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At the helm of perhaps the most iconic radio show at the moment, Annie Mac has become one of the most loved DJs in the country, in charge of ‘officially starting the weekend’ for somewhere in the region of 7 million listeners every week.

Hailing from a musical background in which most family members were involved in bands of one style or another, it wasn't until Annie was introduced to the clubbing scene in Belfast that she found her true calling. Citing DJs like Andrew Weatherall, Laurent Garnier, DJ Sneak, and Cajmere as some of the first DJs she saw, Annie went on to get into radio and DJing herself by doing a postgraduate Masters at a college in Farnborough. She later moved to London and began working on Student radio, as well as holding down a regular slot at Camden club The Underworld.

DJing there to an audience that varied between punks, tourists, and indie kids, Annie quickly learnt the art of keeping a dance floor full, she later brought that eclectic philosophy to her Radio One show ‘The Mash Up’.

After a stint working with record label V2, Annie bagged a job as Steve Lamacq’s broadcast assistant, whilst still working for student network SBN on her lunch break.

With fill in slots coming for Mary Anne Hobbs as well as being the voice of a number of anonymous idents, Annie was finally given her own show at the age of 26 in July 2004.

Taking her cues from mentors Zane Lowe, Steve Lamacq, and Colin Murray, Annie Mac forged for herself her own style and panache, with her charm and charisma winning over an ever increasing audience. Her DJing came on a treat to, culminating with the first ever Annie Mac presents in the back room at Fabric, a clubbing brand was born, one that has risen to monumental status, ‘providing a platform for a generation of youthful, bass-driven, live-dance acts and making Annie herself one of the most in-demand club and festival DJs on the planet’.

Her recent Ambassador of Bass Music Award in association with Skiddle is yet another accolade in a long list of acclaim that this generation's definitive dance music radio DJ has garnered.

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A Night in the Club, Then Early to Bed

The Before Midnight parties promise all the thrills of a hedonistic night out, but with a respectable finish time for older dance music fans.

By Anna Codrea-Rado

Reporting from London

It was Friday night, in a 2,000-person capacity nightclub in London, and the dance floor was packed. A heavy-duty sound system pounded out house music and a huge disco ball turned overhead. Only one thing was off: It was 9.30 p.m.

A woman in the crowd gleefully yelled to the throng of people around her: “I’m 15 weeks postpartum and I’m in the club!”

The party, called Before Midnight, is organized by the Irish D.J. Annie Macmanus, who plays under the name Annie Mac: It promises all the thrills of a club — just with an early bedtime. Starting at 7 p.m. and wrapped up by 12, Before Midnight is one of several recent variations on the hedonistic all-night sessions in which dance music is usually enjoyed, aimed at older fans juggling children and careers.

“There’s an inherent belief that clubbing is for young people,” Macmanus said recently by phone. “There’s now a generation of people who experienced clubbing in its most popular guise, and still want to do that, but don’t feel like they belong there anymore.”

Macmanus explained that Before Midnight was born out of her desire to fit a music career around her duties as a mother of two children, ages 6 and 9. Late-night D.J. sets didn’t mix well with their weekend activities, she said.

“It felt like I had jet lag,” Macmanus said. “It just wasn’t accommodating for where I’m at in my life right now.”

Macmanus said this reckoning coincided with her decision, in 2021, to stand down as the presenter of the BBC’s flagship dance music show, on BBC Radio 1 — a gig she had held for 17 years and which cemented her name as a musical tastemaker in Britain.

Before Midnight was her next act, she said, a fresh project to restore some work-life balance. The premise was simple, she added: “a definitive club night that’s just like a normal one, only earlier.”

The first night, held last year at the Islington Assembly Hall, a London music venue, was a one-off experiment. It sold out, and, at the end of last year, Macmanus announced a 10-date Before Midnight tour of Britain and Ireland. The tour’s two remaining London dates are also taking place at Outernet, a new, subterranean nightclub in the city’s West End that is the largest live events space built in central London since the 1940s .

Before Midnight is particularly popular with women, who Macmanus estimated make up about 75 percent of the crowd. Jodie Brooks, 44, who has attended every Before Midnight party in London to date, was in the crowd this past Friday. “I just didn’t want the night to start at 1 a.m. anymore,” Brooks, who works in advertising and like Macmanus has two children age 6 and 9, said later by phone. “I never wanted parenthood to change me in that way, but, inevitably, it just does. You have to get up and do the Saturday-morning football practice at 9 a.m.,” she said.

