Earlier this year the dance music scene in the UK was looking dire. Gatecrasher's festival bombed with less than half the expected people attending and this was just one of a number of high profile failures. However, in seemingly a direct contradiction to recent trends, Godskitchen Global Gathering pulled in a crowd of over 70,000. So why has Godskitchen's star risen so sharply amidst the doom and gloom that has enveloped the UK festival scene in recent times?

"I think it is just that other companies have fallen out of love with what they do," ponders Neil Moffitt, Managing Director of Godskitchen. "And they do it because they feel they have to. Balancing your love for the music with remembering it is a commercial entity. That is where success lies.

"It was a major highlight for us," says Moffitt, speaking of the recent Global Gathering Festival. "What people forget is that other dance companies in the UK all have big concert promoters backing them. We are a self-funded company who do everything from organising the burger stalls to providing the biggest DJs in the world with no help of any kind. So for us it is kind of our way of sticking our finger up to them and saying 'well done lads, but you're still not as good as we are'. It is about people. Not about brands, egos or music executives. It is about putting on a party that makes the kids happy. If they are happy your following grows and it is just a snowball really."

When one considers that Godskitchen is only celebrating its fifth birthday, snowball is definitely the best way to describe its success. "We have quite a large staff now with our offices having grown from two lads in a bedroom in Northhampton to over twenty five fulltime staff," Moffitt states proudly. "While it has been very quick for us, it is more because we have capitalised on other people not making the most of their opportunities when it came their way. We are still, in our hearts, clubbers. There is nothing better than standing in the main arena of our festival that holds 20,000 people in one tent. 20,000 kids going crazy. Believe me, it is a thrilling job and we all still love what we do."

Aside from festivals and club nights, an important part of Godskitchen's success has also been their CD releases. The third installment of their compilation series, entitled 'Summer Trance', has just been released and as usual they have found a way to differentiate themselves from the commercial mainstream. "We don't pretend to be Ministry of Sound or Cream who are just interested in the sales - they will put certain tracks on an album just to get the 14 year old kid in the street to buy it. That is not something we're interested in. We're an event and dance company in the UK that does not see album sales as the huge revenue generator they perhaps see it as. We are putting out a product to people in the street that gives an accurate reflection of what we would play at the club. We reach our core customer and we'd like to think that we get a bit more respect as we don't sell our soul to the devil for a few extra thousand album sales."

The latest compilation features John '00' Fleming mixing CD's 'One (11pm)' and 'Two (1am)' with Fergie bringing it home on CD 'Three (3am)'. "Fleming DJ’d at our first ever night in the UK," remembers Moffitt. "For whatever reason, after that he did not play for us for a long time. Fleming and I then went to America and I'd have to say that musically he is one of the most educated people I know. He definitely reflects what we would play in respect to the 11pm and 1am mixes. CD 3, 3am, that isn't what Fleming is into. So we brought in Fergie to mix CD 3 because if anybody is DJing in our club at 3am it is him. We are desperately trying to recreate the club on our CDs. And like the club we try and steer away from staying with one particular style of music on the CDs. We're offering a journey of music."

Currently, Godskitchen is touring Australia with a number of the high profile DJs featured on the 'Summer Trance' compilation including Armin Van Buuren, John '00' Fleming and Satoshi Tomiie, having played last weekend in Melbourne and Sydney and this weekend in Perth and the Gold Coast. Moffitt has ensured that Godskitchen used a very different approach to other companies when taking their product overseas.

"Other promoters have made the fatal mistake of being arrogant and thinking they can get on a flight, walk into someone's country and try and teach them how it's done," he remarks. "Australia already has a very good scene and some great promoters. What can we teach them that they don't already know? Probably nothing. When we go to a new country we try and team up with the best people in that country and have a working relationship with them because not everything that works in England will work in Australia.

“America is a prime example. Gatecrasher, Cream and Ministry; if you put them all in the field together in America they wouldn't get 50 people. This is because they were arrogant in the early days and went to America and said 'hey, we're going to teach you how it's done!' Well, it doesn't work like that! We go into a country very open minded, seek out the best people and say 'hey, we'd like to work with you. But how do we adapt our product to make it successful?' That is why we linked up with Future Entertainment in Australia."

Moffitt has just as insightful a viewpoint when it comes to the dance music scene in the UK. "The whole house scene will go a bit more underground," he predicts. "DJs that are going to become huge are Mistress Barbara who will have a really good couple of years. Armin Van Buuren will possible eclipse a lot of the other European DJs in the next couple of years as well. Progressive music will disappear into the smaller 500-600 capacity clubs. House music is still quite strong but there aren't enough big names to put bums on seats.

“The UK will reinvent itself. There are some fantastic DJs out there that are unheard of. We've got a night in October where we're showcasing four DJs who have never played for us before. They're all 19 and 20 and it looks like the night will sell out. Maybe that's telling us that people are bored of the old brigade. So it will reinvent itself and more new talent is going to come through which can only be an exciting prospect."

Terry Goldfain

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