DJ Big Lou At Private Party

Attended a private Halloween party at a friend's house last night over in the Conway area of Orlando. The house was for sale and thus devoid of any furniture which made it easy for them to have a bar set up in the living room and a large dance floor in the dining room. And over near the kitchen was DJ Big Lou complete with speakers, special lighting effects and fog machine. What made this whole thing impressive was that four hours at this party was like club-hopping on Pleasure Island. The first couple hours was all Hip Hop as if I was in BET Soundstage. I was resigned to hear that all night but all of a sudden I was transported to Motion with a number of current Promo Only mixes of current hits. That was followed by close to an hour of House/Techno Mannequins music. It was great! When he finally pulled us out of Mannequins there was even a visit to 8TRAX for some Disco. Thankfully there were no visits to Rock'n'Roll Beach Club or Wild Horse Saloon! But as 1am approached he was headed back to Soundstage so I was headed home.

I don't normally advertise on this Blog but I've got to say that if you ever have a need for a DJ give Big Lou a call at (1)(407) 844-8540. I believe he also spins at Roxy.

Club Report: Atlantic Dance Hall

Remember last week when I reported how busy it was at Atlantic Dance for a Thursday night? Well it was dead last night.....perhaps 20 people in the entire club. DJ Talie kept the music moving but there just wasn't anyone there to move to the music. You're sure to remember Talie from Motion! (See January 1st article for her Motion pic) She was the only female DJ on the Pleasure Island staff. She next spins at ADH on Friday, November 6th. Fridays are always better!

Meanwhile over at CityWalk, 80's Night at The Groove was really crowded as was Hoochie Mama Night at Latin Quarter. Halloween Horror Nights was packed....just 2 more nights remaining if you're considering going.

Flag Counter

Dang! I stuck that Flag Counter on the website this past July and -> the 3-month mark just passed. As of Monday evening, there were 6,525 new visitors to this site. It's not supposed to double-count you but I know that it does in certain circumstances. Nonetheless, I thought maybe 4 of you actually read this site and I've been surprised to learn THOUSANDS of people read this site. Readers come from 49 states and a number of other countries. That's the love of a place called Pleasure Island. That's the hope of so many that Disney will rethink plans and reopen something on the island. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the latest rumors, bleak as they may be!
Update: The 49 states includes DC so there are 2 states missing: Idaho & New Mexico. If you know anyone in those states, tell them to visit the Save PI blog so that we can see if those states post.

Trick or Treat: Halloween Options

Downtown



There are so many clubs downtown that it's impossible to list everything. If you're in costume you're going to be welcome pretty much anywhere. Bliss Ultra Lounge is having its Haunted Mansion Party featuring House music from DJ Mickey Bono. Church Street Bars has their Halloween Party and your $10 admission gets you not only into Antigua but also into the triple-stacked Chillers, Beer Belly Brewery and Lattitudes. Wall Street Plaza is having their Plazaween IX. Admission here is also $10 and you get all the clubs along Wall Street. I rarely mention Wall Street clubs because I've rarely found techno and only 2 of their clubs feature DJ's. But they are advertising DJ Digital at Slingapours, DJ Larry at One Eyed Jacks and DJ Flint on the main stage for Saturday night. Finally, Tabu advertises itself as having downtown's largest costume contest with their Vampire Ball. DJ's Richie Rich and Jay Mac will be spinning Club Remixes, Urban Beats and Classic Hip Hop.

Around Town


Away from downtown Blue Martini inside the Mall at Millenia will be having costume contests Thursday, Friday AND Saturday nights beginning at 7:30pm. Shakers Lounge on SR436 in Casselberry is having a Halloween Bash & Costume Party both Friday and Saturday nights. This venue is located where Calico Jacks used to be. No cover. There is also Bar Louie over on Sand Lake Road which is featuring the band Switch beginning at 9pm on Saturday night for their 80's Fright Night.

Universal

There is really nothing formal planned at CityWalk nightclubs. I recall last year that about 25% of patrons had costumes on and it was crazy nonetheless, especially for a Friday. That was also the night I discovered DJ Leony playing House sets in Latin Quarter and I learned that somehow I could survive without Mannequins. With Halloween on a Saturday night this year, it should be really crazy in all the clubs! Besides DJ Leony at LQ, look for DJ AJ in The Groove and DJ Doc at Red Coconut Club.

