What is the Southport Weekender? According to the printed programme, it is the ‘best indoor music weekender bar none’. According to me, it’s living proof that good planning and preparation is the key to pulling off a really high quality music event. It’s a twice yearly bonanza of exciting visuals, awe-inspiring dance music from all over the world, DJs, live vocalists and bands from hip-hop to funk to soul to broken-beat to soulful house to garage to disco to rare-groove with some drum and bass and minimal techno thrown in for good measure. 5,000 people pack into the Pontins holiday camp at Southport and that sounds like a lot of people… but after a couple of times of going, you realise that it’s a select crew of music enthusiasts who get together to appreciate the music and form friendships. The décor changes every time and looks like how I imagine Paradise Garage must have looked at its height.  | | Gredge and Will Jazz |
To get Pharcyde and Omar at the Funkbase room is an achievement and to have them both on one night is even more impressive. I’d never seen either of these acts live before; they held the crowds attention with the high quality of the vocals and the performances were slick. I’d really been looking forward to hearing what Joe Clausell would play and if I’m honest I’ve seen him do a lot better. My main gripe being that the set he played was almost identical to the last time I heard him play. The ones that kicked it for me were King Britt and DJ Patife in the Bacardi Bar…. Great tunes, great mixing and they know how to interact with the crowd. Britt played a wide selection of house from latin house to classics like Bucketheads ‘The Bomb’ which hit a chord with the punters…. Finally, the heroes of the piece; the chalets. This time it was chalet 83. When you just need to catch your breath (don’t forget it’s a 48 hour extravaganza from morning till night…), get a sandwich, catch 40 winks or chat with your mates, it’s the chalets which come to the rescue. I have been re-named ‘Nick the Chalet’ by the North Wales posse in chalet 83. My last words to them as I slunk out at about 4pm on Sunday were ‘see you in May, dudes’. | 
