Corrosive preview: interview with the Redtrip Collective
Reported by Latex Zebra
/
Submitted 11-02-05 20:58
The Redtrip Collective have made very impressive inroads in the hard dance scene, in a very short space of time. The biggest selling point of their parties would be a fearsome music policy that really is varied throughout the night. Specializing in the trippiest trance, the hardest techno, the dirtiest drum & bass and the heaviest hip hop, this open minded bunch of djs, dancers and MCs have shown a lot of people what putting on original forward thinking parties are about. I took some time out to have a chat with them during the build up to their next Corrosive party at Deep Blue, SEOne. Here’s what they had to say for themselves...
The Redtrip crew is pretty big, who is the Redtrip Crew and what do part do they play in the promotion and running of the party?
The crew is made up of the following people. Everyone helps to promote the parties and we all get a vote on things within Redtrip, on top of this everyone brings different skills to the crew.
Flip – hard house/trance, freeform & acid trance (and anything else ) dj
Jolene – dancer (podium/spinner/pole) décor design and production
Slacky - acid techno and dark hard house dj, also designed and maintains the website.
G-Whizz – techno, acid techno & acid trance dj
Mansell - drinker, makes sure the bar makes up its money!
Moonbeam - she is learning poi and designs and makes the decor.
Hyper – MC, working on the new Redtrip website
Steelz - Wicked MC and sorts out the D'n'B side of CORROSIVE
Passion - D'n'B dj and decor queen, also sorts the D'n'B room.
Zoe - Decor and social genius. Heavily into music production.
Plus our other residents:
K-Tech Live PA (acidy psy-trance/techno/trancey type stuff)
Wonga! – hard house/breaks DJ, visual don (currently on leave whilst at Uni in Oz)
Ruthless Jimmy James – D'n'B Scratch DJ extraordinaire
DJ Ransom – D&B DJ
DJ Lex – wicked breaks and D&B DJ
Markee – D&B DJ
How did you all meet and have you always had a common interest in music, how did you get into the scene?
Flip: Everyone (involved) has been mates for years and I really mean YEARS! Slacky and Steelz go back a long time, something like 18 years or so to when they were 9 years old listening to NWA I met Slacky in 1999 shortly after he started going out with my sister (Jolene). At the time I was listening to metal constantly and playing guitar (I use to listen to hardcore and jungle in 93/94), and Slacky was into gabba at the time. As the two can be quite similar at times, I was borrowing tapes off him, and also Helter Skelter tape packs checking out the gabba sets, but then I started listening to Mark EG and M-Zone tapes and getting into techno and trance. It wasn’t until that NYE (millennium eve) when we all went to Pendragon that I met the rest of what would later become the Redtrip Collective. Since that day, I’ve never looked back.
What inspired you to put on the Redtrip parties and what are your aims?
Jolene: After going to many Clockwork Prism parties, Antiworlds and Logics, we thought it was about time we did something ourselves. With having 10 people involved there are so many fresh and imaginative ideas going round that each party keeps getting better and better.
Slacky: We’d been talking about it for ages. Eventually Jolene decided she wanted to put on a party for her birthday. This got everyone’s interest and that was it really. It turned in to a joint birthday between Jolene and Passion and we booked the Electrowerkz and put on Mangled.
It was only a one room party which to be honest didn’t go down that well, we were all a little bit wet behind the ears so to speak.
The Electrowerkz gave us another chance and got 2 rooms booked for an event we called FLASHBACK. One to cater for the majority of our crowd (techno and hard dance) the other for a side line Drum’n’bass, Breaks, psy-trance, hip hop and what ever else we felt like.
This worked more than well. To be honest we were all shell shocked at the turn out. This is when we knew that playing a cross section of music was the way to go, rather than the tried and tested formula of 4 beat dance in every room.
As for aims, everyone has there own reasons and goals for doing their thing but collectively we would like to find a venue and get regular dates. We’ve had real bad luck in booking venues, so now that we’ve got Deep Blue we’re hoping to get our parties happening every two months instead of sporadically throughout the year.
Personally I would love to expand and have a couple more rooms to play with. Get a few unusual genres of music together, appeal to another crowd and see what happens. When I go out to a party I rarely get to hear every type of music I like….
