Da Doo Ron Ron - A Brief History by Chris King, DJ & Promotor

Da Doo Ron Ron (DDRR) originally started in October 1998 at a venue called Po Na Na in Highbury & Islington, North London. Held once a month on a Wednesday night, it created a word-of-mouth buzz from the very start, and almost immediately started to attract considerable media coverage. Articles appeared in The Guardian (The Guide), The Times, Select, The Evening Standard and its weekly magazine Hot Tickets, with pieces also appearing in a number of local North London papers. After our first Birthday shindig, which was attended by a posse of indie pop celebs, including members of Portishead, Pulp, Belle & Sebastian, Ash, St Etienne and Kenickie, we scooped a mention in the notorious NME gossip column Public NME. In addition, DDRR received favourable mentions on Radio 1, GLR and XFM Radio.

During our residency at Po Na Na, as well as myself and regular DJ partner Declan Allen, I also secured a number of stellar guest DJ's, most notably the quifftastic stand-up Mark Lamarr, whom I approached directly via one of his pals, knowing he was a big girl group fan and who, to our delight, jumped at the chance to do it. Other illustrious guests have included Andy Smith of Portishead, Bob Stanley of St Etienne and Chris Geddes of Belle & Sebastian. Whilst both northern soul legend Ady Croasdell and Andy Lewis, the co-founder of London's famous Blow Up club, have appeared twice.

When Po Na Na suddenly closed down in October 1999, pending a move to a new location, we were forced to re-locate the November and December dates to the Po Na Na at High Street Kensington. However, the requisite DDRR ambience was missing and so we returned to Highbury, where from February 2000 we hosted a monthly Friday night slot at well known London venue, The Garage. After the first Garage date, Mark 'the Poet' Norton replaced Declan as my regular DJ chum. During this same period, we were also approached by trendy London bar The Social to run DDRR nights there. Subsequently, Dec and I deejayed at The Social every other Tuesday night (8pm - Midnight), from Feb to June.

When I moved to Brighton in May 2000, it became logistically impossible to continue to run the clubs in London, so I decided to stop with a view to finding a suitable Brighton venue. Soon-to-be regular Da Doo DJ compadre Si Bridger recommended a small private members club called The Banana Bar, where I ran a Saturday night DDRR once a month from October 2000 to February 2001.

From Thursday April 26th, Da Doo returns on the fourth Thursday of each month to it's spiritual home in Highbury, North London at the refurbished Po Na Na, now re-named Buffalo Bars.

I also hope to announce a regular Saturday night here in Brighton soon.

Chris D King

Heard about us on the Grapevine.

    Over the months, some people have said some rather fine things about our club. Here are just a few of them.




    Noted Maddy Costa of the Evening Standard in September '99




    Also in September '99, Lisa Verrico reported in the Times "Metro" supplement:




    September was quite a good month for press, as it turns out, and the appearance of Celebrity Mark Lamaar is featured in the Islington Gazette




    In July '99, Will Hodgkinson told readers of the Guardian Guide, this:




    In June '99, Alex Petridis of the Evening Standard, was inattendance, this was his verdict:




    Commented Maddy Costa of the Evening Standard in May '99




    In January '99, this piece by Tim Marsh, appeared in Hot Tickets




    In November '98, Tim Lusher at the London Evening Standard wrote this. Accompanied by a rather fine Aretha picture, don't you think?