MUSIC Television came to Dublin this week in search of dancers to appear on Club MTV, a new show hosted by MTV DJs Simone Angel and Nikolai Kydd, which focuses on the vibrant European club scene. MTV talent scout Julie Dunn visited such hotspots as the POD, the Kitchen, Ri-Ra, the System and the Mission last weekend, hand picking more than 1,000 punters to audition for the show, and the number was narrowed down to around 250 hard core clubbers.
These would be dance stars went to the Ormond Multimedia Centre on Thursday to strut their stuff in the company of top dance acts The Shamen and Apollo 440, and a Green Room was set aside for VIPs (Very Immobile People). Some of the more animated guests in the area included actress Lorraine Pilkington with her boyfriend, Andrew Heffernan, model Sonia Reynolds with her boyfriend, Barry Lyons, and rock singer Tom Dunne of Something Happens.
This is not the first time Club MTV's Dutch presenter, Simone Angel, has been in Ireland - she celebrated last New Year's Eve in Dublin with members of The Prodigy, Black Grape and Oasis. She plans to remain in Ireland after the show has wrapped and the rest of the crew has gone back to London. "I'm going to stay behind and party, and also chill a bit."
Twenty four year old Simone, a native of Amsterdam, joined MTV in 1991, and her combination of cool, sexy looks and boundless enthusiasm has boosted her profile on Europe's Music Television station; Club MTV should see her star rise even higher. "I think it's the best show MTV has done," she says, "it really reflects the nightclub scene all over Europe, and it looks amazing." So, how do the Irish clubbers compare to their European counterparts? "The Irish clubbers are great. That's why everyone goes clubbing in Dublin, isn't it? Everyone loves Dublin."
With all this clubbing around from country to country, Simone has little time left to spend with her boyfriend (poor fellow!), and soon she will be even less available, as she's about to embark on a career as a pop star. She won't be doing any club anthems, however, and she describes her music as "guitar based, a bit like Garbage". She doesn't mean rubbish, of course.