What has been the best Redtrip party so far and why?
Jolene: I think Corrosive at the Electrowerkz has been the best party since we started. We had a great crowd in and top line up with E303 & Fabry b2b. Also, it was the first time I pole danced; it’s definitely gone down as a quality party!
Flip: Blatantly the first Corrosive in June 03. The party was only our 3rd party, but it just went so well. I still get a huge smile whenever I think back to that night. It couldn’t have gone any better, the line up (including your good self Dan [Latex Zebra]), E303 & Fabry, Tin Tin to name a few), the turnout, the atmosphere, and Jolene pole dancing to an audience for the first time. To me, this set the standard for our events.
Where did the name Redtrip and Corrosive come from?
Jolene: I started Redtrip for mine and Passion's 21st Birthday in 2002, I chose the name Redtrip by combining my favourite colour “Red” with mushroom's “Trip”. The name was short and catchy so we kept it. Passion thought of the name Corrosive and because that was the party we really got known for we decided to keep the name.
Your parties play everything from hip Hop to gabba from trance to Drum'n'Bass, would you say you have the most varied music policy around and how do crowds react to such variation in a night?
Jolene: It has been trial and error to get the right pattern for the different genres throughout the night and we have got the rhythm flowing well now. Clubbers seem to really give a good reaction when the music changes throughout the night, and hearing freeform and techno in the same room can be refreshing.
I have even seen a lot of the usual hard dance clubbers giving it large to the D'n'B!! A lot of hard dance clubbers love DnB but don’t like the attitude that goes with a lot of D'n'B nights, our party is different in that we don’t attract that sort of crowd.
Is there a signature tune for Redtrip parties, if so what is it?
Flip: I’m not so sure that there’s a signature tune as such. I know we each have our favourite tracks which we slip into most sets, like I tend to play K90 ‘Species’ a hell of a lot. It may be 6 years old now, but it’s still one of the greatest tunes ever! And doesn’t sound dated at all. But, one thing that is a signature with Redtrip’s parties is the lovely, lovely sound of acid. You just cannot beat a nice bubbling acid line.
You have changed venues a few times, has it been hard to find somewhere that suits what you’re trying to do, which venue has been your favourite so far.
Jolene: So far my favourite venue has been the Electrowerkz in Islington. I love that real underground dirty techno vibe!
Slacky: Yeah definitely. When we started out we really were on a budget, one that wouldn’t stretch to half the 2 room venues in London. Now with the success of the parties we had the pick of them and after seeing Infectious @ Deep Blue and Squelcher it was easy to decide which would suit what we wanted to do.
It sounds a little bit premature but Deep Blue does look like the one for us. They’ve been scarily efficient and on the ball, so we’ve got high hopes!
You move to Deep Blue for your next party, how did you manage to get such a sought after venue and what have you got lined up for us?
Jolene: We have been looking round for a venue to call our home for a long time. It had to be somewhere with an underground vibe and ability to go on til 6am. Fingers crossed, but Deep Blue could be the answer.
We are starting as we mean to go on, with our headliner guest being Dave the Drummer. We have a lovely chill out room with plenty of seating, so you can escape the music if need be, and we have a range of performers including podium/pole dancers and spinners.
Slacky: I had a chat with Cedric at SE1 and he liked what he heard basically – it was really as easy as that.
As for what we have in store…. the best and most varied music in London the most talented DJs and MCs (for the D&B side) and the best dancers!
More importantly the most liberated and open minded crowd. It never fails to amaze me how, no matter what we decide to pull out of our record bags that they love it. I don’t think I’ve ever had that moment when I’ve had second thoughts about the next record going on the decks.
We’ve got a pole set up so Jolene and Shimmer can do they’re pole dancing too. Jolene really wants to push pole dancing in clubs and to also to prove that it’s not all stripping and seedy as some people think but a great addition to regular podium dancing.
As always the residents will be bringing along bags full of mix CDs to give away, and there’ll be the usual stalls and décor.
How do you go about booking guests for the night and how would you advise someone who wanted to play to go about getting booked?
