Channel 4 throws the ultimate House Party

26 July 2012

In an unprecedented live television event, Channel 4 is to hand over creative control to six world-class DJs, including Grandmaster Flash and Annie Mac. And on the same night, Idris Elba returns to count down the defining moments of the greatest cultural phenomenon of our generation in a two-hour film, How Clubbing Changed the World.

In the past DJs have taken over warehouses, fields, car-parks and derelict office blocks. This summer, for the first time ever, DJs take control of a national broadcaster to bring the country together with a six-hour House Party.

With no advert breaks, no commentary and no interruptions, this all night takeover will see a line-up of top international DJs play live to the nation with six hour-long sets in a clubbing experience like no other - this is not a programme about clubbing; this is the club. Channel 4 will turn the television into the ultimate DJ booth with the party blasting through the TV, phone and laptop screens, without the mediation of a presenter or studio audience, to transform living rooms, bedrooms and bars across the nation into dance floors.

 

Commissioned by Arts Commissioner Tabitha Jackson, and part of the London 2012 Festival, this six-hour live event is a visually exciting, experimental and interactive night of music, highlighting the importance of innovation in Arts on Channel 4. House Party aims to push the boundaries of conventional programming and offer audiences a totally new party experience.

Jackson said: ‘There are four things about this all-nighter that excite me. Firstly, almost every element is uncharted territory: from the visual artists having to transform our screens by responding live to the DJs; to the scale of the real time on-screen and online interactivity; to the DJs having to reach directly into our living rooms rather than playing to a venue. If we can pull it off, we will have created a pretty unique experience.'

‘Secondly, great DJing is about much more than just hitting play and standing there with your hands in the air. We are about to get up-close and personal with some of the world's best exponents of the real art of turntablism.'

‘2012 is also the perfect summer for this television event. The weather has been rubbish and money is tight. There's never been a better time for us to throw the ultimate house-party bring an awesome line up of talent directly into your living room for free. All you have to worry about is making sure you have enough friends and big speakers.'

‘Perhaps the most radically innovative element of the night is that, in direct contrast to the new on-demand TV landscape, House Party is a genuine one off. It will not be repeated and it will not be available on 4oD. Like all the best club nights and parties if you want to be there you do have to actually turn up by tuning in. Don't miss the House Party...'

The DJs - many of whom are stadium fillers and festival favourites in their own right - leave their meticulously prepared ‘main-stage' sets at home to go back to their DJ roots. The face of UK rap and Radio 1Xtra presenter Charlie Sloth is Master of Ceremonies, and the line-up includes: a founding father of New York rap, the legendary Grandmaster Flash, internationally renowned club and radio DJ and new talent champion Annie Mac; one of the original superstar DJs, platinum-selling artist Erick Morillo; acclaimed DJ collective Horse Meat Disco; and the incredible Jazzie B, Aitch B, Jazzy Q and MC Chickaboo from the Grammy-Award winning legendary London sound system Soul II Soul and Canadian-born, A-Trak who won the world's most prestigious DJ award (the DMC World Championship) at the age of  15 and was recruited by Kanye West to be his personal tour DJ.

In addition to the top DJ talent on offer, a selection of the nation's most exciting cutting edge VJs, computer animators and graphic artists will provide constant video and graphics, playing visual sets every bit as live and unrehearsed as the DJs' musical selections.

The VJs include Weirdcore - who has previously made live tour visuals for Aphex Twin, MIA, Ford & Lopatin and The Horrors, Ninjatune's Hexstatic who will be performing separately on the night, BlinkinLAB (who has worked with Pet Shop Boys, Chase and Status, Janet Jackson), Asyzk and Jack Featherstone.

Alongside the DJs and VJs, the booth will also include a brand new third element of the clubbing experience: Social Media Controllers, who will provide a live and super-reactive link between the audience and the booth. Just like at any other nightclub or house party, people on the dance floor in their homes around the UK will be able to shout out their requests, chat to each other, salute a genius selection (or boo a dud) through the many social media sites hooked up to the booth online and via the House Party website.

House Party (1 x 6 hours) is made by ACME Films (Life of Rhyme and The Antics Roadshow and Banksy All Nighter, from Channel 4's Street Summer 2011). The executive producer is Jaimie D'Cruz (Exit Through The Gift Shop, Grierson Award 2010, Bafta and Oscar nominated 2011) and Paul Dugdale is the director (director of live shows and music videos for The Prodigy, Florence and The Machine, Metronomy, Jessie J and Faithless).

