Newcastle Calling...

This Saturday night I'll be railbound south to hook up with Geordie lads ONE20 as they host the backroom of Shindig's 18th Birthday Celebrations. There seems to be a good selection of folk in the area doing interesting things; ONE20 themselves, PeopleGetReal, Touchsoul and more.To give everyone a heads up here's a little Q&A with ONE20's Jason Hopper:

One20 seem to be doing good things in Newcastle, can you explain the idea behind your infamous Music/arts parties?

Well 2 of us are designers and with most of our close pals being linked somehow to design, we wanted to bring some of that creative energy to the party. This seemed to fit perfectly with what we saw as a rather stale scene and we talked about how we could fuse together our style of music & design or ‘art’.
After speaking about making this idea happen Danny & Jason hooked up with local artists and galleries to start producing the concept that is Music/Slash/Art.
In essence it’s intended to be an assault on the senses, both visual and audio… it seems to work well attracting a slightly more clued up crowd, who aren’t afraid to go nuts rather than stand around sipping red wine and pondering the artists mood in some white washed gallery!

I’m really looking forward to playing at Shindigs 18th birthday, how did that gig come about and what can we expect from a creative perspective?

Well Steven does the creative for Shindig and works closely with Scott & Neil, producing Shindigs new logo and the new branding for 18. We’ve all been friends with the guys since the early 90’s, and being local lads even got to go to the very first gigs back in the day at Club Afrika…
We’ve had Shindig residents Scott Bradford & Mark Lowry both play at our nights and they liked what we’d created and felt it would fit for the 18th celebration.
We feel really rather honoured and can’t wait to get our teeth into that room…

So come on then... One20 – what does it mean?

It’s simple really – we mostly play beats on or under 120 beats per minute… slow enough to sway to but paced just right to get your groove on if you want!

With a fair few years under your belts – how has the scene in Newcastle changed?

The scene up here has changed dramatically, there’s definitely more of a bar culture and traditional ‘clubbing’ is declining… Shindig being the exception to the rule!
Newcastle itself seems to be experiencing a renaissance in good quality music driven nights and free parties, with a healthy critical mass of like-minded DJ’s and promoters who are more interested in creating a good party, than turning a tidy profit, which is where we sit really…

What’s next for you?

We are mainly concentrating on our Music/Slash/Art parties planned for the summer with further collaborations with our friends at Shindig, Prefab 77, Electric Sheep, Tokyo, Soul Renegades, 6th Borough Project, Music by Kitt and Southport Weekender’s night, Choice.
Later in the year one20 will be releasing limited edition prints and t-shirts for Shindig 18, the collection will draw inspiration from a range of Rare and Classic Flyers, Original Art and Photography from the last 18 years.
That and drinking our combined body weight in Havana… ;)

In addition to the fun and Frolics on Saturday night, they'll be continuing as only Geordies (and Glaswegians) can right the way through bank holiday Sunday at the Ship Inn's Block Party from noon. Don't think my body's going to be in good shape after this weekend! See everyone there ;)