Disney

Pleasure Island clubs will be dark for Halloween this year. Mannequins, 8TRAX, Motion and Soundstage will all be closed. They are being refurbished for your future enjoyment. Not. Trick or Treat! (However, if you've got no life, feel free to stop by for Celebrate Tonight with shows at 5:30 pm, 6:30 pm, 7:30 pm, 8:30 pm, 9:30 pm, 10:30 pm, 11:30 pm.)

Rix Lounge in Disney's Coronado Springs Resort will be having their Black & Orange Ball on Friday night though. Wear black and orange or wear a costume. Admission is $15 at the door and $10 in advance. Not aware of anything special going on at Atlantic Dance but I'm sure some will be dressed up.

Those are the main ones I'm aware of. Readers, feel free to add in the Comments section.

Who Is The #1 DJ In The World For 2009?

There are a number of different polls but DJ Mag is one of the big ones. For 2 years running DJMag readers and pollsters have voted Armin van Buuren (NL) as the #1 DJ. For 2008 he was followed by Tiësto (NL) at #2, Paul van Dyke (D) at #3, Above & Beyond (GB) at #4 and David Guetta (F) at #5. But the polls are closed for 2009 and the new #1 will be announced this Wednesday night at Ministry of Sound in London. Are you attending? My money is on David Guetta for #1 following his incredible year. Here's his new House song On The Dance Floor that once again mixes hip hop/rap into a House beat. (BTW, DJ#91 in the Top 100 is Steve Lawler (GB) and he plays tomorrow night (Tuesday) at Firestone.)
Wednesday Update: Well the votes are in and Armin van Buuren repeats for the 3rd year in a row as the #1 DJ in the world. Tiësto remains at #2 while David Guetta moved up to #3, Above & Beyond to #4 and Paul van Dyke was #5. Visit DJMag.com for the entire Top 100.

Breaking News: Mannequins Stairways to be Removed

The WDWMagic website is reporting that Disney filed a permit with Orange County last week to remove the outdoor staircases from the parking lot side of Mannequins. These stairs connect the 2nd and 3rd floors with the ground and were connected to upper floor emergency exits. Back in the day when PI was packed every night, the stairs were often used as the entrance to the club because there was extra space outside for queuing. In fact, during the final Thursday night of Mannequins existence, entrance was directly to the 2nd floor using these outside stairs. There is no indication the entire club is coming down however the removal of upstairs emergency exits effectively means the upper floors can no longer be used were anything to reopen inside.
Monday Update: Disney has also pulled a permit pertaining to the "light bridge" that connects the former PI Live booth over to the PI Live bar. You'll recall the prior rumor about the booth being taken down so that Sosa Cigars can have an upstairs smokers patio. Perhaps this is the first step towards those renovations. In this photo (left), we believe that green tower that runs over the main entrance near the Hub is what is being referred to.

Live Band Coming to Groove 80's Night

Management at The Groove is going to do an experiment to see if they can increase crowd size for their Thursday 80's Night. Crowds have been decent of late but clearly they are down with this being the tourist off-season. On Thursday, November 19th they will be bringing in a live-band to The Groove stage. I think this may be a first. The locally-famous 80's band Switch is going to be appearing live for two sets beginning at 9pm. DJ Doc (from 8TRAX) will be playing between sets as well as after the band concludes. Sources say that if successful, they may bring in an 80's band monthly. The desire is to bring in a different demographic (band followers) while keeping current customers (DJ music-oriented customers). Thanks to reader Ken Sellers for alerting us to this! These are two very different demographics. Will be quite interesting to see how things mesh. IMO, if they really want to expand demographics, they should add late-70's Disco to the existing 80's format and bring in the rest of the homeless 8TRAX crowd. In other clubs around town that toss in a 70's hit from time-to-time, there are always cheers from the crowd when Village People, Bee Gees, KC, etc. gets played!

November Concert Reminders!

One of the hottest "new" DJ's on the scene in 2009 has been Deadmau5 (CDN). Controversial within the DJ industry and famous for wearing his mouse head while performing, his teamwork with Kaskade has nonetheless propelled him to the forefront. He swings through Orlando on Thursday, November 12th at House of Blues in Lake Buena Vista. Tickets are $25 if purchased at the HOB box office and more if purchased at Ticketmaster.

A reminder that Mannequins' DJ Dave Cannalte (USA) is teaming up with former partner DJ Kimball Collins (USA) for the 20-yr reunion of AAHZ night at Tabu. The event is on Thanksgiving Eve, Wednesday, November 25th. If you're not working on Thursday, you should plan to be there Wednesday night. Advance tickets are just $12 (cash only) if purchased at Drop Shop dj store located at 2422 E. Robinson Street near Orlando Executive Airport. You can also purchase them at Wantickets.com with a nominal service fee. Expect a sell-out for this event!