Jolene: You trying to get another set Dan? (Hey, I’m always after another set…) We like to get people down to our parties who are decent/friendly people. We like to meet all our guests before they play, and we like for our guests to already have visited a Redtrip party so they know what’s in store for them when they play.
Flip: Also, one thing with our guests we get down is they have freedom to play what they like, compared to when they play other clubs. If you get booked to play uplifting a lot, but you like to play hard, dark and dirty etc but don’t get the chance to, then you can with us (assuming the crowd want it obviously )
Who have your favourite guests been?
Jolene: In the Panik room, Mishka b2b Injector (Peter Ward) and also E303 b2b Fabry. In the Bassline Bunker my favourites were Db and Deadlie who did live beatboxing!!
Do any of you produce tracks and if so, what kind of stuff?
Slacky: Zoe has been doing a University degree in Music technology and has written some wicked breaks, which I’m sure, will be getting a play very soon. Because of this, G-Whizz has been getting some personal tuition too
I've had a home studio for a while and have been messing about for years but only recently (thanks to G-Whizz's help) am I 100% happy with what I’m doing. I'm putting the final finishing touches on an extremely dark hard techno track called '9 Out Of 10' which will be unveiled at Corrosive.
Flip: I’ve produced a couple with Future Sound of Elvis and AMS (under the name of C.I.N). First one ('Sacrificial') is a kind of acid NRG driven hard trance track, with a rather scary Alien vs Predator sample. Yes, I know the film wasn’t scary, but hearing the sample and the sounds we used in a club is kind of dark. The other track ('Acid Spunk' ) we done is a more uplifting hard trance track with a rather fierce kick, a nice German style bassline, and a cool acid riff.
I’m looking at getting in the studio much, much more this year, both with Elvis and AMS as C.I.N and also some solo stuff too. I have some cool ideas for some freeform tracks, as well as some hard acid trance like the old VCF/VCF & Cannon stuff. And hopefully get something released.
Any plans for a Redtrip record label?
Slacky: No plans yet, but with almost half the crew producing bits either in the studio or in home studios its almost certain it’d be a bit of a mad label with our broad spectrum of musical tastes! Gabba on A side, trance on the other
What are your plans for the future?
G-whizz: At the moment we’re taking it one step at a time, but if we get big enough then it would be nice to open up another room for purely live acts whether it be live bands, Live PAs or beat boxing!
Flip: Maybe later on this year we might do 1 or 2 one off nights, focusing on a particular style, but you’ll just have to wait and see.
How did you come to having pole dancing at your nights?
Jolene: I started pole dancing over 2 years ago just for fun and fitness, and since then I have found out that there are more and more clubs which have poles, so I decided to bring pole dancing to a new level and introduce it to the hard dance scene.
I am trying to take away the seedy edge to it and I keep my pole dancing tasteful and fun for hard dance nights. I have had good feedback about the pole dancing and we even have Shimmer making her debut pole dancing set at Corrosive.
A few quick fire questions now:
Favourite track of all time?
Jolene:
Techno - DK8 – Murder Was The Bass (Re-Worked)
Gabba - Nasenblunten – Intellectual Killer
Metal - Marilyn Manson - Mobscene
Slacky:
Techno – Detuned Symphony – Ant and Bad Boy Pete
Acid techno – The Pusher The Pimp The Panther – Rozzers Dog
Hard Dance – Street Tab – RR Fierce and The Captain
Flip: a toss up between K90 ‘Species’ or Parker & Clind ‘Generator’
G-whizz:
Techno- Control Freak
Acid Techno- My 909’s Got A Picture Of Chris Liberator On It
Acid Trance- Bigger Kicks
Favourite dj?
Jolene: Simon Underground
Slacky: Chris Liberator
Flip: Proteus, Kev Energy
G-whizz: Dave The Drummer
Favourite food?
Jolene: Cheese
Slacky: Ham Burgers and Chips
Flip: Steak
G-whizz: Fajitas
Favourite animal?
Jolene: Hard to just pick one, so I’ll name a few! Bunnies, Guinea Pigs, Dogs and ponies.
Slacky: Siberian Husky's and Meer cats.
