Persona goes Community-minded!

The much anticipated Persona event returned on Saturday 11th November to a steamy packed Simple on Tib street Manchester in the heart of the Northern Quarter. This time a charitable theme was attached to raise awareness and funds for Imani Community Association who perform great work for many young people and families in the Inner City of Manchester that goes unoticied.

By 9pm the venue was already nicely bubbling when Persona started with some Brazilian physcadelic beats and Soulful tracks to warm up the crowd as people started to flow in. Hayley a singer from Deadwasps took to centre spotlight for some freestyle singing over some instrumentals groovin house cuts, one of which being a Metro Area classic. A deep house remix of a Grace Jones track then continued the flow as the musicians were on hand to start adding their sounds as the dancefloor started to get busy. As the night went on the tempo lifted up a level and the mood got funked up with some broken beat numbers as the place got streamed up, literally! Hayley then returned to add her vocals to Mr Scruff's classic track Get a Move on which had a rapturous response from all. Things then got a little deeper and electronic for a while as Hayley continued her off the cuff vocals and by now the place was buzzing. Hayley sang to a remix of one of their own Deadwasps tracks which rocked the dancefloor and Lee then played a great remix by Isolee, of Franz Ferdinand which had people locked on the dancefloor, fully in the groove. Stomping beats continued as the place was now well and truly alive.

The vibe created through the musicians, visuals and of course the people dancing was a joy as things got really hot later on. Underworld's Cowgirl got a play before things levelled of a little near the end of the night as the Drum N Bass came to the fold, just to keep you on your toes.

If you weren't on your toes for the drum n bass then everyone certainly was when Voodoo People by the Prodigy was dropped near the end of the night, the place was shaking! After the hectic shanigans of Prodigy, Fat Freddy's Drop brought the groove back down with some cool reggae style dubbiness. One more they wanted and one more went to a sneaky two, with remixes of a funked up breakbeat monster from Eat Static played.

This Persona event was a great showpiece for raising awareness of how to have a great night from all perspectives, £89.35 was raised for Imani, a great effort for a hardworking charity who work wonders in the community. The musicians were superb as always, Neo showed his supreme scratching skills all night, N01S kept the groove flowing and the percussion team kept things lively. Not to forget Hayley's stunning vocals adding to the concept. All in all a great advertisement for the next Persona which will be New Years Eve, a double bill Special at Simple with Persona and Deadwasps supporting, a band with a difference! So for an absolute bargain don't miss it for just £7. Tickets are available at Simple and ticketweb.co.uk.

Join our mailing list to get news of Persona's future events! To get on our mailing list for all broad-minded updates please fill out the below form:

Mixes

For mixes of mine go to my Mixes section