Deputy Editor Daisy Kirkaldy was very pleased to be reminded of what it is like to be in a club environment by Pete Tong’s ‘O Come All Ye Ravers’ livestream
On Saturday 19th December, I was lucky enough to attend a livestream of the ‘O Come All Ye Ravers’ event, a collaboration between Pete Tong, The Heritage Orchestra and Jules Buckley. The event was focused on all the classic dance music we have all missed hearing recently. The genius addition of The Heritage Orchestra’s sound added lots of gravitas to the songs, every track seemed more immense than the last as it filled the eerily empty O2 Arena.
It was the arena’s first music event since the iconic London venue closed its doors in March of last year. The rows and rows of empty seats were a sombre reminder of the Coronavirus pandemic, but everyone looked like they were having so much fun that the outside world didn’t seem to matter. The frequent moments of isolated strings were really powerful; it was so impressive hearing the sound from only a handful of instruments fill the capacity of the massive arena. It was the arena’s first music event since the iconic London venue closed its doors in March of last year
The orchestra was arranged in a perfectly socially distanced circle, which was not only aesthetically pleasing but also aided the impressive lighting display which accompanied some songs. It was mentioned that an orchestra performing in the round was an experiment for this event, but this really paid off as it really created the feel of a massive crowd in a massive club (what a concept, right). The collective sound of orchestral instruments warming up always gives me goosebumps – and this time was no exception. Pete Tong and The Heritage Orchestra were also all positioned in the standing area of the crowd, which added to the community feeling of the livestream as it felt as if the music was being created in the crucial environment of a dancefloor.
It was hard to notice whether this was a pre-recorded event or whether the stream was actually live, the camera angles and lights made the whole event look so slick, unlike any other live streams I have seen before. The seamless transitions between the songs added to the impressive professionalism of all the musicians, there was not a second of silence apart from a few speeches from Pete Tong introducing the next song, musician Jessie Ware even made a couple of appearances throughout the night.
The combination of an orchestra with a DJ is always impressive to me as the layers of musicians cause an awareness of parts of the classic dance songs you never realised were so good. The livestream opened with the iconic ‘Right Here, Right Now,’ which I encourage everyone to go listen to immediately. The string-heavy opening refrain was so effective it made me never want to listen to another version of this song again. So many iconic dance artists were included: Faithless, Disciples, Basement Jaxx to name a few. To say their music was given due justice would be an understatement, the detail an orchestral arrangement added to each already-iconic song was just so cool. The string-heavy opening refrain was so effective it made me never want to listen to another version of this song again
The highlight of the impressive lighting set-up was undeniably ‘9PM (Till I Come)’, accompanied by lasers, smoke and strobe lights which again, filled the O2 Arena – an impressive feat for such a massive and empty space. The livestream featured shots of stunning Ibiza sunsets during the performance of ‘Insomnia’ by Faithless – another song which I think should from now on always be played by the string section of The Heritage Orchestra. Hearing the iconic lyrics ‘But don’t worry / Don’t panic’ of Basement Jaxx’s track ‘Red Alert’ seemed almost too close to home in this pandemic, but this added tongue-in-cheek humour to the evening as Pete Tong seemed all too aware of the irony of this lyric during such a unique performance of his.
Watching the credits roll made me realise just how important the club and live music scene is for so many livelihoods. Lighting operators, set designers, sound engineers, cameramen, orchestral musicians, backing singers, and well-known musicians all combined to create such an amazing event in what was admittedly an eerie atmosphere before the incredible sound. All in all, the livestream could not have been pulled off better. It truly seemed to be a collection of extremely talented professional musicians doing what they love, which resulted in a true and immersive imitation of a club environment. Everyone (including yours truly sat in front of my laptop) looked as if they were truly enjoying themselves. I cannot deny that there was a bittersweet feeling to the livestream, as anything related to the club scene can only be an imitation these days, but the true immersion created here was honestly so close to the real thing that it was just as good, or maybe it has just been too long since I went to a club.
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