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john b robot drum & bass diary
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> USA Tour Dec 26th - Jan 7 - Photos and Stuff (Part 1) <
Just got back on Wednesday afternoon, and think I'm finally over the Jetlag - the last few days have been rather surreal in terms of sleep patterns and all that. I was falling asleep at 7pm and waking up in the middle of the night for a while... Probably to do with getting over the flu too. Anywayyyy - so it was a good trip, the first few days were pretty tiring, UK-Boston-Puerto Rico on the 26th, Puerto Rico-Boston-Toronto on the 27th, Toronto-Philadelphia on the 28th, etc etc. Puerto Rico was a good gig - a nice club I haven't played there before, more of a lounge-type affiar than normal - lots of cool people there, along with Victor, Greg, Carlos and a few Lovely Latin Ladies I already knew. The hotel was a bit mad - there was a casino downstairs, and something in my room beeped really loudly every 10 minutes, at first I thought it was an insect, or the TV, or an old alarm clock or something - then I deduced it was a low battery warning on the smoke alarm, so i climbed up on a table and dismantled it, at 5 in the morning, so as to avoid my 4 hour sleep window being interrupted. Weather was lovely there, but I wasn't around long enough to enjoy it, or to have one of the mighty Puerto Rican strip Steaks i ohhhh soooo love. Vowed to go back for a little holiday as soon as possible... Here's some pics... Had been awake for 24 hours at this point, and travelled about 5000 miles - confronted with legs like that. ARGggg.  General Melee  Greg, Victor & his Lovely Girlfriend 
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11.1.04 13:48
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> Toronto - 27th Dec <
Got to Toronto - still really pretty mashed - not enough sleep and mighty connections and delays at Boston Airport 1/2 way there. Been reading Howard Marks' "Mr. Nice" book though kept me going... I think I just got some zzzzs for an hour or 2 when I arrived in TO, then got to the club - met up with Dylan and Robyn from the UK, and my mate Detroit Ben, who'd driven 6 hours to be there with his crew. Had a good time hanging out with them and drinking vodka and tonics, I decided I needed some quinines. Was really great to see good friends while farrrrrr from home... Also met up with the Rinse magazine people John Tan & co - did some photos for the mag, and then briefly with Mr Tryan - but he was a bit distant - think he might be in league with my exx. In fact it was a bit wierd, some dude tried to give me a picture they had of me and her, but it wasn't him... bizarrreeee. Anyway, had a good time playing - crowd were great, the decks area was really dark though, I could hardly see what was going on - I had to use some Christmas tree lights they had for decoration to read the controls on the mixer and stuff. MadNesssss - but amuzinggg. I didn't manage to take any pics myself from there - but there are heaps at: DNB Nation John B PhotosHere's a few from there if u don't wanna linK... (thanks dnbnation.com for allowing the use!) Me & Clara L  DJing in mysterous Christmas lights  Canadian Dancing masssive  LookNoVinyL  Soooo yes, greetings to all I met in Toronto - seeee ya again sooooooon...
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11.1.04 14:01
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> Philly - DEc 28th <
Played a fab event in Philly on the 28th, put on by my US agent, Henry actually, so I gotta say that... Nice biiiiig club, that was normally a gay club actually, they had all the gay pride flags outside, and the barman was a supermuscleman - but his muscles unfortunately didn't help him to make drinks any faster... ;-) IT was a sorta awards ceremony for the Philly scene - so there were breaks in the sets for announcements and stuff - when i got told to fade out my music for the MC to announce stuff, he was completely oblivious, and it sounded like id jsut stopped the music for no reason cos he didnt say anything... DuRRRRRRRRRRR. had a wikkid time and really enjoyed my set. DJ Craze came on after me and smashhhed it - Mr Mason was on B4 me too, veryyy nice. Lots of cool people there that I knew pretty well already - my friend Sarah was back home for Xmas with her sister, Athena & her mate, who's name I've temporarily forgotten drove up from New York, Henry, Structure, Jessica from DC, Tasha from Tampa etc. Jolly good. Lots of mad hip hop people were hanging out at my hotel in big hummers and limos and stuff. I think Missy Elliot and her entourage were there, so I'm told. Duno what they made of us lot all rolling back with robot shades and laddered fishnets galore. HaH. I played a little free party at Moda, just a small Bar the day after, did an 80s set, which was a right laugh. I think Yazoo - Situation, the american 12" mix is my fave 80s track right now. BOH. Only got 2 pics from there, sorry. Might be some more at www.phillyjunglemassive.com eventually... Drinking a mighty Chocolate martini at the baR at Moda  RoBo DJing 80s at Moda 
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11.1.04 14:14
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> NEW YEARS EVE - Tampa <
