Atomic Jam the largest and the most influential Techno

Techno

Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...

 events in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. Its home is the Que Club, a cavernous cathedral type space, easily holding in excess of 2000 people.

Overview

The event was founded in Birmingham UK in 1995 and the first event was at the Que Club, Birmingham in August of that year. Richie Hawtin was headlining the event.

The club continued at the Que Club until 2003 every six weeks, apart from a break in the summer, with the birthday nights taking place in August or September. In 2003 the Que Club closed, leaving Atomic Jam without a home. The event moved firstly to The Sanctuary in Digbeth and then to the Custard Factory before its original venue was re-opened.

After 5 years, Atomic Jam's original venue the Que Club has reopened as the Q Club. It was announced in early May 2008 that Atomic Jam would return to the venue in the last quarter of that year, and the 13th birthday event was held on 22 November 2008, and another event was held on 7 March 2009.

The 14th birthday will be held at the Q Club on 21 November 2009.

Music policy

The music at Atomic Jam is techno in the main room, advertised on the flyers as 'techno and beyond'. Big international DJs and live acts play, backed up by residents Chris Finke and ade fenton who play sets at different times of the night. The music always reflects the current trends of techno and the booking policy is a mix of new talent and big established acts.

Room two is drum and bass and dub step, sometimes hosted by Broken Minds and featuring the likes of Grooverider, Andy C, Optical and Jumping Jack Frost.

Room three has been recently

Room four is the Breakbeat / Electro room hosted by residents Brothers Bud, which over the years has welcomed the likes of Dave Clarke, Radioactive man and Billy Nasty dropping purist Electro sets.

DJs

Atomic Jam has introduced many of the major and minor players on the techno scene to its clubbers, and is renowned for the quality of its resident DJs. The current residents are Chris Finke and Mark Broom.

Selected list of techno DJs who have played at Atomic Jam:
Cari Lekebusch
The Advent
Dave Angel
Adam Beyer
Joey Beltram
Steve Bicknell
DJ Bone
CJ Bolland
Dave Clarke
Colin Faver
Funk D'Void
Richie Hawtin
DJ Hell
Oliver Ho
Robert Hood
Holy Ghost
Nathan Gregory
Ignition Technician
Valentino Kanzyani
Neil Landstrumm
Chris Liebing
Chris Liberator
Derrick May
Jeff Mills
Joe Mull
Billy Nasty
OVR (Regis & James Ruskin)
Gaetano Parisio
Trevor Rockcliffe
Rolando
DJ Rush
James Ruskin
Daz Saund
Ben Sims
Slam
Luke Slater
Space DJz
Speedy J
Suburban Knight
Surgeon
Sven Väth
Umek
Claude Young
DJ Skull
Colin Dale
Joey Beltram
Gayle San
Juan Atkins
Tony Work
Duncan Disorderly

Live Acts

Over the years live acts have appeared at Atomic Jam, adding a more improvised feel to the music. Eat Static were the most regular of these, although they have been absent since 2003. Other live acts that have appeared are Bandulu, Green Velvet, Technasia, Speedy J and Radioactive Man.

Special events

In 2002, Atomic Jam hosted an arena as part of the Godskitchen Global Gathering, offering techno from 4 pm until 7 am. It is also part of Drop Beats Not Bombs which also operates at the Custard Factory. In the past decade Atomic Jam has held nights at The Depot in Bristol, Turnmills in London, the Marcus Garvey Centre in Nottingham and at various universities around the midlands.

External links

• Official website
• Official myspace