Described as ‘one of the biggest UK DJs’, house music titan Mark Knight will play a rare set in Nottingham lasting two hours this weekend.
Knight, famous for tracks such as Man With The Red Face, Yebisah and Downpipe, also runs Toolroom Records, which has its own residency in Ibiza at Eden, playing host to other top name DJs such as Danny Howard, Hannah Wants and Leftwing : Kody.
And Knight comes to Trade in Nottingham on Sunday May 26.
Movement Music Events is the house night behind it, and previous high-profile headliners on their roster include Riva Starr and Max Chapman, with the night due to host a stage at Detonate Festival with DJs including Fisher.
Jake Brigstock caught up with Movement co-founders and DJs Matt Guy and Jake Thomas about bringing Mark Knight to Nottingham, touring Europe and how they got into DJing.
JB (Jake Brigstock): Hi guys, thank you for meeting us inside Trade to chat about your upcoming night – is it the biggest night you guys have done?
JT (Jake Thomas): It’s the biggest DJ we’ve had in Mark Knight, he’s an absolute legend – so many generations have listened to him and we’re really excited to have him down.
MG (Matt Guy): He runs Toolroom Records, which is one of the biggest, if not THE biggest, record label in house music in the world. When we started Movement, that was the pinnacle of what we were aiming for. We didn’t expect it being realistic! From Movement as well, there are absolute vibes from start to finish. Our residents build it up perfectly and our headliners are class.
JB: For those that may not know, what can people expect from a Mark Knight set and the nights that you guys do?
JT: Mark Knight plays anything from disco to house, tech house and techno. Me and Matt will close it playing heavier tech house and techno.
MG: He’s going to be doing a two hour set, which will be an incredible journey!
JB: How did you get a titan like Mark Knight to play in such a small venue?
JT: It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t easy at all! I can’t wait to get him down and playing here.
MG: It certainly took some doing! But we got there and managed to make it happen with the help of Trade and other promoters. It’s been a challenge and people know the scene at times can be quite difficult in Nottingham, but to bring people of that stature into the city is great – we’re trying to give something back. There are other promoters that are doing it, and doing it really well, like Lukas Wigflex, but there is not enough of us and we all need to club together to do our bit. We realised within a year or so getting Mark Knight was a realistic aim after joking about it and now we’re doing it!
JB: Is Mark Knight someone you’ve been a big fan of over the years?
MG: Oh definitely – since Downpipe, the track with D Ramirez, just set it all off for me, and then Your Love, Man With the Red Face, he’s just got so many belters over so many years.
JB: How did you get into DJing?
MG: I actually went to Ibiza and the first night I went to was Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, but then my next night was Carl Cox back-to-back with Marco Carola, and it just absolutely blew me away. I loved it – came home, bought an all-in-one controller and never looked back. I got a residency in Chesterfield and then came over to Nottingham, started Movement with Jake, got residencies in Ibiza and at Egg London and have played all over since, like in Budapest. It’s been great fun but always nice to come back to a home town! When I started in Chesterfield, I didn’t quite imagine all this! Egg London was one of my best residencies, apart from Movement of course, but playing there on a weekly basis was incredible. It really built up me as a DJ. It was just about getting my name out there, building contacts, getting confidence, fulfilling it and keeping hold of it.
JT: I started off going to parties myself, going to raves myself, and started off from there. I was really interested in the music – when I was in the raves and in the parties, I’d always look at the DJs and think, ‘I want to be that guy’. I started DJing in Chesterfield a couple of years ago and me and Matt then got together and formed our own night in Nottingham. Since then, we’ve played in festivals all over Europe and had a residency in Egg in London.
JB: How did Movement come about?
JT: We both like similar kind of music, tech house and techno, and we both had a similar ideology with the music as well so we wanted to bring something new and a bit different to Nottingham compared to what’s already here.
MG: Jake came back from Madrid, which he always reminds me about, he lived out there for a while, and he was on about some of the parties that were out there and he wanted to start something here. We joked about it because there are so many big names trying to do it and there’s not the biggest of scenes but we thought we’d give it a go, and now we’re the ones laughing!
JB: Did you see it getting as big as it has done?
JT: No! We didn’t think we’d be able to book DJs like Mark Knight, definitely not! We’re buzzing about that – and DJs we’ve had recently like Max Chapman and Riva Starr have been huge. We didn’t expect it to happen this quick and we’ve got Detonate Festival coming up soon as well.
MG: You always hope it does, but you try and be realistic with yourselves. We didn’t think we’d get someone like Mark Knight, one of the biggest UK DJs ever.
JB: What have you got going on at Detonate Festival?
JT: We’ve got our own stage at Detonate Festival and we’ve got some big names playing, like Fisher, Sonny Fodera, Biscits, Del-30 in a takeover of the Hidden Woodland stage. All the residents will be there as well and that’s going to be really good!
MG: That party is going to be daft! From start to finish, that’s going to be an absolute vibe.
JB: Where do you guys want to go with Movement?
JT: We don’t want to keep it in Nottingham, we want to move further afield too – we want to host some events abroad too, we’ve got some things lined up but nothing I can say just yet!
