So then, it was a busy weekend for the Newbury based promoters and punters alike with an unprecedented amount of partying going down over the weekend in town. On Saturday night there was no less than three parties going on across the Canal Bar (which was the best ;P ), The Beach party in the Bricklayers and the Hardcore night in the Berkshire Arms.
Let's start with Friday night when I headed over to the Purple Turtle in Reading, with the lads from work. DJ Lokki was up first but I had to go to a birthday party in the evening so I completely missed his set, he said it was cool though so I'm sure it was all good. Me an Magma rocked up in the club at about midnight just when Basement Phil was finishing off his set, he played some wicked old bits mostly from his label Basement Records and I wish I had got their a bit earlier to catch more of it, but being the slave to public transport that I am means this kind of thing is a regular occurrence (i.e. being late and missing good stuff...). Next up was Bongo Odyssey spinning a bit of deeper dnb and moving things on a bit. He played some nice tunes, a few of which I was planning on drawing too which made him chuckle when i berated him for it - also watch out Newbury crew as he will be coming to do a set in the Canal Bar next Bank Holiday weekend. The crowd were loving it by this point and Mc Macular had also arrived to bolster the line up with some rapid fire lyrics. Soon come 2am an Magma alongside myself stepped up for a two hour back to back set, which was duly despatched in a hail of beats and blanket of bass wobble by the pair of us. Shouts to all who came along a represented, especially Wong Snoozle (or MC Sleepy as he may well be known) and Mayla the crazy French chick! Big up the Subfactory guys: Neil Mac and Greenfly for getting that all hooked up for us!
So onto Saturday, I got home at just after 5am on Friday night / Saturday morning and decided to smoke some weed while watching some new South Park episodes, ended up being proper daytime by the time I went to bed, which seemed to work as a perfect catalyst to encourage people to phone me up, and from 11am onwards my mobile was ringing hot, which was punctuating my mornings kippage so I wasn't too pleased. After advising people on numerous issues from Reading Beer Festival hints an tips right through to PC support, I eventually got out of bed at about half one and had to hurry to get ready for my set in the Bricklayers at 2pm. I made it on time with a fresh bag of vinyl, only to find I had to wait for Man-spanking-Utd to finish their ponceball match with Boro'. This meant my set got cut down from an hour to like 20 minutes, Pri was on next though and he just let me play on which I thought was cool of him so I ended up doin like 40 minutes worth of Funk and Soul to a virtually empty pub, the cats out by the bus stop outside were groovin on down though so I made at lest one old lady happy! Like I say Pri jumped on the decks when I bailed, and turned up the pressure a notch with his blend of hard house and psy-trance. Ratzi and Scriv were living up to their eighties Fun House ideology decked out in retina burning dayglo colours with Scriv even rocking the Reebok Pumps (fluorescent ones at that!). I had to jump ship shortly after finishing my set as I had to go sort out a few things for the Canal bar later that evening. Duly sorted I rocked back to the Brickies and was stunned to hear of Craig Marshall's tragic death the night before, which definitely cast a shadow over the remaining events of the day. Sincere condolences to Craig's family and girlfriend for their loss, may he rest in peace.
Despite the awful news the party went on, and I caught the last part of Library Boy's set as well as most of Phil Rumens breakz abuse and the first chunk of Jambo's arrival on the decks (he started with that Skream remix of La Roux and had everyone bopping from the off). Time was relentlessly passing an I had to get my next bag of tunes and set up shop in the Canal Bar, which was pretty busy before I even got started. I chucked on some souled out numbers to begin with including a few cuts off the supremely dope El Michels 'Enter the 37th Chamber' LP I picked up earlier in the week, before making a foray into a spot of old skool hip hop. DJ Stasha bowled in at about 10pm, took the vibe, rolled it up into fattie and lit it up for the rest of us, so before his first tune was over there was a bevy of heads skanking away. Shout outs to the girl dancing in the full on chicken suit, and Meera who was not afraid of showing people how to do a Proper forward roll - I promise I'll wheel one out next time! Stasha kept up the pressure for almost two hours before I jumped back on an finished the do off with some Jungle-ism which pleased some people but seemed to annoy the Hockey crew, who came an asked me to play eighties tunes instead... It's like me going along to one of their Hockey matches and asking them if the can play cricket cos Hockey bores the shit outta me... Always riles me when randoms do that, I simply don't understand it. Anyway so that went down I shut up shop and legged it back to the Bricklayers to catch the last set of the evening, my man SUP, who played a watered down version of his usual hard drum andbass sound but definately kept the vibe alive. I had time for a couple of beers then it was all over and I found myself back home, watching more south park episodes at 5am in the Morning! A Good Day all round except for the shit news we had heard, big up Mikey Deviant, Phill 3 Parts, Ratzi, Scriv, Stasha and all the other people I saw around or hung out with.
Sunday was now upon us and I was knackered so after spending most of the day in bed an checking out the football scores from Saturday (Spurs are gonna get into Europe!!) I dragged my ass down to the Tap for a spot of the drum and bass thing. DJ Skipa fresh from his set in the Brickies on Saturday night popped in a done a tight jump up flavoured blend to get our collective heads nodding before young Jobee stepped up and dropped a heavy set on us. He's still a bit rough round the edges but generally it was a good little mix bar the odd dropped beat here an there but he wasn't afraid to drop tunes in and marks another step in the right direction for the youngster. Next up came Magma ready to smash the place up with his trademark filthy jump up beats which were duly delivered exquisitly. The barmaid kept turning the lights on and off by this point which was sending everyone mental, after sitting around in the dark for about an hour, quite amusing. Then when Magma had done his thing I jumped on with a spot of Jungle (I bought my record box straight from the Canal bar so was armed with some serious tunes as well as the usual Dnb fare) and rolled that for about twenty minutes before upping the bpm with 'On The Run' by Shy FX and getting dirty from there in. All round I was pleased, an it was another big night - props to the dancing crew who were having it all night as well as Skipa for sorting the CDJ's and the MC's Rush n Smoothie for their chitter chatter.
Needless to say I done fuck all on Monday except watch shit on telly and do a massive pile of washing up - true R'n'R!
One
Labels: All Day Drinking, Bricklayers, Canal Bar, Drum n Bass, El Michels Affair, Funk, Hip Hop, Shy FX, Tap n Spile