And don't forget DJ David Guetta (F) on Tuesday, December 1st at Roxy!

Club Report: Atlantic Dance Hall

CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE
Please excuse the quality of some of the photos; my camera is either going bad or my photographer was drunk! I've reported on Atlantic Dance Hall several times in the past but only for Friday or Saturday nights. Last night I decided to check it out to see what Thursdays are like. Well, it was surprisingly crowded! Since the club is not advertised, a lot of it has to do with how many people are staying at the adjacent hotels and in particular whether there are any large conventions or meetings going on. After all, it's the only remaining Disney-run club at Disney World. I learned something else last night. I've mentioned on here that Fridays are really good because of DJ Tony. Well, he was on duty Thursday night this week and won't be there Friday night. Turns out you can't really count on any specific DJ on any specific night. He says there are 6-7 DJ's on the roster for ADH and he's not always scheduled for the same night. Oh well. All the DJ's play requests and the club format is very much like Motion...only larger....and nicer. All at Disney prices. FRIDAY NIGHT UPDATE: There must be some conventions in town because the club was packed. DJ Doc from 8TRAX was on-duty and DJ Peapod from Mannequins even dropped by too!

Feature DJ: Baby Anne

PHOTOS BY BRIAN STORY
Damn, she's still cute as a button! It's hard to believe she's been spinning techno Breaks
since the early 90's. Back in those days Baby Anne hung around with other Orlando DJ's such as Icey and Kimball Collins as Orlando was techno-central back then. She was there to support Icey last week when he appeared at Firestone as pictured above.

Her new album is called I Heart Bass; (afterall her nickname is Bass Queen) and we're not referring to the fish! We haven't seen much of her locally this year since her Tuesday night performances at Red Coconut Club ended but she does perform all over the country. This Saturday she is performing at College Park Yoga in Orlando for their Vampire Yoga night. Update: Per Calvin at CPY, this event is open to the public but it's not a party; its 2 hours of yoga practice while Baby Anne plays! 10pm-Midnight. But next Friday, October 30th Baby Anne will be spinning at Tera Nova in Jacksonville on US1 at Baymeadows. Admission is $10.

Orlando Club List

Orlandoclublist.blogspot.com has been redesigned and now has club listings based on your favorite clubs at Pleasure Island. Check it out!

PI Update

Time for a Pleasure Island update. Rumors have pretty much dried up; the only ones I keep hearing have to do with speculation on which club building is going to be demolished first. RRBC seems to have the most potential. Meanwhile, the main entrance sign at the No.2 bridge has been changed to feature Festival of the Masters.


Last month lighting equipment and electronics were torn out of Soundstage. Not sure if those items remain inside Motion but we can see that the famous Motion DJ booth pictured last month in the bottom photo is no longer there, as shown in the upper photo. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Meanwhile, Celebration Plaza (and PI in general) was a ghost town this past Sunday night...how timely for Halloween! No clubs = no people.

Club Report: House of Blues SIN

DJ SANDY ON STAGE / DJ SANDY & DJ JIMMY JOSLIN CHATTING
Service Industry Night at House of Blues in Downtown Disney remains such a Sunday night institution around Orlando that other clubs pretty much don't even try to compete with it. This is where the crowds are on Sunday nights, drawn by free admission for anyone in any service industry. Resident DJ Sandy plays each Sunday; often there is a guest DJ too. Last night it was local favorite DJ Jimmy Joslin and HOB was packed! Sandy opened with techno but migrated over to hip hop. But he played known songs that fit in well. About 12:30am the hip hop morphed back to techno which meant Joslin would soon be appearing.

About 12:45am the red-shirted security staff took their places around the club, the go-go girls came out and Jimmy Joslin opened with Suicide Girls followed by Ghosts n Stuff. DJ David Guetta figured heavily in his selections; he played When Love Takes Over, Sexy Bitch and The World Is Mine at various times.

There were no hard drives to be found; everything was mixed directly off CD's. That's the crowd near 2am as Joslin played Darude's Sandstorm! DJ KJ of K5 is next Sunday's guest DJ; will he be the hip hop KJ (Zanzibar) or the techno KJ (Tabu)?

Club Report: Trotters

Would you like a little Dance music with your dinner? Would you like a little techno with your football? I've been wondering about Trotter's Sports Bar in Metrowest for awhile now and finally made it out last night to see how it works. Here's the deal: It's primarily a sports bar. There are a lot of televisions around the room and patrons last night were watching baseball playoffs and the UCF-Miami football game. There is food of the burger and wings variety to munch on while enjoying your favorite beverages. So where does the music fit in?

