By the time the doors opened it was official - Cream at Privilege for Radio One Weekend was a sell out. And although you might think filling the world's biggest club with a capacity of 10,000 would be almost impossible, it was no wonder really. For the first time at Radio One Weekend, they were broadcasting live from the main room for a special extended version of the Essential Mix. The line-up was epic. The main room hosted world heavyweights Pete Tong, Eric Prydz and Hardwell, whilst the crowds in the Vista club were to be subjected to drum and bass heaven with the likes of Chase and Status, Monsta and Mistajam, and Gorgon City, B.Traits and Friction were on decks duty in Vista Blue.
The whole club was bouncing with heavy heart-thudding bass by midnight with those keen to get their night started and make the most of this huge annual event. It probably also had something to do with us Spotlighters kindly announcing the set times earlier that evening, and Chase and Status were playing at midnight, a lot earlier than expected. It was refreshing to see them in the more intimate venue of Vista Club instead of in their usual haunt of Amnesia. They played a mix of crowd pleasers including The Prodigy's No Good and Skrillex's Ruffneck.
Pete Tong played a wicked set in the main room, playing tracks such as George Fitzgerald's I Can Tell, occasionally interjecting to remind us all that in a matter of minutes we'd all be broadcast live across the world on Radio One! Eventually at 01:59am, the music stopped. There was a hushed silence as we all waited to go on air. Suddenly, the screen was lit up with the Radio One logo, and confetti and dry ice went into overdrive. He started the mix with MK's remix of Storm Queen Look Right Through, a song which made it into Spotlight's Ibiza Soundtrack for July, finally announcing that the crowd was ‘amazing' before letting Eric Prydz take the limelight. Prydz didn't disappoint with a relentless and euphoric set of dance, house and electro that was impossible not to dance to, especially when he played his own hit Every Day.
Meanwhile, in Vista Blue, B.Traits filled the intimate and packed space with sounds of house and nineties garage. I still made sure to practically crowd-surf back through to the main room to catch Hardwell, who opened with the song that put him on the map, Space Man.
My personal highlight was Mistajam's set in the Vista Club. Walking in was practically like jumping into a cold plunge pool in comparison to the heat radiating off the crowd of dancers and topless backs that I embarrassingly kept brushing up against in the main room all night. His set skipped through from hip hop to reggae back to drum and bass, with Sean Paul's Glue getting people's hips shaking and DJ Fresh's Gold Dust getting pulses racing. It really showcased what Radio One do; mixing genres and artists and keeping an open mind to music, a philosophy that has helped them get to the top of their game. He threw in a delightful curveball with the Fresh Prince theme tune to which everyone sang along perfectly, while he shouted ‘Until they kick us out, people move your feet!'
And as the Ibiza sun came up, that's exactly what we all did. Until next year, Cream at Privilege!
Photography by James Chapman