The coronavirus lockdowns of 2022 and 2021, which took clubbing temporarily out of the mix, made many people in their 30s and 40s re-evaluate how they wanted to spend their weekends. Some, like Brooks, emerged determined to get back on the dance floor, but on new, more wholesome terms. With Before Midnight, she said, “You can go for a really lush dinner at six. By eight you’re in the club,” and “by 12 you’re out.”

Others realized that they liked dance music, but not nightclubs. Adem Holness, who leads the contemporary music program at the Southbank Center, a central London arts venue, said that many of the venue’s offerings suited electronic music enthusiasts at a more mature life stage: Performances are seated, and finish in time to catch the last Tube home.

“We have a menu of different options for people,” he said. “It’s about making the model work for all kinds of people.”

In the last year, D.J.s and dance music performers including Fabio & Grooverider, Erykah Badu and Peaches have all played gigs at the Royal Festival Hall, a concert hall managed by the Southbank. “I’m seeing people wanting to experience really great music that you might think or assume belongs in a club, somewhere else, or in a different way,” Holness said.

Before Midnight was also influenced by the experience of bringing club culture into a more rarefied space, Macmanus said. In 2019, she recalled, she played in New York at MoMa PS1’s Warm Up, the art museum’s summer series that sets experimental and electronic music alongside contemporary art and design . There, she saw a multigenerational audience dancing together, she said. “It had a big effect on me as a D.J.,” she added. “I’m always going to try and reach that type of a dance floor.”

Macmanus added that an early-starting dance party wasn’t a totally original idea. Since 2018, Tim Lawrence, a professor of cultural studies at the University of East London who researches nightlife, has been running a London dance party every two months that starts at 5 p.m.; in an interview, he said that events like Before Midnight were a way to “pluralize the culture.” During a 2017 tour of the United States to promote his book “ Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor ,” Lawrence recalled, he attended an invite-only party in New York called Joy that started around dinnertime.

Lawrence brought the concept back to London with him and co-founded his invitation-only dance party called All Our Friends, held every two months. “It’s about confounding certain ideas that come with the all-night or late-night thing,” Lawrence said. The earlier timetable allows for a different approach to dancing, he said, which can “potentially be more expressive, more interactive and go a bit deeper on a social level.”

But for Brooks, the advertising worker, the appeal of Before Midnight was much simpler: It was an opportunity to dance to the music that she loves, in a club like any other, and be home in time for bed.

“You get all the joy and the love,” she said. “You get to be a part of something again. And you don’t feel out of place.”

An earlier version of this article misstated the frequency of a dance party organized by Tim Lawrence. It is held every two months, not monthly.

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Annie Mac looks back: ‘I was wild, feral and very comfortable in a tree’

The radio broadcaster and novelist on growing up in a large family in Dublin and swapping DJing for writing

Born in Dublin in 1978, Annie Macmanus rose to fame in the noughties as a radio DJ specialising in electronic music. Her two-decade career has included 17 years at BBC Radio 1, including taking over its flagship evening show, as well being one of the biggest live DJs in Europe and programming festivals. In 2021, Macmanus switched gear: publishing a bestselling novel, Mother Mother , and launching a podcast, Changes. Her new novel, The Mess We’re In , is out now. She lives in London with her husband, the DJ Toddla T, and their two children.

This image is very emblematic of me as a kid . I am nine and in Marlay Park in south Dublin, where I grew up. I was wild, feral and very comfortable in a tree. Although I am high up, I look so comfy – so comfy that I’ve slipped my feet out of my shoes. My expression and body language is saying: “This is nothing!”

I am the youngest of a large family, so by the time I came along, the fussing of parenting had melted away and the general attitude was: “You’re left to your own devices. You’re alive and clean-ish. Grand.” At this point, I would have been spending my school-free days down the green – a little patch of grass about 50 yards from the housing estate where I grew up. I would play football all day with the boys, then I would climb trees. As it started to get dark, my mum would call me in for dinner, and if it was Saturday, my weekly bath. I was really active and had such lovely friends. It was a very good time.

Because of the little girl that I was, I resisted the idea of puberty and I didn’t want to know anything about becoming a teenager. My mum was very kind and never wanted to pressure or embarrass me, but I remember her coming home one day and presenting me with a book [about puberty]. I didn’t want to read it – in fact, I ran out of the room. I knew what it meant, what it symbolised, and I couldn’t deal with it.

Of course, the hormones hit me eventually. My social group used to call periods The Confidence. I remember in assembly nudging my friend and saying: “I’ve got The Confidence!” It was a big deal. The move from primary to secondary school is a seismic one and that wild, feral side started to diminish.

