Southbank Centre ends the year in style with two unique parties on Monday 31 December 2007. While The Ballroom and foyer spaces of the Royal Festival Hall are transformed into a playground – with the Super Furry Animals and Deerhoof headlining - the popular Silent Disco will take over The Front Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall.
The Best New Year’s Eve Party…Ever with Super Furry Animals & Deerhoof Festival Hall Foyers, 8.30pm-2.30am, Tickets £50 (Group discounts apply) New Year’s Eve party at the Royal Festival Hall promises to be, as it says in the title, best New Year’s Eve party…. ever, with two live music stages, DJ sets, themed, the world’s smallest nightclub, live painting and other surprise happenings place throughout foyer spaces of the building. Headlining The Ballroom Stage, cosmic majesties Super Furry Animals present three themed sets. With SFA titles Ice Hockey Hair, Hometown Unicorn or Ysbeidiau Heulog (Sunny Intervals) and tracks such as Panda, Apple Bomb or This Magnificent Bird Will Rise to from, partygoers are being asked to dress up as their favourite song. While the set up camp on The Ballroom Stage, the “unfathomably brilliant” (NME) discombobulated pop, Deerhoof play on the second stage.
Elsewhere in the building, The Miniscule of Sound will set up its 8'x4'x8' flat-pack instant venue, featuring fluffy décor, flashing lights and a traditional Saturday Night Fever dancefloor. Those that dare to stray up into the strange world of the Royal Festival Hall’s upper levels will encounter DJ sets from Wizards Sleeve – who wear belts with huge buckles and play a mind bending mash-up of the very best music – and Pete Fowler’s suitably oddball set of psychedelia, prog, freakbeat and glam. Pete Fowler is the creator of the Furries’ deliciously twisted ‘monsterist’ artwork, and will also be doing some live painting on the night.
Gruff Rhys, Super Furry Animals’ front man, said: “It's going to be an extremely euphoric celebration of life itself. We're taking over the building and playing at least three sets, culminating in a surround-sound show with full video.”
As strange sounds throb throughout the Royal Festival Hall, the Front Room of the Queen Elizabeth Hall will be witness to the equally strange but much quieter scene of 1,000 headphone-wearing partygoers dancing to Silent Disco’s brand new show Visual Galaxy. A hit at festivals throughout the summer, the audience is given digital, double channel wireless Silent Disco headphones and can switch between DJs Michael Minten (dj OD) and Nico Okkerse (NO dj), who also function as VJs, providing live screen projection. The former is a tall Dutchman with a love of Hawaii and hard house, while the latter prefers beer, polka and rock. Whether grooving to Fatboy Slim’s ‘Rockefeller Skank’, or headbanging to Nirvana’s ‘Street Spirit’, Silent Disco has to be one of the most unique partying experiences in London this NYE, and was a big hit during Southbank Centre’s re-opening celebrations in June.
Partygoers can begin the evening with a special performance by celebrity impersonator Ennio Marchetto (9pm). New characters include Amy Winehouse and Britney Spears who take their place alongside Ennio’s well-loved gallery of characters from Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin to the Mona Lisa via Madonna. -- www.southbankcentre.co.uk
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