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September
2005
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One of the best aspects of a travelling DJ’s lifestyle is the opportunities it brings to combine business with leisure. A classic example occurred at the start of September as I set off on one of my mammoth six-day road trips to Scotland. This was technically a holiday for myself and Mrs. D, but the opportunity arose to take in four club gigs during the course of the itinerary, so I actually ended up spending more nights working than I did chilling! With us on the trip was Parveen’s Mum. Admittedly, it’s not particularly gangster to go on holiday with your Mother-In-Law. Mine is very cool, however, and we all got on very well during the 1,600 miles I piled on to my Bima. My only criticism is that the enforced fag breaks I had to make for her probably added about five hours’ worth of unnecessary delays to the schedule! My first Scottish gig was on Friday 2nd, but before we could set off, I had to get my G’s Bicester session out of the way on Thursday night. To save hitting the M40 traffic in the morning, Parveen and myself set off to Mum-in-Law Otti’s place in Middlesex immediately after the gig at 2.30am, and after far too little sleep, embarked on the long trek Northwards about seven hours later. Although I drive around 35,000 miles a year, the vast majority of these are done in the nightime hours, where you’re free of accidents, slow old fart drivers and general traffic bullshit, and can blaze happily in good time. I generally avoid the roads on a Friday daytime like the plague, but on this occasion we were left with no choice, and we finally drew up in the West Coast town of Ayr after 8pm on Friday night.
'MD at Club De Mar' The gig was another one at Club De Mar, the town’s main nightspot, and pretty much the only venue in Scotland that’s booking big-name urban DJs like Westwood, Shortee Blitz, Ronnie Herel and G Child on a regular basis. Parveen was pretty tired and wanted to come clubbing the two following nights, so stayed at the hotel for this one. I’d last played a Saturday there in June. The Friday crowd in Room Red was slightly more up-for-it, and it was a good way to start the long weekend. Although we’d struck lucky by being booked into Ayr’s smart Ellisland Hotel, Saturday could have started better. Over breakfast, the hotel staff advised that the electrics on my car had got messed up, with the alarm going off intermittently and the windows coming down of their own accord. Booking it into a garage for a serious overhaul became a major priority on our return! After re-visiting the country hotel in New Cumnock where we’d got engaged at Christmas 2001, we headed to our next hotel in Falkirk, ahead of the night’s gig in Glasgow. Glasgow and Edinburgh couldn’t be more different architecturally, culturally and layout-wise, and the congestion and general chaos of the former isn’t to everyone’s taste. One thing Glasgow has in its favour, however, is that people know how to party, and it’s virtually impossible for any Saturday night session there to be anything short of electrifying. This was the case at Blanket, (formerly known as The Velvet Rooms,) where I joined local legend and all-round top bloke Ray Woods in the main one of the club’s four rooms.
'Punters at Blanket, Glasgow'
I managed to avoid all obvious hits, instead dropping new heat and general heavy tunes to a hugely appreciative crowd. A vicious fight right next to the DJ booth interrupted the flow for a couple of minutes, but otherwise, this rates as one of my most fulfilling UK gigs of 2005. Good to meet Glasgow rapper Nafees in the place.
'Massa, Edinburgh'
The long weekend rounded off over in Edinburgh. Sunday night clubbing is part of the social culture in Scotland, and Flava at Massa was predictably firing all the way to 3am. I only got to play for just over an hour, which was disappointing, but otherwise, everything was first class. The weekend marked the end of the month-long Edinburgh Festival, with a huge fireworks display from the castle, and the promoters worried this might disrupt the night’s attendance. Happily it didn’t. We finally got two full days and nights off on Monday and Tuesday, aqnd headed all the way up into the Highlands, taking in places like Pitlochry, Aviemore, Inverness and Loch Ness, finishing with a night in a 17th century coaching inn near Glencoe, and getting attacked by a swarm of bloodthirsty midges, Scotland’s answer to mosquitos.
