Bedrock's 11th anniversary at Matter was amazing, as always. A Bedrock night is almost always guaranteed to be a great clubbing night, regardless of the company, or the venue. This time, I went with P., who's not terribly fond of matter, even though I don't mind it. He finds it's too full of people dressed up in prom dresses and high heels and/or from Essex.

I don't really notice that too much as a) I am usually too busy dancing, and b) if I am dancing, I am usually doing it with my eyes closed. That's how I get around it if the crowd's not great.

In any case, I wasn't dancing with my eyes closed on this night. This night was too damn fantastic for that. I haven't been listening to the Essential Mix on Radio 1 or John Digweed's show on KISS FM for quite some time now, but I do still love me a good clubbing night, particularly since I've started attending Ryan Chappell's house dance classes. Not that I really need to learn how to dance to house music. I've been doing it for ages, and I know I look good. 

Hee.  

But back to Bedrock. Danny Howells, whom I've yet to get a chance to see*, was the supporting act. Given his calibre, I figured that meant Diggers would be getting on around 2 am. As it turned out, I was wrong, and he only played for two hours and vacated the turntables just as we arrived. I bet he was jetting off to some other superstar location for the main set!

But who cared?! That meant a six hour set from Digweed!

We somehow managed to find a place near the seating area on the balcony overlooking the DJ area. Awesome, even if my camera failed to capture any photos of just how cool the view was. 

Digweed, behind the turntables, selecting his next tune

Still, we came to matter to dance, not (merely) to watch, so we made our away to the other side where we could dance without bumping into any furniture. The view there was just as nice, as these not-great photos show. 

It was incredibly packed, so I didn't get a chance to get on the bodytronic dance floor, of which I'm a big fan. D'oh! Still, no matter where you were, the sound was just as good, and you were surrounded by equally passionate fans. I'm sure the thousands-strong crowd completely agree with me, even the guy in the Bugs Bunny suit who was both incredibly sporting, taking photos with many people on the dance floor, and also a really good dancer. I couldn't get any photos of him, however, as it was too dark, and I'm glad I hadn't drunk too much or I would have chalked it up to that!

An incredibly talented DJ, paired up with an amazingly talented DJ who's been at the top of his game since house music began (fine, maybe not that long, but since it began for me)... = many fantastic musical moments (for example, this one). 

We left around 4 am, having danced and drunk our fill. I was still exhausted from the week I'd had, having been up since 9 am on Saturday. I'm getting older, unfortunately, and the late nights where I used to be able to stay till closing time aren't happening anymore.  Perhaps I should just have wandered into Room 2, which I hear was just as bangin'.

Here's to many, many more Bedrocks! 

As we left, we noticed this gem of a sign. 

Kudos to anyone who a) has enough money to go to both matter and Fabric on the same night and b) is hardcore enough to handle both venues in the span of a few hours too! I don't know if matter offers this on all nights, but if they do, it'd be a tempting way to get home seeing as Farringdon's a lot closer to where I live than North Greenwich is.

* Apparently, Danny will be headlining at an afterparty "from 3 am till stupid o'clock" this coming Thursday morning. I'd already been tempted to take a half-day on the 29th so as to accommodate a potential interview and then going off to Live at the Apollo in the evening, so maybe I should just go the whole hog and take that day off!