While the carefreeness of my young childhood had drifted, I handled the shift as well as I could. I was really lucky in that I never felt oversexualised during those teenage years. Nobody ever pushed me into looking feminine. Naturally, I eventually did what most girls do: I wore short skirts and kissed boys. I still went through a period of hating my body and being confused about it, however. I had gone from this unselfconscious kid to becoming obsessed with my size, from the age of 15 onwards. I grew up in the 90s and that whole decade of heroin chic, Kate Moss and trousers hanging off your hip bones really got to me. It was impossible not to feel affected by the media and how skeletal bodies were deemed desirable. My body wasn’t like that, nor was anyone’s I knew. But it didn’t stop me thinking something was wrong with me.

I had a huge awakening in my mid-teens. I was always surrounded by noise – I had two brothers and a sister, and at any given time in our house people would be playing the piano, guitar, the mandolin, the bouzouki, the bodhrán, the accordion or the saxophone. But discovering music for myself was really identity-shaping. The first was a Guns N’ Roses double cassette of Use Your Illusion, which made me feel as if I’d arrived. Then came Massive Attack’s Blue Lines, all the Blur albums, Portishead’s Dummy and Goldie’s Timeless. Dublin was small and these albums were like doors opening to different worlds.

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In 2001, I left Farnborough where I was doing a postgrad in radio and moved in with my brother Davey and the rock band he was in [the Crocketts, and later the Crimea]. Before then, my life was edging closer to the precipice of the adventure of adulthood, but moving to London was jumping into the pool. We lived in an old dilapidated house in Forest Gate in east London. It was quite the time. He and the band used to be away for long periods while I was hustling hard and working three different jobs. They would come home from the tour and the hall and corridor would be freshly painted lilac, because I just needed something to do between work. I was so ambitious and hungry for new experiences while also living so unhealthily and being completely skint. It was a real oversensory period that felt thrilling, exciting and uncomfortable, with big highs but doors slammed in my face, too.

Two years later, I got my first job at the BBC. I remember ringing my Dad from the desk at Radio 1 and saying: “I got a permanent job!” He’s always been so supportive of whatever I’ve wanted, but like a lot of parents he was keen on me being secure, so getting a job at this big British institution reassured him that I would be sorted.

Two years after my first job as an assistant, I got my own show. I worked really hard and was keen to please. I suppose that’s from being the youngest in the family: my unofficial role at home growing up was to be the one who makes everyone laugh; to make sure the whole room was happy.

It was in my mid-30s when I decided to reassess my life and left Radio 1 [in 2021]. I was overwhelmed by my career and motherhood. I’d lost myself to this drive to achieve and push myself forward. It had consumed me to a point where it was detrimental to my mental health. Throughout my life, success had meant more ticket sales, more listeners – a graph with the line going up, up, up, up. These days, success is feeling secure in myself. Being connected to people. Being there for the ones you love.

I’ve also had to learn when to say no – to the point where I’ve probably gone too far and should probably say yes to a few more things! Socialising is particularly important now, as being a novelist can be isolating. In many ways, so is DJing, but I have still found adjusting to being a writer difficult. With radio, you collaborate with a team, you build a show every day and there’s a direct connection with the listeners - which is in contrast to rattling around on your own in the house all day. So much so that I’m thinking of joining a choir.

The best thing about getting older is that I feel more in tune with my body, now more than ever. When I was nine, my relationship with it was: does it function and does it get me up this tree? After that, I went through years and years of losing my confidence. But now I am in awe of my body and its ability. The fact that I am able to climb a tree at 44 is huge and I have a whole new sense of awareness of how fragile it is, how lucky I am.

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Tickets can be found via Ticketmaster, which go on sale Friday, 16th December.

Irish DJ and author Annie Mac has just announced 10 more shows for her current tour, 'Before Midnight'.

The former BBC Radio 1 DJ took to Twitter to announce the good news, writing: “Couldn't be happier to announce 10 more Before Midnight shows in the UK & Ireland for 2023.”

The 44-year old also included a link in her announcement where fans can sign up to receive an exclusive ticket link for the dates prior to their general sale on Friday, 16th December.

The concept behind Before Midnight was “designed for people who need sleep,” with the event running from 7pm to midnight.

Introducing Before Midnight - a fully authentic clubbing experience that starts at 7pm and ends at the strike of midnight. A chance for you to have all the fun, euphoria and wild abandon you need and STILL get a good nights sleep. Pre-sale ticket sign up: https://t.co/u3ljT857tF pic.twitter.com/i4StesQviJ — Annie Mac (@anniemacmanus) April 1, 2022

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Having been widely successful already, Annie Mac continued, “Before Midnight is a chance for me to play long DJ sets with all my favourite records, those ones that spark joy, and a chance for you to have all the fun, the euphoria and the wild abandon you need and STILL get a good night’s sleep.”

