For many of us our first adventure into breakbeat came at a club, often when we weren't expecting it. We all remember being at club X when deejay Y played that fantastic ass-shaking set. Or the venue we stumbled across that hosted an exciting new event.

The only facet of these memorable nights which doesn't get recounted later on, or praised highly enough, is the role of the promoter in these events. After all, it is he or she who brings all these elements together for each and every club night.

For anyone that has been involved in club promoting knows only too well that it is a thankless, costly and time-consuming job. Indeed, to make a night a real success, it takes either buckets of money or a lot of hard work (for most promoters it is the latter).

One such unsung hero is Pete Jordan from Nottingham. A former Mixmag DJ competition winner, Pete has been running his night Spectrum for nearly 3 years. In this time it has outgrown a venue, traveled across Europe, taken on additional residencies, and hosted regular boat parties on the river Trent.

Spectrum has become one of the most well-respected breaks events in Europe. It has residencies in two cities and 3 venues, its spiritual home being the Bomb in Nottingham. The three rooms cover all forms of breaks, beats, funk, hip hop and house. The most important elements of the events are the atmosphere and the punters, as I found out.

After I enter the cavernous Bomb venue (and I mean that literally – the Bomb is a network of caves!), I have a few wodkas and am expecting to ease gently into the night and find my feet. This is not the case – the punters are MAD! At 11pm they are already throwing themselves all over the dancefloor to the banging breaks of Plastic Raygun's well-traveled Phantom Beats. The Phantoms are in the opening stages of a back-to-back with label mate Vandal and the place is booming. Surely this shouldn't be happening, the club only opened at 10pm! Such is the Spectrum fervour for all things funky.

The Raygunners were clearly enjoying themselves, Vandal pushing the Phantoms into harder and harder beats. They were due to be followed by the Lo-Fidelity All-stars deejay and Singer Phil Ward. I found Phil sipping a beer as he expressed his concerns over following a set of such hard assed breaks: "Fucking hell, how am I supposed to follow that, I'm not going to be able to keep it that banging all night!" But follow he did, and in tremendous style. Proving why the Lo-Fis are a global phenomenon, he expertly took us into the sun-drenched housey breakbeat that Skint are renowned for. The realm of funk and hip hop was introduced (much to the adulation of the Spectrum punters), before returning to the breaks.

The night was rounded off with a set from the host Pete Jordan, with a bag of funky rolling breaks & a few party tunes to boot. End of set antics included a chorus of the "Great Escape" theme tune (well we had just beaten the Argies!!!)

Talking to Neil from Phantom Beats afterwards, he expressed his respect for the Spectrum party: "It's great, definitely one of the best breaks events in Europe." And he should know, he's played most of them. Pete is understandably protective of his product: "I get phone calls all the time from labels and DJs asking to play, so I'm in a great position to say no if I don't think they will benefit the club".

Fair play to the lad, he's done a great job, in a city which is not renowned for its club life, the punters love the Jordan, the DJs love Spectrum, and we all love the music. An ideal love affair come to fruition. And a FUCKING STORMING CLUBNIGHT! Get there now before he takes over the world.

Forthcoming Spectrum events:

• 26/8 Spectrum Boat Party with Jean Jacques Smoothie, Scissorkicks, Jonny
  Mac - Nottingham Princess, River Trent Nottingham
• 26/8 Spectrum After Party with Vandal
• 28/8 - 31/8 Ireland
• 7/9 Spectrum's Saturday Social @ The Social, Nottingham - w/ Rick
  Donahue (Funky Monkey)
• 9/9 - 19/9 West Coast US
• 21/9 Spectrum's Saturday Social
• 4/10 Spectrum @ The Bomb with Kosheen

More photos (click the thumbnails to enlarge)