10 Years of YOYO, Recounted by Seb Chew & Leo Greenslade

Seb Chew and Leo Greenslade, aka YOYO, return to Room One at FABRICLIVE this Friday, 23rd November, alongside David Rodigan, Dillinja and Shy FX... A few months back the guys celebrated 1O Years of running weekly parties in the capital, joining an exclusive list of DJs and promoters who have achieved such a feat. True to form the guys pulled Nas out of the hat as their surprise special guest alongside Mark Ronson, and put on one of those raves that will go down in the history of the game. We asked them to put together their list of memorable moments, people and performances from the last decade in their own words: Q-tip The first time Q-tip came to the club was pretty nuts. After introducing himself to us, he basically stood on his own (without getting a drink, or talking to anyone, or anything ) for pretty much the whole night. It was super dark in the club so no one was going up to him or bothering him or anything. He just stood there without moving… for hours. 5 minutes before the end of the night, I played ‘Award Tour’ or some old Tribe tune, and literally, out of nowhere he leapt up to the booth, grabbed the mic and started rapping over the track. People immediately lost their shit, so he went on stage and did a 30 min impromptu show. I remember the look on people’s faces. It was right before kicking out time so people were ready to go home or trying to chat up girls or whatever, and the next thing you knew this rap legend was on stage performing. It was pretty insane. Mehdi Mehdi had played a few times for us but the last time he played was incredible. He played a mixture of US and French hip hop and some of the Ed Banger stuff that he was more widely known for at the time. His technical ability and energy was always so strong. He ended the night with Queen’s ‘Don't Stop Me Now’. Normally you'd never be able to get away with playing a track like that at YOYO but his pure energy and good vibes swept everyone along with him. La Roux She played her first ever live show at YOYO in 2009. After she smashed it live, she hung around for our DJ sets and then did a live version of the Skream remix as a I played it last tune. Giggs For the most part of his career he hasn't been able to play live officially, or be billed at shows, otherwise the police would just come and shut you down. In ‘08, ‘Talking The Hardest’ was one of the biggest tunes of the year, so we needed to get him down to YOYO to perform. After asking club management if we could do it without billing it they felt it was too risky so we did it on the semi sly (aided and abetted by Semtex ) and it went off. He was also super cool, and behaved like a gent from start to finish. Jamie xx He wasn't sure what to play, so ended up playing a UK funkyish set at -20. To this day I don't know if it was a genuine mistake or not, but either way it sounded odd, but ok, so he kept it going for his whole set. Was pretty funny watching people’s faces as they realised that he was going to carry on in this fashion whether they got it or not. It did piss a few people off, but after a while everyone got in the groove and went with it. Soon after he did the Adele remix which had kind of a similar chopped and screwed vocal style about it. Odd Future Tyler and co. were over just before the jubilee to do their first big show at Village Underground so we linked up with them the day before the show. Syd Tha Kid was going play a DJ set and there was talk that the others were going to come with her and maybe do something live. No one really knew what was going to happen, but from the moment Tyler arrived in the club it was madness. The energy in the place went up by about 1000% and then he leapt on stage and did ‘Yonkers’ and tore the roof off. Marcus Nasty Marcus probably broke the record for number of jaegerbombs consumed of an evening at YOYO (with his warm up tipple being a triple vodka and redbull) and he definitely broke a CDJ or two with what’s believed to be the heaviest handed spinback in the game. Jackmaster Jack’s always smashed it at YOYO. The second time he played for us, he ended his set with ‘Love Is In The Air’ and promptly started a conga around the club. I have never, and will never see anything like it at YOYO again. Nas Our 10th birthday in the summer just gone was outrageous. All our extended family played (Ronson, Smutlee, Martelo) alongside us and our surprise guest (which we managed to keep a secret right till the last minute) which was Nas. All the people that had supported us over the years came down and it was a suitably emotional night. Catch Seb and Leo DJing as YOYO in Room One on 23rd November.