Well, stationed in the corner on Saturday nights is DJ Smooth who you may know from RadioDanz.com and previously from XM81 BPM Satellite Radio. And he's loaded down with 2000+ Dance and House songs which he weaves together into a 4 hour set. People walk up and make requests but unfortunately there really is no dancing. Just sports, food and alcohol. All on Arnold Palmer Drive amid the dozens and dozens of apartment complexes that make up Metrowest. 10pm to 2am Saturdays. Great music, interesting mix.

Meanwhile Around Town

CityWalk clubs were a bit spartan last night despite good weather and a public school holiday in Orange County. Red Coconut and Latin Quarter didn't really feel crowded until nearly 11:30pm and 80's Night at The Groove never did get crowded. Only about 20 people dancing to the 70's rock band over in Margaritaville.

Looks like CityWalk is getting another food venue; a sushi bar is under construction over near the Moe's/Panda/Burger King food court. Halloween Horror Nights closed at midnight last night and the food court wisely stayed open for those departing. There were some pretty long lines as HHN patrons headed up the escalator to deal with their hunger. HHN is open until 2am tonight and Saturday night.

Speaking of Halloween, it's just 2 weeks away and falls on a Saturday this year. In the near future I'll be posting a listing of some of the club costume events scheduled around town, for those of you who will be dressing up.

Talking to people who went to see DJ Icey last Saturday night at Firestone. Concert had a big crowd and of course he played the requisite songs that he's famous for. Fellow Orlando native DJ's Baby Anne and Kimball Collins were spotted in VIP. Someone said the dancing girls in their tall furry boots is getting old and Icey needs to update his show. Earlier this week someone posted in Comments about plastic cola bottles being launched and causing a mess. Overall sentiment though is that it was a really good show!

Jimmy Joslin is the guest DJ at House of Blues this Sunday night. Here I go prejudging again but I expect him to be playing: Techno. Joslin also opens for Tiësto tonight at UCF Arena. Enjoy your weekend and see you out at da clubs!

All Tiësto, All The Time

DJ Tiësto brings his Kaleidoscope world tour to Florida this coming weekend with 4 concerts; Friday night in Orlando at UCF Arena, Saturday night in Fort Lauderdale at Nova Southeastern Arena, Sunday night at The Ritz in Tampa and finally Monday night at Sway Lounge in Naples. His Kaleidoscope album was just released and I think it opens a new dimension for him...much softer...reminds me of what Kaskade has been doing. Will be interesting to see how his fans react to the change. Tickets at UCF are pricey $50 which is $10 more than his concert last year at Hard Rock Live.

Sirius 36/XM81 BPM has changed its name to Tiësto Kaleidoscope Radio this week, running 100% Tiësto concerts and interviews from Noon ET today through 11pm this coming Friday.

AAHZ Reunion

I reported this earlier as a rumor and now it can be confirmed. Mannequins DJ Dave Cannalte and DJ Kimball Collins are teaming up to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Aahz. If you were a fan of Mannequins, this is yet another night you won't want to miss! Wednesday, November 25th (Thanksgiving Eve) in the historic Beacham Theater....better known as Tabu! Tickets are $12.

SIN at HOB

With this being somewhat of a holiday weekend and a day off on Monday, I'm planning to check out Sunday night's Service Industry Night at House of Blues. My last two visits have been disappointments; DJ Magic Mike has been there both times and his idea of good music is mostly hip hop. That's all well and good but SIN used to be about techno. Here's the October DJ SIN line-up:

11OCT DJ SANDY & DJ RICHIE RICH
18OCT DJ SANDY & DJ JIMMY JOSLIN
25OCT DJ SANDY & DJ KJ

I'll report back and let you know what happened. Another night of Hip Hop and this night is being removed from the techno category. Update: I did not attend. A view of the Richie Rich website led me to believe that this was going to be a hip hop night. :-(

Club Report: Why Not Lounge

WHY NOT LOUNGE
Back in the day when I attended college up north and spring break in Orlando was my group's destination, we happened to stay at the Holiday Inn in Altamonte Springs. It was then that I discovered a hotel night club called the Why Not Lounge. Later visits to O-Town always meant stays at that Holiday Inn and return trips to the Why Not. But when I actually moved to the Orlando area the Why Not was not on my radar because I was living closer to the Mouse than to northern suburbia.

