HDIF001
- Various Artists, "The Kids At The Club" - Released
Sept 2006

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Voxtrot,
"The Start Of Something"
I'm From Barcelona, "We're From Barcelona"
Irene, "Stardust"
Saturday Looks Good To Me, "Edison Girls"
Butcher Boy, "Days Like These WIll Be The Death
Of Me"
Lucky Soul, "Give Me Love"
Fanfarlo, "Elephant Graveyard"
Salty Pirates, "Black Minds, White Lies"
Tender Trap, "Ampersand"
Stars Of Aviation, "Marie Et L'Accordeon"
Wintergreen, "The Magic Road"
Shimura Curves, "Noyfriend"
The Gresham Flyers, "Blackpool"
Language Of Flowers, "You're The One"
Amida, "Virtue Was Your Downfall"
Strange Idols, "She's Gonna Let You Down Again"
Pocketbooks,"The First World Record"
Fosca, "I've Agreed To Something I Shouldn't Have"
Suburban Kids With Biblical Names, "Seems To Be
On My Mind"
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“The Kids At The Club” is a 19-track indiepop compilation,
featuring many of the bands that either DJ-ed at HDIF in our
first four years of existence, or played at our HDIF Presents
nights in Brixton.
Even though the compilation only featured the indie side of
the club (maybe one day we’ll get around to doing a soul
version of “The Kids At The Club”!), I wanted the
CD to be as close to the club in a box as possible. So I spent
hour agonising over the tracklisting, sequencing it as I would
a DJ set, and then when it came to the mastering making sure
the gaps between the songs were short so it all flowed naturally.
I remember Andy the recording engineer joking that no-one listened
to albums in order any more (so me meticulously counting the
seconds between the tracks was a bit of a waste of our time).
But I’m glad we did it, as I heard stories of people putting
on the compilation at parties that year, and a few reviews commented
on the sequencing, and it just gave the final thing a real spring
in its step.
Our cover stars are James and Katey. The photograph was taken
at The Phoenix in central London on November 18th, 2005. I don’t
know what James has just said to Katey, but I can imagine he
was doing his best to wind her up while I was taking the photo.
In the CD booklet, there’s a spread of photos taken during
the first four years of the club, featuring many of our regulars
from the early days, and myself and Emerald who did the design
spent an age making sure they were in the right order too. In
a way, those photos in the booklet are as much a part of the
compilation as the songs on the CD – or at least that’s
how it feels to me, anyway. A French music magazine called Magic
reprinted the spread and everyone looked fantastic, gloriously
stylish in black and white.
Also in the booklet are some sleevenotes where I write about
each band and their connection to HDIF. I guess I wanted to
talk about the history of the club and about the bands, but
a dry, chronological account didn’t really seem right,
so in the end I just strung some ink polaroids together and
hoped for the best. Reading them back now is a bit like reading
pages torn out of the diary of the club – or maybe like
gathering memories the morning after a great night out.
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