Bigfoot’s Tea Party are in the Sub Club this Friday for their first event of the year – kindly making it free entry before midnight. We caught up with the crew to have a chat about their plans for 2015…
Let’s pick up where 2014 finished – your last party of the year was the Bigfoot’s 6th Birthday with Radio Slave – he’s been key figure in house and techno for a long time now but hadn’t played Scotland for nearly 4 years – did the night go how you expected?
Wrick: We’d spent much of the early evening having a freak out though when his flight was delayed and then he missed the connection in London. For a while it looked like he might not make it, but everything worked out fine. Things like that end up adding to the experience eventually, once we knew everything was cool and we could start enjoying ourselves.
Chris: Yeah I really enjoyed it, his set was on a perfect vibe for that night and it was great to warm up for him. Always a pleasure to play music with your favourite DJs.
George: Half of Glasgow had been out on a big one all weekend, but as Chris said he pitched it just right. A really nice guy too, as professional as you would expect from someone who has been at the top so long – basically after a whole day of travelling, being shoved out of the arrivals gate and into the back of a car, raced across to Sub Club and into the DJ booth – he just went with it, not a single complaint – he obviously still loves what he does. We were on a roll last year of seeming to only invite DJs that were actually sound to hang around with as well.
Can you pick out some other highlights of 2014 – there were Bigfoot parties in Aberdeen and Stirling too, right?
Wrick: Definitely. There were so many though… last January to start with, when Chris and I played the Sub Club ourselves for the whole night – probably one of my favourite ever gigs – that’s why I’m looking forward to this weekend! We’re normally warming up for guests on a Friday night so it gives us a chance to play some of the bangers we’ve been accumulating over the years. I think all our nights at Subbie have to get mentioned as highlights really. Mr. Ties and nd_baumecker have been two stand-out DJs for me the last couple years, so managing to give them 3 or 4 hours sets at Subbie was great
Chris: For me, Mr. Ties was probably my favourite guest. I’ve seen him play a few times and he always blows me away – you really don’t know what he is going to do next. Giving him the full four hours and hearing him play the first record with nobody else in the club was a cool experience.
Wrick: Outside of Glasgow the Stirling Old Town Jail with Harri & Dom and Sensu was ridiculous. That was a collaboration with Creative Stirling who did a great job – on top of a hill in Stirling Town centre – then there was the after party inside the jail! Probably the most poignant highlight of 2014 though was having Floorplan play the last ever Friday at Snafu in Aberdeen – quite possibly the craziest night we’ve had in there (and there have been many), what a send off!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHCsK68hr9Y
Has much changed in Aberdeen since the closure of Snafu?
George: It’s obviously going to be difficult to fill the shoes of a club that was so important to the city such a long time – almost a decade. And personally – most of the people originally involved in Bigfoot’s met at Snafu, so it was a tough one to swallow when news broke that the club was closing. There are still a lot of great people in Aberdeen who love good music, so that is why it’s important that The Tunnels is building a new family.
Chris: Yeah there wasn’t anywhere else like it in the city, and it was the club I spent my student loan in – I met a lot of close friends through working and partying there. Also it’s where I first got to DJ, so it was horrible to see it close after so many good years. We are looking forward to getting back up there though and hoping to avoid any jail time!
Wrick: For all of us, definitely. I mean we were doing regular parties there for the several years. It was such an important part of the city’s music scene, so yeah, it’s definitely going to have some affect but the city certainly hasn’t lost it’s appetite for good music. With The Tunnels being taken over now there’s still a lot of promoters putting on quality nights. After Robert Hood, we only did two other parties in Aberdeen – Move D and Nina Kraviz with Minival – but they were both excellent and I think we’re all looking forward to what’s in store this year.
You have plans to host parties out with Glasgow again this year then?
Wrick: Along with Aberdeen, we’ve got plans for Edinburgh, Stirling and Berlin.
George: I’m living in Berlin at the moment so we are planning to do some over there throughout year.. Our Aberdeen 2015 series is taking shape as well, with The Tunnels starting to kick off we’ve got some exciting DJ bookings and a few big residents parties planned.
Tell us a bit about Farbfernseher in Berlin, will that become a regular fixture in the Bigfoot calendar?
Chris: We hope it will be a regular fixture for us. We’ve always liked going to different places to put Bigfoot’s parties on, this carries a little extra weight though being in Berlin.
Wrick: It’s our first party in the city, so it’s very early days but it would be amazing if we manage to start something regular there. George can maybe fill you in more about the club; I’ve not actually been yet myself, but I know it’s got a great reputation, and with such a small capacity and so many friends coming over it’s going to be wild. We’ve also got a guest who’s album is forthcoming on Dekmantel – so it’s shaping up pretty well.
George: It’s a great little spot, only fits abut 100 people, split over two levels with a decent sound system. Each time I’ve gone down there things have been going off, so it’s the perfect place for us to start in Berlin I think.
This Friday is your first date of the year what can we expect from the Bigfoot’s Sub Club residency in 2015?
George: It’s actually fairly strange – we have pretty much everything for the year locked down already. Things have been going smoothly lately. There are still one or two things I want to tie up though, but better to not mention them…
Wrick: Yeah we’ve got most of our guests for the year agreed already, and although I think 2014 was one of the best years we’ve had in terms of the quality of guests we’ve invited (baumecker, Mr Ties, Makam, Flugel, Kraviz, Move D, Floorplan), 2015’s going to provide some pretty stiff competition. We’ll have a mix of live acts and DJs, with several more Scottish debuts. I’m looking forward to it all kicking-off on Friday
Take note, for Friday there are no advance tickets and it’s FREE ENTRY before midnight then £7 after.