'Middle of Nowhere, Scotland'
By Wednesday 7th, we’d descended back into England – but not far. We were in the Lake District, ready to play DJ Bligeness’ Block Party gig at The Wheelhouse, on the shores of Lake Windermere. On first impressions, this would seem like a pretty unlikely setting for one of the heaviest urban music parties in the UK – particularly midweek. But some intensive promotional work from Bligeness, combined with the fact that the night attracts a large Jamaican contingent who work in the many hotels in the area, ensures things are kept at fever pitch.
'MD & Bligeness at Wheelhouse'
Sure enough, the night was off the meter, and I crammed as much reggae dancehall into my two-hour set as possible. There was a South African crew in the house, too, some of whom had seen me perform at Who Zoo in Johannesburg. Parveen’s Mum actually attended this one, making me possibly the first DJ in the UK to take his mother-in-law to a club gig! As with all the Scottish nights, Parveen took a great selection of photos, all of which will be indexed and posted in the Gallery section of the site very soon, if they’re not already. An obscene amount of motorway bullshit meant Thursday’s journey home took hours longer than it should. While Parveen headed back to London, I stayed in Bicester ahead of another obligatory appearance at G’s. The remoteness of Scotland meant that I’d not checked my e-mails for five days, which is about as long as I’ve ever left it. As a result, there were well over 200 to catch up with on Friday, including my weekly bunch of exclusive MP3s from DJ Drastic in New York, as well as 30 or so vinyl/ CD promo packages in the mail. After an attempted power nap, I set off on another ambitious road trip – the return 360-mile journey to Wales for my regular session at Crobar, Swansea. My departure coincided with a thunderstorm about as violent as the UK ever gets, and this clearly had its effect on clubbing numbers. As a result, Craig at Crobar opted to close an hour early at 2am, giving me the luxury of being back in bed as early as 5! A very hectic week of travelling continued on Saturday as I set off to Norway, on an SAS Airlines flight out of Gatwick. I’d played Oslo and the Quart Festival in Kristiansand before, but this was my first time in the West Coast city of Bergen.
'Bergen'
Although it’s Norway’s second largest city after Oslo, Bergen’s only the size of the average large UK town. Landscape-wise, it’s flanked by mountains and lakes quite similar to Scotland, which is only a short distance directly across the North Sea. Once settled at my hotel, I hooked up with local hip hop DJ Tommy Berg who took me on a whistle-stop tour of some of the town’s clubs. I was shocked to find them all virtually empty despite the fact that it was well after midnight. Norway ranks as possibly the most expensive country in the world, and this is as evident in alcohol prices as anywhere else, (although their fuel prices still aren’t quite as extortionate as in the UK!) As a result, people tend to get hammered in pubs before going on to more expensively-priced clubs, so it’s well after 1am before they fill out, and they’re all required by law to finish at 3. In addition, Norway has recently subscribed to the public place smoking ban, which doesn’t appear to have gone down too well. Venue wasn’t rammed, but there was a good quality of animated party people in the place for my 90-minute set, and everyone went home with a smile on their face.
'Lunchtime in Bergen'
I went on a walking tour of the city on Sunday, where the menu boards offered such delicacies as reindeer and elk, and whale steaks – none of which were of much interest to me as a vegetarian. On my flight home, it occurred to me that this was the second September 11th since 2001 where I’d found myself flying. Never a settling thought, particularly as the cockpit door was left wide open for most of the flight! Having worked for eight of the ten previous nights, the eventual relaxing night in with the wife was a very welcome end to the week. I rolled up to Graze in Maida Vale, London on Wednesday 14th, knowing to expect an upmarket, classy kind of spot. What I didn’t realise was that it’s basically an a la carte restaurant that plays music to its clientele as they sit at the bar and digest their food. This being the case, a laid-back soulful set was clearly called for. A short while in, I was surprised to see a waitress come up to the booth with a list of requests that diners had asked her to deliver, which made me feel more like a chef than a DJ. I played two sets between 9pm and just after midnight, giving me about the earliest finish I’ve ever known for a night’s work. I lodged at the in-laws’ in Middlesex, giving me an opportunity to head back into London the following morning to handle some business. G’s in Bicester on Thursday was memorable only for receiving a lapdance in exchange for a tune I was planning to play anyway. Which is always nice. I was anticipating trouble in my journey to Crobar in Swansea on Friday when I heard that a convoy of fuel protesters had been making a slow plod along the M4 in South Wales. Fortunately, it was out of the way before I hit the area. I’m all for crying out about the scandalous government duty we pay for fuel in this country, but I really don’t see how actions like this help in any way. They just screw up innocent people who are trying to go about their business! The weekend rounded off with The Bridge in Oxford on Saturday, providing cover for DJ Danny Love ahead of my regular slot there the following week.