 

HOW CLUBBING CHANGED THE WORLD
 
Before the live takeover begins in House Party, and following the success of 2011's How Hip Hop Changed The World and featuring some of the biggest names in dance music, actor and international DJ Idris Elba returns to count down the defining moments of the greatest cultural phenomenon of our generation in a two-hour film, How Clubbing Changed the World.
 
Twenty-five years since the birth of Rave, a new generation of British DJs and producers are at the forefront of a global musical revolution. With personal insights and club-raising anecdotes from David Guetta, Armand van Helden, Paul Oakenfold, Will I Am, Nile Rodgers, Goldie, Pete Tong, Katy B, Skream and former Home Secretary Michael Howard plus many more this entertaining and thought-provoking two-hour film celebrates the British success story that has conquered the world.
 
How Clubbing Changed the World explores how clubbing went from a counter cultural movement that defined a generation to a multi-billion pound business whilst revealing how 25 years on Great Britain is still king of the underground.
 
This 1 x 120m film is produced by Fresh One Productions, executive produced by Jeremy Lee and Idris Elba, and directed by Sam Bridger.

How Clubbing Changed the World will be broadcast Friday 24th August at 10pm, and House Party will go out live from midnight to 6am. @C4HouseParty

 

Notes to Editors:

 

LONDON 2012 FESTIVAL

The London 2012 Festival is the spectacular 12-week nationwide celebration running from 21 June until 9 September 2012 bringing together leading artists from across the world with the very best from the UK.

Ruth Mackenzie, Director, London 2012 Festival and Cultural Olympiad, said: ‘Channel 4 is throwing a party like no other for the London 2012 Festival and the whole country is invited. With world-class DJs and cutting edge visual artists turning up at your house, make sure you don't miss out on a great night in'.#

 

GRANDMASTER FLASH
Grandmaster Flash was one of the founding fathers of the New York Rap and block party scene of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.  He was one of the first DJs to treat the turntables as a musical instrument creating cut-ups of funk, disco and soul records to lay the musical foundations of hip hop. Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five's ground-breaking track The Message was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame this year - making Flash the first DJ and hip hop artist ever to be inducted to the Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame and the Grammy Hall Of Fame.

ANNIE MAC
A club DJ who has earned a reputation as a tastemaker and talent-finder, Annie champions cutting edge artists and gives a platform to her favourite DJs with her Radio 1 show and her club night Annie Mac Presents. A Curator of events like Bestival, Annie is just as likely to drop a disco classic or soul anthem as music from the most underground new talent and emerging stars.

 

ERICK MORILLO
Platinum-selling artist Erick Morillo is one of the most in-demand and instantly recognisable DJs in the world. He was one of the original superstar DJs, and has produced some of the biggest tunes in house music for almost two decades under his various monikers. From running his own record label Subliminal for more than a decade to his coveted residency at Ministry of Sound - he is still one of the only American DJs to ever hold one - and now his legendary Subliminal Sessions parties at Pacha, Ibiza, where he celebrates his historical 15th season this year. Morillo is arguably responsible for introducing R&B to dance music via his collaboration with P Diddy back in 2005, and he still regularly headlines festivals from South West Four to the mammoth Ultra Music Festival in Miami.

 

HORSE MEAT DISCO
Now into their eighth year, Horse Meat Disco have continued to lead the way with packed residencies at their HQ at The Eagle in London's Vauxhall, Lux in Lisbon and with the Tape organisation in Berlin. Inspired by the music and inclusive ethos of New York's club scene during the '70s and '80s, the collective of James Hillard, Jim Stanton, Luke Howard and Severino Panzetta, have garnered a unique reputation for amazing parties and unmatchable sets, the quartet of DJs each mixing their own individual quality blend of disco juice with all manner of dance floor fillers: be it punk funk, Italo, house, electric bangers or plain old oddities. Following a recent sell-out festival tour with DFA in Australia and international appearances at top fashion house Chanel and festivals such as Glastonbury, Bestival, Lovebox and San Francisco Pride the team are a party syndicate to be reckoned with.

 

CHARLIE SLOTH
MC Charlie Sloth hosts a weekly show on BBC Radio 1Xtra and The Rap Show on BBC Radio 1. Charlie came up through London's pirate radio and club world - establishing a solid reputation as an ever-inventive and entertaining MC in both the UK garage and hip hop scenes. In 2007 he began to make and release his own records, as well as his own videos. His real breakthrough moment came when he decided to take the one man band approach to its logical conclusion, recording the ups and downs of the life of an independent British rap artist with his own weekly online show, Being Charlie Sloth. The show was an instant hit and was picked up by World Star Hip Hop, the US based hip hop video site where it was soon averaging over a million hits a week. Charlie is a self-made artist for the new media generation.

