Clock Work Orange is one of the worlds longest running most respected club brands, 25 years on and still going strong. We spoke again to one of the co-founders Danny Gould to get the large…

Mike Mannix: Hey man Danny great to speak to you again since Ibiza, it’s been quite a year for you guys isn’t it?

Danny Gould: Hey Mikey wah man what a fucking year that’s flown eh, and yeah, every year the Orange army’s saying to us how the fuck are you going to beat last year, how you gunna beat this year and that’s the mad thing I know we have to do it again every year, and each year I know we can and we will and we follow through and that’s that, we have done this year again, fucking still buzzing from it!

This summer really has been amazing and the atmosphere we have created wow, especially with Clockstock, our first big open air/festival type event, it had swimming pools, hippie markets, chairs up trees, sand haha and it was rammed, fantastic atmosphere, we are really happy about that one!

MM: Wicked, and you’ve been over sorting out 2019 already what’s coming up??

DG: Yea Mikey, me n Andy were just over there and I don’t think we’ll be doing the beach parties anymore just how things have changed politics etc ruining it, the Island is 40% down, unbelievable, a lot now going to Croatia, but we still rammed our gigs, out last beach party was 8000 people, our first was 600, huge growth for us!

Anyway, as you know every Friday when we play in Ibiza we always mix it up, so it’s been Es Paradis a couple of times and Sankeys, remember the power cut? Mental!  We’ll probably sort up to three boats next year we’ll get around that one or maybe we’ll go back to ES Paradis a lot of people seem to love that and we rammed it last time but we got to change it up, keep it fresh.

And, this is a biggie, we are doing a massive festival outside of London in Essex next year Chelmsford it’s on a race track it’s already signed sealed and then we’ll deliver next year June 22^nd. It’s got five stages and tons of bars, we’ve got bars everywhere actually and we’re introducing a new system with a bracelet so everybody’s info is on there and when you want to get say 6 vodka and tonics or whatever you just put over your bracelet and the money is taken off it simple as that, speeds up everything.

We’ve also got a massive line-up such with the giants like Erick Morillo, Roger Sanchez, Paul Oakenfold, Seb Fontaine, Graham Park, Joey Negro, Greg Wilson, Norman Jay, and Rat Pack, Slipmat, Grooverider, Fabio, Terry Farley, we’ve literally got DJ’s coming out of everywhere for this one and then you got all the live PAs on top of that as well like the legends K-Klass and Shades of Rhythm, it’ll be mad!

Our crowd likes comfort and everything running smoothly, so most of the tents have hard surfaces so no mud, it’s only the main stage which is on grass

it’s a posh rave man, for the olds cool that’s what we’ll call it,

and it’s the perfect location, come straight off the motorway there’s two massive car parks there’s nothing else around and the sun sets behind it so party on!

MM: That’s some lineup man, and obviously Clockworks success is allowing you to expand your ideas, is this what led up to organising a massive festival like this?

DG: This conversation started about 3 years ago actually when the promotions manager contacted us, I think it was through Facebook, and we were curious and went down to the location.

So for us, it was just about growth and recognising when its the right time and right place. So after we had done the Club 338 in March we had made up our minds because they were pretty understaffed with the bar and it had huge queues and delays and huge queues for the cloakroom and also for getting in. So by the time everybody got in paid the entrance fee got a drink and put the jacket in over 3 hours had gone by, so we got a lot of backlash from that, but they were all things out of our control. It was a great party but that let it down.

So afterward Andy and me were talking and we said

‘fuck it it’s the right time to do our own event’

because we can control everything from the bar, cloakroom and all the extra bits that we needed it etc.

MM: Nice one, how was the Print Works?

DG: Man, we sold it out and the Orange army we’re there in their thousands and thousands, plenty of space no queues incredible atmosphere people, we’ll do it again next year!

MM: Nice one I bet, so you’re still flying high from your Ibiza days?

DG:  It’s mad it’s different these days because Clockwork in the 90s in Ibiza was spread out over 12 weeks every week for three months, where now it’s condensed into one-off events spaced apart. We still get a lot of people coming up to us saying,

‘I was raving in the warehouse days, we went through all of the 90s in Ibiza partying but that Clockwork party last night that I’ve just been too was the best party I’ve ever had in my life!’

So we are still getting good feedback it’s always amazing pretty much, and it still surprises us, so

we keep on trying to improve every time, it’s what we do, we love it’s and its mental like us.

MM: And you got the young uns coming into Clockwork as well?

DG: Haha yeah! We have been hearing a lot from some of our regulars when they were in the airport waiting to get the plane back after the Ibiza gigs, that there were groups of teenagers stood behind in the queue all talking about their Ibiza experience etc, and on about, ‘have you been to that Clockwork thing is the latest thing on the island?’ They’ve obviously never been before and all the rest of it, and the people in the front who were old enough to be their parents turn around and were like, ‘yeah we were there and we’ve been going to that for the last 25 years, longer than you’ve been alive by the looks of it’, haha.’

So now you’ve got this new breed that’s coming up and a lot of the regulars kids are really into it as well, from growing up with mum n dad playing ‘house’ all throughout their lives, so

it’s like we’re getting the second Life we’re getting a second go at it which is fucking incredible!

MM: What’s next?

DG: So we got a gig in Gorilla in Manchester in November which may turn into a residency and then we’ve got Chelmsford in June, Ibiza in July and then we’ve got Print Works again in September so for next year they’re all pretty much summer gigs, bigger parties but less often that’s how we like it now!

MM: Nice one Danny

DG: Pleasure, Mannix!