Fever 105’s Summer of Love Disco Festival

Named after one of our all-time favourite fictional radio stations, Fever 105 put on events featuring music in the style of the tunes pumping out of your car stereo in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Inspired.

Oval Space is in a converted warehouse a stone’s throw from Bethnal Green in East London. A terrace bar covered with hippy festival decorations welcomes you into the venue, then leads you into the main room. Fever 105 had not gone for the minimal, rugged, (cheapskate) look of most warehouse clubs – they’d gone all out with lanterns, upside down parasols and copious fairy lights all over the ceiling. This is a pretty large space that caters for a big audience with room to boogie, with podiums like old school disco clubs and the stage as the focal point. DJs who played on the night (including KON and The Menedez Brothers) played a mixture of rare grooves and classics like ‘Funkin for Jamaica’. The drinks prices were pretty standard for London, but sod paying a fiver for a small can of Estrella; however bars were very quick, a rare feature when clubbing in London.

The Fever 105 Disco Orchestra came on at prime time, 1am, which we were pretty pleased about – people usually stick the live acts on early when no-one’s there! Their female lead vocalist, a powerful party diva, beautifully emulated the likes of Diana Ross, Donna Summer and Gloria Gaynor, accompanied by tight horn and rhythm sections, who all looked like they were having their own party on stage. The band did a fantastic job of playing arrangements that covered the breadth of parts in the lavish disco numbers. Highlights of their set list were ‘Lost In Music’ by Sister Sledge, ‘Bad Girls’ and ‘Hot Stuff’ by Donna Summer’, and ‘Good Times’ by CHIC with a bit of ‘Rappers Delight’ thrown in by a guy in the horn section.

If you want to experience a boogie bonanza like this one, hold tight for loads of other Fever 105 events this year, with History of Disco Festival happening on Saturday 12th August, also at the Oval Space.