'Bridge crowd'
Wednesday 21st saw me heading back to Scandinavia. This was a very quick visit to Gothenburg, Sweden, flying out and back the same day. The trip involved conducting an interview for a business magazine I occasionally freelance for. For some bizarre reason, Sweden is one of the leading world markets for reggae music, although I saw little evidence of it in Gothenburg.
'Gothenburg, Sweden' I did find a store selling hip hop fashion brands
like G-Unit, Sean John, Snoop, Roc A Wear, etc
at what seemed to be highly reasonable prices … unless they
were knock-offs?!
'MD at Bad Apple'
That night was one I’d been eagerly anticipating – the
launch of the new season of Bad Apple at Three in Bristol,
and the start of my new fortnightly residency there. Bad Apple
has easily the most innovative music format of any of the nights
I play – it focuses strictly on the urban music output of
New York, and I always ensure my sets consist solely of artists
from the city. It’s harder than it sounds. That means no
crunk/ Dirty South, no Dre, Snoop, R Kelly,
Usher, Pharrell, Destiny’s Child, no reggae dancehall… It’s
a challenge I always welcome, though. Added to that, I’d
been specifically asked to deliver a DJ Premier showcase
tonight, a quickfire selection of all his classic beats, heavily
inspired by Beatmasters mix on the ‘Unleash’ CD
earlier this year. Friday 23rd at Crobar,
Swansea was a routine affair, the most memorable part
being another of those classic girlie request moments. This time,
I was playing Donell Jones ‘You Know
What’s Up’ when a girl came up to My regular end-of-month session at The Bridge in Oxford the following night ended up being one of my best experiences there of the past five years! It’s impossible to predict when one of these is going to come along, and hard to put your finger on exactly why all the right factors came together, but everything was right. The roar of energy when I dropped ‘Welcome To Jamrock’ was truly incredible, and one of those real special DJ moments. It took a good couple of hours unwinding in front of the TV with a nightcap before the buzz had worn off sufficiently for me to go to bed!
'MD & Chris Goldfinger'
There was one more late night on the
cards before the weekend was out. Sunday 25th saw
a visit by Radio One’s reggae master Chris
Goldfinger to The Park End Club in Oxford,
and despite the fact I could have done with an early night, it
was too good an opportunity to miss, so I hooked up with PEC
resident Junior J to check it out. There was a hardcore
reggae dancehall crowd in attendance, making for great vibes, and
re-confirming reggae’s ability to appeal to both male and
female The last weekend of September was to have involved my tenth DJing visit to South Africa, but the combination of my agent there being on a pan-African tour, and the club contacts being entirely non-commmital, forced me to abandon the trip and trade in my plane ticket a couple of weeks before, so a hastily re-arranged weekend of UK gigs was put together in its place. This began with G’s in Bicester on Thursday. It started as a positive night, with a group of women passing through who’d gone to check Chris Goldfinger in Banbury, only to find out on arrival that the gig had been cancelled. Naturally, they were still in the mood to hear some reggae, so I was happy to oblige. The night quickly took on negative vibes, however, when a supremely ignorant and uncultured piece of white trash approached the booth to say, ‘can’t you play anything decent? This is all coon music, ennit?’ That these levels of ignorance can still exist in 2005 utterly astounds me, and I didn’t bother concealing my disgust for this worthless racist piece of shit. I just wish he’d made the comment to either of the two black security guys on duty, but of course he wouldn’t dare. The month wound up with Crobar in Swansea on Friday 30th. This is my last session there for a couple of weeks, owing to Hed Kandi and drum and bass events being booked for the next two Fridays. And that was September! Diary Archive 2007 2006 2005
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