Oooh. Oooh! No, really... Oooh!

I feel kind of dirty. But in a good way.

Trade is, as if you need telling, one of the most infamous after hours clubs out there. And tonight, although I was loathed to admit it, was my first Trade... as well as being Trade's nineteenth birthday celebration.

You'll find plenty of places on the net to give you a bit of background to Trade, so I'll spare you my potted history. But, perhaps like a few others there tonight, I kind of went along so that I could tick the box... That "I've been to Trade and survived" box.

Although I arrived to comments from die-hards that Trade would never be as good as its Turnmills days, by a couple of hours into the night even those same die-hards were softening a bit. Trade does seem to have grown to fit the Ministry of Sound almost perfectly. With three or four dance spaces open at any one time, my worst fears of being force-fed hard house weren't realised... Although I did brave the hard house room for a little while and everyone there was managing to keep up with the relentless pace with smiles on their faces!

Was great to see Brighton's up-and-come talent Jonny M playing to the packed middle room and loving it, always love hearing Nick Tcherniak who played back to back with Steve Thomas in the Box tonight, and the Sharp Boys were a nice surprise too... Add loads more to the all-star list (Fat Tony, Pagano, Lady Bianca, Jon Byrne... the list goes on), and I think you kind of get the picture.

Loads of lovely touches made it a special night. Neon glowy dancers and burlesque punks frequently dancing on bar-tops, thousands of glowsticks handed out which made the sea of clubbers a sight for tired eyes, and loved chilling out to Anto & Diego out on the terrace... I've never enjoyed a veggie burger as much as I did at 11am, giving me renewed energy for another couple of hours of bouncing around before crawling home like the walking wounded...

Overheard tonight:
"Apparently there are strawberries in the hard house room, but the orange lady only has blueberries left."