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Features
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| Introducing NEM3SI$’s new label Infinite Resistance! | | Mindbenderz talk ‘Lord of the Rings’ and fishing, as well as the creation of their new album ‘Celestial Gateway’! | | Iono-Music artists One Function, Eliyahu, Invisible Reality and Dual Vision talk Robert Miles, kids, dogs and vinyl, while we chat about their current releases! | | Luke&Flex talk influences, the Irish rave scene, why Flex wears a mask and Play Hard, their new EP out now on Onhcet Repbulik Xtreme! | | Lyktum expands on his new album ‘Home’ – talking about his love of storytelling, creating new harmonies and the concept behind his musical works. | | Pan talks getting caught short crossing the Sahara, acid eyeballs and tells us Trance is the Answer, plus shares his thoughts on his latest release 'Beyond the Horizon' - all from a beach in Spain! | | Miss C chats about living with the KLF, DJing in a huge cat’s mouth, training her brain and the upcoming super-duper Superfreq Grande party at LDN East this Saturday, 16th September! | | NEM3SI$ - I Live for the Night – talks superficiality, psychopaths, and bittersweet success, ahead of a plethora of evocative, emotional, and passionate upcoming melodic techno releases! | | Psy-Sisters Spring Blast Off! We talk to DJ competition winner ROEN along with other super talents on the lineup! | | Blasting towards summer festivals with Bahar Canca ahead of Psy-Sisters Spring Blast! | | Shyisma talks parties, UFO's, and Shotokan Karate ahead of his upcoming album 'Particles' on Iono-Music! | | SOME1 talks family, acid, stage fright and wolves - ahead of his upcoming album release ‘Voyager’ on Iono-Music in February 2023! | | The Transmission Crew tell all and talk about their first London event on 24th February 2023! | | NIXIRO talks body, mind and music production ahead of his release 'Planet Impulse' on Static Movement's label - Sol Music! | | Turning the world into a fairy tale with Ivy Orth ahead of Tribal Village’s 10th Birthday Anniversary Presents: The World Lounge Project | | The Psy-Sisters chat about music, achievements, aspirations and the 10-Year Anniversary Party - 18/12/22! | | A decade of dance music with Daniel Lesden | | Earth Needs a Rebirth! Discussions with Psy-Trance Artist Numayma | | Taking a Journey Through Time with Domino | | New Techno Rising Star DKLUB talks about his debut release White Rock on Onhcet Republik! |
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Simon Rutherford and Zana Mills Tour Diary – Part 2
Reported by TD
/
Submitted 31-03-04 18:55
New Zealand
In keeping with tradition, time was of the essence when we landed in Auckland on Friday 13th February. After a few major hiccups on arrival (like nobody being there to pick us up and having no contact numbers for anyone since Zana’s two mobile phones were stolen in Fiji two days earlier! Doh!) we managed to introduce Aussie boy Simon Rutherford to a famous ‘Kiwiburger’ from McDonalds (not half bad by the way!) before rushing him off to his radio interview at UP FM.
Due to lack of time on our behalf it was agreed to air Simon’s latest demo CD on the drivetime show followed by a live phone interview with Barney later that evening. Unfortunately the phone call came half way through dinner which didn’t impress the in-laws too much (and let his steak go cold), but it did prove to be an effective way of advertising the event that night – something that was shown by the number of people commenting on hearing the show all evening.
The first event in Auckland was at a club called The Cube. It’s a stylish little 2-room club on Auckland’s trendy High Street that holds around 700 people, has an intimate feel, great friendly staff and a super receptive crowd. Having impressed promoter Shiney so much during her previous impromptu gig here in 2003, Zana Mills was asked back to headline alongside Simon at their Black Friday event this time around.
Arriving at about 10:30pm, the Bar Manager Mattie gave us the grand tour and promptly encouraged the bar staff to furnish us with nothing but a constant supply of tequila throughout the night – not our request! Honest!  Politely downing a shot of said tequila each, we quickly escaped off to the side of the dance floor to avoid the carnage that would soon be if we stayed too close to the bar and watched the flow of clubbers enter the room, grins already panning ear to ear.
Warming up the main room was TidyNZ’s Justin Sane playing a welcoming mixture of old and new Trance, Hard Trance and Hard House. By about 11:30pm he’d done enough warming up and kicked things into gear with some more uplifting UK Hard Dance tunes such as Oli Freke’s “Radium”, Azure’s “Sunset” and Simon Rutherford’s own “My World”, easily coaxing the already energetic crowd onto the dance floor.
Appreciation of a DJs work seems to be a pretty common thing in Auckland, and at midnight an enthusiastic cheer overpowered the sound of the music as Justin handed over control to Zana for the next two hours. Having such a long time to play didn’t prove to be a problem and she took the crowd through a journey from old Hard House favourites such as the much requested “Music is Moving”, “Bad Ass” and “Erection” through to tunes along the lines of the harder newly released Tidy, Impact and UK Hard tracks. Whilst not quite full, the venue was heaving from start to finish with the friendliest and happiest crowd we’ve seen to date. Eager faces shined from every angle tune after tune and provided an atmosphere not unlike an afternoon at Tilt @ Studio 33 in London. Awesome!
Dozens of tequila’s (well, it seemed like it by that stage!) and one adoring fan kissing her feet later (we have the photo’s to prove it!) Zana passed things over to Simon at 2am and he moved his way smoothly around some moody European Hard Trance and Acid Trance through to banging UK Hard Trance and finishing off with some hammering Hard House care of FevahUSA. Keeping the dance floor full wasn’t difficult for him either as the crowd of crazy clubbers went insane over every tune, screaming, clapping and generally going nuts as Simon jumped around behind the decks enjoying it just as much as them. 
