Beat.aid

On Boxing Day of 2004, as everyone has seen a giant wave rocked the whole south Asia and caused one of the biggest natural disasters since Pompeii was covered in volcanic ash a few centuries ago..! The world has come together especially in a show of compassion and love especially in Australia being the closest developed country to the region.

Beat Aid was a combination of many different facets of the breaks and beats scene from clothing labels to the artists themselves all coming together to try and make a difference to those who are now rebuilding their lives hopefully for the better.

With the Prince of Wales as the venue, local artists Phil K, Andy Page and NuBreed, not to mention the international flavour of B.L.I.M (Boy Lost In Music) from the UK, this was going to be a great way to celebrate both the fact that we are in the position to help these people in need in the first place and also the generosity of so many people so that it might be possible.

These gigs are also particularly special because you know the artists are there for more than the dollars and are often expressing themselves a little more personally in their sets, a great treat for the crowd. I could see this reflected in the queue as w entered with people donating more than their $20 cover charge

The main room of the Prince was suitably rammed as we arrived. Phil K warmed up perfectly only as he can do for Andy Page, who's live sets are really second to none for straight out cutting edge music that always gets people to pull the funniest faces of pure delight whenever those bass lines float threw through the club. If you haven't heard the Serpent, sorry...!

The Beat Aid crew were definitely up for it by the time Dan Manganese came on. He is another who also really shows well while on the decks, the dirty broken home bass lines keeping everyone ready and cocked for the up and coming NuBreed onslaught.

I am still very much a firm believer that these three guys from Melbourne are still and will remain to be one of the most up front live dance music acts in the world. A change though for this set as they announced that they are also called "Dirty Fours". This was the first time that I got to see anything that was not breaks from the boys and I must say that the quality of music has not suffered a bit in the change of structure and in the end I don't think I would have expected it to really as the formula and the familiar NuBreed traits still rang true, raw bass lines and seminal hooks and melodies got the crowd jumpin'...! "Oh we also do breaks" was the cry as the nasty three took the crowd just that little bit higher with the tunes we know and love. Nice.

It was then announced that over $12000 had been raised for the evening all of those proceeds going to Australian Red Cross. Final takings overall on the night (with door donations and sales from Beat Aid CD) reached over $18,000!!!

So a massive big ups to everyone in Melbourne who came together for this evening including the you the punter whose donation would not have made a difference in another's lives and also would not have given us the opportunity to help out the cause by also celebrating the depth of our local music talent.

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