Flip: Reptiles & Guinea pigs
G-whizz: Cats and Dogs
Favourite holiday destination?
Jolene: Amsterdam
Slacky: Brixton Flip: I’m rather fond of Orlando and Miami
G-whizz: A field somewhere in Cornwall, would love to go on a Inca trail though, may some time in the future!
With thanks to Matt & ukclubpix.com for the photos.
REDTRIP IS BACK! The New year brings us to a new home - DEEP BLUE. This is our first allnighter in nearly 18 months and we're itching to get back on it!
8 HOURS OF THE TUFFEST HARD DANCE, ACID TECHNO, TECH TRANCE, DRUM 'N' BASS, OLD SKOOL and BREAK BEAT
EVERYONE who has been to a CORROSIVE parties knows that REDTRIP garuntees proper musical progression and diversity of underground dance. Hardly anywhere outside of massive raves and the squats can you find Hard Dance and Techno and side by side with Drum 'n' bass and Breakbeats.
You won't be hearing 5 hours of Hard Dance and and hour of techno at our parties! We mix it up, keeping it fresh, chopping and changing directions, playing old and new tracks. the hard and unexpected.
F*ck copying formulas - we make our own!
THIS PARTY WILL COST YOU £8 IF YOU EMAIL jolene@redtrip.co.uk BEFORE JANUARY 23RD WITH YOUR NAMES!
ADD YOUR NAME TO THE "WHO'S GOING" SECTION BELOW TO GARUNTEE CONCESSION RATE ENTRY
We are proud to present Acid Techno legend D.A.V.E THE DRUMMER! The fasting rising DJ of 2004 headlines our first party in 2005. Playing classic acid and upfront Techno.
MATT STYLE is one of the members of the hugely successful NU-Energy Collective. With releases on the Nu-Energy labels lined up he is garunteed to storm it!
TIN TIN will be kicking the party off with a special Tech Trance set. Normally known for his hard but uplifting syle TinTin will be holding down the BPMs and keeping it purely funky.
Scotland's finest export SKELP has been making waves in London for a while now - he has played for numerous promotions down South and makes his first debut @ Redtrip.
The REDTRIP DJ's are all playing sets on there own - no b2b's this time round so expect there signiture sounds!
The awesome K-TECH will be lugging his PA to DeepBlue with a fresh selection of tracks. He has been working on some techno tracks recently - we can't wait!
BASSLINE BUNKER (Bar Area)
Breakbeat to Old Skool to Drum'n'Bass
This party is is really all about the D'n'B room. Having allways occupied the "second room" at the parties, the Drum'n'Bassers break out in to an equal sized room for the first time. We have honed the progresion over the years and now got the room running excactly how we want it.
Break beats and old skool will dominate the first third of the night then its in to D'n'B territory. Every DJ and MC picked offers a different take on the vast breakbeat genre.
DJ Domino is our headliner. He played oine of his first sets for us in Augest, since then he has rising up the ranks and now plays out all over London. He even guested an MOONDANCE NYE!
TYRONE, a techstyle resident and squat party DJ plays for us the first time. Expect Lots of chunky breakbeats and phat bass.
TONY FERREIRA is a long time friend of REDTRIP and swaps his techno head for a D'n'B one. This man plays some of the tuffest Drum 'n' bass we've ever heard!
D.B and DEADLIE were re-booked on the strength of thier redtrip debut a few monthsago. They both mix and MC AND BEAT BOX. Awesome party stopping stuff.
DONALIZE is our mixtape winner this time round. A well deserved guest.
MC’s on the night will be the talented STEELZ and HYPER from Redtrip. We understand MC’ing is not everyones cup of tea but these guys no when to let the music do the talking and when to ‘ave it……
Residents on the night will be the scratch master DJ RUTHLESS JIMMY JAMES, DJ LEX and PASSION.
Jolene Redtrip will be pole dancing alongside Shimmer. This is Shimmers Pole Dancing debut. Hannah and Zem will be gracing the podiums as usual. Worth the ticket price alone!
!! REMEMBER !!
Add your name to the "who's going" box for garaunteed concession rate!!!!!
