Darren Emerson & Co. at the 'Winter Party'

 Mosney,  Nov 11th, 2000

The thoughts of the trek down to Mosney in April were reeling through my head, would it turn into another mud-fest or, as I hoped, would the music once again overshadow what looked like another typical wet Irish day? My hopes, I'm glad to report, were not dashed.

Being pleasantly surprised at the heated arena, I waited with the few thousand dance patrons for what we hoped would be one of the best gigs this year, would Emerson be able to lift himself out of the quagmire of a set he played back in Homelands? What could we expect from Messrs. Digweed and Sasha?

Emerson took to the stage to the sound of deafening applause from those gathered before proceeding to launch into a set of fiercely hard tech-house. This was definitely not going to be a repeat of the debacle that occurred in the MTV Arena at Homelands. It was like a history lesson in how his style of DJing has evolved through his days with Underworld till his present solo guise. We had everything from funky house to hard edged techno dropped. Each track was lapped up by the awe-inspired crowd. The biggest cheer of the set came when he looped in 'Scorchio', the collaboration with Sasha.

After the frenzied set from Mr. Emerson, the crowd was ready for a night of serious dancing, they had come to see the best and the journey was beginning to seem worthwhile. John Digweed entered and brought all of us through a set of sublime techno, those around seemed to be letting go totally, it was turning into a night of debauched hedonism, as one t-shirt read "I love you more than XTC"; so we were all here for the music! Digweed with the aid of the images projected on the back-drop and the rather nimble, scantily clad female dancers on the sides of the stage brought the crowd into a state of frenzy.

As they say the best was certainly kept till the end when the dance guru himself Sasha began his set of extremely hard trance which, although rather unusual, definitely went down well with the crowd. I must admit I had my reservations about the man, but the show he put on tonight, showed he really is in a class of his own. Then Sasha was joined onstage by Monsieur Digweed - would they be able to reproduce their recordings live? Of course they would! The crowd were witnessing one of the best sets played in Ireland for years, they had the crowd were in the palms of their hands, and were being taken on a musical odyssey which was well worth the fare! Unfortunately it all had to come to an end with the crowd howling for more. 

Sasha & Digweed, take note  - don't leave it another 3 years till you visit us again.

Robert Marshall