From: Simon Haggis
Message:
dave anderson
> luca:
> > how'd your gig go dave?
>
> Wierd - good - I think. The two other DJs were also guests, and so I
> think (particularly with the 2nd one) they wanted to impress, which
> didn't leave me much room as it was pretty intense when I took over
funny you should say that, especially after what we were talking about
on here about warming up a little while ago.
I had a gig in italy this weekend and was really looking forward to it
as never played there before.
the weekend started to go pear shaped on friday night as had an argument
with the girlfriend so got to bed pretty late after being turfed out
with all my stuff in carrier bags and kipping round my friends house. so
a bit knackered when the cab turned up for the airport at 10am. cut a
long journey short I didn't get to pisa til 11pm as my connecting flight
was cancelled due to fog and I had to catch a bus from milan which took
5 hrs. nice.
was met from the bus and had some wicked food with a couple of crazy
italians who could only really say 'fish', 'piccadilly' and 'well'. made
for an interesting meal trying to explain how I like italian football
and I've never been to the san siro, but they smiled a lot and kept
offering me lemon liquor things which I politely declined after the first.
so, onto the club for a quick look then crashed out in the hotel for
half an hour before being picked up at 1.30, due on at 2 and playing til
5. so at 2 it's a nice full club, 500 odd people (more of the odd
later), chunky non descript house being played, the owner is djing and
doing a good job of warming up and I'm thinking this should be good as I
can take it somewhere from here. so pulled my first record out the bag
and after a bit of confusion the owner eventually managed to make clear
he wanted to put the other resident on, I'd play from 3. hmm.
so I say fair enough, he's the owner so he can do what he likes I spose.
but the next guy proceeds in playing increasingly hard, noisy,
progressive house music and over the next hour I watched people jump up
and down for a bit and then just sort of stop and drift about. by 3am
the room was blacked out, one strobe on and the system completely
cranked up and mental music blaring out. bollocks.
bearing in mind I would probably describe my style as being somewhat
more soulful I thought I might be in for quite a difficult time by this point!!!
still, as I put my first record on I still thought it might be ok as
they didn't seem into the harder stuff and I'd been booked cos of what I
play so surely it'd probably be ok?
I don't really have anything hard (jaguar is probably it) but I do have
some techy bits and some tougher things for such occassions and strung
it out pretty well I thought, played a few of the more soulful bits a
little later on and kept things just about going ok. the gay lot were
into it, some girls were loving it, and the trannys were going for it,
but half the crowd were looking at me like I was playing the spoons. I
knew it wasn't really going to happen when I played the strings of life
and there was no reaction whatsoever. bearing in mind the release of
that is one of the reasons they asked me to play, at that point I just
thought, 'oh buggar' and started wondering if they had any marmite at
the hotel for breakfast.
given the way the night had progressed I wasn't really into it myself as
I would have expected lisa lashes to come on after the other guy, rather
than some bloke who ideally likes to play a bit of afrobeat every now
and then. so after an hour and a half of me thinking what am I doing
here, the owner came back up to the booth and said the other guy will
play now.
I say fair enough thinking I guess he knows the music they want and he
comes back on. and then the place is emptying two records later, another
10 minutes and theres 9 people left.
so I'm thinking oh bollocks that really didn't go well but the owner
tells me he really liked my music and would I go back?!!! totally confused.
I've played in places where people have obviously never heard the type
of music I like to play but it's not that hard to work out what they
might go for over half an hour or so and adapt. but this was the
weirdest night I've ever played at. no idea what they really wanted to
hear but the programming of music spoilt the evening.
the highlight for me was a load of 7 foot trannsexuals/transvestites, as
they all insisted on coming up to the booth after I played and making a
big show of embarassing the fuck out of me by dancing round and kissing
me while I had to play the game of 'girl or boy' with the promoter who
wouldn't stop fucking laughing at me the fucking bastard : )
cheers, simon
