Fischerspooner, Hot Chip, Foals, Maccabees, Metros at Together 2nd Birthday

Since we threw the "Greatest Birthday Party in the World... EVER" back in January 2007, the 12 months in between our forthcoming 2nd Birthday have been, well, pretty darn mental to be honest for Together!! Infamous collaborations with Modular and DFA Records set the standard, with some wonderful fancy dress themes along the way including the hilarious, if a little frightening Halloween humdinger and November's classic 'Find Me a Superhero' session. More recently, Together NYE (featuring 2manydjs, Mylo and Simian Mobile Disco) sold out with nearly 3 weeks to spare, whilst in between that roadblock and this latest mini-festival, we've got a rather exciting Free Members party (Together Again) to look forward to featuring some of the stars of the future in Yuksek, Alex Metric, D.I.M, Radioclit and Hannah Holland. Along the way, the NME called Together the "most debauched party"... whilst Timeout said we were "still the best monthly festival-in-a-club for ravers and rockers", which was nice. Not to be outdone, The Guardian Guide chipped in by saying, "If you like your Saturdays larger than Robbie Williams' ego, be prepared to be knocked out for the rest of the week by what Together has in store", leaving music rag I-DJ to describe us as "The capital's leading night for forward-thinking electronic house music and flamboyant party shenanigans!!" But hey, let's not digress, we have the small, no make that LARGE matter of The Birthday Bash to discuss at Turnmills on Saturday 26th January 2008, as Together presents "Now that's what I call a Birthday Party, Vol 2" (cos it's our 2nd Birthday geddit?!)

In typically old skool fashion, Together's Birthday party will encapsulate everything that was great about the birthday parties you went to as a kid growing up. We therefore follow up last year's much sought after 'Goody bag' with another exclusive bag of tricks. This year we have 500 'Goody bags' up for grabs, available to the first 500 bods through the door. The actual bag itself will be a one-off collectable Together cloth bag – the ultimate fashion accessory (!), and packed inside the bags will be various bits n' bobs donated by some of the artists performing on the night (such as Evil Nine, The Metros, The Maccabees, Trevor Loveys and Rex the Dog)... plus they'll be a special Together CD, mixed by resident Anil Chawla, discount vouchers for Rokit (vintage clothes) and Pimps & Pinups (hairdressers) and plenty more besides. Other silly birthday-type-stuff on the night will see the Cinema Lounge devoted to making us chuckle, as we'll be showing some of our favourite comedies like Airplane, Dumb & Dumber, Happy Gilmore, The Goonies and the Big Lebowski on the big screen, whilst upstairs in Topfloor, we'll be spinning "The Greatest Birthday Soundtrack in the world...EVER!!" courtesy of our legendary Together All-Stars. Pimps & Pinups hairdressers will also be offering FREE HAIRCUTS and the FREE JELLY & ICE CREAM returns by public demand too! Finally, after the X Factor voting scandal, we'll be hosting the 'Have you got the DJ Factor' competition, where we'll be giving some lucky wannabe DJs the chance to get involved behind the decks for their 30 minutes of fame (without having to text in!!) All entrants must email stix@turnmills.co.uk to register. Oh, and Fancy Dress wise, well, it's an ANYTHING GOES policy – so where whatever you bliddin' well like!! Maybe treat your favourite Together outfit of 2007 to a trip to the laundrette and come in that, or why not break the bank on something new, borrowed or blue...? It is the birthday after all.

So..... onto the birthday beats n' bleeps beginning in the main room, where we welcome back NYC's electro-art-poppers Fischerspooner for another exclusive UK DJ Set. Together is the only club lucky enough to have had the guys down to play in this fair city we call London, and the fabulous Warren Fischer and his DJing partner Jon Kane will make it 3 years in a row (on this date) at Turnmills at the big birthday bash. Look out for killer new tune 'The Best Revenge' coming out on Kitsune. Joining Fischerspooner will be the UK's hottest electronic princes, Hot Chip. We had the band down a few times last year and 'Over and Over' again, they were always brilliant on the decks (!), most notably Joe's storming set at the DFA party in August. Joe will be back in the hot-seat for one last time this time round, before Hot Chip head on the road to promote new album 'Made in the Dark'... which is sounding like being another major success following their groundbreaking debut 'The Warning'. Next up are DJ/Production duo Evil Nine - an act we've been chasing for years – who'll be playing their first London date of 2008 on the night! We're still killing their 'You Can Be Special Too' album in the Together office and can't wait for their long awaited new album in May. Their recent remix for UNKLE is proof enough that these guys are still on fire and we're getting all excited about hearing them mash-up the Turnmills system with their big room breaks and b-lines. As ever, completing the mayhem will be Together's hugely respected residents in Justin Robertson and Anil Chawla. It's been another big year for the pair of 'em, with Justin's side project, live band 'Thee Earls' taking off with key appearances at Together (obviously!) and Bestival in the summer, whilst Anil is putting the finishing touches to his debut artist album forthcoming on Global Underground. Expect the slickest house, and sickest techno from our boys done good!!

Next door in T2 we continue to push the hottest things in clubland right now with a rare outing from the cartoon-loving Rex the Dog. These days we know Rex for his awesome remixes for the likes of Depeche Mode, The Prodigy, Royksopp, Mylo, Soulwax and The Knife, but back in 90's he also achieved major chart success under the name JX, with 4 Top 20 tunes including the anthems 'Son Of A Gun' and 'There's Nothing I Won't Do'!! But back to 2008, where Rex will be taking the controls accompanied by his trademark visuals playing in the background. Also on the bill is one half of Speakerjunk - Trevor Loveys, who had an action packed 2007 with a string of high profile solo releases, (check out 'Shake It' and 'Organ Grinder') and Diesel U-Music winner and Together regular Duke Dumont, signed to Tiga's Turbo label. This year will see both artists collaborating on a new musical collective known as 'Machines Don't Care', together with fellow key players from that whole jackin/fidget house scene in Herve, Sinden and Jesse Rose. Needless to say we're all excited to hear what this will sound like.

The final piece of the birthday puzzle unfolds in Room 3, where XFM's John Kennedy presents 'Midnight Ramble' and another unmissable slice of live music. Doubling up as the official After Party for his live XFM broadcastd event (Xposure) during the day time, this month's Ramble sees a live performance from one of the most hotly tipped bands for 2008, The Metros. Signed to hip label 1965 Records, The Metros recently supported The Coral and were kicked off The View's tour for being a bit too, well, rowdy... so they'll be perfect guests for Together then!!! Swapping guitars for decks for the evening will be two more outstanding bands in shape of The Maccabees and Foals. Both bands had a wicked 2007; The Maccabees with debut album 'Colour It In', a sell-out solo show at Koko and countless festival appearances including Electric Gardens... and Foals with similar key festival and club gigs up and down the country, support slots for Bloc Party The Cribs and the imminent release of debut album 'Antidotes' on Transgressive Records. John Kennedy will join this merry bunch on the decks, alongside Together regular's Uncle Buck, who played a stormer at Together NYE... and that my friends, is a rap.