Peace and Love at LAB11 - Review

Image: LAB11 Credit: Tom Horton

With it being the final bank holiday weekend of the year, it also meant ravers were spoilt for choice to lose themselves in one last debauched affair before crashing back to reality and either heading back to their 9-5's or finishing their degrees. What better way to spend it than at LAB11's Peace and Love all dayer, which featured some of house musics big heavy hitters.

When entering the main terrace area in the afternoon, the event was already in full swing, as deep house legend Kerri Chandler had already taken to the decks to get the party started. With over 25 years of experience under his belt and having racked up staple house tracks like 'Bar A Thym' and his own remix of The System's 80's funk fuelled 'Your in My System', this guy proves that the originators are still on top of their game amongst the youngsters. 

The New Jersey big daddy played a variety of 90s classics that ranged from Johnny Corporate's joyous Ibiza banger 'Sunday Shoutin', Byron Stingily's feel good anthem 'Get Up Everybody', Armand Van Helden's seminal classic 'U Don't Know Me'. We were also treated to fellow 90s house pioneers Masters At Work's soul shaking track 'I Can't Get No Sleep', which got the up-for-it crowd moving to the pulsating beats.

We then went to check out the Arch area and caught local resident DJ Kiddo spinning to the second city masses. The Glas clubnight regular fed the sweaty clubber's more house gems, in the shape of last years Jazzanova and Ben Westbeech's sleazy tunage 'I Can See', as the all dayer started to shift into night time. 

Afterwards it was then onto Pets Recordings head honcho's Catz N Dogz to carry on the nights filthy beats. The set sounded like they had stepped straight off a plane from one of their residencies in Ibiza and included the duo's signature blend of bass-heavy house tracks with a mixture of glitchy techno vibes, especially when they dropped their Eats Everything collab 'Evil Tram' that got the crowd pumped up into a frenzy.

Stepping up to the dub plates to carry on the nights proceedings was born and bred Brummie duo Cause & Affect aka Chris Lorenzo and Kane. Taking a glance around the room it was clear to see that the selectors were a firm with the crowd, especially when dropping Sandy B's 90's dancefloor favourite 'Make My World Go Round'. It got the hungry revellers throwing their hands in the air, hugging the sweaty person next to them and reaching for the celling.

Having a 6am finish meant the party heads could carry on the shenanigans into the early hours of the morning, never feeling like their fun was cut short. Having bumped into fellow ravers from the raucous Acid Future spectacle from a few weeks back, it goes to show that the party attracted dedicated ravers, who were drawn in by the mixture of the intimate, industrial surroundings. The gyrating beats only added to the coming togetherness of the event.

The Brummie rave calendar is bursting with quality events, with series like The Rainbow Venues' Imaginarium cropping up, and if they attract the same decent, music-crazy crowd, we're sure they'll be more peace and love in the city.

Like this? Try Kaoz conversations with Kerri Chandler

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