For one night only the clubs of Ibiza and the Med came to Manchester’s Phones4U Arena as two of the
genre's behemoths took to the decks and stage.
With dance music’s mainstream and commercial appeal skyrocketing in recent
years being a good DJ has become big bucks and the visual side of the genre has
took off with leaps and bounds. Tonight was a prime example of how rich and
rewarding the current dance music scene is. Teisto (the world’s highest paid
DJ) and Scottish superstar Calvin Harris bestowed themselves in the fire,
lasers and ticker tape of the Phones4U Arena in Manchester to wow a capacity
crowd.
Well if you’re going to do a co-headline tour with two megastars you might
as well do it properly.
The stage was set after supports Danny Avila and Radio 1 DJ Pete Tong warmed
up the crowd and full of energy, eager punters and plenty of beer.
Calvin Harris came on first to massive applause and cheers. The Scotsman
started off his dance music career nearly in the realms of electro pop with his
successful first album “I Created Disco”, progressing into more ‘club friendly’
songs with his second “Ready For The Weekend” and after a West Coast makeover Harris
released the massive “18 Months”.
“18 Months” is easily one of the biggest and best dance albums the world has
ever seen. Packed with massive a-list collaborations the album has sold way
over 1 million copies worldwide. It also boasts a massive 9 top ten songs on
it, a record no one has done in UK chart history- not even The Beatles, Madonna
or Elvis.
All DJ’s were surrounded on stage by a massive system of screens and lasers,
situated in the middle of the wall of lights and noise both Harris and Tiesto
commanded the crowd like a general above an army.
Calvin played his fair share of globe-dominating songs from his massive
collaborations with Florence Welch with “Sweet Nothing”, Tinie Tempah with “Drinking
From The Bottle” and one of the biggest songs of the past few years with “We
Found Love” with Rihanna.
The crowd were treated to some of the biggest dance anthems of the past
decade with Teisto laying down his massive “Adagio” track as well as a host of
other trance and deep house songs that finished off the crowd after a brilliant
night of music.
Remixes are a main part of every DJ’s career as they try to change the work
of another artist into their own interpretation, sometimes even to bigger
success than its original creator. Teisto blasted the monumental Martin Garrix
tune “Animals” and Calvin Harris took the accolade of ‘best remix’ with his
brilliant mix of Justice’s “We Are Your Friends”.
The city that tonights show happened in couldn’t be better suited to world
of dance. With the legendary Warehouse Project approaching its end after its 3
month stint of showing off the world’s best talents of all areas of electronic
music and the famed party ethos the city has no wonder tonight was such a
success.
Collectively the night had a perfect mix of eager partyers, the correct
amount of alcohol, a fine dollop of lasers, smoke and pyro and enough bass to
tear a mountain off the crowd everybody left ecstatic and cheery as everyone
parted ways into the cold Manchester night, far from the tropical temperatures
of Ibiza
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| Calvin seemed to enjoy himself |
Word by Will Whitby
