Chockablock Party Review ™/ Text + Pics / Shamz Le Roc
16th January 2008

Introducing Chockablock, the club night dedicated to promoting the UK underground music scene. If you haven’t seen the myspace posts, the blog, the flyers, then where have you been? Launching in London last month at EGG, Chockablock certainly lives up to the hype. By 11pm the venue is full to capacity and buzzing with the energy of a real mixed London crowd. The Cut spoke to JP, aka Joseph Patterson, one man promotions machine and the brains behind it all about blogging, bassline and, er, Babybell Cheese.

Pick 3 words that describe your Chockablock night?

Showaa, Refreshing, Exciting

Chockablock originally started in Northampton, what made you relocate to London?

Well I am in the process of moving back to London (I’m originally from South London) so I thought why not bring the rave with me lol, it already has made a little name for itself so I thought I’m gonna bring it to the big city and show people what’s really goooood!

How is Chockablock going to be different from raves like Urban Nerd or Dirty Canvas?

Well the promoters that run Urban Nerd and Dirty Canvas are good friends of mine, and how I see it is we are all trying to push music as a whole. So in a way we all help and support each other out, but the genres that are playing at my events are a bit different. Chockablock will try and showcase the best in grime/bassline/dubstep/electro/jungle with some rave artists showcasing their talent too. Also with art visuals by some big people in the game, from fashion designers to graphic designers showcasing their work. So it’s a different approach to the typical grime/ bass rave but you still can get your skank
on! Chockablock is to get different crowds together from road man to indie nu ravers to fashionistas.

The first rave you ever attended that you can remember was...

First rave I attended was when I was 15 at an over 18 event, it was a grime rave in Northampton. Skepta was there, Wiley, Flirta
D, D Double E... a lot of MCs were there.

If you could draw for the baseball bat and swingggggggg anything out of the world, what would it be?

† New Ravers At Chockablock †

The wonderful words of Tempa T lol. If I could I would swingggg all the beef in the raves out as I feel that that stops the scene from progressing. I don’t mind a bit of greezyness but not in the raves, keep it at home man.

What three tunes are rotating on your ipod?

I don’t have a ipod but on my computer i play these tunes non stop, Silverlink - Love is the Message, DJ Total - Bass line Mix, Wiley - Skydive (yes it’s old but I over feel my old skool grime)

Is there nu rave overkill right now?

I am feeling the 80’s nu rave scene, it’s different. Still, I know that they’re proper feeling the grime and bassline scene hard so it’s a good look. How many pieces of Babybell cheese can you fit in your mouth?

That would never happen but probably about 3. Lastly, for a 19 year old male, you’re obviously extremely focused. Do you have any words of advice to young people that would like to progress in the media/music scene?

At 19 I am a Contributing Music Editor for Super Super Magazine and a promoter and it is a blessing from god that I have got so far without great GCSEs. Advice I would give young people who want to get in the media/ music industry is: be persistent, try and get as many contacts as you can.If you’re an aspiring writer, get your own blog and write about what you like. Promote it, get your readers and then after a while you will have experience of writing. If you’re an aspiring promoter, pr or A & R person, then try and get experience with working with a club night. If you can start off small, even handling out flyers, and work your way up , all thesethings wil help you as it’s what I did, so it can be done.

Bashy Interview
The Cool Kids
Lady Lykes
Grimes New School
Rowdy Superstar Interview
The Sound Of Reason
Slash Interview
Hoxton Vs Hampstead Fashion
Young Designers
Lucinda Chua Interview
Will Kay Interview
The Brothers Size
Chris Lambert
Duane Henry
Drug Trafficking Feature
Does My Bum Look Big in This
Life After Prison
Whats Upsetting Our Children
MP Julia Goldsworthy
Autechre Live In London

Hardcore Is More Than Music
Media Box
Paddington Development Trust
The Cut On Myspace