Another gorgeous Northern Quarter video

This time it's footage from the BANG street party on 24 August, filmed by Sarah Jenny Johnson. Beautiful.

BANG STREET PARTY from Sarah Jenny Johnson on Vimeo.

‘Manchester: In Residents’ ... #30 James

'It's crazy how a small city like this can have so many promoters and artists out there putting on their own stuff and making a really good go of it, and there's a real togetherness between most of them too...'

What’s your name?

James Victor Travis, or JVT... Or just James if you prefer. Never Jamie or J, though.

What do you do?

I work in Social Media for a popular hotel booking site in the centre of the city, it's a pretty good day job to be honest. I'm also the chap behind the Dots & Loops club and gigs, and sometimes DJ elsewhere when people will have me. Other than that, I'll probably be at home listening to Leonard Cohen.

Where do you live?

I'm living with my girlfriend in West Didsbury at the moment, just off Burton Road. The flat is kinda weird because it's above a house share that we have to pass through to get to it, but it's totally our own space. The other day we needed to get access to the basement below the house share to store some junk, and it turns out the basement is a disused recording studio. I mean, it isn't in operational order right now, but it's pretty damn cool down there. 

Tell us the story of how you ended up in Manchester.

It's hard to elaborate on how I ended up somewhere I've always been. I was brought up in Rochdale and studied at Salford Uni for a couple of years and I never made the decision to move away anywhere else. I've often considered moving away, but it never came off for one reason or another... it's definitely likely in a few years or so, but I'm quite comfortable for the time being. 

What’s great about this city?

There's never a lack of good shows or events, and it's a really creative place with a good atmosphere. It's crazy how a small city like this can have so many promoters and artists out there putting on their own stuff and making a really good go of it, and there's a real togetherness between most of them too. The record stores, of course... People complain about the weather, but I quite like it these days.

What’s not so great?

The high street is pretty awful. People can say what they like about HMV, but to see that store close down and become a 3-storey bargain place is pretty depressing. It's just scaled down supermakets and mobile phone stores now. Piccadilly Gardens is a real mess too, and that big wheel hasn't done much for it. I really can't tolerate Spinningfields, but each to their own and all that. I'm not really a city centre kind of guy I suppose.

Do you have a favourite Manchester building?

The old fire station by Piccadilly train station, it's a really impressive building, absolutely stunning. It's a real shame that Britannia Hotels (who own the building) continue to neglect it. They came up with some nonsense about there being no demand for more hotels in the city, but then you see there's more and more hotels being proposed and approved every year. It's really hard for me to understand what they're trying to do there, very unusual. Hopefully there can be some kind of resolution soon, but it's been 20-something years as far as I'm aware, so I'll not hold my breath. It's not like a new hotel would be my preferred option for the place anyway, but it needs to be SOMETHING. The worst building? Has to be that premier inn. What a shocker.

Do you have a favourite Mancunian?

I don't really have a favourite Mancunian that comes to mind. I guess I'll be real nice and say my Papa. It certainly ain't Ian Brown, anyway! Mark E Smith is a funny guy, I like him. Don't reckon he'd like me much, mind...

What’s your favourite pub/bar/club/restaurant/park/venue?

This is real difficult, there's plenty of nice places! I suppose my favourite places would be Fuel and Kraak. Always a great atmosphere in both those places, and plenty of interesting stuff going on. Islington Mill is fantastic... The Castle is nice to pop in for a good drink and a sit down, and the venue space is pretty handy too. I generally like to stay in with a few records though, and burton road has a really great beer store now called The Epicurean. It isn't cheap, but it's good to be able to just pop into a place and pick up some drinks you're used to only being able to buy at trendy bars here and there.

What do you think is missing from Manchester?

I think we were missing a good medium sized venue, but the Albert Hall  has that covered really well now. Burton Road really needs a grocery store, I'll say that. I don't think there's enough good outdoor areas in the centre of the city, nowhere to really sit down and relax in the middle of all the madness. That's maybe something they could work on, starting with Piccadilly Gardens.

If I was Mayor for a day I would …

Make the Metrolink free of charge. Hell, that ain't no kind of service to be charged for.

Who else would you like to nominate to answer this questionnaire?

Kev Rolfe. He's got his own label going on now, and is always involved in other great stuff. He's off around America for a few months but you should grab him after that.

Dots& Loops 8^th Birthday is on July 4th including a DJ set from special guest Bob Stanley (Saint Etienne) plus live sets from The Oscillation & Dead Sea Apes. Kraak. 9pm till 4am. £8 advance, £10 on the door. Event page here. 

Will the real Niallist please step forward ...?

