New Year's Eve classics: Six monster tracks from Sir Henry's and beyond
Greg Dowling and Shane Johnson of Fish Go Deep.
It was the year that the drums fell silent. Well, at least in Cork's clubs, as for the first time since the late 1980s, Covid ensured there wasn't a birthday party for the Go Deep house music duo who first linked up for the Sweat nights at Sir Henry's. Thankfully, Greg Dowling and Shane Johnson have joined forces with the Kino to combine an online birthday party with New Year's Eve celebration that can be enjoyed from the safety of your own home.
Free from 9pm on the last day of the year, the four-hour set will be filmed by four cameras, and available to view via the Mixcloud website and app. It will feature dancefloor classics the duo unleashed through the decades at such venues as Sir Henry's, Fast Eddies, the Pav/Dali, and the Savoy.
“It's great to be able to do something to celebrate the music,” says Shane Johnson. “After doing it for so long, it'd be a shame to let it pass. We've already had messages from Cork people and other house fans from around the world who are planning to tune in. Some are old Henry's heads, but there are plenty people who've come to the music in more recent years too.”
On the night, the duo will also interact with people on the live messaging section of the Mixcloud stream.
We asked Johnson to pick six of the big tracks that have featured on previous New Year's Eves – you may be surprised at the selection.
“The Padapella Mix is the only one of many mixes of this song that really works for us,” says Johnson.
“It has the essential slow build of tension for a couple of minutes before the kick drum comes in.” Originally released in 1994, it was a huge track in Sir Henrys, but Johnson says they still occasionally pull it out and it never fails to deliver. The tune has numerous – and sometimes awful – mixes, and was a Top 10 hit for Martin.
A few years earlier, as part of Electribe 101, the German singer had provided the vocals for another Sweat classic, 'Talking With Myself'.
“It is a new day as well as a new year,” says Johnson. “If you want to get fancy, you can start with the acapella, then slam in the main mix.”
Created by Jose 'Choco' Reynoso, a New Yorker more associated with hip-hop production work for the likes of the Wu-Tang Clan and Guru, 'New Day' was actually a B-side that was part one of his rare forays into house music.
“I think we picked up in New York in Dance Tracks, Joe Claussel's store. I don't think it was a huge record elsewhere, but it was very popular in Cork, so I wouldn't be surprised if most of those original copies ended up here.”
“I remember we played this in the Savoy on New Year's Eve in 2002 just after midnight. It’s got a great spacey intro that allows everyone to run around hugging and well-wishing. Then that fantastic groove kicks in and the appropriate lyrics of 'time keeps on slipping into the future'.”
Absolutely not a house record, 'Fly Like an Eagle' was the title track of Miller's album from 1976.
“Sometimes that type of track can work really well on a big night,” says Johnson. “It just gives a different energy.”
“A huge Sir Henry’s track on any day of the calendar but works particularly well as the first track of the new year,” says Johnson.
Made in Miami in 1993 by the Murk crew who also gave us Funky Green Dogs' 'Reach For Me' a few years later, it's a highly unusual dancefloor tune in that it has no kick-drum. “It's more of an atmospheric number, and again, it's those type of tunes that stick out in people's minds on the big nights,” says Johnson.
“An over the top electronic orchestral intro gets everyone worked into a midnight frenzy, then a little bumping groove locks them on the dance floor,” says Johnson.
Just one of several tasty tracks the Iranian-born duo released in the mid-1990s, this lesser-known tune was actually a bonus track on another track, but the eagle-eared Go Deep chaps liked the sound of it.
Though released as part of the Bristol band's debut Blue Lines album in 1991, the track itself has only been wheeled out by Fish Go Deep in the past decade. Horace Andy provides the vocals on a tune that works as a soft-centered NYE singalong. Altogether now, “The big wheel keeps on turning…”
- The birthday party/NYE stream from the Kino will be free to watch via Mixcloud from 9pm, but contributions welcome. See fishgodeep.com or facebook.com/thekinocork
