"Banking @ The Bang Bar"

A review of Autogleam Services by SA Roberts written on Thursday 27th of October 2005

The Royal Bank of Hard House @ the Bang Bar, Basingstoke, Sat 23rd July ’05

Review by SA Roberts

As promised the Royal Bank of Hard House (RBHH) delivered the goods. With a musically versatile performance, the boys at the Bank proved their passion for the hard with five hours of dance music that stomped into the early hours of a beautiful Basingstoke morning.

Venue

The train rolled slowly through the Hampshire countryside, a journey slowed further as I stared at the second hand of my watch stepping gently around the dial, refusing to match the pace of my anticipation. I knew this night was going to be good; I’d been looking forward to it all week. RBHH had played at the Bang Bar back in May and this performance had caused a ripple, so I’d heard. More like a shock wave. Through the trees and fields outside the carriage I saw the AA-tower pierce the Basingstoke skyline and knew the Bang Bar was in that part of town. Fear gripped me as I imagined walking around the streets of ‘stoke for hours, searching for the venue but never finding it. Yet this was never likely to happen as I stepped off the train two hours before the event began, just to make sure. It turned out the venue is a five-minute walk from the station and ten minutes from the town centre. I strolled out of the station and headed left towards the industrial zone and a huge brick building with flagpoles out the front and with a weird name (like “Spaghetti’s” or “Skagnetti’s”). In front of this building, whose name and purpose remain uncertain, is the Bang Bar. Next to a Chinese take away, the owners of whom must surely by now appreciate the sounds of RBHH, the Bang Bar is a small venue and looks smaller from the outside. Yet what it lacks in width it makes up for in length with the bar, dance-floor and seating in the front room and a chill-out room complete with comfortable sofas in the rear.

Acts

RBHH played a five-hour set beginning at nine o’clock, although the 5,000 watts of sound system were exercised well before hand. DJ’s Gingerbread Man, Kev-S and Gary Professional were keen and raring to play a versatile mix of hard dance music to suit everyone’s taste. The DJ’s realise that being too selective in terms of music played can cap the enthusiasm of an audience, like targeting a niche market within a niche market. This –like the British education system –can only lead to problems in later life. Diversity is integral to the Bank’s business plan and that is exactly what we got. Hard dance music from all over the spectrum was served up with a double portion of batter. Hard Trance is the sound that Gingerbread Man serves up with great style behind the decks, his tricks and euphoric sounds laid the foundations for a style of music that Kev-S described as “Harder; not slightly faster”.

Moving from the heavenly nature of Gingerbread Man’s tunes down into the dirty depths of hard house, Kev-S’ music would under normal circumstances finish a night off. Such is the style of RBHH: going all out from the start. The last set played by Gary Professional was all about power. By this point my mind was wondering about the structural integrity of the surrounding buildings, hoping they’d been built to take account for the punch-hole brick hammering they were getting from inside the bar. Uplifting hardness with lots of bounce and brutality, the last thirty minutes left this zero-tolerance approach to music engraved onto my eardrums. If music is the life and soul of a party, RBHH is likely to become the essential ingredient in any whip-crackingly solid night out.

Atmosphere

The type of music played reaches out to a certain audience, the type of people who live every day like it’s their last, people who work hard and play harder. Gary Professional reflected that “RBHH is not a building society: it’s building a society”. The society the Bank is building is built on solid foundations, supporting the pillars of hardcore, wastedness, skrewholed and spangled. People who come to the Bank are interested in doing business and live the dream –during the 1950’s the government said “We’ve never had it so good”. I beg to differ. RBHH lives life on a higher plain and the 21st Century offers individuals the prospects of enjoyment they’ve never had before. We have never had it so good –and the boys from the Bank made it so.

The Royal Bank of Hard House

Harder; not slightly faster.

RBHH.NET.

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