Rico Novo on heygorgeous!
By admin on May 6, 2008 in DJs and Producers, Events
heygorgeous! in 2006 established themselves as one of the hottest party nights in London by working with a formula that delivers not only the best in upfront music, featuring some of the hottest DJs, but also by ensuring that every party is held at one of London’s funkiest & trendiest venues. Their brand of uplifting, vocal and underground house has defined them and keeps those dance floors having it big time!
We catch up with Rico Novo, the man behind heygorgeous! to gain an insight into the past, present and future of the parties.
The following is a transcript of selected questions within the interview. To hear the full interview, please download the audio file using the “Quick links” box at the top right of this page.
For those who have never been to a Hey Gorgeous party, can you tell us what they might expect?
A sophisticated crowd having a salacious time, you know it’s all about getting sexy on the dance floor, with sexy beats in some of the finest clubs and bars in London. We stick to look at venues that offers more than just a DJ booth. We want the aesthetics to be right, the sound system has to be quality as well although primarily our main focus is about quality people having a quality time to a quality sound track.
What is it in particular that you love so much about the Hey Gorgeous parties, and the people that they attract?
I think the answer is twofold. Firstly, from the promoters perspective I love the stress of getting the party organised. Getting the butterflies in your belly making sure the party is going to go well, you know? I’m obviously a sucker for punishment! The second, is knowing that you’ve put on a great night. You know at the end of the night when people come up to you and say “Rico the music’s been fabulous, the crowd have been spot on”. For me it’s not about the money, it’s not about bums on seats, it’s about people understanding that you’re going underground, you’re putting an underground party on and the atmosphere in there is almost like you’re going to somebody’s house party rather than going to a club night. Some clubs you go to, it’s kind of like being in an airport, you don’t know anybody in there, there’s no kind of social interaction. We’re about putting on parties, we don’t put on club nights, we put on parties. I think that’s one of the fundamental differences between Hey Gorgeous and other nights out there.
More and more nowadays, promoters seem to be asking DJ’s to bring a fixed number of people to their event in order to able to play there. What’s your take on that?
It’s a tricky one. I try not to push that on my guys as much as possible. I’m a DJ as well as a promoter, so I can see things from both sides. Everybody is a promoter these days, and with so many promotions going on, peoples responses are that they have 5 other mates putting on nights at the same time, which one do I go to? My take on this personally is that there are too many promoters, who are not really putting on decent nights. With so many people wanting to be DJs, how do you get your break into the club scene? If somebody turns around and says to you, bring 20 friends down, a lot of kids will do that. I’ve been offered money by people to play at my events, which is absolutely ludicrous.
With more parties popping up everywhere it’s making your job getting people down to your events more difficult. How hard would you say being a promoter in London really is?
I think it’s very, very hard. A lot of the bigger venues have a click of people who control, who act as middle men, and they get sub promoters in, and this is what I’m trying to avoid. I’m not interested in doing big venues where you’ve got 20 different promoters all bringing x amount of people in. It is making your life harder. It’s about finding a smaller venue and putting something on that’s a bit more intimate, something that people will actually remember.
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