Those London-folks who didn’t make it over to Victoria House on Saturday July 17 kinda messed up. Intel and Vice magazine’s creativity network spilled into the venue to create a surreal, multi-sensory wonderland.
From wonderful musical machines, buzzing movement triggered explosions of light and 8-bit games, to films from the likes of Spike Jonze and photography and sound exhibits by the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Nick Zimmer – The Creators Project is an intravenous injection of creative high, that is hard not to overdose on. Our heads are still spinning.
The really lucky people had entrance to the evening’s party happenings – free booze flows giving a new drunken edge to the bizarre surroundings. A strangely subdued crowd welcomes hipster-punks Flats to the ‘ballroom’ in Victoria House’s basement, their by-numbers hardcore and pretty lifeless performance doing little to up the party anti.
Crispin Dior spins tunes in the Ballroom, while Peaches DJs with her leg in a cast as the ‘special guest’ adding to the achingly hip and surreal vibe.
Is it not cool to get excited any more? The reaction to the incredible Yuck is confusing as people sauntered around sipping free booze and chatting. Yuck’s pop-take on the sounds of Sonic Youth and the like, is fresh and nostalgic in equal measure. A performance this tight deserved much more of a response than it receives.
The place fills in anticipation of Mark Ronson and the Business INTL. Ronson and his new band of merry-musicians bang through a set taking in their new electro-sound and some of those popular funky covers. Joined on stage by MC Spank Rock and ex-Pipette Rose Elinor Dougall the set matches the collaborative ideals of the event. For the first time all night the crowds excitement is palpable – ‘Creep’ and ‘Valerie’ get some sweaty, sexy dancing going on.
The cool Videoportraits created by Saam Farahmand act as a cool back drop to the DJ spinning some sexy electro-tunes in anticipation of the nights big draw. Everyone is waiting for Kele from Bloc Party’s solo set.
He takes forever to set up (30 minutes late to be exact) and then storms off stage because of technical issues at the end of set-opener ‘Walk Tall’ as boos ring out around the packed room. He overcomes these to return to play the track again a few songs later and a set that takes in the dark techno-pop of his solo album The Boxer and the dancier tunes from the Bloc Party cannon.
All in all the music tonight has been overshadowed and crushed under the weight of the brilliance of the other art on offer, leaving a taste of mediocrity in the mouth. Still with UK hip-hop heavyweight Tynchy Stryder to take to the stage the free-booze has well and truly kicked in. A final walk round the exhibits tops off the night before falling back into the reality of early-morning London streets.
Like a crazy dream this year’s Creators Project leaves a sense of wonder and our heads spinning with ideas – the feeling is this thing can only get better and will become the ‘must attend’ cultural event of the summer.
Random happenings at this year’s Creators Project:
• Bumping into Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Nick Zimmer on the way to the toilet
• A sci-fi–tastic picture of a National Student writer turning up on the Vice magazine and Creators Project website homepages.
• Randomly meeting lots of people we have not seen for years.
• Discovering the word ‘Flannel’ is not a good heckle
• In more toilet-based shenanigans, saying hello to Mark Ronson outside a backstage toilet that we should not have been using.
• We enjoy stabbing each other in computer games a lot more than we should.
Here’s to next year then……
For a full rundown of the events head over to http://www.thecreatorsproject.com/en-uk/events/the-creators-project-london-event
by Chris Marks
