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Oh Hai…

Written by Admin99, published 11-28-23

Roll On is our latest happening. Each and every Friday from 6pm in Gwydir St. 

Read more to find out the story behind these latest DJ sets in the heart of Cambridge…

What they say: 

‘Hot Numbers are well known as perhaps Cambridge’s best-loved coffee
people. There’s every chance you’ve knowingly enjoyed their lovingly
prepared coffee and food at their cafes on Trumpington Street and Gwydir
Street or at their wonderful Roastery that sits between Shepreth and
Melbourn. You may also have unknowingly sampled the coffee elsewhere as
they supply their own skilfully roasted and ground beans to all sorts of
local independent places.

The owner of Hot Numbers, Simon Fraser, fell in love with good coffee
when he spent time in Australia in the early 2000s but, on returning to
Cambridge where he grew up, he struggled to find local places that made
it as well as he knew it could be made, so he decided to do it himself.
But coffee wasn’t his first love, he was actually in Australia as a
saxophonist and whilst coffee is his business, music is a big part of
both it and his life, with his Gwydir Street cafe and Shepreth roastery
regularly hosting music nights.

Now, to further enhance the Hot Numbers music offering, he’s teamed up
with local DJ collective Roll On to transform the Gwydir Street cafe
into a cafe bar on Friday evenings. Roll On takes its name from the
famously long-empty Roll On Blank Tapes shop that stands at the opposite
end of Gwydir Street, a nice nod to Hot Numbers, itself named in honour
of a former record shop, the restored mural of which can still be seen
on neighbouring Kingston Street.

Sam Cooke, also a local business owner as part of Cooke Curtis and Co
estate agents came to Simon with the idea and he jumped at the chance.
Sam says “Cambridge is fine if you want a pint of real ale in a pub and
there are great rock and indie venues like The Portland Arms and Six Six
Bar, but I’m more of an electronic music man. I’m spoilt for choice when
I go to London or even to other nearby cities like Norwich, but other
than occasional nights at The Junction hosted by people like Slipped
Disc, Cambridge doesn’t really have anywhere that plays the sort of
current music I like to hear, so I thought I’d see if Simon fancied
working together to see if we can make it work here. The idea wasn’t to
create a music venue, more a cosy cafe bar serving cocktails, beer on
tap and good wine that happens to have a DJ in the corner. The music is
played through a super high quality KV2 sound system, but we play it
quietly so it doesn’t dominate things to the point you can’t have a
conversation. If you’re an electronic music nerd you can nod along
knowlingly to a fab system, hopefully recognising some of what we play
and regularly reaching for your phone to Shazam something you don’t.
We’ve got people who play across all genres and love pulling brand new
stuff down to our DDJs but aren’t afraid of dusting off leftfield
classics from our vinyl collection on dropping them on the 1210s. We
start a bit after 6pm and finish at 11pm, so can be your destination for
the evening, or a warm up if you’re heading on somewhere a bit more
lairy later. The aim is to be a welcoming, relaxed, inclusive place for
everyone. Clearly if you want to chat about some amazing new act you saw
at some little known new venue in London that we should hear about then
we can definitely be new friends, but if you just want a nice drink and
snack with your existing friends we promise not to get in the way with
our noisy music.’

Roll on are at Hot Numbers, Gywdir Street off Mill Road every Friday
from 6pm-11pm, there’s no entry charge. More information can be found at
rollon.live or they’re @rollonlive on Instagram, Facebook and Mixcloud.

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