Renaissance World Tour 2002: The Return of the Club Gods

One of the four famed British super clubs and a pioneer of the worldwide club scene since 1991, Renaissance have repeatedly challenged our notions of what clubbing should be all about, from attitudes, décor and flyers to innovative ideas about DJing and partying in foreign climes. It’s not an overstatement to say that the UK’s influence on the global club scene would not be what it is today without the trail-blazing work of clubs such as Renaissance.

This will be the third visit of the Renaissance World Tour to Manila and it will feature one of the world’s best and most recognizable DJs, Anthony Pappa. And like all their previous visits, NBK is proud again to be this year’s host of such illustrious names.

The Australian-born Pappa, 29, had a prodigious start: DJing by the age of 13, winning DMC’s Australian DMC DJ Championship at 15 and moving to the UK at 21, shortly after earning a residency at Renaissance. He later had bi-monthly gigs at the legendary Twilo in New York. His DJ skills and relentless approach to mixing made him a fixture as one of the top DJs in the annual DJ Magazine poll. His compilations include Renaissance Presents Volume 2, Nubreed on Global Underground and his latest, the well-received Resolution. His productions as Freefall and Barry & Gilbey have found their way into the record boxes of clubbing icons Sasha, Digweed, Deep Dish and Danny Tenaglia.

NBK brings you only the best: revered super club Renaissance, top international and local DJs in Anthony Pappa and Manolet Dario, all in one eagerly-awaited evening.

Renaissance Bio:

Renaissance was founded in March 1992 and its original concept was a response to the malaise that was suffocating the somewhat stale British club scene.

Venue 44 played original host to Renaissance and from the start barriers were broken and trends set. It was the first club to use 3 or 4 high profile guest DJ's every week, backed up by an advertising campaign that drew from the classical images which the club took its name from. These seemed to feature in every magazine you opened, a practice that has since become standard industry procedure. This initial formula reaped instant rewards for Renaissance and the club was a massive success.

With the image of the club now complete, the focus naturally turned to the music. Once again this was an area where Renaissance excelled, even to the point where the very latest vogue in British dance music was being hailed as 'The Renaissance Sound' by media and public alike. In a typically innovative move Sasha, now probably the most famous DJ in the world, was announced as the weekly resident DJ and a then unknown John Digweed chosen as his partner. These two DJ's are now responsible for leading dance music at the cutting edge and, in turn, creating a worldwide demand for British club culture.

Renaissance are currently continuing their tradition of sumptuous décor and presentation with a weekly residence in Nottingham's stunning Media club, a converted Grade II listed theatre. Described by Deep Dish as, "The most beautiful venue in the world", the club was voted best venue at the Muzik / Ericsson Club Awards 1999/2000.

Musically the night continues to go from strength to strength, Carl Cox and Danny Howells are monthly residents for 2001 and guests have included the likes of John Digweed, Paul Oakenfold, Seb Fontaine, Timo Maas and Dave Seaman.

Additional monthlies at The Cross, London (voted best London club night in 1999) and a bi-monthly at The POD, Dublin offer domestic clubbers from further a field a chance to sample the Renaissance ethic.

'Renaissance Worldwide' was born six years ago with a tour of the Far East, Asia and Australia (this has now become an annual event in the club's touring calendar), its immediate success demonstrating how the dance music phenomenon was quickly developing into a global economy. Since this landmark event Renaissance has touched down in all the world's major locations, including America, Russia, China, Japan, Canada, South Africa, Argentina, Switzerland and Milton Keynes to name but a few.

In addition, Renaissance has just completed its sixth consecutive season in Ibiza. After four highly successful summers at Pacha, this new millennium saw Renaissance bring a brand new weekly concept to the island. In a bold, and typically innovative maneuver, Renaissance teamed up with Mean Fiddler (the largest festival organisers on the planet) to deliver 'Renaissance Live', a hybrid of the world's finest DJ's and live acts, each Wednesday at Privilege. During the 2000 season Moby, Leftfield, Kylie, Moloko, Hybrid, Deep Dish, Boy George, Dave Seaman, Carl Cox, Pete Tong, Sneak, Josh Wink and Armand Van Helden are just a selection of some of the names that graced the famed Privilege stage.

Renaissance Recordings

In October 1994 Renaissance released their first album ' Renaissance – The Mix Collection', mixed by Sasha and John Digweed. It chronicled the musical evolution of Renaissance over 3 CD's and was married with the stunning imagery which was now synonymous with the club's identity. Demolishing sales figures of any compilation album before, it went Gold within 6 weeks and went on to sell over 150,000 copies. Still recognised as the benchmark for all club compilation albums, it has never been bettered. Mixmag further confirmed this when they voted it the best compilation of all time.

In 1999 Renaissance joined forces with the mighty Ministry of Sound to further the growth of the albums and develop a singles label. This joint venture has already delivered a stunning masters series: Dave Seaman - 'Awakening' + 'Desire', Deep Dish - 'Ibiza' and Nick Warren & Danny Howells - 'Revelation', and another 100,000 + selling, three CD, brand lead Ibiza album.

The singles arm gained instant recognition with Mark Pichiotti's seminal progressive anthem by Sandstorm - 'The Return of Nothing'. It has since secured artist album deals with some of the brightest luminaries in the world wide scene, highlights of which include: Danny Howells under his Science Dept guise; Paul and Ben Harris's Dirty Vegas alter ego H-Two and San Francisco uber collaboration of Jerry Bonham and Jondi & Spesh, better known as JSJ.

This August 9^th, NBK and GenTXT bring back the UK Super Club Renaissance in a presentation titled ONLY THE BEST NAMES IN CLUBBING with world-renowned DJ Anthony Pappa. This event happens at the Manila Polo Club, McKinley Road, Forbes Park, Makati City. It also features the Philippines' top DJ Manolet Dario. Doors open 10 PM. Tickets available at the gate.