evolve or die

evolve or die

Seems like Promise the message board and Promise the club are both under going pretty major changes! Most people don't like change, but everything changes all the time, and you gotta change with it. Try to keep something the same, and you'll end up dissapointed! This doesn't mean that you have to scrap everything and start again, but as in everything you need to be flexible and adaptable in order to roll with the changes.

I saw two flyers from Aug & Sept 2001 at the weekend, and on 6 of the 8 weekends, Promise had Matt Hardwick, Guy Ornadel, John Kelly & Scott Bond on! Sound familiar? I virtually stopped going to Promise at the end of summer, not cos I was bored with Promise but cos I was bored with trance. Time for a change!

I've thought about what Promise are doing, and I think it's ok. The old stuff wasn't working, so time for something new. Predicting the future is always tricky, but it seems that a lot of thought has gone into the new direction, and I'm very keen to see how it works out. I like the idea of a bigger dj once a month, and 'smaller' nights the other nights. We'll get to see ressies from other clubs, hopefully see our ressies play main set, see up and coming dj's, and get a shit load more variety!

Changes to the Always room sound promising too. This is one of THE best small venues in Newcastle, and with the right sound it kicks as hard as anywhere. 'Cept not for a while tho! I'm not gonna really comment on this as I'm biased, but my Friday nights are shit now, so I REALLY hope this takes off again


IMO these changes will help Promise not harm it and were needed to stave off the continuing demise. I'll be there on the 20th kicking my height, and will keep coming back as long as Promise puts on nights worth going to, which it hasn't been so much recently

Vive la Promise!

I'm from the a completely different and more hetrosexual school of thought.

When a club starts working, or your running a a succesfull night - don't change but improve your existing formula to stay one step ahead of the spider, two good case studies would be gatecrasher and sundissential

Gatecrasher:

Gatecrasher were runnig one of the most succesfull clubs england had ever seen, they gave birth to the cyberkid - a little gimp who woke up monday morning started makjing his dayglow costume and thought of nothing but crasher 7 days a week, as the club grew so did the phenomenon - thousands of gimps up and down the country were calling themselves crasherkids even though they'd never been to crasher....

This is a success no club has ever seen and no club is likely to see it again - the crasher loyalty was huge, people tattooed the club to their arms, legs, tits, it was almost like a relogion - things were getting bigger and bigger for this trance haven, but as critics started to predict the demise of trance and the death of cyber... crasher paniced and barred cybers from the club and changed the music policy to prog?!?!?!? They lost thousands of these loyal customers and this was probably the first nail in the crasher cofffins lid.... Godskitchen (who are seen by most as a copy cat club) never banned cyber stayed with trance and are now seen as a bgger and better night.

Sundissential

Like crasher sundis had an army of fluffy skirt wearing dummy sucking gumbies, but as fashions changed rather than banning them and replacing lisa lashes with Illogik... they embraced both, they welcomed try hards and fluffies, they catered for everyones tastes and they still have a loyal following.

What I'm trying to say is times may well change but although clubs are worshiped almost religously - promoters can't take on the status of gods... If people like promise they'll come - if they don't they wont... its that simple... A club promoter can't tell its punter how to dres, what to say and what to listen to.

As promise is starting to make a success of itself - I don't see the need to change - I think what mark and rich are doing makes far more sense they're adapting with the times... They're keeping the trance/hard trance music policy but also adding little touches here and there (like the odd prog and techno dj), they're also updating the backroom and with pgr making one of the best backrooms in the country.

If it aint broke don't fix it - theres always room for improvement... but promise is far from from broke - its doing extremely well in comparisson to most clubs.. its getting media coverage and with the demise of some of the super clubs is on the tips of a lot of tongues... you may be bored of trance but the majoirty areb't and tis trance thats getting the club all this good publicity.

IF IT AINT BROKE DON'T FIX IT (but there is always room for improvement )

The only disagreement I have with mark is the mesageboard.

So you're agreeing with my homosexual school of thought or disagreeing?

Evolution/adapting/little touches are all changes, and I think changes are needed. On the second birthday last year the place went fucking crazy when Picotto took the stage. A few weeks ago it was half empty by about 1am when Picotto was on, and I can't remember when the place was last full.

PGR might be making one of the best backrooms in the country, but it's still pointless when there's only 30 people there to see it!

Was exactly my point mark - promise aint doing bad.

