about the journey to Manchester.
Journey to Manchester
For anyone unfamiliar with the challenges of the UK transport system, it’s a constant battle to reach your destination without any hurdles. On this trip, I encountered some frustration because the latest train I could catch back home was at 8:25 pm. This meant I would miss a significant portion of Flashmob’s set, all of Alexis Raphael’s set, and the afterparty featuring Subb-An playing all night.
The venue from the station was really close, no more than 10 minutes walk to the Progress Centre, but we couldn’t help being sidetracked by this outrageously cool skatepark and cafe underneath the A57(M). The Projekts MCR Skatepark served us a couple of nice cappucinos and presented an unparalleled photo opportunity from its upper gantry where you get an unrestricted view of the skatepark, skaters and hanging shoes!
The Main Event
Finding the Progress Centre was easy as I found myself following the sound of deep house at 124Bpm. It gave me the feeling of a block party as they had cordoned off the adjacent street to the stage area.
One thing that immediately caught my attention was the Funktion One soundsystem, known for its distinctive horned mid and high drivers. It was no wonder that the sound quality was top-notch.
are you ready to present your 5 minutes?
When we arrived, Lovebirds was about to take the stage. I wasn’t familiar with them prior to the event, but after we got back from the green room with our wristbands and had a listen he was awesome, felt like my early teens all over again.
Breach
I used to listen to this dude’s music on repeat when I was 13-14 so I was pretty keen to hear him play live. I actually didn’t recognise him at first backstage when I held the door open for him and asked how he was.
Later back in the green room I saw the same unassuming guy just sat there and I looked around thinking:
damn it’s getting pretty close to 5pm I wonder when Breach is gonna get here?
Sure enough this guy stands up, grabs his rider bucket of drinks and goes right on the decks. I had just side-eyed Ben Westbeech for like 15 minutes backstage for no reason.
I spoke to him after his set and I got kind of a sense of sadness from him that nobody else had. I asked him if he has been busy after he dropped “jack” and he replied something along the lines of:
Yes I was making alot of P and DJing all over the place but I never could get the balance right.
He said he doesn’t really DJ anymore and that he is in another space now in his music, when I asked where he is now he’s focused now he said:
Pop, well not really pop but other genre stuff.
I wish him well in all his new endeavours and I hope he doesn’t get too burned out again. Great to meet the man behind some of my favourite records like, ‘Something For The Weekend’ and ‘Everything You Never Had’.
Miguel Campbell
The name Miguel Campbell immediately sparked memories of another tune I loved while growing up, ‘Something Special.’ I was interested to see what the shade and snapback wearing DJ could do on the decks.
Flashmob
Livvy and I were eagerly anticipating Flashmob’s performance, and around 7:30 pm, we went to the main entrance to greet the talented Italian DJ. However, I felt sorry for him when I learned that his KLM flight back home had been canceled last minute. He spent the next 20 minutes before his set trying to sort out alternative arrangements.
With the flight sorted he was back in DJ mode saying hi to everyone and trying to gauge how loud the music was. In his words and a smile:
I want to take my earplugs out!
It was far too loud for that. But that alone shows his love for music and the whole event. I spoke to him a few days later and he said he enjoyed every second of it. I believe him.
Unfortunately, at this point, I had to catch the last train back home to Northampton. I left as late as I could, running with my bag and camera to platform 4.
Other Stuff!
It’s good to mention I met some other fantastic people in the green room and backstage including Keiran from JBM Music promoting the event and fellow house music enthusiast Josiah in which I felt like we had quite the nerd out session on 2013 deep house haha.
Journey Back
As I mentioned before it is extremely difficult to use the train network these days unscathed in the Uk and I was a victim to this system to what feels like a never ending onslaught of travel pain.
I was getting a train from Manchester to change over at birmingham new street and something went wrong with the tracks or something, an almost broken record of “points failure” that I have heard hundreds of times now meant I missed my connecting train to Northampton.
Very luckily there was an additional train terminating at Northampton in 30 minutes or so. Had that not have been there I would have been stuck there all night, or worse on a bus ;).
Thanks for reading!
Now you are thoroughly invested in deep house, it would be a good time to listen to my podcast episode on Jimpster where I break down some of my favourite tracks in Side A and deliver an extremely deep Side B.