The Nialiist is one of those enviously hyper-productive modernists: a musician, blogger, party organiser, remixer etc etc... But just who IS the real Niallist, or better yet, who the hell does he THINK he is? Let's get him...!

Photo by Nickie

How did you get into music and parties and what motivates you to bring new things to the scene?

I've been into music since I was a child but I've been DJing and putting on nights since the late 90s when I lived in Glasgow. The music scene there is very healthy and it taught me a lot - people there take the music very seriously and can be pretty harsh, but it forces you to up your game all the time.

I'm part of a night in Glasgow called Menergy, which is a drag-and-disco party, and when I moved to Manchester a few years ago I knew immediately that this was the perfect city to do something similar. We had put on a vogue ball in Glasgow and when I met Joe Spencer we decided to put one on here too. That was our first party, Vogue Brawl at Legends in January of 2011, which was a big success and that basically was the birth of Tranarchy, our art/music/parties collective.

Tranarchy is all about creating a safe space for all the freaks and weirdos to come together and have a good time to some great music. As the name suggests, it's very drag and queer-oriented, and we're also into putting on parties in unusual locations, like our recent outlaw tram party Tramarchy:

Tell us three singles/albums/videos/artists that inspire you to do what you do.

1)...Daft Punk, Homework

This was the record that made me think I could make music myself without having to rely on a band, I just needed to get some boxes and pump them up! Homework also acted as an amazing crash course in Chicago house, Detroit techno and New York disco. I think this album changed an entire generation's musical lives, and you can still hear its influence fifteen years later.

2)... anything at all by Missy Elliot

Missy is such an inspiration – she's always pushing the envelope in visual and musical terms, while remaining accessible and unpretentious. To me Missy is the artist who represents that golden age a few years back when chart-topping pop music was genuinely bizarre. She's also representing for all the big peeps who consider themselves to be ‘freaks’!

3)... Azealia Banks, ‘Liquorice’

I think I'm falling in love with Azealia Banks. ‘Liquorice’ is the follow up to last year's dance floor smash ‘212’ and is basically just her rapping over a track by the house producer Lone. I'm impressed that she picked this track to rap over, and her flow is fresh and unique. It's the return of hip-house! I'm hoping her album is this good…

Share three of your own musical creations with us that you're most proud of, or that say most about you.

1) My current album AKA is available now as a free download at akamixtape.com – everyone should go grab a copy! There are loads of guests on there, including Cherie Lily, Yo Majesty, Scream Club, Beth Ditto, Andrew WK and rappers from the ‘homo-hop’ scene. Musically it's got quite a hip-hop vibe, but crossed with my usual electro-funk and Chicago house influences.

2) I've put together a mix for my new club night starting on Friday at Night & Day on Oldham St. The night is called Bang The Box and is all about the 808, the 909 and the 303! There's 44 tracks in 52 minutes on this, covering old skool rap, freestyle electro, Chicago house and newer things like New Orleans sissy bounce and the modern vogue/’cunty beats’ scene.

3) And here's an oldie but goodie - this is my single ‘The Hots’ which was released on the respected techno/electro label Dissident about three years ago. It's heavily influenced by hi-nrg producer Bobby O, and also a bit of the Human League, but slowed down and with way more sleaze:

Tell us three events we should be excited about and WHY, damnit!

Well, firstly my new night Bang The Box which is Friday 6^th April at Night and Day. I'll be DJing all night long playing my favourite tunes (booty-bass meets acid house meets disco) and mixing things up on Ableton with a few added drum machines for extra funkiness. Those boxes will get banged!

The following Friday it's the UK live debut of New York's vogue queen Cherie Lily, at Kraak Gallery in the Northern Quarter, presented by Tranarchy. We've been hammering Cherie's single ‘Werk’ at all our events because it's a floor-filling modern classic (‘i-i-i-i-icon!’) so to have her over to perform it live is gonna be very special! Also Cherie's husband Andrew WK might put in a wee appearance…

April 27th sees Trouble At T'Mill at Islington Mill, event curated by Trash-O-Rama, where I will be playing alongside the Drunk At Vogue posse, which will be a lot of fun and which I am looking forward to.

And if I can just squeeze one more event in, I wanna plug Hunx And His Punx performing live at Islington Mill on Sunday May 13^th. Myself and Kurt Dirt are preparing a very special Tranarchy live show in support that will feature drag queens, leather priests, motorbikes and more...

DAISY AGE // STREET TUFF // GHETTO FABULOUS

OFF THE HOOK

24.3.12

KRAAK, NORTHERN QUARTER, MANCHESTER

CHECK IT OUT

Drunk At Vogue

Drunk At Vogue

The House Of Popular Disco

Party Number II

24.2.12

Kraak

Northern Quarter

Mcr

10.30pm till late

Come.

