One Step Beyond

Every month in Los Angeles I DJ Lost Angels and for our Halloween show - Rise of the Wraiths we featured some fantastic special performances and this surprise guest captivated the audience with an acoustic show that was a beautifu stark contrast the loud pumping tracks I was spinning. It worked magically. Everyone from the One Step Beyond daze will recognize him from his still legendary performances with a band on our stage. It's J.P. Aston and here's a snippet of an appropriately dark song in the dark of Lost Angels - you can't see much but the sound is scarily good ... and if you want to see and hear more there are rumors of him visiting the Bay Area for some shows ... perhaps even an OSB reunion?

If you find yourselves in Los Angeles this weekend and are wandering the streets on Sunday night looking for a fix for your One Step Beyond Sanctuary and Club Hell nights, then join us at Lost Angels where I'll be spinning songs to match a night of debauched Dickens depravity. And it is in a private location that is reputed to be punishment related so scoring your membership in advance is essential. There is no cash bar - all you can imbibe is included in the membership. So partake in Miss Havisham's Revenge - if you close your eyes you just might think you're at One Step Beyond on one of our gothic nights.

The idea to open One Step Beyond actually grew out of visits I made in 1973 and 74 to Rodney Bingenheimer's English Discotheque in LA. As a student I didn't really have the means or time or connections to do it but I never lost sight of that dream and some 12 years later One Step Beyond was born modelled very much on the Rodney ethos or music and fashion where the audience becomes the stars of the night. It was a great honor a few years after opening that Rodney flew up to see Nina Hagen play - and now - all these years later I go to go back to Rodney's English Discotheque in it's original location on Sunset Blvd and say thanks to the man again for the music he plays and the inspiration he gives. Roq on Rodney on the Roq! http://www.laweekly.com//lina-in-la-rodneys-english-dis/25

Remember Sanctuary at One Step Beyond? It was one of the first dedicated Goth nights to darken the night. For those of you that are in the Los Angeles area I DJ at Lost Angels - and it is very Sanctuary influenced. It would be my great pleasure to see you on Sunday night at King King where Lost Angels will be transforming the illustrious space into a place for Night Creatures to glide across the dancefloor and enjoy visual and aural spectacles to delight the senses and ignit...e the imagination. Dress appropriately and arrive early (doors at 9pm) as there is an undisclosed musical guest you won't want to miss who once stood on the One Step Beyond stage - and of course Skent starts spinning right on the cusp of 9pm and my first song is Blackstar. The second is Covenant's Afterhours and the third is IAMX's Your Joy Is My Low. And that's enough of a teaser ... and requests will be indulged! https://www.facebook.com/events/449100271951577/ See more

For those of you that are in Southern California this coming Friday it promises to be a stroll down One Step Beyond memory lane. I'll be co-hosting the Lost 80s live night at House of Blues Anaheim - but it's no ordinary (as if there ever is an ordinary night where these bands are concerned) night as you'll read from the article below. The man behind the Lost 80s nights - Rob Juarez - is celebrating his 10th anniversary of producing, creating, booking and starring in these sh...ows - and he got his start in this business from his days and nights at One Step Beyond taking photos of the bands and helping us out of some dire emergencies - so come to the HoB in Anaheim on Friday night and you'll hear some of those tales and of course the fabulous line-up of bands - many that graced the One Step stage - and celebrate Rob and all that great music he's kept alive. http://tbrnews.com//article_944516da-049f-11e5-8386-cf5fe7

Here's something very cool - sent in by long time regular Eric Spinale from this weekend's San Francisco Chronicle Style section. It's a profile of legendary fashion icon, designer and club kid Richie Rich. Read down the article and you'll see he credits One Step Beyond with being his inspiration where he and his friends spent hours getting dressed up and putting on make-up. You read something like this and it makes you realize that all the hard work and tough times make One Step Beyond exist and work was worth it. Quite coincidentally I was up in San Francisco this weekend and happened to see the article in person. Quite a pleasant shock to be thumbing through the pages of the Sunday paper and get such a cool blast from the past surprise. http://www.sfgate.com//Richie-Rich-ringmaster-of-a-new-fas

So does anyone have any memorabilia from when Peter Murphy played One Step Beyond? Picture? Flyer/ Set-list? If so post it and I'll get it signed and returned. Unique opportunity coming up and thought it might be fun to share.

