Gigs

3 Way Mix practice session

I just spent Sunday in Bristol continuing rehearsal work on the 3-Way Mix that DJs Cheeba, Moneyshot and I will be premiering in Paris on Nov 16th at the Solid Steel 25th anniversary gig at La Bellevilloise. This is a 90 minute version of last years ‘Caught in The Middle of a 3-Way Mix’ tribute to The Beastie Boys‘ ‘Paul’s Boutique’ album, made from all the original samples, acappellas and more.

We’ll also be performing it at the London Solid Steel gig at Fire on Dec 6th and taking it to Australia in February next year. Anyone wishing to book us please contact Ben Coghill at Elastic Artists.

Posted in DJ Food, Gigs, Mixes/Solid Steel. | 2 Comments |

Solid Steel 25: new website and extra London guests

The Solid Steel website has had a makeover to include a 25th guest mix playlist and the ability to step back in time to older playlists and mixes. We’ve also just announced two extra guests for the London party at Fire on December 6th.

Not only will Mr Scruff be joining Illum Sphere for a 4 hour back to back vinyl session but we’ll have Four Tet headlining the main room! Very excited to add both of these excellent DJs to the line up, Scruff recorded his own Solid Steel mix nearly 10 years ago and Kieran was our first guest at the London residency of our club night in 2004. Get tickets here...

Four Tet will also be taking over the whole show this Friday Nov 1st – something no guest has ever done before – for a 2 hour mix of exclusive DJ edits.

Posted in Gigs, Openmind designs, Poster / flyer, Solid Steel. | 1 Comment |

Paul’s Boutique live set debuts at Solid Steel 25, Paris

In 4 weeks time myself, DJ Cheeba & DJ Moneyshot debut a live 4 deck version of our reversion of the Beastie Boys‘ Paul’s Boutique album. Subtitled ‘Caught In The Middle of a 3-Way Mix’ we’ll be premiering it at La Bellevilloise in Paris on November 16th alongside DK and the 2013 DMC team winners, DJ Deska, Mr Viktor and Hertz.

We’ll be reprising it at the London Solid Steel at Fire on December 6th and then taking it to Australia in February 2014. Anyone interested in booking the show please contact Ben Coghill at Elastic Artists.

Posted in DJ Food, Gigs, Mixes/Solid Steel, Solid Steel. | No Comments |

DJ Food In:Motion mix on Solid Steel

A week to go until our gig in Bristol supporting DJ Shadow at the city’s official Solid Steel 25th anniversary date. Myself and DK will be joining Coldcut, DJ Cheeba and special guest Benji B to rip it up at Motion on October 11th.

For this I’ve put together a more dance floor friendly mix of releases than some of my recent offerings, taking in Mark Pritchard,  Machine Drum, Om Unit, Reso and Drums of Death – the last three all of whom have appeared on the excellent Civil Music label who also have a room at the Motion gig too.

Posted in DJ Food, Gigs, Mixes/Solid Steel, Solid Steel. | No Comments |

Big Fish Little Fish – Sept 21st, Brixton, London

This is pretty different to what I usually do but I like a challenge and this will be a lot of fun – the clubbing experience with kids in the mix (no pun intended). Saturday afternoon Sept 21st I’ll be playing some classics at Big Fish Little Fish, a new event (can’t call it a ‘night’ on account of it starting at 2pm) aimed at parents who want to bring a bit of the rave to the kid’s party. ‘2-4 Hour Party People’ is one of the best taglines I’ve seen in a while. Find more info about events here.

Posted in DJ Food, Gigs. | 1 Comment |

DJ Shadow / Solid Steel 25th at Motion in Bristol

Very proud to be on this line up for our Solid Steel 25th anniversary gig in Bristol, first time sharing a bill with Shadow, another one ticked off the list.

There are also many more on the line up, not sure why they couldn’t fit them on the flyer? In the Civil Music room there’s: Om Unit, Débruit (live), Reso, Brassica (live) and Civil Music DJs. In the Inflect room there’ll be: EAN, Adam Elemental, Wascal, Daffy and Kensei
Get tickets here.

Posted in DJ Food, Gigs, Solid Steel. | No Comments |

Solid Steel 25th Anniversary Party (London)

This promises to be a pretty unique event, you’re not going to get a line up like this every day. Even more so once the Very Special Guests (3 in total) are announced. The end of the 25th year will be seen out in style and Cheeba, Moneyshot and I will attempt to recreate the Paul’s Boutique mix we put together last year.