The Tampa gig didn't go so well... I guess I should have recognised the signs when the guy that picked me up from the airport was wearing giant childrens bright green kermit the frog squishy slippers... I'll let the photos speak for themselves in a bit... Basically, the Tampa police had decided to do their best to stop the party - waited until 2 days before the event and revoked the license from the original venue on grounds of some drug paraphinalia they allegedly found there (apparently the roach from an old joint and an empty drug bag thing they found in the toilets - which you'd find probably in any bar in the country...). So, the kids organising the party tried to find new venues over the next day or 2 (although the idea of takign the yellow pages and calling all the clubs listed hadn't dawned on them until Me and Kit Mobly's girlfriend suggested it to them at the hotel when we were waiting for news at 6pm on the day of the event...)- to cut a long story short, it ended up in a bar/BBQ/Country & western type place - largely due to the mighty efforts of Liz, and I think the EM:DEF people... It was on a street in a little industrial estate where the only other buildings were brothels (apparently tolerated - while the 'rave' was being hassled ruthlessly). The sound system outside had blown before I even got there, so I ended up DJing on basically a Mobile DJ setup in the little bar inside - to avoid dissappointing all the people that had come, and driven the wild goose chase to find the new venue - at least they got to hear some DnB on NYE. I only played about an hour - and most of the Djs who'd been booked didn't even get to play - which was a shame, so I was comparatively lucky... I must say - I salute the promoters for working so hard to find an alternative space and making sure at least something happened. Even though it was a bit of a nightmare, I think everyone had a good time, given the circumstances.... Oh yeah, and a special shout out goes to the mad drunk localDJsoundguyold dude - you'll see him in the pictures... After we stopped the music, he put a CD back on, some really dodgy cheesy commercial dancepop stuff, adn he was bopping around like a raveDJ or somethign, and going on the MIC rambling on. Was a Classsic when we first walked in, he was DJing, totally drunk as a skunk, playing the Humpty Dance, and then Ton Loc, 'Funky COld Medina' - but he left it on repeat and the track played 3 times in a row, cos he's just left the decks and left it going. Madnessssss. Anyway, so here's all the pictures - see how many spaced-out crazycandyravers you can spot. I've got a great pic on Carol's camera of some guy asleep sprawled out on the pool table too...               
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11.1.04 14:30
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> Off to Germany <
About to zip to heathrow - off to play the Stadtgarten in Cologne tonight. Should be a good one, was wikid last time.
Been working on busybusy this week - synchronising and reorganisin gall my macs, and updating everything... Also set up my gym membership again, so I can go whenever, I'd let my membership lapse a while back and was jsut paying as I went - a bit of a pain in the ass. I think i might get a personal trainer for the next month in the run-up to Miami... need to be fit for the beach.
Bought lots of Bowie CDs last week to get some education. I love 'Low' and 'Heroes'.
Finished my remix of Digital Nation "Submarines" and they love it - doing a radio mix on Monday - also had a biiiig remix request in yesterday which will be a mighty challlenge. YeehaaaR.
OK, off to pack - I will return with German photos...
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16.1.04 13:04
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> PLaying at Fabric Tonight! <
All those in London... Attention... I'm playing at Fabric tonight - 11-12 is my set time I think, so come check it out... Also doing a guest mix on the Freshly Cut show on CHoice FM on Saturday night too... So, trying to think of what's new... Well, oh I got a new Apple Powerbook last week, so have been spending a while setting it up with all my music software, nearly there, but its a bit of a mighty task. Just finished the electro/techno mix of Digital Nation's 'Submarines' track last night, really happy with it - jsut gota do a radio edit of the trance version 2moro. Been going to the gym quite a bit, in fact im off there in a minute... Bought some more CDs to check out on my iPod while im at it - got the new Godskitchen 3CD set, which is the nicest trance CD ive got since the last Gatecrasher one. Been enjoying all the Bowie CDs i bought last week, and the new Chicks on Speed is rocckkkkin. Finally caved in and bought the Darkness album, maybe jsut to do a sneaky little bootleg remix or something, but i doubt I'll really have the time. Germany was really good last weekend - the club was packed, adn the crowd was wikkid. Jan, and all teh guys that looked after me are top people, we had a fab dinner at this little pub where u meet the owner lady - its called "bei Lena" i think. I wanted a JagerSchnitzel so they sorted me out. We hung out with the director for the German music channel viva+ too - was interesting to hear abotu how its all driven by SMS voting adn totally computerised... MAd. Cologne airport is beautiful - amazing architecture - i took milllions of photos for my album sleeve, and eventually got told off by a German jobsworth. ARggggg. Anyway, here's a bunch of pics from the trip. I downloaded a bunch off a German website - I'll give full credit when I've found the URL again - but u can tell which ones are mine, and which are theirs - mine look craP...                    
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23.1.04 14:51
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john b robot drum & bass diary