Having recently left BBC Radio 1 last year after 17 years at the iconic station, Annie Mac cited her desire to spend more time with her family in a statement on Instagram.

Tickets can be found via Ticketmaster from Friday, 16th December.

Couldn’t be happier to announce 10 more Before Midnight shows in the UK & Ireland for 2023. From Glasgow to Margate, Belfast to Newcastle, & Dublin on Paddy’s Day, there’s wild times ahead! To access pre-sale on Wednesday sign up now. General sale Friday. https://t.co/VAUiO12UMT pic.twitter.com/7P9ex9RQAE — Annie Mac (@anniemacmanus) December 13, 2022

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Annie Mac Presents

Radio 1's doyen of dance music hits the road.

Annie Mac has announced a brand new club experience, ‘Annie Mac Before Midnight’, an accessible nightclubbing experience designed for people who need sleep.

Explaining the concept, Annie said:

“Here’s the lowdown. Nightclubbing is not designed for people who need sleep. So I’m shifting the time parameters forwards, and bringing you a fully authentic clubbing experience that ends at the strike of midnight.

“I can’t tell you how excited I am about this. I know there’s an appetite for it because I’ve had so many messages from you who’ve grown up with me and listened to me on the radio every Friday night, who adore the clubbing experience but don’t want to wait until 1am in the morning to see me play, who need to be sharp and useful at the weekends and just can’t afford sleepless nights. “Before Midnight is a chance for me to play long DJ sets with all my favourite records, those ones that spark joy, and a chance for you to have all the fun, the euphoria and the wild abandon you need and STILL get a good night’s sleep.

Text supplied by third party.

Tour dates 2024

At 5 venues:

Bristol Harbourside

Galway festival big top, lloyds amphitheatre, bristol, swg3, glasgow, the piece hall, halifax.

Prices to be confirmed

£38.50 / 0141 337 1731

£44.66 / 01422 525200

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Annie Mac is far more than just a Radio 1 DJ, she's a global ambassador for dance music in all its forms, from deep house and techno to bass music and more...

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Upcoming concerts for Annie Mac

• Sunday July 14, 2024 Jungle, Sofia Kourtesis, Annie Mac, and AHADADREAM Jungle Curates at Tofte Manor 2024, Bedford
• Sunday July 14, 2024 Ross From Friends, Sofia Kourtesis, Annie Mac, and AHADADREAM Jungle Curates w/ Annie Mac, Ross From Friends 2024, Bedford

Friday 17 November 2023

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Chalk Farm Road NW1 8EH London, UK 0844 482 8008 www.roundhouse.org.uk/

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Annie Mac Before Midnight

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We’re honoured to welcome internationally renowned broadcaster, author, DJ and events curator, Annie Macmanus as the first DJ to play the transformed Beacon Hall.

Her debut Sunday Times Bestseller novel Mother Mother was released in paperback this March to critical acclaim and her writing has featured in the Guardian, Irish Times and the Independent and regularly publishes articles via her own blog.

She produces her own podcast, ‘Changes with Annie Macmanus’ , where she chats to writers, artists and fascinating people from all walks of life about changes they’ve faced.

Annie is a key music industry figure championing female and LGBTQ+ artists and advocating for positive, inclusive change. She also runs the festival Lost & Found in Malta, and can be seen on the biggest stages of music festivals around the UK and the world, and in the DJ booths of the world’s best clubs.

Annie has created a far-reaching presence rooted in quality, integrity, and the authentic connections that unite us all as loyal fans.

Presented by Bristol Beacon

Format: Standing, with unreserved seating available

Age: 16+ (Under 18s accompanied by an adult)

Performance Times

Doors: 19:00 Start Time: 19:00 End: 00:00

All timings are approximate and subject to change

“Parties for people who want to feel safe and included and celebrated to dance, no matter what age they are and how much sleep they need.” Annie Mac

About Beacon Hall

Our new flagship venue at Bristol Beacon

Seating plans

Beacon Hall has three levels that can be used in a seated or standing format. View seating plans, auditorium entrances and exits and accessible viewing areas.

Venue information

Take a closer look at our beautifully restored venue, see what’s on and view detailed information about the performance space.

Beacon Hall

at Bristol Beacon

Getting to the venue

Location: Beacon Hall is located within Bristol Beacon. Head to Level 1 and follow signs to find the auditorium.

Address: Bristol Beacon, Trenchard Street, Bristol, BS1 5AR

Bicycle racks can be found in front of the main entrance on Trenchard Street, Colston Street, and on the city centre promenade. Find your nearest cycle routes using Cycle Planner .

