Cream Birmingham – George Kafetzis interview

The weather has turned cold and Christmas lights are up, winter has arrived. Along with it, the winter edition of the monster of all warehouse raves, courtesy of Cream Birmingham. Ahead of this weeks show, I catch up with George Kafetzis, the man behind the Birmingham arm of the legendary Cream Brand, to find out more about the brand we love and it?s 8 year past?

So George 8 years running Cream in Birmingham how does it feel?

Well we have had our ups and downs, mainly ups i?m happy to say! Its great to be still going strong in the second city, putting on some great shows, I would like to thank everyone for all the help and support along the way.

How did it all start for you ? How did you get hold of the UK?s biggest brand ?

Well I used to run a night called Discover about 10 years ago, with good friends Andrew Jones and Alan Law in some of the smaller venues in/around the city. I was approached by the amazing Q club to put on an event there, it was a greatopportunity and managed to secure the brand for one show. I was told that the guys at Cream would come down and see the first show and decide if it could continue. They came to the first show and were happy and the rest as they say is history. I was very naive at the time I remember one day calling Tony not realising he was a Barton , god bless him and he said, James thinks you understand the branding. I was like James ?, Yes James Barton he said ?.. i think i googled him at the time and almost fell off my chair. Ha ha ! how stupid was I! I have to thank Andrew Jones for this as he was my designer and a great one, at that.

You DJ at your own event how do you find this? Running after the night and being on stage?

It all started on the December date . I received a phonecall off Jeremy Healy who told me he was going to be late and the DJ before him couldnt stay on so I ended up playing main set for 30 mins in the Q Club WOW! That was unbelievable. If i remember rightly i did the worm across the stage? I loved it . but its really hard to turn off from running the event I normally only do 30-45 min set and Mike Catherall my DJ partner in crime does the rest .

You have moved around a little in the 8 years what venue to you like the best?

Well I will always have the q club in my heart, because its where is all began and it has so much history and the institute has such a great main room and we had some really good shows there . But anyone that has been to Nation and The Rainbow will see there is alot of synergy between the venues and it is absolutely amazing to have so many key dates there. I have to thank the Management there for supporting us, sometimes at very short notice. Its great to be working with the team.

What one thing are you really proud of when looking after the brand?

If I look back I would have to say our second show stands out, we worked really hard to get Danny Rampling to DJ for us. Danny in my eyes is the true legend in the UK and no-one can compare. He played for us and it was a sell out! The atmosphere at the Q club was unbelievable, still to this day sends the hairs up watching the videos back.

Finally, as I understand that you must be really busy with the event coming up, what does the future bring?

I am working really closely with the guys in Liverpool and they have managed to secure something big for our March date that I cant wait to announce. Past that, who knows?. hopefully some more great shows at the Rainbow and onto another 8 years.

thanks George I?ll see you on Saturday.

PeterJames

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