 

SOUL II SOUL
Led by producer, vocalist, songwriter Jazzie B, Soul II Soul are one of the UK's most successful R 'n' B outfits. They have sold over 6.8 million albums worldwide, Jazzie has accreditation on over 35 million albums in over 100 territories and he has appeared at some of the most famous venues in the world including Wembley and New York's Universal Amphitheatre. Jazzie won the 2008 Ivor Novello Award for Inspiration, and the same year was awarded an OBE for services to music. Jazzie B has not only produced a string of successful cuts for Soul II Soul, but he's also managed to produce and re-mix tracks for the likes of The Fine Young Cannibals, James Brown, Public Enemy, Sinead O'Connor, Ziggy Marley, Nas and Destiny's Child. Jazzie now runs a successful independent label called Soul II Soul Recordings out of his studio in London and also presents weekly radio show for BBC Radio London.

 

A-TRAK
The career of Canadian born, New York-based A-Trak, aka Alain Macklovitch, began at age 15 when he won the 1997 DMC World Championships and proceeded to take home every other DJ title known to man. In 2004, he was handpicked by Kanye to be his tour DJ. In today's DJ culture, A-Trak holds a truly unique place. He and partner Nick Catchdubs founded the Fool's Gold label and A-Trak is now one of the most sought-after remixers in electronic music, and his remixes for the likes of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Boys Noize. 2009 saw the release of two critically acclaimed DJ mixes, Infinity +1 and Fabriclive 45, as well as the birth of Duck Sauce, his collaboration with Armand Van Helden which produced 2011's most uniquely-monikered dance hit 'Barbara Streisand'. After years of schlepping vinyl, accumulating air miles and dressing smart, A-Trak has finally become the man to call to make the kids dance. Ask him and he'll tell you that this is the moment he's been waiting for his whole career.

 

WEIRDCORE
Weirdcore specialises in extreme freestyle whatever-ness, in the form of abstract graphics, music videos, fashion promos, custom made AV toys and live tour visuals for various artists, such as Aphex Twin, MIA, Simian Mobile Disco, Ford & Lopatin, Cassette Playa, the Horrors & more... + in process of making stuff for DOOM & Die Antwoord. The person behind Weirdcore who is of english/french heritage & based in London, prefers to remain anonymous in the eyes of any media/press, because why should anyone care...? The weirdcore aesthetic is never intentionally set in any style & is purely based on dynamic visual impact + no real philosophy/rules in the method other than not necessarily doing the expected.

 

HEXSTATIC
Hexstatic are Stuart Warren-Hill and Robin Brunson who in 2000 released the UK's first audio-visual album ‘Rewind'. They have done video mash ups for everyone from Ninjatune to George Michael, and directed videos for the likes of Faithless and Shapeshifters. 

 

BLINKINLAB
Tom Wall is creative director of moving image design company 'blinkinLAB' which he formed in 2006. The main focus of his work is the creation of visual content for bands and DJ's to use on LED installations and projection mapped surfaces at live events. Over the last 5 years, he has worked for numerous artists including: Leftfield, Chase and Status, Pendulum, Pet Shop Boys, Janet Jackson, Eric Prydz, Swedish House Mafia, Submotion Orchestra, Deadmau5, Armin van Buuren. As a performance VJ Tom has played at numerous clubs and festivals including Ministry of Sound, Secret Garden Party, V Festival and Outlook Festival in Croatia.

 

ASZYK
Aszyk is the performance name of Neal Coghlan and Matt Bullock. Coming from backgrounds in design, illustration and animation, they have a perfect mix of skills when it comes to creating dazzling visual works. Their compositions consist of complex, multi-layered clips - all triggered to the music and made to sync with different elements within a track. Expect to see an array of evolving abstract shapes, tribal masks and a piece of toast with a face.

JACK FEATHERSTONE

Jack Featherstone is a multi-disciplined artist and designer. His work incorporates traditional design techniques, abstract animation and other forms of digital and non-digital image making. Creating work both for himself and select clients including Wallpaper*, Wired, It's Nice That, Border Community Records, Horse Meat Disco and Simian Mobile Disco.