Glitterball’s humble beginnings can be traced back to 2008 in a room above a pub in Camden. It was a simple birthday party, soundtracked by the man-giant Simon Busby and his curly-haired chum Patrick Pringle, the aim simply to loosen the joins on the wooden floor via a curious medium called “dancing”. When the doors shut and all that remained were some balloons and a collection of hearty grins, one thing was certain: this had to happen again.

Fast-forward to a field in Basingstoke at the Woolfire festival, where Simon meets a strange Norse reject called Marcus Blunt on his way to the bogs. Predating platonic internet dating by some decades, the two had spotted each other on the line-up some weeks before and arranged a meeting on the DJhistory forum, which they both frequented. With feelings of excitement, trepidation and even a modicum of concern over what the missus would think, the two nattered over a cheeky zoot and the seeds of a curiously tall friendship were sewn.

Many meetings in Marcus’ DJ cave ensued. Some argue it was the constant blows to the head from the dangerously low light fitting in the cave that spurred Simon to suggest a partnership; others blame the hypnotic rhythms in communion with large quantities of fine single malt whiskey. Some just outright blame Diana Ross. Regardless, a partnership was cemented, and the ground rules of Glitterball were etched in proverbial stone:

  1. The music would be free from restriction and handpicked like the finest fruits from the highest branches of the genre tree.
  2. The door policy would be as welcoming as a hug in heaven, shunning trendy elitism in favour of beaming grins.
  3. Venues would be splashed with enough decorative personality to incur childlike wonderment.
  4. The atmosphere would be reminiscent of a hyper-friendly house party.
  5. And people would dance. A lot.

Thus spoketh the prophet. With a common goal to bring clubbing back to its house-party roots, a sparkly road lay open ahead, with Grace Jones off in the distance beckoning from atop a white horse. And so the two set off; after all, who in their right mind could turn down Grace Jones?

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Extra special thanks goes to Rhalou Allerhand, who we adopted like a 3rd leg into the fold after our third party as art director – she puts the “them” into “theme”. And Ben Slinger, whose thus far unpaid work has provided us with our logo and all artwork since the beginning.

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 Further hugs:

 Mark Pringle
Kevin Chesnais
Rob J
Gatto Fritto
Kelvin Andrews
Andy Blake
Matthew Burgess

…and all our friends!