It’s Our Party and We’ll Die If We Want To

It’s silly that it’s been 10 years but there you go. Thanks to everyone….

We’re just doing a special version of our annual summer jolly, last year for the first time across two venues so please pray for sun! Relaxed, family-vibes in the daytime at OTP before your carriage/diesel minibus awaits for transport to the evening side of things at JQ. Picture background music, beers in the sun, slowly increasing the tempo until an ice cream goes on your 0face. Then a dirty rave in the city.

It’ll be mainly DJs but we do have two live elements:

Handson Family ft Vanessa Freeman – live!

Handson Family are part of a new generation of London selectors keeping the city’s broken beat and future soul traditions alive while refusing to treat the sound as a museum piece. Emerging from South London’s vibrant Black music culture, their sets move fluidly through bruk, house, jazz-funk, soulful garage, Afro-house and boogie, reflecting the genre-blurring spirit that has always defined the West London broken beat movement. Their HERITAGE events and festival stages have become known for connecting older heads with younger dancers, championing both pioneers and newer artists within the scene.

What makes Handson Family stand out is the breadth of their selections and the community ethos around them. Rather than playing purely nostalgic broken beat sets, they place the sound within a wider continuum of Black British club music, regularly programming everything from soulful house and jazz dance to garage and Afro-fusion. Their appearances at venues including Somerset House and collaborations with DJs connected to the UK soulful underground have helped introduce broken beat to audiences who may know little about the original Co-Op or Bugz in the Attic era. In a London scene where genuinely cross-generational dancefloors can be rare, Handson Family have become respected curators as much as DJs.

The ‘live element’ will be suitably provided by Vanessa Freeman, a London vocalist and DJ best known for her warm, jazz-inflected voice and long association with the city’s soulful house, broken beat and underground dance music communities. Emerging through the West London–adjacent soulful scene, she became widely respected for collaborations with producers and collectives across house, bruk and nu-jazz, combining club sensibilities with live vocal performance. Alongside studio work and guest features,  She features on several of the Kiwi-minded saxophonist Nathan Haines’ productions – whose band we hope to be able to afford for our 20th birthday!

Some Voices Birmingham – live!

Some Voices is a great thing – bringing together people who feel the joy in communal singing, where the collective is the identity and all abilities thrive in the whole. Some Voices offers a genuinely accessible way for people to experience the social and mental benefits of singing without needing formal musical training or audition experience. By focusing on contemporary songs in a relaxed, inclusive environment, the choir creates a sense of community that appeals to people who might find traditional choirs intimidating or overly formal. They’ll be performing a range of pop hits far removed from the stuffy knaves of a cathedral. Listen, feel inspired and join in!

What’s the music like?

Our DJs are from across the musical spectrum but with a special emphasis on credible 80s, disco, funk and soul before we step it up a notch at later at JQ with some proper house music spanning 90s pop house, jazz-house and full-on deep sh*t til the wee hours. We pride ourselves on playing decent stuff on a decent sound system so if you’re into stroking your chin or shaking your prosthetic we will hopefully deliver the goods.

The free non-party party bus will shuttle between OTP and JQ 7.30-9.30 and we will be showing England v Ghana on our big screens at both venues (9pm). Bring your Top Trumps.

Timings will be announced a week beforehand.

Please note the ‘JQ half’ of the party will not commence until approx 7pm