2:13pm Thursday 18th February 2010
By Richard Bell
All aboard the Skylarkin Soundsystem at The Cellar, where Jimmy Screech and reasonable bar prices are music to the ears of Richard Bell. This weekly feature has covered pretty much every club night that’s ever been put on in the city.
Consequently, it’s bizarre that this is the first time we’ve ever really covered a night that is unquestionably an Oxford institution.
Skylarkin Soundsystem has been resident at the Cellar for years now, and has been providing its unique blend of ska, reggae and soul since the night was first born all that time ago. But, as the years go by, is it still possible that Skylarkin Soundsystem still has what it takes to live up to its own formidable reputation?
One way in which Aidan Larkin (whom most of you will recognise by that hat he always wears) and company manage to keep this night so fresh is the impressive array of guest acts they have provided over the years, and the night I visit is no different as the incomparable Jimmy Screech takes to the stage with what can only be described as a posse to bring us his reggae-infused hip hop in all its bouncing singalong glory.
If there is one thing that no one who witnessed his raucous set can deny, it is that Screech is extremely talented at getting a crowd going. There wasn’t a soul in the place who wasn’t singing along to one of his more naughtily worded numbers, and every person in the Cellar that night was smiling as they did it.
The venue itself is rammed with wall-to-wall partygoers ready for a hell of a night out. Even on a huge Friday night that’s guaranteed to bring in an enormous amount of business, the Cellar refuses to get greedy and hike up its prices.
Instead it sticks with its everyday prices, thus enabling those of us who operate around the working week the opportunity to enjoy the same value students enjoy on weeknights. Really, the club has
to be applauded for its efforts to provide great nights for all Oxford’s citizens, rather than simply
chasing the students for their expendable cash.
This is a fantastic night that sticks to a simple philosophy that nights out have to be fun to be good, and that’s precisely what this night is.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Katie McKinnes and Deepti Bahal; Lucy Hartley and Chloe Simmonds; Tim Barton; Helen Dudley, Gabby Wood and Polly Harris; Alex Lau and Alexandra MacEwan
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