Tickets can be bought here and we should be announcing similar events in Bristol and Paris very soon.

Posted in DJ Food, Gigs, Solid Steel. | No Comments |

Solid Steel line up T-shirt 2004

Just found this, the special T-shirt we made after the first year of the Solid Steel night at Ruby Lo to thank everyone who played. Ruby Lo (short for Ruby Lounge) was a basement bar in London’s West End near Bond Street, down a side street by Selfridges. DK and I were the residents each month, the night was only £3 but we didn’t announce who was playing, you had to trust that we’d get decent guests. We really wanted to do a residency at a place where it was intimate, had seating and a DJ booth on the floor rather than a stage. As it turned out, the booth was in the middle of everything with a dancefloor on one side and seating directly behind so we were virtually in the round.

What a line up, 2005 was just as good, I need to find that list too. It would fill up with after work drinkers early on but they would clear out by about 9pm and our crowd would come down to see the set list pinned to the wall with who would be playing. I’m pretty sure this was Diplo‘s first ever London DJ appearance, he was playing Fabric the next night and we only got him because he wasn’t announced. For Luke Vibert‘s appearance he bought Aphex with him and for the December resident set DK and I gave away every record we played after we’d finished with it (pre-Serato days).

Posted in DJ Food, Gigs, Solid Steel. | 4 Comments |

Photos from A Few Old Tunes last night

Photos by Emma Gutteridge from last night’s Boards of Canada-inspired do, ‘A Few Old Tunes’.
A great time was had by all, the atmosphere was relaxed, unhurried, the DJ booth set up shambolic at times, people drank and chatted, some even danced. A hell of a lot of great music was played with enough decent visuals to draw attention away from the fact that we were in a very basic bar in the middle of Shoreditch.
Of the four of us playing, Mach V, Tom Central, Josh Posthuman and myself, there were absolutely no expectations, no money involved and no idea how it would be received. Which is what made it so nice when people turned up and stayed, some until 2am, and packed the place out with smiles and familiar faces everywhere. Some had come quite far, I heard of people trekking from Oxford and Kent, one guy was in town with friends from the West Coast too. Complete ambiance and spoken word skits were dropped in the middle of the dance floor and no one batted an eyelid, there were no requests for Daft Punk and it was one of the most enjoyable London gigs I can remember since the old Solid Steel days at Ruby Lo.

Posted in Gigs, Photography. | 7 Comments |

BOC-themed ‘A Few Old Tunes’ night in London

To celebrate the release of the new Boards of Canada album and – purely because Josh from Posthuman and I would really love a space to play their kind of music all night long – we bring you ‘A Few Old Tunes’. We’ll be joined on the decks by Tom Central from Keep Up! and Mark Van der Vord on visuals.

The premise is simple: occupy the upstairs room of Catch on June 20th for a night of music and film by or inspired by Boards of Canada. Don’t worry, it won’t be back to back BOC, we want this to be more than a 1 band love-in. Expect plenty of Ghost Box, electronica and hauntological material with a fine set of suitably degraded visuals to go with it.

Posted in DJ Food, Film, Gigs. | No Comments |

Adam Ant last night at the Roundhouse

Last night I finally got to see Adam Ant and his current band, The Good The Mad and the Lovely Posse. Having been a fan since I was 11 it was a long time coming after a couple of, ‘shall I? shan’t I?‘ moments over the years. Playing at the Roundhouse in London, somewhere he’d last played virtually 35 years to the day previously, it saw Adam back in fine style after his mental health problems. It was also an incredible feat seeing as he restarted his career only a few years ago, playing in tiny clubs and slowly rebuilding his rep.

The set was a perfect balance of old and new, hits and b-sides, with no song outstaying its welcome. Even the new material, a disappointing return largely down to bad production and the almost demo-like quality of some of the songs, fitted in perfectly. Favourites from his post punk, Dirk Wears White Sox era made up at least a third of the set with B-sides like Lady, Red Scab and Fall Out all received as rapturously as the ‘hits’. Well recommended if you have a passing interest, essential if you’re a fan. I was hesitant to go initially – what if he sucked? I didn’t want a childhood hero rendered a cabaret act. But it didn’t come to that and was an exhilarating experience.

Below are a series of vintage gig and tour posters from the late 70’s procured from various corners of the web. I love the way certain letters run out and are replaced, check the ‘2’s on the Zerox Tour poster dates and the ‘z’ made from two ‘v’s on the January 1st one.



Moonlight Club upgrade

Posted in Gigs. | 4 Comments |