4am came all too soon and before we knew it was time for the other TidyNZ boy Taz to step up and squeeze out every ounce of energy left in the crowd. Thumping out the latest in Tidy tunes, the pace soared above a relentless 153bpm and still the crowd loved it, going strong right to the end.
UP FM Beach Party – Mission Bay, Auckland 
The following morning we had to pull (ok, DRAG!  ) ourselves out of bed for the UP-FM Beach Party in Mission Bay. Getting down there around lunch time we were blown away by how perfect the day had turned out for them and just how many people had turned up for a piece of the action. Mission Bay is one of Auckland’s popular public beaches, so there were not only hundreds of clubbers there to enjoy what was on offer, there were also hundreds of onlookers keen to see what all the fuss and noise was about - including some kids no more than about 13 years of age getting right into it and going harder and longer than a lot of the not-so-innocent seasoned clubbers!
With the decks setup under a huge marquee and a cloth dance floor laid out on the sand in front of it, it was a scene more familiar to festivals like Glastonbury or Creamfields than a public beach with the surf rolling up on the shore a few metres away. Either way, it was an awesome setting and we couldn’t have asked for better weather or a better crowd. The Kiwi’s have shown they know how to party, and they certainly love their Hard Dance. With a fairly long list of DJs itching to play, the set times were kept short and sweet (45mins), but that only increased the excitement as each DJ pushed the crowd more and more, thumping out tunes classic, current and future.
Zana and Simon played from 1:45pm-2:30pm after local DJ Chelfyn and, as Simon stepped up to play their first tune, the MC jumped on the mic and announced the arrival of the UK duo, encouraging an awesome cheer from all around. Dropping in the groovy-as-fcuk “Everybody’s Hardcore” again proved popular and the mass of bodies bounced around like buoys in rough surf. The now comfortably bare-footed Zana (hey, it was a beach party!!) followed next and continued the chunky UK Hard House much to the delight of those around – many of them familiar from the night before – and their liveliness never let up.
Zana was whisked off for an interview by Helen from www.TMet.net soon after she’d finished playing and TidyNZ boy’s Justin Sane and Taz took control and let loose with their own selection of banging Hard House as they dragged the pitch to what felt like a screaming 155bpm! Not to be deterred, the crowd lapped up every beat and continued stomping to the very end of their set.
With glistening sea, gleaming sunshine, a cool breeze, a mental crowd and wicked UK Hard Dance tunes, the crowds grew constantly as the day went on and by 5pm when they had to shut shop (damn council regulations!) there was a sea of happy, smiling, sun touched faces before us. The end of the music didn’t herald the end of the party though, so we hung around and chatted for a while, soaking up the rays and positive vibes. What more could you ask for? This was heaven!
The Cube
The next Thursday Zana returned to The Cube without Simon (who’d flown off to Melbourne to play) to play at an ‘open decks’ night run by Apollo (Colin from www.hardhouse.co.nz) called Thors Hammer. We were greeted warmly again by an eager crowd of numerous familiar faces (did none of these people work!?) as well as having the opportunity to be reunited with a few special London faces who happened to be passing through Auckland at the time (thanks for coming along Flea, Nick, Melissa and McCoy! ).
The evening kicked off with the open-decks giving some of the local up and coming DJs a chance to show the crowd what they can do. A few of the sets were focussed around the classic old bouncy Hard House sound which was received extremely well by all, and it was nice to hear some of the old happy tunes again. On the whole they all did really well. A good sign of things to come in Auckland.
After the open decks session, guest DJs Chelfyn, Taz, Justin Sane and Zana Mills took over. The boys all played fantastically during the evening with some exceptional tune selection and beat matching, managing to never lose touch with the crowd and keep the dance floor heaving right through. Special mention goes to birthday boy Justin Sane who managed to do extremely well considering the amount of Tequila they poured down his throat (what is it with The Cube and Tequila?!)!  
The crowd for the evening definitely loved their Hard House, but interestingly enough when any breakdown lasted longer than about a minute it resulted in an emptying dance floor, but as soon as the bass kicked back in they raced straight back again and went mental. Bloody impatient lot!  Luckily, Zana noticed this early on and used it to her advantage, keeping it high paced and full of energy and managed to hold their attention for the whole of her set. 
The night was finished off in a blur of tequila and on saying goodbye to the guys and girls at The Cube Simon and Zana received open offers to return to play whenever they happen to be back in town - something they will definitely be taking up in November when heading back to Auckland for Zana’s sister’s wedding. 
The Aucklander’s have been the most friendly and lively bunch we’ve seen in a long time, and The Cube is without a doubt top of the list of places we’ll be coming back to when in New Zealand. Justin, Shiney, Jarra, Helen, Chelfyn, Mattie, Colin, Taz, Kyle, Kelly, Adam and all the nutter Kiwi’s we met at The Cube and at the Beach Party made this week truly amazing, and we can’t thank them enough.
To see our pics from NZ, check out our photoset here
You can also see more pics on Colin’s site http://www.hardhouse.co.nz
If you missed Part1 of our Tour Diary (USA), click here
If you missed the pics from Part1 of our Tour Diary, click here
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Other Features By TD:
Simon Rutherford & Zana Mills Tour Diary Pt. I
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
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How the hell can we ever compete with such an amazing and adoring crowd?!!?? 
Simon & Zana, sounds great !! how weird was that meeting you in Sydney 
hope the rest of your journey was cool C U soon Rich 