So how is the Why Not doing? Well that Holiday Inn is now a Clarion Inn but the Why Not looks pretty much as it always has! During a Thursday night visit last night, I discovered they still run Ladies Night that night, they still have a live band singing Top 40 and they still have a DJ in a small booth spinning between sets. And believe it or not for a club that has been in business over 30 years, it still draws a crowd. The band's breaktime was nearly an hour long which gave the DJ plenty of time to fill the dance floor with his hit music. There were no 20-somethings in here; it was definitely age 35+ and there were plenty of cougars on the prowl. I'm told that Fridays and Saturdays are crazy in there. You might want to check it out.


THE GROOVE 80'S NIGHT WITH DJ DOC / LATIN QUARTER LADIES NIGHT WITH DJ LEONY
Meanwhile, 80's Night at The Groove had a moderately-sized crowd on hand and it was a little more but not a lot more crowded over in Latin Quarter for their Ladies Night. I did not get to go inside but Blue Martini's parking lot was jammed. Sounds like a future place to visit!

House DJ's Continue to Book Orlando

I am going to be revamping sister Blog www.orlandoclublist.blogspot.com this weekend to make it a bit more user-friendly for fans of Pleasure Island. While updating it today though, I noticed that Orlando now has 7 different techno/house DJ's coming to town during these final months of 2009:

10OCT DJ IVANO BELLINI (CH) BLISS
10OCT DJ ICEY (USA) FIRESTONE
16OCT DJ TIESTO (NL) UCF ARENA
27OCT DJ STEVE LAWLER (GB) FIRESTONE
06NOV DJ DIRTY SOUTH (MK) BLISS
12NOV DJ DEADMAU5 (CDN) HOUSE OF BLUES
01DEC DJ DAVID GUETTA (F) ROXY

This is really an amazing line-up and of course this is in addition to the many local DJ's performing regularly.

Techno Continues to Evolve

For the past ten years or so, Hip Hop music has surpassed Techno as the music of choice for most of the masses in the United States. Where massive clubs playing House and Trance once ruled the nights, such is no longer the case. Where most American cities had a radio station or two playing techno, these are extremely difficult to find nowadays. But I believe the tide has turned a bit. Many people have grown weary of hip hop since a lot of the music sounds exactly the same from song to song. Rap lyrics which are often a part of the hip hop scene have consistently relied on violent messages and that's gotten really old.

I bring this up because besides this being a slow news week in the PI world, there was a recent Blog Comments discussion about House music evolving into Dance music and how Dance often has included remixes of Hip Hop. That remains true. Hip Hop is often remixed to a faster beat for Dance Club play. But we're also seeing more and more Techno artists create from inception Dance music that incorporates Hip Hop and Rap. This is an interesting development that shows that music is constantly evolving and often borrowing from other genres.
This is the kind of thing that is helping bring back Techno music! Update: By coincidence, the Orlando Sentinel ran an article on Sunday (appeared in other Chicago Tribune papers too) about how the current Top 40 hasn't been this diverse since the 70's. It mentioned that Black Eyed Peas were finally dethroned off the #1 slot, a position they held for a new record of 26 weeks with their I Got Feeling and Boom Boom Pow songs. "Boom Boom Pow" represents what's happening in terms of dance music, R&B and pop converging, according to a music expert from Edison Research.

In the first video below we see Eurodance artist Natalie Horler of Cascada (Germany) incorporate Rap into EVACUATE THE DANCE FLOOR while in the second video we see House DJ David Guetta (France) incorporate Hip Hop singer Akon directly into SEXY BITCH.

Club Report: Bliss Ultra Lounge

Bliss Ultra Lounge continues to impress me with its "Saturday Night Live" sessions of Dance and House music. If you liked the music at Mannequins, you will love Bliss on Saturday nights. Regular Saturday night DJ Mickey Bono was off in St. Pete somewhere along with fellow K5 DJ KJ so fellow K5 DJ Christian Michael was spinning. It was awesome and the club was wall-to-wall full. Ladies were dressed to impress. The normal Saturday night cover is just $5.

Ivano Bellini Coming To Bliss

One of the regular DJ's from Club Space in Miami, Ivano Bellini returns to Orlando next Saturday night at Bliss Ultra Lounge downtown. He last played here a couple years ago when Destiny was having regular Friday night House sessions. Presale tickets are $10 at Wanttickets.com. Doors open at 10pm with resident DJ Mickey Bono, Winter Springs' own DJ Chad Andrew and DJ Cheyenne M. This will be a packed event! For those that prefer Break Beats, DJ Icey will be spinning the same night a few blocks up the road at Club Firestone.