As a treat to set you up for Valentine's Day the Star & Shadow have prepared for you a Disco-tastic blowout party to burn yourself out to, featuring Publicist (solo project of Trans Am drummer, Sebastian Thomson) playing his dancy brand of Funk-inflected Disco with tinges of Italo-Disco, and supported by SDF, Newcastle’s unofficial party band, playing their brand of AvantPop NoiseDisco CyberFunk EletroFolk (in their own words), and, last but not least, Onoma will get us started on a night of electric dreams and sweaty dancing.
Apart from these great bands, DJs from Road to Rimini, Newcastle’s finest Italo-Disco night, will be playing tunes to get you dancing from the start, between sets, and to the small hours of the morning to make sure you get your money’s worth on a Saturday night rather than a gig that ends at midnight.


About the acts:

You may recognize Publicist as Sebastian Thomson, drum banger of such awesome indie disco staples as Weird War and Trans Am. In his own words: “Publicist plays on the floor, not on stage, he is of the people and for the people.” He also plays synths and sings on vocoder at the same time - a complete solo act.

We thought we’d let the reviews speak for themselves about Publicist:


"This new incarnation takes the shimmering sexghost of disco and pummels it into a sleek panther that leaps from shadow to shadow briefly glimpsed in the reflection of disco lights on the effervescent surface of a flute of champagne. B-side “Stone Age” makes all the items in your room come alive and bump to the sound before spontaneously exploding like glitter bombs." - 20 Jazz Funk Greats

"'Momma' is a throbbing cosmic number with a soaring melodic chorus sure
to explode on the dancefloor." - Rodaidh McDonald

"while I was trying to find words to describe the Publicist sound, I think I should just quote some of the comments from his myspace, where people are like 'your funk is from another planet', 'cosmic sensation' and 'full on instant dance party' and that sums it up better than I ever could.
About time for some space funk and putting the 'disco' back into
'discodust' after all!
... this is some of the freshest music I've found in ages."

-Discodust October 15 2008

http://www.myspace.com/thenameispublicist



As a general rule SDF spread PartySexHotMusic, & spread it thick like cement - performing at City Hall's, Showground's, Discotheque's, Castle tower's, or the Sage Gateshead headlining Sound 08. They also put on MANorBEAST sonic spectaculars. One day the world will know. The party is just beginning & I think you know they’re serious...

"Dance magic" said Narc

"Inspired and menacing... worrying and melodramatic" said The Stool Pigeon. What do you think?

http://www.myspace.com/sdfcollective



Onoma is a duo of composed of Richard Phipps (also of Road to Rimini) and Oscar Ruiz Fernandez, who has recently played with none other than Damo Suzuki of Krautrock legends Can(!) and has been collaborating with Reformed Faction.
They are rooted in improvisation and experimental music and have taken part in several collective performances in the Newcastle area. They create lengthy and wide-scoped pieces based on repetition of short themes, merging vintage keyboard sounds with percussive guitars and effects.

http://www.myspace.com/geometryoftorchsongs


I don’t know what to say about Road to Rimini except that it’s my favourite club night in Newcastle by a long shot, bringing some of the more cutting edge dance acts around to Newcastle, and that they’re going to help turn this into a real party.
They describe their night as “Regular parties for automatic lovers of Italo, Chicago House, Detroit Techno, Dutch Electronix, Electro ( made by guys with beards as opposed to haircuts!), vested EBM and spaced out krautrock”.

http://www.facebook.com/#/group.php?gid=10361966670


So, 8pm-3am, a meagre £6 on the door, Saturday, February 13. See you there!