 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|||
November 2006
|
|||
My feelings on the current state of urban music clubland are well-documented in my Blues & Soul magazine editorial this month. I won’t launch into it again here, but the brief gist of it is that, whilst all the dance music pundits are heralding the apparent recent comeback of house music, on the R&B/ urban side of things, the scene couldn’t be in a poorer state. Against this backdrop, any night that still attracts a quality, clued-up crowd who are happy to party to proper, meaningful tunes, and don’t come up to the DJ box every five minutes asking for ‘that new one by Shakira’ are a definite breath of fresh air. And thankfully I found one when I headed to Bristol on Friday 3rd November to play Laces at Mu Mu’s.
'Dutty Wining at Mu Mu’s, Bristol' The night is everything an urban music jam should be, and the atmosphere was on fire as I DJ-ed between sets by Bristol key player C-Sar. Ragga revivals, Dirty South rollers, and a couple of brand new joints all got felt and appreciated, and I left reassured that these types of nights do still exist in the current sea of banality – even though they’re very few and far between! Hats off to promoter Amish and his crew for creating it. The rest of the weekend was to have involved a Scottish double-bill, consisting of Glasgow on the Saturday night and Edinburgh on the Sunday … until the Edinburgh gig sadly fell through. This just left the Glasgow leg on Saturday 4th, which marked my debut at The Crib. This is a new venture from the owners of Blanket nightclub, which was always noted for its strong urban music programme. The owners decided to turn the club into a rock/ indie-type venue, (now re-christened Guru,) but to save alienating the urban crowd, opened a new spot further up Sauchiehall Street to continue catering for R&B/ hip hop. All of Glasgow’s top urban jocks now play there, with local legend Ray Woods as the kingpin. I always enjoy vibing with Ray, and we played back-to-back from 12 til 3am. The place was less heaving than Blanket, but that’s understandable. The atmosphere was still great, and it was reassuring to get such a great reaction to some heavy tunes on a Saturday night. Sauchiehall Street was heaving with revellers as we left. Right outside the club, we witnessed an altercation between some Asian youths, resulting one getting his windscreen smashed by a single blow of a fist; just another Saturday night. There were also a fair few smokers getting their desperate drag on; Scotland already has the public ban on smoking that England’s getting in May.
'MD with Ray Woods at The Crib, Glasgow' I only managed four hours’ sleep as the Edinburgh cancellation had forced me to re-book my flight home to 10am on Sunday. The temptation to sleep was strong once I’d reached home, but having been away from Wifey all weekend, I stayed awake and did my best to be an attentive husband. My regular session at G’s in Bicester occurred on Thursday 9th. I generally wind down with a vodka or two after these, as it’s imporssible to sleep straight after getting in. After eventually hitting the sack, I was up six hours later and heading into London for a day and night consisting of various activities. First off was a meeting with Bob, Bru and co. at Blues & Soul magazine’s offices in Paddington, which have always struck me as looking more like a back street abortionist’s than a publisher’s, (although the move next year to swanky new premises in Leicester Square will put paid to that!) Afterwards, I headed back to the in-laws’ in Northolt for a few hours’ work on the laptop and a good feed, before going back into town in the evening for my latest visit to Get Down at Bar Rumba.
'Get Down crew at Bar Rumba, London' This, in my view, has long been the best night in London for proper, underground urban music and a wild party spirit, and my feelings were echoed by the organisers of the Urban Music Awards that night, who gave Get Down the award for best club night. An understandably chuffed Sharma and crew arrived at 1am clutching the award in one hand and a bottle of champagne in the other, and it all went off. I played between sets by DJ Maurice, who tore it up. All in all a great night, and all the more impressive considering it was right in the heart of the West End, an area not generally renowned for its musical credibility! Also in the house was Umar, now a nightlife photographer, but who, along with Nic Regisford and Lionel Mullen, produced my first promotional video in 1999. He hasn’t seen it since then, so was impressed when I handed him a copy of my latest DVD, which includes the vintage video as a bonus feature. Up on Saturday night was a return to The River Bar in Bristol. Although this joint lacks the buzz and vibe that you get at clubs, it’s a good experience, as I get to play quality revivals that it would be impossible to get away with in a club environment at peak-time on a Saturday. Along with the 80s grooves and new jack swing stuff that I’ve spun on previous occasions, this time I peppered my set with a few 90s reggae and ragga revivals for good measure.