Car parking

Trenchard Street multi-storey car park is 200m away, directly behind Bristol Beacon.

  Bristol Clean Air Zone

Bristol Beacon is inside the Bristol Clean Air Zone. Check if your vehicle will be charged and how much you’ll have to pay.

Most bus services stop in and around the city centre promenade, 250m from Bristol Beacon.

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Spaces for wheelchair users are in:

• row S in the centre of the rear Stalls (10 spaces)
• row Z in the left and right wings at the back of Lower Tier (4 spaces, 2 on each side),
• rows G/H on the left only at the back of Upper Tier (2 spaces)

Assistance Dogs

Assistance dogs and emotional support animals are allowed in the performance space. Seats in row F are most suitable. If you prefer, you can leave your animal with a member of staff during the performance.

Hearing Facility

A Sennheiser MobileConnect assistive listening system is installed in the venue. Download the free App and use your own mobile device and headphones to listen to the performance. (Devices are available on request.)

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We’ve got plenty of places for you to relax and refill. From coffee and cake, to delicious sharing boards, to full menus.

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'I should be able to perform without being groped'

A singer says the response to her calling out sexual assaults at gigs has opened her eyes to the scale of the problem.

Karla Chubb, from Irish punk band Sprints, put a statement online saying she'd been groped by an audience member during a Belfast show on Saturday.

Their post sparked a huge reaction, with acts across the UK and USA sharing their own stories in response.

It comes as a group of UK MPs prepares to meet to discuss misogyny in music.

Karla says the her chest was groped during the band's gig at Ulster Sports Club - the second time she'd been assaulted during their debut album tour.

"I should be able to get off the stage at my own show without fear of being groped," she says.

Speaking to BBC Newsbeat Karla says she realised she "didn't make it up" and "wasn't being dramatic" after fans pointed out what happened.

"I think any woman who's experienced any kind of assault or harassment is almost like... are people gonna think I've had one too many drinks, and I've made it up?" she says.

"Or maybe I'm just exaggerating, or he didn't mean it, or whatever.

"But I was really annoyed by it."

'Terrifyingly uniform experience'

Karla says she was hesitant about releasing the band's statement but going public has highlighted a wider issue. She waived a legal right to anonymity under sexual assault laws to speak to BBC Newsbeat.

"Thankfully the response has been 99%, incredibly, overwhelmingly positive," she says. "And also, terrifyingly, a uniform experience, I think, for a lot of female performers."

She says lots of artists have been in touch to share their stories, and show support.

"A tonne of acts have reached out from across the UK to the US, like I'm not going to name the names as a lot of them messaged in private.

"But there's a lot of people coming forward. A lot of male acts, our labelmates obviously, everyone's standing up and people we've worked with are definitely showing solidarity."

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) told BBC Newsbeat they were investigating a report of sexual assault at a bar in the High Street area of Belfast on Saturday.

They believe it "may have happened sometime between 20:30 and 22:00", and are encouraging witnesses to come forward.

Misogyny in the music industry is a problem that's received the attention of the UK government.

In January, the Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) - a group of MPs from different parties who advise the government on a specific issue - released a report on the topic.

The findings, based on an inquiry which started in 2022, warned that the industry was a "boys' club" with a "culture of silence" surrounding abuse.

Giving evidence at a public hearing, former Radio 1 DJ Annie Mac, said there was a "tidal wave" of revelations about sexual assault in the music industry waiting to be told.

The WEC is due to meet again later to discuss the government's reponse, and says it "failed to accept" a set of "wide-ranging recommendations" designed to better protect women in the industry.

Committee chairwoman, Conservative MP Caroline Nokes, tells Newsbeat she isn't "remotely surprised" by Karla's story.

"My message to the government is you need to get serious about the safety of women," she says.

"You need to make sure that they are safe wherever they are in work, or when they're freelancers, when they're self-employed, when they're working late at night.

"It shouldn't matter - they need to be safe."

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Ms Nokes says the committee wants the government to "outlaw" non-disclosure agreements in cases of sexual abuse and sexual harassment.

Often called NDAs, these legal documents work in a similar way to contracts, and signing one means someone agrees not to speak in public about something.

Some people believe they're used by people in positions of power to cover-up wrongdoing.

Ms Nokes says NDAs have been banned in higher education but not in other sectors.

"And so I will continue to pursue ministers over this because what our report did is gave confidence to other women to speak out," she says/

"People like Karla who might have previously been silent, we need to support them. And we need to see that there's change."

BBC Newsbeat has contacted the government for comment.

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