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john b robot drum & bass diary
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> Stuff <
Hmmm, am very busy at the moment, apologies for lack of updates... Went out to London last Thursday, had a blast over at ElectroGogo again, Mark Moore had Marc Almond (of soft Cell fame) there, played a bunch of ace electro tracks, we all had a fabbbulous time. Think I got a few good snaps, Annie (Lump Soup on 20six), Sarah from Phillly and Nicky were all in attendance. Then dropped by Movement at Bar Rhumba for a laugh on the way back, I think Krust and Patife were playing that night, but it was ruffstuff or someone else by the time we got there. I swear the bathrooms in Bar Rhumba are far gayer than those at NagNagNag, or haha, probably even THe Cock in NYC - not that I dared venture in those ones... Always does my head in, really narrow and small, and there's still an attendant dude there staring at you, and then drugmonkies blabbering, or ppl just hanging around for the cubiclez, probably because of the ever studious Eau de Toilette man. ARG.        
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5.4.04 15:09
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> Frankfurt MusicMesse <
Then, on Wednesday I went to Frankfurt, cos my friend Ralf, (the guy that knows Kraftwerk and used to work at TC electronics, and Steinberg and stuff, and i think was involved in the development of the idea of VST plug ins format etc) now works for Novation, and had organised their event at the MusicMesse to demonstrate new products and meet press people etc - so it was in a superswanky bar somewhere in Frankfurt, and I played 3 hours of interesting electro, 80s, and DnB all mixed up together, mainly background stuff until the last hour or so - went down well adn was a laugh, lots of free drinks too and buffet food! haha, If i ever start putting on events again a buffet is a must! Seleeeekkkkktor. SO yeah, i met some intersting people including the guy that worked on the original OSCar and WasP Synths, and some people from Propellorheads, who make Recycle and Reason etc. Went to teh actual MusicMesse the other day and checked out some new products and stuff - watched some demonstrations too and got someone at Native Instruments to show me how Intakt worked, cos I haven't had the time to read the manual yet! hah.
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5.4.04 15:16
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> Knowledge, Electric Dreams, Trash(ed) <
Monday: Hmmm. Went for a Jog - did 4 miles ish, in about 35 minutes. Not bad, but not revolutionary either... Went into London to meet up and do an interview for Knowledge Mag. We went to some mad BBq plac for dinner where they bring you the food ona tray, but without plates?? The chips were ace though. Then went to a couple of bars and had martinis, met up with the two Sarahs and Leslie and went to Electric Dreams for some Eighties styleee. A wierd freeky dude came and sat on our table and started trying to chat up Leslie, in a trainee-stalker kind of way, he eventually left after I diplomatically stepped in, but we had to go then anyway. Music was relallllly good - they played a bunch of stuff I was very happy to hear, including the mighty FLock of seagulls! Yay. The Sarahs had to go back early for college in the morning, so me and Leslie went to Trash at the End, to check out Erol Alkan. I'd only ever been there once before and I think we went on an off day, adn also i was with a whiney eX who wanted to leave anyway - so it was nice to go and have a laugh. Erol was rokkkin, a nice mix of guitarrry cool band bizniz, some pretty good electroey stuff and then some old 80s classics. You coudl tell hed put a lot of effort into preparation adn planning - and done little HD edits of the older 80s stuff so it coudl be mixed in and sounded a bit different. Actually inspired me to dig out some old cure that's DnB speed and do the same so i can play it in my sets. Ended up playing "Boys don't cry" in the middle of myt set in Zootemayer in Holland on Saturday night! haha. Bohhhhh. The kids loved it and started PoGoing actually, so it paid off. PLayed in Brighton on Sunday night, after sleeping all day, didnt have much oppotunity for sleep in holland, oh and this was suckky, the flight back was onnly 45 minutes, but the dumbass BA people or whoever didnt have a gate for us, so the plane ended up sitting on the tarmac for 30 mintues after landing, jsut waiting. ARg. I was really knackered, adn