UK - Sheffield
Harder! Faster! HARDER!!! FASTER!!!

- by danny vanalli, Muzik.com journalist

With its home firmly set in Sheffield’s 9:11, formerly known as The Arches, Headcharge is perhaps one of the country’s best kept secrets. For what is a strictly dirty, underground affair, the large, moody venue is more often than not filled to the brim with strange and unique characters alike. Never one to shy away from everything it stands for, the likes of the hugely talented Lab4 and Chris Liberator are regulars. With a strong set of hard style residents, and a dirty, sticky floor below everyone’s feet, this night shies away from Sheffield’s typically student friendly atmosphere. If you go to the Arches unprepared, you could well be in for the fright of your life.

Headcharge is always in Mixmag’s top 100 nights in the country, as is its more trancey counterpart Planet Zogg. The atmosphere is intriguing and inviting as soon as you step through the doors. Though it looks like the night is organised and held together by a shoe string, clearly to keep an operation like this going so successfully takes a lot of hard work and commitment from those involved. As much as it wants to give the impression that it all just falls into place randomly, it’s a quality, well thought out night.

Downstairs, in the highly decorated main room, the sounds of hard, rough and ready techno boom out of the large speakers. The music is unforgiving, and can feel at times a little mind numbing, but then that’s exactly what it’s meant to be. Tough, hard beats and simple synth riffs keep the whole floor bouncing for hours on end. The crowd is mixed. Many have come straight from the Summer of Love or The Acid House Revolution, and nobody has the slightest hint of a pretentious streak about their person. Hippy chicks, skater bois and glammed up cyber kids alike all come together for the last Friday of every month to party hard. If you chat to enough people, you’ll be sure to come across Paul, the infamous jumping man, another Paul, the veteran, long haired, party loving hippy, and even the bearded wander straight from the ‘60s whose t-shirt proclaims ‘what a lovely tune.’ And indeed it is lovely, to see clubbing that doesn’t need a £1,500,000 refit, or a bottle of water for £3, or a whole host of cliquey, clubbing geeks.

Upstairs, the second room-cum-bar plays host to everything from nu-skool breaks to drum ‘n’ bass. The DJs are clearly not the cream of the circuit, but on a night like tonight it doesn’t really matter. Downstairs, nobody really has any idea which DJ is on when. Chris Liberator was tonight’s headliner, but what his set was like and what tunes he played will forever be a mystery to this writer.

The venue is spacious and exciting to walk around, with corridors and random corners just gagging for exploration. Each and every way you turn you’ll find a stranger who can’t wait to talk to you. It quickly becomes apparent that beneath its grisly exterior, Headcharge is as fluffy and vibrant a night as any other. The atmosphere is full on, but in a friendly kind of way. The Headcharge family are always more than willing to tell you interesting stories of days gone by about Sheffield and clubbing the world over. These people have been places and done things. They haven’t been stuck in an office 24/7 and they have an approach to life that many people should perhaps take note of. From speaking to the various clubbers, these people aren’t stupid. Many work on the web or for their own companies, and make a nice living out of doing something they enjoy. Headcharge isn’t meant to be an absolute, chemically fuelled blow out that could kill a whale, it’s just a fun excuse to go out and party on a Friday night.

The only downside of Headcharge is that a few characters can begin to get on your wick a little bit every now and then. Club cunts and first timers sometimes make a brief appearance, throw up all over your shoes, try and touch your face and then leave, never to be seen again. Though most people know what they’re doing, a few seem to have let it all go to their heads. Some people you should just avoid, but it’s the majority of the Headcharge regulars who are the likeable characters you really ought to meet before the night is out.

Come 7 a.m. and club casualties the dance-floor over stare vacantly across at each other, wondering what the past eight hours have taught them. Probably very little, as frazzled brain cells fail to communicate that it really is time to go home and face reality. The sun is rising fast, and the ‘normal’ people of Sheffield are heading out to work in their mundane jobs. Ears ringing dangerously loud and heads as empty as the club had become, Headcharge leaves you more than satisfied and fulfilled.

In short, you should really get yourself down to Headcharge sometime if you fancy a change from pretentious, fake plastic clubbing. There’s never a dull moment at The Arches, and the sights are something that really have to be seen to be believed. A lot of weak minded clubbers won’t like Headcharge because it is so full on, but it is precisely for this reason that Headcharge has its own charming appeal. Next month sees the return of the now famous Halloween party. Last years was a total sell out, and an absolute barnstormer of a party. You won’t want to miss this one.

Headchagre is on the last Friday of every month at 9:11 (FKA The Arches), Sheffield.