Sway
Fabric
16.03.07
I’ve seen Sway quite a few times now, so it’s a testament to the man that I’m still entertained whenever I catch one of his sets. This time round, I was treated to him rapping over Chamillionaire’s Ridin’ Dirty, cracking jokes at the expense of Tim Westwood and even blasting out some new material.
The favourites were still there, Up Your Speed always getting a crowd hyped, Little Derek proving the biggest sing a long of the night and Products getting everyone faux-skanking as much as their 2 inches of dancefloor would allow. His charisma was shining through as it always does, much to enjoyment of one guy in the crowd who was involved in a conversation about buying Sway’s album on limewire [a free downloading service] and he proved a brilliant warm up to the main event.
That main event was Mark Ronson and his unassuming frame slunk onto the side of the stage at the tail end of the Sway performance as he began setting up his stuff. Doc Brown bounded out on stage to introduce the main himself and even before the first song had been dropped people were baying for the DJ who duly obliged by throwing out a mix up of Ooh Wee‘s vocals and the original music to Radiohead’s Just that he’s covered on his upcoming album Version.
The set Ronson played was a brilliant mix of classic tracks [Mama Said Knock You Out being the pick of the bunch], some turn of the century tunes and his own production, from Amy Winehouse’s Ghostface remix to tracks off the new album. It was the new material that garnered the best response as he dropped his Kaiser Chiefs cover with Lily Allen’s vocals getting everyone singing the chorus, the horns on his version of Coldplay’s God Put A Smile Upon Your Face bringing a smile to everyone’s face and the emergence of Daniel Merriweather to accompany the upcoming single Stop Me with live vocals.
As if this wasn’t enough, Ronson still sound time to fit in a mash up of The Strokes and The Jackson 5 before blowing the roof off the venue with the full version of his Ooh Wee. Being a great producer doesn’t always equate to being a great live DJ, but thankfully for all of Fabric, Ronson is both and made sure everyone left having had a blast.