FUSION - gone

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The Fridge, Townhall Parade, Brixton Hill, Brixton, SW2
Tel: 07905 035682
Web: allthingsorange.com/fusion

2nd & 4th Fridays 10pm-5am

This started out as such a good idea... Take the two hottest after-parties in London, Saturday morning's A:M and Monday morning's Orange, and 'fuse' them into a one-off New Year's Eve event at The Fridge! I wasn't there, but I'm told it did well. So well, in fact, that Orange group took over the running of the Fridge a few months later, giving it a fancy refurb and relaunching it with the second Fusion event (where these pics were taken) on Friday 19th March 2004.

That night I left with an unusual taste in my mouth, the taste of the best clubbing experience I've ever had in London... If you want to know what I used to think of The Fridge, skip to the DiscoDamaged page on the Links section, and read through my first two DiscoDamaged reviews from November 2001. It's fair to say that (a) I didn't like The Fridge, and (b) I wasn't expecting to like the "new" Orange Fridge.

The opening itself started slow, and as the clock ticked towards eleven, it seemed as though the vast arena that is The Fridge would be no more than a private party for the discerning clubber. That all changed as midnight drew close, and soon the venue was packed, and there were queues of late-comers clamouring to get in!

The P.A. for the opening party was from one of the most successful dance acts of the previous year, LMC vs U2, though it was the inspired pairing of Ibiza's sexy Bongoman David H with popular scene MC, Tonnic, that wowed the crowds the most.

From start till finish, the night was relentless, the only downside to Fusion being that you wouldn't have to go to A:M, Orange, Beyond or Later that weekend, as you'd have heard all the DJs play already.

Unfortunately, things that work well as one-offs, quite often fail to hit the mark on a more regular basis, and when Fusion went weekly, the size of the venue soon proved a disincentive to a weekly audience. It tried to maintain some semblance of order by listening to the critics and cutting back to fortnightly events, but even this failed to plug the people drain. The music wasn't helping much either, last time I went, cranking up the volume being no excuse for originality and good mixing.

Martin
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