Red Alert: 6th Birthday Celebrations for Dumfries Dons (Full interview for Web)
These days you're fairly lucky if a club lasts longer than five weeks nevermind five years. Red Alert reaches the bonny age of six this month, and will be chasing away any inertia this festival with the drum and bass, jungle and breaks-stylings of DJ Alcane, Hex, Dangamouse and DJ D'Sylva.
| 14 Aug 2006
Can you give a brief history of Red Alert, and what it means to you to reach your 6th birthday?
"Red Alert was started in Dumfries by two friends/DJs: Stuart Chalmers (DJ Alcane) & James Leven (J.L.Boco). Living in a small town there weren't many options for nightlife, and even less if you wanted to hear underground music such as hip-hop, breakbeat or drum and bass. Once we started DJing in 1998, we were sick of hearing people's small-minded attitudes to music, so we decided something had to be done! Gathering our equipment and records we hired the function room of The White Hotel and assembled as many of our friends as possible to come and support our wee night. We knew there would never be a huge audience for our beats in the town but we persevered and gradually, month after month the crowd started to grow. After a year of monthly events we had established ourselves as a quality underground alternative.
"Within 2 years, Red Alert had started to make itself known in Scotland by bringing some of the best names to the town, like Paul Reset, Morphy, Eastborn, Senses & The General to name but a few. The night continued every month in Dumfries up until February 2005 when it moved to Glasgow. The move to the 'Weeg' proved successful but resulted in less frequent appearances for the RA crew over the year, though it still maintained its reputation with Alcane featuring at many of Scotland's most respected nights (LiveVevil, Obscene, and Explicit).
"Aided by two old friends who had moved to Edinburgh previously for University - Sam Buwert & Chris Bruce (Overchore & Kid Ill) along with Edindurgh-based Pete Birley, the night launched in Edinburgh as Red Alert Overchore to great effect and in the past 5 months has re-established itself as a force in the Scottish scene. Always with its winning formula of top quality residents and the best of local up and coming talent. As we approach Red Alert's 6th birthday, we hope everyone will join us to celebrate in August - from all of our long-time regulars right through to any open-minded people out for a great evening!"
How will you entice clubbers into your event? What kind of music will you be playing?
"Well we've got some very special guests lined up for the birthday and we'll be running promotions throughout the festival too."
Do you have any extra specials lined up for the night?
"We've always got some exciting tricks up our sleeves so you'll just have to look out for more details, doubtless to say, there will be treats for everyone, birthday cake and a whole load more. All the DJs/producers involved with Red Alert play a wide variety of the breakbeat spectrum. We believe that the key to an exciting night is the variety and we usually start with electro, through to breaks and then on to D&B to give a good build up over the course of the evening."
"Red Alert was started in Dumfries by two friends/DJs: Stuart Chalmers (DJ Alcane) & James Leven (J.L.Boco). Living in a small town there weren't many options for nightlife, and even less if you wanted to hear underground music such as hip-hop, breakbeat or drum and bass. Once we started DJing in 1998, we were sick of hearing people's small-minded attitudes to music, so we decided something had to be done! Gathering our equipment and records we hired the function room of The White Hotel and assembled as many of our friends as possible to come and support our wee night. We knew there would never be a huge audience for our beats in the town but we persevered and gradually, month after month the crowd started to grow. After a year of monthly events we had established ourselves as a quality underground alternative.
"Within 2 years, Red Alert had started to make itself known in Scotland by bringing some of the best names to the town, like Paul Reset, Morphy, Eastborn, Senses & The General to name but a few. The night continued every month in Dumfries up until February 2005 when it moved to Glasgow. The move to the 'Weeg' proved successful but resulted in less frequent appearances for the RA crew over the year, though it still maintained its reputation with Alcane featuring at many of Scotland's most respected nights (LiveVevil, Obscene, and Explicit).
"Aided by two old friends who had moved to Edinburgh previously for University - Sam Buwert & Chris Bruce (Overchore & Kid Ill) along with Edindurgh-based Pete Birley, the night launched in Edinburgh as Red Alert Overchore to great effect and in the past 5 months has re-established itself as a force in the Scottish scene. Always with its winning formula of top quality residents and the best of local up and coming talent. As we approach Red Alert's 6th birthday, we hope everyone will join us to celebrate in August - from all of our long-time regulars right through to any open-minded people out for a great evening!"
How will you entice clubbers into your event? What kind of music will you be playing?
"Well we've got some very special guests lined up for the birthday and we'll be running promotions throughout the festival too."
Do you have any extra specials lined up for the night?
"We've always got some exciting tricks up our sleeves so you'll just have to look out for more details, doubtless to say, there will be treats for everyone, birthday cake and a whole load more. All the DJs/producers involved with Red Alert play a wide variety of the breakbeat spectrum. We believe that the key to an exciting night is the variety and we usually start with electro, through to breaks and then on to D&B to give a good build up over the course of the evening."
Wee Red Bar, 10.30pm-4am, £4/3, August 11.