Sad news people. This Friday marks the last time Purple Sneakers will grace its spiritual home – The Abercrombie *tear*. To celebrate/commiserate the purple party peeps have enlisted their bestest buds to battle it out on the decks. You know, Kato vs Mystic Jaguar, Sleater Brockman vs Magic Happens, The Chaser’s Chris Taylor vs acclaimed actor Damon Herriman, and Channel V’s Jane Gazzo battling herself?
We had a quick chat to PhDJ (aka Martin Novosel owner of Boundary Sounds and founder of Purple Sneakers) to reflect on his fondest Purple Sneakers memories and discuss his plans for the future. Onward ever onward!
What’s been your biggest Purple Sneakers highlight? The biggest highlight for me at Purple Sneakers was, and will always be, the incredible sense of community in the club. The connection that the patrons have with each other and with good indie music has always inspired me and in a weird kinda way if feels as though everybody in there is friends because of it. There have been lots of moments, lots of bands, lots of party peeps. Everyone from Bloc Party, Interpol, Arctic Monkeys and Kings of Leon have come to hang at Purple Sneakers, and loads have played live and also spun tunes like Vampire Weekend, Lily Allen, Maximo Park and The Presets over the last 5 years. Philadelphia Grand Jury even played on the roof of The Abercrombie. Twice!
But one moment that stands out the most for me was about two months ago when I got kicked out of my own club. Not because I got kicked out but because of the feeling of the whole night…it was an epic. One of those nights that you’ll remember forever. I was amongst awesome friends and my favourite Australian DJs, Yacht Club DJs and Surecut Kids, were both playing. I was pretty loose I guess and I ran behind the bar, grabbed a bottle of Jager (sorry to Alex the licensee!) and some Red Bull cans, stood above the crowd and DJs and started Jagerbombing people’s faces.
As you can imagine the bar manager was pretty irate and I got turfed out. And although I ended up watching the club from outside on the street there were loads of people coming up to me, just random strangers, telling me how much fun they’d just had. So even though I wasn’t able to finish the night off inside I felt as though something I’d done in the last 5 years had clicked with people and that in some sort of way I was adding to the culture of this generation. It was one of those bitter-sweet memories.
What are your plans for the future? The Abercrombie is and was a legendary venue. And I think the venue we have chosen to move to in 2 weeks time has everything it takes to become legendary in its own right and to keep Purple Sneakers going for many years to come.
Venue: The Abercrombie Hotel, Cnr of Broadway and Abercrombie St
Date: Friday 15th January 2010
Time: 6pm onwards
Cost: $10, free before 7pm
Image via Boudist
