‘Funkademia’ at One Central, Manchester has had a massive new rebirth since it moved to One Central Street; guesting on May 26th was a joy. It was very busy and plenty of people very into the tunes. Set off from home desperate to play the following peak time; And although I think some of the crowd would have preferred some of the Funkademia classics (Upside Down, I Want You Back etc) it worked; ‘God Made Me Phunky’ sounded absolutely immense and there were definitely people there who were blown away by it! Not played it in a set for years.
The promoters did a good job selling the night. Pretty good press release too; and this is it…
“Following on from the hugely successful Greg Wilson night last month we are very pleased to welcome our second Funkademia guest on Saturday May 29th – Dave Haslam. His sets at the Boardwalk during the legendary Yellow nights where a huge inspiration to us all at Funkademia Dave Haslam played at the famous Manchester institution the Hacienda over 450 times, mostly Thursdays and Saturdays through the ‘Madchester’ years in the late 1980s. He then returned to play at the club in 1996 and he was on the wheels of steel during the last night of the club in June 1997. Having supported The Stone Roses at the now famous spike island gig in June 1990, later that year Dave hosted the very first ‘Freedom’ at the Boardwalk which went on to book huge guest such as Pete Tong, Justin Robertson, Paul Oakenfold and Andrew Wetherall. In 1992 ‘Yellow’ at the Boardwalk was born, it was at the Boardwalk that Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim) made his Manchester debut playing to a packed Yellow dancefloor in August 1992. A Yellow reunion has been in operation since 2005, with the original DJs Dave Haslam and Jason Boardman playing each year to a capacity crowd of loyal Yellow followers. In addition to the yellow reunion Dave has recently been involved in the weekly Chica Chica Boom Saturday nights at the Rossetti, a monthly Sweet Sensation night held at Obsidian, Creamfields festival in Liverpool, a weekly radio show on XFM and regular DJ dates at South nightclub. Funkademia sells out every Saturday & we’re expecting a big one for Mr Haslams visit.”