Lining up outside the titanium clad Science Centre in Glasgow’s redeveloped Clyde area, awaiting to board the legendary Waverly Paddle Steamer, the collision of cutting edge architecture and clever 1940’s engineering seemed very apt, as the night ahead was full of old and new ideas sailing abeam.
Tonight’s punters, all stylishly wrapped up for the voyage down the Clyde, must have been quite a sight for the Waverly’s crew, compared to the normal cargo of OAPs and bum-bag wearing tourists that flock aboard every summer to visit the coloured houses of Tobermory, or the immense Abbey on the Isle of Iona. As these stars boarded, the colours for their voyage were in the form of disco lights not cottages; and instead of hymns, tunes were provided by two cathedral sized acts: Optimo, and Melting Pot DJs -both hailing from the Waverly’s home town; Glasgow.
No-one needed to be up the crows nest to spot that the music was going to be brilliant with that line up, and no-one was disappointed. Starting off with some Beach Boys and 1970’s funk blaring out from PA’s all over the ship, Melting Pot kicked straight into the party tunes, and that was the theme for the night. As the Waverly silently steamed past industrial sized scrap yards, huge ship building warehouses, and under the altitudes of the Erskine Bridge, the setting was just as important as the music. It’s not often you dance on the deck of a ship whilst being mooned at by jakeys on the river side, or boogie down in the brig as you whiz past mysterious islands as sailors serve you port.
Later, as the Waverly swooped round to port and headed homewards, Optimo and Melting Pot played proper party sets, full of 80’s arpeggio synths, hands clap-clap-claps, breaking beats, and big songs like Prince’s ‘Raspberry Beret’, taking turns commanding the bridge of both rooms.
Whilst JG Wilkes, JD Twitch, DJs Pip and Mark spun the records below deck, people’s minds were being spun by the lightshow above deck. Darkness fell, and Glasgow lit up, and it trumped even Optimo’s genius light shows at their now legendary Sub Club residency. Gone were the Jakes and Scrap heaps; masked by the neon lights of the motorways, strangely lit-half built warships, and expensive high rise apartments. We were no longer being mooned at, but being waved at and cheered on by residents of the flats, all whilst the Waverly sped flat-out homeward bound, sound-tracked by the best party music the UK has to offer.
As the boat docked, and the punters that weren’t keeling over in joy from the experience stormed the shore to hit up the Sub Club after party, no-one could argue that the 70’s funk to cutting edge electro sets were something even a peg-legged pirate to dance to, and that the Rizla River Boat Shuffle – with it’s excellent line up and enchanting setting – was definitely in a league of its own.