Please introduce yourself...
We are Dave, Mike & Mark, all from Oxford, although David now lives in Birmingham, and together we put on a monthly d&b night in Oxford called HQ. We are about to enter our ninth year of running the night.

Where & when do your events take place?
HQ takes place monthly, usually the last Friday or Saturday of the month at The Cellar, Frewin Court, off Cornmarket Street, Oxford. A small intimate underground venue with a capacity of 170 people.

What are the names of the residents?
Azonica, Mike Chemical and Freehand with MCs Manikular, Burley and Mantmast

What's the night all about?
The night is all about quality future thinking music from the entire d&b spectrum. We like to mix it up with established names, breaking new up-and-coming talent and giving local DJs a chance to play. We like to let the DJs express themselves musically and basically play what they truly want. Over the years we've had everyone down from Calibre to Dylan, Sub Focus to Loxy, Marcus Intalex to Fracture & Neptune and helped break newer names such as Lynx, Alix Perez and Sabre.

Tell us more about your next event...
On May 29th we will be celebrating our eighth birthday in style with an all-nighter. For this event we will be featuring artists that will be making their HQ debuts. Gracing the decks will be Fabio, SPY, Need For Mirrors (Mosus has played before but makes his NFM debut with HLZ) and Edward Oberon.

How would you describe your crowd?
Obviously being in Oxford we get a lot of students down, the good thing is they get the beats as much as the next person, despite a few random requests that they make! However we also have a loyal following of headz who come down, their knowledge of music and appetite for fresh beats is what helps to drive us on with our bookings and events. The venue also helps in that being small and intimate the atmosphere and vibe really gets going. The air vent that runs above the dance floor is infamous, it gets the crap banged out of it when the DJs get it right!

Best memories from a night?
I guess there are three stand-out nights from over the years, many will say that Breakage and Stamina MC back in 2005 was the best HQ ever! Although our first and only New Years Eve event 2003/4 with Marcus Intalex playing the midnight set, and the recent all-nighter last October with Doc Scott, Lynx, Random Movement and Spectrasoul also stand out.

What's the funniest thing to have happened at one of your events?
DJ Mosus getting stuck on a broken down Oxford Tube just outside of Oxford. He wasn't happy but it made us laugh. He was OK after a few beers!

Who's played the best set at your club in the last six months?
Got to mention Doc Scott, Marcus Intalex and Loxy all for smashing it over the past few months.

What are your plans for the future?
To keep pushing the boundaries in terms of musical direction, looking for future talent whilst maintaining our ethos of forward thinking music, with some of the best big names. We would also like to move on with some bigger events, podcasts, a new website and much more. Watch this space!

Anything else you'd like to tell us about?
We'd like to thank all the DJs who have come down over the years especially DJ Lee and Total Science, all the crew at the Cellar for their support and sticking by us over the years. Roscoe for his flyer design and everyone else who has helped keep HQ the longest running d&b night in Oxford. Hope to see you all at the birthday bash, get your tickets here.

 

Related Links:

• Promoter Profile: Signal (Bristol)
• Marcus Intalex Reveals 21 Tracklisting
• Break Thru Presents Soul:ution Review
• Promoter Profile: Socialism
• Knowledge Is 15

Like it? Share it!
Sign up for more with the Kmag weekly newsletter.