DJ's, bring in your demo's!! We will be collecting them on the door.
UV Jewellery Stall courtesy of PING (T.B.C)
Crystal Clear Sound Systems
Clean venue
Absolutely wicked crowd!
FREE CD's given away throughout the night!
Flyer:
-
Region:
London
Music:
Trance. Acid Trance. Euro Trance. Hard Trance. Tech Trance. Psy Trance. Nu NRG. Hi NRG. HardStyle. Hard House. Acid Techno. Deep Techno. Funky Techno. Techno. Breaks.
D.a.v.e The Drummer (hydrualix / Stay Up Forever Collective)
Matt Style (Nu Energy Collective)
Tin Tin (dirty Dj's Tech Trance Warmup)
Skelp (tripple Bass Mix Tape Winner)
From: DJD4RKon 12th Feb 2005 03:14.24 Great interview guys and looking forward to experiencing my first Redtrip party next weekend!
Can I have a Hard slot at the next one please...please..please?!!
From: Norris123on 12th Feb 2005 18:29.06 Absolute legends, the lot of ya! Extra large amounts of and the biggest of big ups possible to all @ Redtrip.
See you next week.
From: ~deleted1390on 13th Feb 2005 19:12.46 A pleasure to interview. These guys (and girls) deserve massive success and I'm sure it is only a matter of time now they are at Deep Blue.
From: WEBBOon 13th Feb 2005 23:47.43 yep i agree the lovely lovely soound of acid , see u there for
some 303 madness
From: Elvison 14th Feb 2005 08:40.56 Wicked interview! all the best for you at Deep Blue!! Redtrip FOREVER!!!
From: marcopilfon 14th Feb 2005 11:56.08 big up to the Redtrip crew
From: Zemon 14th Feb 2005 13:15.24 RedTrip Can't wait for this weekend
From: James Jayeon 14th Feb 2005 15:10.07 Good stuff boys 'n' gals.wicked party.always a good laugh
From: Ashley Jameson 14th Feb 2005 15:40.23 Absolutely quality promotion. Such a nice bunch of people as well. It was an absolute honour to get to play for them.
From: Type 1on 15th Feb 2005 17:08.50 the redtrip cru are absalute legends!!!! looking forward to friday!! and in my fav small venue!!!
From: B.S.Eon 15th Feb 2005 19:14.15 Wicked interview guys! See you Friday!
From: Matt Styleon 15th Feb 2005 21:05.08 Nice write up LZ... Great bunch of people and a wicked party, roll on friday...
From: Flipon 15th Feb 2005 23:18.42 Cheers for the interview Dan, fridays gonna rock
From: slackyon 15th Feb 2005 23:28.48 Thanks people - look foward to seeing everyone Friday
From: Shimmeron 17th Feb 2005 13:13.06 Yey and i got mentioned i love you guys forever and ever and ever..... *evil laugh*..
Cant wait till friday
From: G-whizzon 17th Feb 2005 17:26.21 Cheers for the interview Dan !
From: Stannerson 20th Feb 2005 12:52.58 Good work dudes
From: Centurianon 27th Feb 2005 17:56.16 Dan, you've got your interviews down to a T mate. I'll do my best to be at the next party, always a pleasure seeing you all. Keep the good times rolling people!
All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by
their respective companies. All other content is (c) 2001-2025 HarderFaster.
![[HarderFaster] - Work Hard, Play Harder!](/images/mainbanner_top1.gif)
I met Slacky in 1999 shortly after he started going out with my sister (Jolene). At the time I was listening to metal constantly and playing guitar (I use to listen to hardcore and jungle in 93/94), and Slacky was into gabba at the time. As the two can be quite similar at times, I was borrowing tapes off him, and also Helter Skelter tape packs checking out the gabba sets, but then I started listening to Mark EG and M-Zone tapes and getting into techno and trance. It wasn’t until that NYE (millennium eve) when we all went to Pendragon that I met the rest of what would later become the Redtrip Collective. Since that day, I’ve never looked back.
(Hey, I’m always after another set…) 
) we done is a more uplifting hard trance track with a rather fierce kick, a nice German style bassline, and a cool acid riff.
RedTrip 