And I think the backroom is starting to pick up again - as was evident on friday - I haven't seen it that busy in ages

But can I make one point on the bad publicity thingy... its the same people posting on the board now as before - so by removing the main forum nothing will be achieved... take this thread - this is doing promise no favours (may be doing you and rich a little as its giving you different insights - but stuff like this is far more suited to emails).. I still stand by my thinking (all on my tod ) and think in the long term getting rid of the main forum may not be such a good eidea.

i was just gonna say, promise is doin pretty well i reckon. its jus like any other club, there are some good nights, and some not so good nights.
Promise is doin as well as, if not better than most of the other clubs i go to...
the word is spreading around the country and stuff.....
dont change it too much.....+ stay away from techno

I think once the word gets out (like with say funkisnetial) people will come to promise just for pgr, if promise could maybe team up with someone like hed kandi once a month, a guest like troiphys once a month - I think pgr nights would be appriciated and looked at in a much better light - most people come to promise for trance so the folks that would usually like pgr aren't in the club... this could change with new bookings though.

like I know the trophys are returning and robert owens is comin

bonza

ya usin final scratch again mark?

ppl was well impressed with it all on fri! lot of em cudnt believe wot they were seeing! hehe!

was well good tho - upstairs was well busy!

Looks like I will have to change my plans and come along this week then!

Thats the spirt - Sort the thing out yourself!!

The Spence

Yes, my taste has changed, and I was trying to be objective rather than speaking personally, which is always difficult.

The title Evolve or Die was meant to reflect that Promise IS evolving, not that Promise is dying. The reason I called this thread that was to state my opinion that the changes Promise is making will help the club improve, and to point out that things (inc Promise) WILL always change. Anything that doesn't change will become stagnant. I wasn't saying this HAS happened to Promise, more that it eventually would happen if Promise NEVER evolved. A lot of people seem to be against changes simply because they want things to stay the same

I know Promise has had some great nights recently, and some not so great nights. IMO a lot of this came from dj line-ups which looked a lot like the line-ups from over a year ago. I never suggested Promise was in crisis or even used the word! (i hope)

I'm happy with the direction Promise is going in, so what we arguing about?

The thing about Funkissential is they know they are house room in a hard house club and the tunes that are played reflect that.
The Always residents have maybe forgot that they are house room in a trance club. If I wanted to hear 'proper' house I would go to Shindig.
Just like if I were in Leeds and I wanted hear 'proper' house I would go to Basics not Funkissential.

The Spence

Usually you speak a lot of sense but this is tosh, the funky room is erm funky - the trophy twins play a similar set to the one they played at promise almost every month... whenh the odd hard house dj like rob tissera play - they adapt and play a funky set....

The funky house played at funkisential and the house mark is on about isn't the deep cool stuff played at basics or shindig, its much more fun - much closer to pgr (althouh pgr tend to play more underground lesser known songs at times)... but its fun funky house.

this sound is very suited to promise and this is the sound that it would appear promise want - the trophy twins went down excellently

LMAO so I have, ooops *takes foot out of mouth*

yet again spence you speak the truth

Re: Re: evolve or die

I meant I haven't been so much recently, not that Promise hasn't been putting on nights worth going to.

So I heard. And as the numbers are the same then there seems to be no demise or crisis either.

Changes are being made, and I'm for them. Promise seemed to me to have lost a spark for me, but maybe I'm too remote from Promise or my opinion is irrelevant, but that's what my opinion is.

This thread was meant to be not specifically critical, or negative, but hopeful for the future, which I still am

I don't think this is true tho. Maybe the minority were saying this but the rest of us knew that that was total bollocks. It's all to do with opinions and censorring those opinions by restricting what people post gives out a far worse message.

Promise is a great night and those who are really bothered know this to be the case. You have to take the negative with the positive and always look for the light at the end of the tunnel. Like I said, the mood on the board changes more than Angus Deayton's sexual fetishes.

mark will picotto be coming back next year??

hope so...

I thought for a lot of the year no disrespect to the always residents but the sound they were playing wasnt suited to promise!! US Garage is a dated sound and isnt realy heard much now!! The best nights upstairs have been when they brought guests in i.e. Jonothan, Trophy Twins, PGR, The black guy from aspecto in leeds!!!!! Maybye its time to change the direction of Always and bring in fresher faces - Simon Lister, Stuart, Dino, Jonathon as ressies and bring bigger named Guests to play??? just a suggestion???

Jambon

TROPHY TWINS get em back A.S.A.P.

Class!!