Hooga tunes!

New night coming to Chelmsford in the wake of local favourite, The Black Hole

Gregory Paratore

Monday, December 19, 2011 - 00:00

Hardly a recognised bastion for electronic music, Chelmsford, the county town of Essex, is more commonly associated with orange fake-tan, low-cut tops and hair-straighteners – and that’s just the boys.

However, throughout the past three or four years, busy minds have been at work deep within the underground climes of these parochial pastures, pitched just 35mins train ride from Liverpool Street, London.

Kicking off around 2007 as the brainchild of a crew of local promoters dubbed The Chelmsford Raving Association, The Black Hole brought the likes of Erol Alkan, Jo Jo De Freq and Herve to various venues across the town, settling at Marc Miller and Jon Boards' Barhouse, Chelmsford’s only establishment purely dedicated to underground electronics.

Since, The Black Hole has wound down its residency and moved to London to set up as a record label, while Barhouse has changed its name to Hooga. Still going strong, delivering regular parties running a gamut of house, techno, bass, dubstep and electro, the venue’s latest addition to its roster is holdtight, a Chelmsford Raving Association side-project run by Amie Lister and Kathleen Stein, launching on Friday 23rd December.

Featuring the CR’s beloved crop of DJs, the event is yet another chance to scratch beneath the surface of an often wrongly overlooked club scene that, against the odds, harbours enough DJ talent to whip even the most stiff-lipped raver into an eye-rolling, in-the-zone mess.

Joining the Chelmsford Ravers – Lee Hume (Lost Souls), Ro, Lepsy, Harry McCanna (Full Tilt), 2 Girls 1 Deck, Harry Finn and Staple Diet – Antony Difrancesco, of London’s Public Life party and label Lost Souls, will add fuel to the techno fire with a bass-laden concoction of house and techno until 5.30am (late license). And to top things off, it’s free all night. Merry bloody Christmas!