JFK's Birthday at Passion - 20/09/03
Review by Johny Favourite
Photos by Johny Favourite and Tranceking

Some things are just not to be missed. JFK's Birthday at passion is one of those things.

We'd already had promises of the new passion album being mixed live and the jelly and ice cream. But would the night live up to my expectations? To counter this out the mpfs team included some passion virgins. This way we could get a un biased view of the night. Helen, a media student from Newark, and Simon were our guinea pigs. Both had little experience of clubbing outside the local Ritz. To complete the line up we had Mark Stephenson, a DJ who had played at Storm (Passion's sister Hard house night), to review the Storm back room.

As always with a night out to passion, preparation is everything. A bottle of vodka and 8 cans of red bull and the crew were ready to set off. A quick jaunt up the A46 and then right a bit and we were there. As with passion of late there is never a huge queue. We walked straight in to find JFK banging it out with his usual energy and enthusiasm. And from the looks on everyone's faces the party really had started! The dance floor was packed as usual so the crew decided to make a run for one of the chill out rooms.

Once there you could get a real feel of how busy it was. The bar was packed and all around us there was electricity in the air. It brought back the memories from last year and all of my fears of the night not living up to the previous years vanished. The virgins had settled in with ease, drink in hand I could tell they were ready to go. First port of call was to the birthday man himself. Either this man had gone to bed the night before with a coat hanger in his mouth or he was enjoying himself. It moments like these that people like JFK do clubland proud. He was giving passion a present for his birthday. 6 hours worth of birthday present. The crowd was acting as if all their birthdays had come at once.

The next stop was the highlight of the night for us all. The red room was hosted tonight by Storm, the friday hard house night held at the emporium. Nick Lunn was banging out his own version of hard dance, fusing techno and hard house beats together effortlessly. Although it wasn't exactly packed I was surprised at how many people were there. All had their heads down and were dancing away at pace.

After a little bit of stomping, we headed to the green room for a chill. This is where we were greeting with nice surprise number 2. Mpfs favourite, Yaz, was gracing the decks and was setting a feel to the room with his funky classics. Alongside him, John G was banging out some modern anthems. Taking it in turns with 30-minute sets, these guys were rocking the room big style. A quick meet up with some of the site regulars and we were once again ready for some action!!

To the main room we went and so we could get a good view of the battlefield we hit the high ground. At that moment the place went mental. Ferry Corstens 'Rock your body, Rock' was blasting out and everyone was bouncing about like a chimp on a space hopper. For the next 30 minutes the mpfs crew found themselves stuck on a stage about 6 foot above the ground watching as JFK tore the dance floor to shread with anthem after anthem.

Then the crew returned to the Red room once more to hear the most impressive hard house set of 2003. Richie G was gracing the decks and the records were harder than necrophiles penis in a mortery. The mixing was flawless and the whole place was jumping up and down as if their feet were on fire. Richie G, the storm resident, is certainly someone to keep your eye on. BIg tunes included Equinox - Electronic Revolution (Glazby mix) and Base Graffiti - The Hulk to name but a few.

Before we knew it, night was drawing to a end. Once again, we trekked to the blue room for the now famous JFK last tune. The man did not disappoint one bit. Ending the night on mpfs classic 'silenced by fear' the crowd loved the latest remix of Delerium's silence. And then JFK and co put on their 118 bibs and sang to the rocky theme, much like the advert.

So in all? We didn't see any jelly and ice cream however whatever we did do is have a night that no one will forget. I'm off now to buy the Passion album and a 118 bib so I can relive the memories in my living room.