'MD at The River Bar, Bristol' On Tuesday 14th, I headed off to Istanbul for a couple of days. This marked my first visit to Turkey, but wasn’t for a gig. I had a company interview to do for one of the business magazines I’m occasionally called on to write for. I flew out of Heathrow via Swiss airlines, which involved transitting via Zurich both ways. While this added travel time, it did enable me to get a hell of a lot of catch-up work done on the laptop, and I still wonder how I ever coped with life before I had one. The recent security arrangements at UK airports have forced me to rethink the way I pack my hand luggage. I now carry just CDs for overseas gigs, and a wallet can be conveniently fitted into a carry-on case to save the need to check anything in. The complication has been the recent ban on liquids and pastes, which has forced me to buy things like toothpaste and deodorant when I arrive at my destination, then throw them away before coming home – not the greatest economical arrangement. The rulings have now been relaxed slightly, but only bottles of 100ml or less can be taken as hand luggage. Thankfully, I have a large stash of toiletries lifted from hotel rooms around the world in my bathroom, and these now come in very handy!
'Istanbul'
In the Zurich Airport lounge, I was surrounded by what was clearly a US rap crew on tour, who stood out like a sore thumb. Sadly, I didn’t recognise them, and I would have felt like a plum asking who they were, so I remained in the dark! Being the point where Europe meets Asia, Istanbul represented a fascinating mix of cultures, evident in the architecture more than anywhere. I took a boat cruise on the Bosphorus, which allowed some wicked photo opportunities of mosques and palaces. The city’s evidently got a thriving nightlife scene, too – and not just belly dancers shaking it in the harems either. Back home, Thursday consisted of G’s in Bicester, a gig which it’s very hard to think of ways to describe after two and a half years in the spot! On Friday 17th, I made a return visit to the Sintillate night at CC Club, right next to London’s Leicester Square. I’d played this one in August, and remembered being impressed that it wasn’t prone to the usual West End tourist trap cheesy crap syndrome. I played the 1.30 to 3.30am set, and sure enough, it didn’t disappoint. I found myself being able to play pretty much what I wanted to a fairly receptive crowd.
'MD DJing' I had unexpected leisure time for the rest of the weekend. With nothing in the diary for Saturday, the missus and I went to see ‘Casino Royale’, surely the most hyped film of the past five years, at the big multiplex in Harrow. Without launching into a full review I’ll just say, as a lifelong James Bond fan, this is very possibly the best film made since ‘From Russia With Love’, and Daniel Craig’s performance must be making all the doubters and sceptics that had slated him feeling rather foolish. Absolutely incredible. We had Sunday to ourselves too, following another cancellation, this time of Wayne C. McDonald’s Source night at Venue in Newcastle. Wayne had called to explain that the club manager had apparently walked out in a dispute, and that the night had suffered as a result. It saved me a long journey, but I’d been really looking forward to playing the event. Ah well. That’s clubland.
'MD and JP at Teatro, London' For the third Friday running, I headed into central London the following night. Like the previous two outings, my gig for Play at Teatro in Shaftesbury Avenue was a strong and fulfilling one, a far cry from many alternative experiences of playing in the capital’s tourist trap area. Parveen came along for a night out, and on after me was London veteran JP, who had us jigging up to the likes of Eric Gable’s ‘Process Of Elimination’ and Wrecks N Effect’s ‘Rump Shaker’ before we decided we’d better hit the road home. Most hilarious moment of the night was when JP dropped the opening bars to Lord Tariq’s ‘Uptown (Déjà Vu), making all the girls whoop with delight thinking they were about to hear Shakira’s ‘Hips Don’t Lie’. The look on their faces when the rap kicked in instead was priceless! I made a decision to declare The Bridge in Oxford a Shakira-free zone the following night. The principle applied to all other horrible cheesy tunes people try and force me to play, too. Just for once, I decided to have a night where I played tunes that I wanted to hear. These were tunes that I figured the crowd would as well, of course. I was just trying to avoid being dictated to by lowest-common-denominator requests. You know what? It worked well, and it resulted in a fairly satisfying night as a result. The month ended with another G’s session on Thursday 30th, and owner George predicting ‘we‘re in for a busy one tonight.’ Sure enough, within ten minutes the place was rammed. George’s response was, I’ve been in this job too long – last payday before Christmas. Never fails.’ He was absolutely right. … and that was November. Diary Archive 2007 2006 2005
|
|||
|
|||
|
|||
