It wasn’t actually called The Sheen Resistance till later, but if you know East Sheen, you’ll probably realise why it makes perfect sense.
Looking through an old Facebook gallery, we realised that the first night we put together was in January 2009. That makes our next one, on February 1st, our fifth anniversary. That first night was put together with no expectation of it going beyond one event; a load of mates and a bunch of their friends humouring us in a local community centre, all done as a one-off bit of fun. Then over the next few weeks, people kept coming up to ask us when the next one was.
Five years and many, many more nights on, we’re still here. The venues have changed a couple of times, although we’re still in SW14, but the main difference appears to be the crowd. It’s moved beyond our mates and beyond East Sheen, and seems to have found an audience from all across London (and beyond) and in greater numbers – we’re now selling out every time, showing that there’s genuinely a need for a night that caters for the grown-up party-goer. What has been largely consistent though is how lovely they are – all really friendly, all up for a good time. The music policy hasn’t really changed, although we’re slightly less clunky at executing it. It’s still largely a hybrid of 70s and 80s dance music – disco, funk, soul, a bit of Motown, and whatever else fits. We’ve also done a ton of private parties and played one or two actually rather grand events.
Although it’s impossible to speak to everybody on the night, what we are aware of is that there are people we didn’t know, who came along to that first party, and are still coming now. In some cases we still don’t know them any more than a smile and a nod when they walk in, and in others we’ve become friends. Others still will come in and immediately chat. To all of those, and everybody who has supported us along the way, thank you. As long as you’re up for a bit of a grown-up rave, we’ll be here putting it on and we hope to see lots of you at the fifth anniversary night on February 1st.
Lastly – a huge debt of gratitude goes out to Jem, to Jonnie, and to Ben (wherever he may be). Three great friends, who were so important to either inspiring this or actually getting it off the ground.