It is really cool when we get a chance to say if One Step Beyond was still around this band would be playing there - and the latest sounds to catch my interest in that vein come from Brain Dead Symphony - getting good response on the floor to the tracks which mix well with Erasure. Take a listen and if you like please "like" this page : https://www.facebook.com/BrainDeadSymphony And who knows - maybe you'll be seeing them at a One Step Beyond Next Step beyond night soon... F...inally!! An up and coming/rising powerful new sound/duo recording artist called Brain Dead Symphony releases its debut EP titled Victory. This EP is available now on digital distribution including, iTunes Worldwide, Rhapsody, Amazon, Google Play, Spotify, Bandcamp, and others with three (3) radi... Page: 15 like this See more

This is to say thank you to all the Beloved Freak(s) who came out to the Next Step Beyond at Illusions last month and to all the Beloved Freak(s) who didn't make it - we say - you missed a great night and see you in 2013 cause this little light of mine - I'm gonna let it shine ... shine on everyone! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlQpXmBXK1E&feature=related

So it's all over for another year or so ... but we won't be going into hibernation ... we'll be posting some amazing stuff realted to the show and some old stuff from the club ... and some of those prize-winning mix suggestions! Stay tuned ... stay dancing!

Pre-sales have stopped but we will have walk-up tix at $15 which works out to $7.50 per dancing foot non-stop from 8pm-close with enough catch-your-breath time for a drink or two to celebrate another One Step Beyond night. Oh yeah - we also have cool tee-shirts but don't arrive topless - it is Palo Alto! See ya soon - heading down to the club for soundcheck now. Looking forward to seeing the Frail and hearing Aaron Axelsen spin and my cohorts Diego Cisternas and Sean Denton cutting it up too! Hey you ... if you're beginning to feel the heat then listen buster you'd better start to move your feet ... to the rockingest rock steady beat of Madness ... One Step Beyond!

Just a reminder: pre-sale tickets are only on sale until 7pm on Friday!

And the winner of the mix contest is ... drum roll please or should I say a 126.5 bpm track - cause that's what we did to get the two songs to track perfectly and flood the floor - Jason Nuckels: Trans-X "Living on Video" with MGMT "Kids". It was really close between Jason and Thomas Bailey: Don't Crash by Front 242 and Steamworks by The Presets but the greater familiarity of Jason's suggestions sealed the dancefloor deal. Now I feel like one of those reality judges where I ...say the decision was difficult and it's a shame there can only be one winner - well guess what - it's a party so let's do it this way so everybody can celebrate. Jason wins the $80 celebration bar tab on me for the Grand Prize and we'll be playing the mix live sometime during the evening. Thomas gets a $40 celebration bar tab on me and I sure hope we get a crowd who'll appreciate some Front 242/Presets cause I wanna play that too. And the other finalists ... Mark Bonner, ConnXtance Breaux, and Susan C. Ybarra well you'll all get at least one celebration drink on me and we'll do our best to play the great suggestions. Hope to see you all there this Saturday and raise a glass or two to some amazing music.

And now a small commercial break ... get your tix in advance or at the door ... but just be sure to get there early as we're going go to go in deep and heavy at the beginning ... no warm up songs just Ready Steady Gooooooooo! Bay Area's own Aaron Axelsen, program director/music director/DJ at LIVE 105 (KITS 105.3fm), will be our guest DJ spinning some amazing music at the One Step Beyond Reunion 2012 event Saturday, July 21st. Don't miss out! Join us! Mega fun night blending ...the best of the 80s & today's Alternative dance music. Bring your friends too. Cheers!! For details: www.onestepbeyondreunion.com One Step Beyond: 2012 onestepbeyondreunion.com See more