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Groove Terminator’s Simon Lewicki has spent more than 25 years reading the room at packed clubs and festivals.
The highlight of Groove Terminator’s artist output is the 2000 album Road Kill, one of Australia’s most convincing contributions to the big beat genre. The album spawned the hit “One More Time (The Sunshine Song),” which inthemix named the 32nd best Australian dance song of all time.
In recent years, Lewicki has branched out from conventional club DJing, channelling his decades of experience into some more elaborate live shows. He’s worked extensively with the Soweto Gospel Choir on the touring production History of House and partnered with conductor Vanessa Perica and a full-size symphony orchestra on the retrospective spectacle Ministry of Sound Classical.
The MOS Classical repertoire is vast, spanning the classic house of “You Got The Love,” the 90s prog of Underworld, the vocal trance of “Toca’s Miracle” and the proto-EDM of Eric Prydz and Tiësto.
“It went from being pretty straight covers to doing some pretty wild interpretations of things,” Lewicki says of the show’s evolution. Case in point is the orchestra’s take on Fatboy Slim’s “Right Here, Right Now.” “It’s three different versions of that song all mashed up into one version,” says Lewicki.
Ministry of Sound Classical will visit Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth in November and December 2025. Ahead of the tour, Groove Terminator selects ten songs that never fail to stir activity on the dancefloor.
READ: All I wanna do is have some fun: on pop music nostalgia, comfort listening, and just letting go
Michael Gray – “The Weekend” (2004)
GT: This is a really interesting record because it’s like a transition record in genres. We were going from that head candy, funky house, filter-y disco thing and just before the period where everything went full EDM. “The Weekend” is one of these nice sort of bridging records, where it’s got all this big energy and it’s definitely made for arenas, but it sounds great in small rooms as well.
It’s really stood the test of time – I think I like that record now more 20 years later.
Eric Prydz vs Pink Floyd – “Proper Education” (2006)
GT: That’s a crazy record. I never thought you could make a proper dance record again out of something like Pink Floyd – I thought it had been kind of done – and he got the tone of the sample and the production right.
It’s this amazing, moody, dramatic piece. Some people think it’s electro, some people think it’s big room, EDM. It’s a record that everyone from Black Coffee to David Byrne plays. It almost has its own genre
Fatboy Slim – “Right Here, Right Now” (1998)
GT: That’s a brilliant record. It doesn’t matter how many times you hear it, it’s always a great call to action. Every time that those chords start, you know, “Right here, right now” – the hairs are standing up on my arms just thinking about it.
There’s that incredible CamelPhat remix that came out a couple of years ago that we’ve now incorporated into the show. That drops hard – the energy that comes off that is just incredible.
Faithless – “Insomnia” (1995)
GT: “Insomnia” probably hasn’t left my record bag – or my stick – in a very, very long time. There’s a great Armand Van Helden remix of that, which is the one I always used to play. It’s a brilliant riff.
I think the themes of that song of being up all night and staying out late and talking rubbish to your mates, it’s kind of timeless.
Underworld – “Born Slippy .NUXX” (1995)
GT: That’s one of those records I think everyone can remember the first time they heard it, whether it’s at a Big Day Out or from Trainspotting. People weren’t really into that record until Trainspotting came out, and then it’s become this absolute anthem.
The energy on that record is amazing, the programming is phenomenal, the sound design is absolutely timeless. It doesn’t even matter what the lyrics are saying – everyone remembers, “Lager, lager, lager,” and that’s about it. It’s one of those records that any DJ in the world can play.
William Orbit/Tiësto – “Adagio For Strings” (1999/2005)
GT: If you go to see an orchestra playing dance music, if you don’t do “Adagio For Strings,” everyone would be upset. Our version starts off in William Orbit territory – it’s very ambient and orchestral – and then the lasers come on and it’s on for young and old.
Rui Da Silva – “Touch Me” (2001)
GT: I wasn’t a big fan of this record when it came out. It’s really hard to mix because it starts on an offbeat and everyone would always mix it in out of time. But because it’s got this beautiful movement within the chords, it’s a lot for an orchestra to work off.
On a great night when the stars align and the mix is right and everyone’s feeling it, that song can really take you to another place.
Fragma – “Toca's Miracle” (2000)
GT: I’d never played this record as a DJ. I was like, that’s too much on the trance tip. But I’ve found, the more I put these sets together, the trance stuff lends itself really well to orchestras. It’s a great sentiment and it’s just got a really good energy about it that I find works really well with an orchestra.
The Source – “You Got The Love” (1986)
GT: It’s one of the original mash-ups from the 80s, the original Frankie Knuckles beat and Candi Staton vocal. That record’s been around almost as long as house music itself. Every generation gets their own version of that song to make theirs. It has incredibly powerful lyrics and I’d imagine it’s as good to sing in a church as it is to sing on the dancefloor at 5 a.m. to your best mate.
Delerium – “Silence” (1997)
GT: I think this is one of the absolute, great dance records of all time. The lyrics, they are about God, and a lot of people find God on the dancefloor at various times in their lives. Everyone has those dancefloor epiphanies.
It’s a beautiful song. When you’ve got a whole arena lit up with everyone’s phone lights on and everyone’s singing the lyrics back to you, you just feel so connected with so many people.
