HOUSEHOLD names in the dance music world, K-Klass, Seb Fontaine and Brendan Block, will be returning from Clockwork Orange in Ibiza to perform in Swindon next month.

Two stalwarts of the Swindon music scene, Shaun Skinner and Antonio Montauro, were having a chat during the switch-on of the town’s Christmas lights when they realised that they both had the same idea of presenting an event to celebrate house music. So they decided to join forces to create Retrospective, which takes place in the MECA, Regent Circus on Saturday, September 30.

Shaun said: “We want people of Wiltshire to get behind our first event. We are doing it for Swindon people and we want to bring in more big acts.”

Shaun is the company director of Swindon PA Hire, which has been growing swiftly for the past five years. Before that he worked for 15 years in commercial radio on GWR and Heart Radio.

Antonio has always been into house music, winning the DJ of the year at Cairos nightclub, before becoming one of the resident DJs at the Brunel Rooms, and more recently DJ-ing at the dance stage at The Big Arts Day as well as a regular slot in the Malibu Bar in Pizzo, Southern Italy.

“I can remember my first visit to the Ministry of Sound, the first time I saw Danny Rampling. It has always been associated with house music from way back when it first started, when it was just a tin hut with DJs playing and no alcohol licence. All they could sell was jelly vodka shots, as they were classed as food, along with ice cream and lollipops.”

Shaun and Antonio are both from Swindon and would like to make Retrospective a regular event. They are also hoping next year to have a dance tent at the Fieldview Festival.

Shaun will be choreographing Retrospective and the acts will be supported by a new sound system from Germany.

“There will also be a lot of specialist lighting to add to the whole experience,” said Shaun.

Antonio will be performing on the night, along with another Swindon DJ, Mark Jay, warming up the crowd before headliners K-Klass take to the stage.

Russell Morgan from K-Klass is a friend of Antonio’s and no stranger to Swindon having performed in the town a number of times.

“We have been many times to Swindon particularly in the 1990s at the Brunel Rooms, “ said Morgan. “Probably about once every two months. This time at Retrospective we will be playing a set of classic hits. House music is a style of music that makes people want to dance, it is rhythm music that captured the moment, right sound for the right time, it was a moment in time and we will go back with that retro feel.”

Tickets to see K-Klass in Swindon are £16 plus booking free from http://www.mecaswindon.co.uk.

— Flicky Harrison