It’s An Off The Hook Christmas

Off The Hook is in its second year. We’re toddling! Or is it bogling? Either way it’s hard to believe we’ve been sweating it on the dancefloor all that time with our amazing posse of hipsters and drag queens and bears (oh my).

Our formula is dead simple: African-American pop for North of England homos and their homies. That basically means if it’s got a good beat then we’ll chuck it in: hip-hop, RnB, disco, reggae, daisy age, dance energy, guilty pleasures, you name it.

Our heroes are Michael Jackson and OutKast and Prince and Flava Flav and Stevie Wonder and Eric B and Rakim and Jay Z and Wu Tang and Billy Ocean. Our Soul Mammas are Neneh Cherry and Queen Latifah and Janet and Salt N Pepa and Beyonce and Roxanne Shante and Aaliyah and Mariah and Amerie and Cookie Crew and Jamelia and Rihanna (we like our girls…)

We encourage: dressing up, bringing it, copping off.

We discourage: being cool, laying low, pale imitations.

So Christmas music is basically toilet, yes? WRONG. Everyone plays the same Yuletide crap year after year while the gems lie forgotten like broken Christmas lights at the bottom of the box. Well here's a bunch of sparkly Christmas tunes to restore your faith in that end of year groove. We couldn’t let the end of year slip by without a good list could we?

Get your full firm festive asses down to our Off The Hook Xmas Party and you can shake it to all of these and more. Our spesh guests star DJs this time are Matt Rothery and Dave Dobson, aka Wasp Nest. Check out the amazing mix they made for us right here.

... and then there's this....

Pride Alternatives and Alternative Pride

Last year, for the first time in ages, I bought a wristband for the Gay Village over Pride weekend. I wanted to go to Pumping Iron (which was brilliant) and I wanted to see Kelis (but we couldn’t get into the enclosure). This year I don’t have many reasons to brave the fences that shoot up in my neighbourhood overnight. I had to Google ‘Pixie Lott’ (nope, not ringing any bells) and ‘Alexandra Burke’ too (shocking isn’t it? … I run an RnB night too …) My favourite thing about Pride weekend is the feeling that for one long weekend we own the city. I need to be able to see the city to get that feeling so no fences for me this year.

Besides, this year’s official Pride Fringe events, which either take place on dates before The Big Weekend or in venues outside the Village, or both, are varied and impressive and can be found listed in a handy PDF guide HERE.

Aside from all of that you could do a lot worse than camp out at Kraak for three days. Recently name-checked in the Guardian as one of the best crossover venues in the country, Kraak, off Stevenson Square in the Northern Quarter, boats a devoted studio/gallery space and, just across the tiny alleyway, a club/gig venue to boot.

Art-wise, Kraak Gallery will be home to the ‘Queer Kraak Art Show’ kicking off the long weekend on Thursday 25^th with a morphing roster of visual art, performance, music and discussion. Think of it as ground-zero for meeting the most creative queers in the city for the whole weekend. Eyes peeled too for rumoured renegade guerrilla art happenings on late Thursday afternoon down Canal Street itself before the gates are erected … Queer Kraak Art Show runs until September 1st and whatever your taste in art (or sex for that matter) remember that venues like this one are an asset to the city, go and find out why.

Friday 26^th is my very own party, Off The Hook, taking all the butch/femme/queer dancefloor appeal of RnB culture and dishing it up to our friendly and frankly gorgeous punters. Our last party at Kraak was our best yet, it’s a venue that makes everyone feel at home and we did. We play RnB, hip-hop, Motown, reggae, soul, disco and straight up shameless pop, 10 pm till 4 am. Don’t ask me for funky house you’ll only make me cry, Canal Street is thatta way … ‘She-rapper she-rapper wicked ‘n’ mean ….’

Saturday 27th is the inspirationally-named ‘Tranarchy’, presenting their special ‘Showgirls’ Party. The remit: ‘celebrating the best and most outrageous in Manchester's drag and alt queer cultures!’ These kids pulled off the legendary Vogue Brawl so this will be epic. Early doors at 8 pm if you want to get inspired by the appallingly good movie itself. The Blige Sisters and Pumping Iron DJs are amongst the array of post-movie entertainment.

Sunday 28th and no Pride Weekend would be complete without Club Brenda and Manchester’s Queer Patron Saint David Hoyle providing a moral corrective to your lavish mainstream leanings. Brandish your wristbands in glorious shame! (if you’ve got ‘em ...) David will be joined by Twat Boutique DJs and Organ Freeman, both of which are a pleasure simply to TYPE. Party starts 9 pm.

Whatever you’re doing for Pride, whatever your gender and your affiliation, whatever your taste in music, have a lovely time.