Radwar Party 8

29.10.1995 - Discothek "Chez Renzo"

Partybericht Amiga Joker 12/95

There are different definitions of "a good party". The following posting reflects this perfectly. One was enthusiastic, the other pretty disappointed.
Statement zur Radwar Party 8 (german)

A short Amiga-demo (50k) by TRSI for the Radwar Party 8 (Rainbow-Party II)

Highlights and Facts

The Making of RADWAR VIII

With the begin of the summer an old vice reappeared. Someone said: "Let's have another Party !". Usually this is enough to drive everybody crazy, because we have had so much trouble after the rainbow party, that no one wanted to be responsible for a new disaster. But this time some said: "OK, let's think about that." So tiger sat down and wrote an small strategypaper which was for Spreadpoint, TRSI and Radwar members only. It beared "around the 21.Oct.95" as the partydate. Somehow this document was uploaded to some BBSs and everyone took to the 21.Oct. for granted. This was right until we talked to the owner of the "Chez Renzo". He told us, that there was already an event on that day but we could have the disco on 28.Oct. So we hurried to inform everyone about the new partydate. So most people got pretty confused. (I hope, that no one came on the 21.Oct. and found out there was no party. Otherwise we would like to apologise!)
Meanwhile we discussed, what kind of attractions we should offer. Since we already had so many different showacts (live-music, fashion, Kung Fu, ...) and no one ever was really interested in this, we skipped that part. We just asked Promo-Tec to get the Karaoke-equipment once again, because that was one of the funniest things at the Rainbow-Party. And Steve Baltes, who did the techno-performance at the Rainbow-Party, offered to be DJ this time. We did not want to have an democompetition either, because there were already so many Demo-Parties and the last time only few groups participated. We also thought about having a soccer match, since this had become almost a tradition. But our experiences and the difficulties to get a proper playground decided against it. Instead of this, TC suggested to play paintball with some guests.
MWS had another strange idea. He tried to persuade DJ Perplexer ("Acid Folk") to come to the party. MWS was still in contact with Perplexer, who was better in the C64-scene as "Archangel". The friday before the party we went to a techno-rave to talk to DJ Perplexer. But he had to "work" on the 28.Oct. Better luck next time.
So our preparations were finished pretty quickly. Too quickly. The followings weeks no one of the organisers to really care of the preparations (and no one felt responsible anyway). At the begin of October we suddenly spotted a poster which advertised a "Techno-House Party" on the 28.Oct. at disco "Chez Renzo"! This was none of ours! Immediatly we talked to the owner of the disco and he had forgotten, he had offered us the place to have our party. We had no written contract with him, so we had no possibilities to insist on that. He told us to talk to the organiser of the Techno-Party and to make an arrangement with that guy. We visited him and it turned out, that he was the present manager of the "Chez Renzo" and he tried something new to brush up the dull Saturday evening. When we told him, that we invited some hundred people and bring our own professional (!) Techno-DJs like Steve and Perplexer, he was very pleased and we were back in business!

At the RADWAR Party VIII

On Saturday morning 10:00 O'clock we went to the paintballfield in Holland. We met there the invited guests (TRSI, Factor 5, Günni, ...) and formed two teams. As usual the TRSI team won. Around 16:00 we finished, exhausted and dirty. We took the guy from Promo-Tec, who had played paintball with us, drove to his office to pick up the Karaoke-equipement. We drove to the disco to set it up. The manager of the "Chez Renzo" was pretty shocked, when he saw us wearing our dirty military outfit. But we promised him to dress up for the evening. So we entered the "Chez Renzo" the first time after the Rainbow-Party an now we were shocked. The whole dancehall was altered. And worse, the DJ had no turntables anymore, only CD-Players! In less than 2 hours we would have a DJ but no record-players. We urged the manager to get some record-players, while we would set up the Karaoke-equipment. He managed to get some old turntables, but we could not place them somewhere because the cable were too short. Meanwhile (19:00) the first guests had arrived. Among them Steve Baltes, who was irritated by the fact that he perhaps could not play any records. And suddenly some TRSI members appeared and asked: "Where can we set up our synthesizers?" They wanted to do a Surprise-Techno-Live-Performance. And they had enough cables to connect the turntables and their own equipment ! Until 21:00 o'clock the music came mainly from the CD-Players, while TRSI was doing small soundchecks. During this a lot of people stood outside the disco to drink and to chat. We tried to tempt them to come in by starting the Karaoke-show. But it turned out, that the stars of last party lost much of their talent and they brought a pityful performance. The consequence was that more people left the disco ! Therefor we stopped the Karaoke after 15 minutes. Steve began to do his "job" and the atmosphere went higher again. (IRATA went up, too! He danced on the tables :-)

Around 22:30 the TRSI-members started their gig. They played a sort of House-Music I have never heard before, it was brilliant! Those, who were interested in Techno and House, were all pretty enthusiatic, the others stood outside and talked. The performance almost took one hour and the discomanager was very glad he had allowed us to do our party. (BTW: There were only 20 or 30 people who did not come for the RADWAR-Party but for the Techno-Party.)
We danced, drank and had fun (I hope). Around 3:30 we started to dismantle the karaoke-equipment and most people went home.

 

Aftermath of RADWAR VIII

 

This time we only had some 250 guests. Maybe there was not enough promotion (we had better waited until after the WOC in Cologne) or maybe the "old spirit" is fading. This time we had no share of the entrance fee, but we had no expenses either, since all persons performed for free and we did not have to pay for the disco. It was the first party, that we came out with no losses !

 


 

It is difficult to rate the success of this party. As You can see there were two completely different opinions. Either you love it or you hate it. I liked it very much, because for the first time I did not have to coordinate anything behind the scenes after the party started. For the first time I enjoyed our own party! If the former parties were better (and a lot of people said this) I guess I've missed something (AvH)