"The idea for The Black House came in 2007 when Todd Penfold and I decided to kick start the music scene in Aberystwyth with something fresh and new.

Anyone who spends any time in the area will see the vast amount of artists, talent and untapped musical potential in Aberystwyth.

Along with a thriving university and a constant flow of young people in and out of the area, we always saw a huge potential for Aber to be a hub of music and entertainment in Mid-Wales.

There are alot of good nights set up by promoters that are based in Aberystwyth but every event seemed to be isolated from each other.

Our original idea and main ethos that we carry today is to encourage promoters and artists to work together to produce nights which appeal to everyone!

With this is mind, we started our first nights; Mixxed Society in 2007. Held at the then Yokos nightclub (now called Why Not) and featuring collaborations from Kontrol, The Aberystwyth Cheerleaders, The Panther Dance Society and some of the best up and coming DJs and Bands in the area.The nights were a runaway success beyond our expectations.

2008 brought a few problems with regards to venues for our event after pressure by the local Council and enforcement of noise regulations, rendering many venues unwilling to hire for outside events.

After a few months, we started to realise what an effect this had on music in Aberystwyth, not only for promoters but for artists as well.

Without a stage to perform on, many artists felt let down by the area, with almost all live and club nights ceasing and the usually vibrant scene feeling deflated.

Without a stage to perform on, artists have nothing to aspire to which can kill creativity and the joy of being involved in music.

At the beginning of the new academic year in 2008 and after long negotiations, The Bay agreed to re-open their infamous Bay Basement for us, a venue renowned for hosting some of the best homegrown events over the past decade.

We were really excited to be able to use The Bay Basement, a venue that many from this area have fond memories of.

We decided to try something different there, combining bands and DJs through the night, allowing us not only to appeal to a wider range of appeal, but to try and bring the live and club scene together, something which has never been done before.

Our first night was a Halloween Special, featuring the best bands from the area including My Favourite Runner Up, Son Capson, Aband and Epitaph with DJs to finish off the night. Our next night in 2008 followed the same layout, this time featuring Y Diwygiad and Valleum as our headline bands.

These two events were really important to us as we really wanted to see if the concept of bringing live music in a club atmosphere worked.

However due to limitations at the venue, we decided to stick to the club DJ format and seperate the two, hosting club nights and live events independently from each other.

Come 2009, with a venue, ethos and format for our nights, The Black House was born.

We really wanted to come up with a name, night and brand that reflected everything that was happening around us (with some obvious links to the American Presidential elections!)

Putting ourselves out there as a value for money night, with more Welsh DJs per pound than anywhere else (10 DJs for £4 entry!)

The first Black House on 31 January 2009 featured collaborations from Backbeating Sounds and Bay Radio, along with a stellar line-up of DJs including: B.Meakin, Tao, X2K, Rob G, Blunt and Ruffcut, bringing the best House, Electro, Breaks, Drum and Bass and Dubstep to Aberystwyth, spread over 2 floors in the Bay, with upstairs featuring reggae sounds from Backbeating and the basement hosts to our DJs for the night.

With over 900 people through the doors over the night, it was clear we had hit on the nerve.

Bringing DJs and genres of music into the mainstream club scene which you would never dream of hearing in Aberystwyth.

Out of the whole night, the satisfaction of having people approach you at the end raving about our DJ's who they loved or a genre of music they had never heard before really put everything into perspective and gave us a clear aim.

With this in mind, the next Black House is carrying on in style, bringing more music to the people, bigger and better with more live visuals, lighting and good vibes!

If anything, it feels really good to give something back to the music scene in Aberystwyth, giving up and coming DJ's and promoters a chance to work together and get heard by the people.

There is a Black House event on 16 May 2009 with drum and Bass/Dubstep producers NERO headlining.More details can be found through a link on the right hand side of this page.

Another Black House event takes place on Friday 29 May with Radio 1's Huw Stephens headlining .

Article written by Kirk Holland