Just How Good Was Friday?

The last couple of Dark Matter nights had been pretty quiet, especially July.  I had put it down to the time of year – no students around, holiday/festival season and the warm weather not enticing people to basements.

All of these factors were still in place last Friday so I expected another quiet night.

I was less prepared than ever.  I had a load of boxes behind my decks so couldn’t be bothered to move them for practice, not to mention my free time was required for cleaning my old house last Friday, prior to DJing.  I had no broadband still so couldn’t download the new tunes from the last couple of months of tube-digging.

And then the warm-up DJ didn’t turn up so I went on for the first hour, except I mostly only had house music with me.  I did have a few minimal CDs but ended up playing quite a few tracks I’d played before – a couple of shaky mixes too.  I did slowly get into it and something seemed rather odd – despite having initially cleared the room of the 10 people I found upon arrival, people were coming downstairs and staying.  Despite my minimal.  And many of them were pretty young ladies too.

It isn’t a party unless you have gays, blacks and hot women.  Fact.  All boxes were ticked by 11pm.

I had quite a few people talk to me whilst DJing, including some cute eastern European girls who were in a nice way asking for something they could dance to.  I asked them in a nice way to be patient.  They left.

I also had an exceptionally pretty, tall blonde girl come up to me and ask “Can I dance with you?”.  Well, of course I mumbled in a why the fuck is she dancing with me kind of way.  I appreciate I am brilliant and beautiful but I have limits.  Then I clocked on that she was just trying to make her boyfriend jealous so I quickly high-fived him.

Towards midnight, Samantha and Bowler came on and did an unplanned back-to-back which was really quite excellent.  They crowd loved it, the cute eastern European girls came back, Sam and Bowler pushed it more in a techno direction than I think anyone else has done for us (we are not talking Surgeon/Perc kind of techno but ballsy enough) and it stayed busy.  Until it got too hot.

Ahhhh, the bain of my life.  Yes the fucking air conditioning stopped working.  After 10 minutes we eventually found a manager to come and take a look and it came back on.  The crowd was probably a third of what it was previously but it soon built back up and became busy again.

Myself and Martin then did a back-to-back to bring it to a close, with an unexpected cameo from Pete Wheeler and it remained reasonably busy, though I didn’t really have much in the way of tough music to play, and there was no way I was going to play house music at the 129pm which I inherited, so I felt that I had to bring down the pace.  Again I was unprepared and ended up playing tracks I’d played before.

It definitely wasn’t my best set, it was just good enough, but the night itself was my favourite so far, I enjoyed it a heck of a lot, and it was exciting to see how busy it was.

I was actually quite touched at the end when a very cute Polish girl came up to me and said how surprised she was that we played that kind of music here, that she hardly ever gets to go out and how much it meant to her.  That is why I love DJing.

I cannot wait for the next one – I hope you are going to join us.

I Cannot Think Of A Title For This Superstar DJ Update

I was back in my favoured warm-up slot on Friday night.  Why is it favoured?

Because I can play my favourite music.

So I started off which some melancholic dub techno, at quite a slow BPM, I think it was around 118bpm.  Far too underground for most people but considering there were about 6 people there, it seemed mood-settingly appropriate.

30 minutes later, despite there being just a couple of dozen people there, one lady kept asking me if I could play something banging, just for her.  Or some jungle.  I deflected her requests but I did relent and progressed smoothly into deep house – the gorgeous sunshine-filled deep house, not the anti-deep house of the charts.

As the second hour of my set commenced, I changed track into playing minimal, but quite twisted minimal – definitely tracks you could dance to.

It was filling up nicely by time midnight approached, and I played increasingly dancefloor-friendly yet still underground tracks, and finished off on this beauty, it still sounds so good.

Musically I think it was the cleverest set I have played live.  There was little planning, as usual I had practiced my first two tracks and little else.  Though there were more slightly-off mixes than I would have preferred, and one mix that just sounded awful.  Every month I say it, I need to practice more.  I spend more time DJing live then practicing.

A wise man one said you can only become an expert at something with 10,000 hours practice.  Maybe I am at 300 hours in total.

The night itself went really well, with two masterful DJ sets that followed me.  And it stayed busy right until the end, people kept dancing.  I am hoping this is a sign that word is spreading of the night as it seemed busier than the rest of the Turtle.

Next up we have the charming Terri headlining on Friday 19th June.  Otherwise known as TAB.  There are a couple of items on the agenda in the coming months that could be very special if they come off, but you won’t hear anything from me until and if they are confirmed.

I will also be recording a house mix too.

Exciting News!

I have exciting news.  I have a DJ residency!

I will be playing on a monthly basis at the Dark Matter Presents night, on the 3rd Friday of every month in the basement of the Purple Turtle.

This is like a dream for me, to have my own residency, once a month, where I can play to a crowd of regulars, playing new and old music that I spend several hours every day discovering and hopefully being an integral part of what I believe will be a successful night.

It means I have opportunity to play all the types of music that I enjoy – from minimal/underground house, to full-on techno, chunky house, deep trance, proper deep house, disco and electro.  Different set times should give me the chance to try different music styles, and hopefully some back-to-backs with Martin & JP.  It's going to be a hell of a lot of fun.

To be a part of something is far more rewarding than just playing an hour for a random promoter.  I really do feel the night will be a success, and will be talked about.  It does have a really good feel down there and of course, is delightfully free to get into.

It means when someone asks me when I am next DJing, I can say “3rd Friday of the month – come down, it’s free entry!”.  I have something to sell to people.

The first one is Friday 20th February.

I said that I wanted to do one set a month this year and this suits me perfectly.  I don’t want to be doing random hour-long sets in the garden of Zeus in the middle of winter for 2 drink tokens where I subsequently end up spending £50, not to mention the time spent downloading music, burning CDs and the fuckers that stole my headphones – twice.

I am going to be much more choosy in the sets I accept.  I don’t need to do the two drink token sets any more – I will still occasionally do one but only if there is something really appealing about it.

On that basis I agreed to play for AudioEdge on 14th March.  I think I have the last set in the garden – and will be playing for more than an hour.  Which I like – hour sets are pointless – how can you build an atmosphere in an hour?  Other than playing big tunes – which I don’t always want to do.

Plus the night has good headliners in Eli & Fur, it should be busy and I simply think I will enjoy the night.

See you on 20th February.  You know it makes sense.