Lumo celebrates its 10th birthday as a Dublin club night on Saturday October 25th at Hen’s Teeth.
The club was started by myself Nialler9, Gavin Elsted and Simon Roche in October 2015 because we wanted a club night that had an eclectic music policy encapsulated the spirit of our club heroes Optimo and Despacio.
The Glasgow originators Optimo were/are never afraid to change styles or play something out of fashion or drop a pop number that other more uptight DJs would consider cheesy like Madonna’s ‘Hung Up’ (RIP Twitch).
Despacio is the roving club experience from Soulwax and James Murphy that we saw at Electric Picnic in 2015. With its focus on the dancefloor over the DJs and its massive disco ball spinning to slow disco tunes, it was club heaven, and hearing this tune on those McINTOSH speakers was transcendental.
We set about trying to recreate our own version with much lesser budget and some guiding principles like:
- The DJ shouldn’t be the focus.
- There should be a discoball.
- It’s not another house and techno night so we played disco, edits, electronic, pop bangers, Italo, ’80s jams, 90s/2000s dance, yacht rock, curveballs and classics.
- It should feel like a house party in a club.
We settled on Yamamori Tengu, just north of Hapenny Bridge, then a mostly underutilised space that was just beginning to gain a foothold in the Dublin club scene with nights like Telephones, All City and Melodic operating there.
It was yet to build its DJ booth, soundsystem and reputation as the go-to spot for discerning club nights. We even started the first few night upstairs in Tengu’s smaller space (later used as a coat room and closed during the pandemic in favour of a refrigeration service), before moving downstairs with the occasional two floor parties.
We ran monthly club nights in Tengu for just over eight years until February 2024 just after two of us became dads, and we started to slow down a bit.
In that time, ee had the occasional big festival set like the Absolut Stage at Body & Soul Festival and All Together Now, we streamed live sets from our houses through Lockdown, put on day parties in the Garda Boat Club and actual boat parties in the summer.
We have the Soundcloud recording receipts to prove it.
Lumo have moved around a bit since then at Workman’s Cellar, the occasional Paddy’s Day at Circular in Rialto, Hang Dai and earlier clubbing nights at Hen’s Teeth. These days Lumo affairs happen about four times a year.
Saturday October 25th at Hen’s Teeth is our tenth birthday, our 100th night officially. We will be running back a lot of songs from our Lumo Classics USB folders that night from 8pm to 12.30am. Come join us.
To whet your appetite, each of the three DJs picked 5 songs that define the 10 years of Lumo for us…
Gavin Elsted’s Picks
Fort Romeau – Emu II
Most people tend to play the original Emu I off this record but I really really like the more esoteric Emu II. Bit more mechanical, like you’re putting the dancefloor to work but with all the bits from the original that make it such a weapon. Fort Romeau features a lot at Lumo but this is my most played track by him over the years.
Alisha – All Night Passion (Jordan Nocturne Edit)
My favourite edit ever I think. Most IDs requested on something I’ve played at Lumo, and if you hear this you know I’m either a) having a whale of a time and relaxed or b) in need of something that I know will get people moving.
Azoto – Anytime or Place (Mix & Fairbanks Notions Edit)
I GET THE. I GET THE. I GET THE. I GET THE.
My favourite memories of playing at Body & Soul with the Lumo boys involve these fellas too, be it side stage watching them warm up a crowd or playing one of their many many excellent edits. Real “break glass” tunes. This one is heads and shoulders above the rest though, totally ubiquitous at Lumo for about two years (me) and played to rapturous crowds internationally by various high flyers (not me). Big dumb fun.
Parple – Sacred
A bit deeper than my usual fare at Lumo but I’ve still hammered this over the years. The work of John Talabot and his many modular machines, I love how trancey it is and keeps unfurling over its runtime. The bit with just the bassline and the drums at 5:08 is unbelievable.
Pineapples – Come On Closer
One of many Italo tracks I could pick but I’ll go for this because it shouldn’t really work. The production is a bit strange, the lyrics are a bit stilted and next to current productions it sounds comparatively weedy but yet, every time I play it I love it more and more. Very emotional vocal performance too, really adds to the drama of the track. Total winner.
Simon Roche’s Picks
New Order – True Faith (Perfecto Mix)
I have adored this track from its MTV days and it has been a solid staple at almost every early Lumo. The Perfecto mix rolls a little extra clubby beef into it. I’m often found dancing to this just after I press play on it.
Boris Dlugosch – Never Enough (feat. Róisín Murphy) [Sir Piers Radio Edit]
One of my go-to bankers. Always fits in. A punchy, rolling roller-disco stomper with Arklow’s finest with the perfect vocal.
Situation – Goblins in the Bikini Shack (Naughty Hellfire Club Edit)
A killer seven-minute edit of B52’s Love Shack – dug out for me by Doctor Vinyl records in Brussels. It’s a little self indulgent when I play it but it sounds so savage.
Million Dollar Bill (Frankie Knuckles Radio Mix) – Whitney Huston
Whitney and Frankie Knuckles and a call and response to die for. Job done.
Tragedy – Bee Gees
This reminds me so much of our first five Tengu years. Drop this around 2:30am, everyone looking to go big, all three of us timing the confetti canons to the drop. Euphoria.
Nialler9’s Picks
Abba – Gimme Gimme Gimme (Mighty Mouse rework)
While Lay All Your Love On Me was usually the ABBA closer on Lumo Nights, this edit from Mighty Mouse is the one I think of first when it comes to regular plays at Lumo, its elongated four minute build up to the vocals and chorus is worth the wait and always such a release on the dancefloor.
Chvrches – Leave A Trace (Four Tet remix)
Released a few months before our first Lumo, this Four Tet remix is one remember playing at one of the early Lumo nights, it’s slow twinkling build in a classic Four Tet style envelopes the room over time until Lauren Mayberry’s vocals settle on the lyric “I know I need to feel release”, and we get just that after five minutes. Four Tet played this at Glastonbury over the summer apparently, so a good excuse to bring my 10″ record to Lumo on the 25th for a play.
Barry White – You’re The First, My Last, My Everything
Full credit to Gav for making this one of Lumo’s most-played curtain-closers.
Hot Chip – Dancing In The Dark
In the venn diagram of Lumo tunes, Hot Chip covering Bruce Springsteen littered with LCD Soundystem was a bullseye for the early years and we played this a lot in the first two years as a closer.
Fun fact: One of the three Lumo DJs actually hates this version, a fact he kept to himself for a couple of years at least.
Jaakko Eino Kalevi, Farao – Everything Is Nice
I hammered this in the club for the first year or so – a synth-pop cover of a Popcaan dancehall tune. That big synth swirling outro is pure me.
A curveball in a room full of them.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