had already moved seats cos there were some (sweet but) reallllly loud chatty kids all hyperactive and stuff right behind me, and they jsut didn't shut up. There were free seats further up so I jsut moved instead of moaning and sighing. Hah. So ah, yeah, Brighton was cool, Nicky was kind enough to drive me (and pick me up form the airport earlier actually - since my dad was off at the Ideal Home exhibition, ironically) and we met up with Tim (exile) and his lovely sister, and my friend Suzy. kate was supposed to come too, except ended up (relucatantly, NOT) at a gay pimps and hos party with gay strippers... couldnt drag herself away, probably understandably. The place was called the Funky Buddah lounge, I only played for an hour but it was totally packed and a really good, mixed crowd. I spotted lots of asymmetrical haircuts and generally interestinng-looking peoepl on the way in so figured it was safe to play a bit mroe electroy-dnb than i woudl normally, seemed a safe bet. My new little bootleg mashup mix of "whoooMP there it isss" cut up with a track on teh party monster soundtrack went down a treat. Hahah, oh yeah, adn they'd stipulated on my contract they wanted me to wear lots of makeup! haha. Photographic evidence below... Afterwards I did a little interview for jungleravers.com adn then dashed out onto the beach for a second to see the sea in the fuLL mOOOn. Here's a seleKKshon of pics anyway... Sleeping Beauties... Nickey and Tim's sister...  I paid for a 1st class ticket on the way home, and this was the state of the train!? arg.  The Novation party in Frankfurt  Zootemayer Club on Sat    Funky Buddah Brighton Crowd Shits   The Shaws and Nicky on Brighton Beach, very chilly.  Being windswept on teh beach in Brighton at 2am  Doing vague fingerpointing dance while Djing in Brighton at Funky Buddah  OUtside a posh fasion shop on the way back to the car after electrogogo  Me and Tim (ExiLE)  My makeup on Sunday night... 
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5.4.04 15:40
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> in:transit USA Tour so far... <
OK, I'll keep this brief, cos I've got lots to do - in a hotel in Houston right now, and need to get on with some record label stuff to email back to the UK... Anyway, tour has been pretty good so far, I managed to upgrade to business class on the way over, which was a godsend - my US agent left it to the last minute to send me off on an early morning mission to London on tuesday to get my Canadian Visa for the Toronto gig - so was realllly whakkked. So yeah, got to Austin, never played there before, but it was really nice, the promoters were lovely, and I managed to get a bit of sun and have a swim in the pool too, so that was loverrrrLy. SF was on friday night - the police had messed the promoter around, and put pressure on the venue he had originally arranged to use, forcing him to have to find a new place, on the day of the event (sound familiar?). The event by the way, was to raise money for the Red Cross, any profits were going to charity, so it's not a typical "rave" scenario. So from what i can gather, the police threatened his venue, saying they woudl withdraw liquor licenses etc etc if the owner let the party go ahead - and conveniently left this until the day before the party, so it was maximum disruption for the organiser guy. Anyway, he found a new spot, organised everything, adn the party still went ahead - but the problem was, it was smaller than the other one, and capacity was less than his break even, so they had to turn away 500-1000 ravers at the door and the promoter ended up losing thousands of dollars. Not right. Still, the party WAS good, and went well, adn I must say i was veryu impressed he managed to pull everything together at the last minute - it jsut makes me mad to see a really nice guy like that treated so badly by the police, when he had nothing but good, positive intentions. Anyway... enough of that... I'm in Houston now, the party was great last night, same venue I played on Halloween I think - played 2.5 hours and did about 20 mins of 80s at the end. There was a breakdance circle, but with a difference, whoever went in the middle was doing 80s dancing, not bodypopping! haha. Had a blast! All the new DnB stuff was goign down really well and it was a fun crowd. VERY stormy last night too, whoahhh, thunder and lightening very very frightening. I think the promoter had a tree fall on his house last night actually. Arggg. Maybe I'm cursed!?? OK so, anyway, here's the pictures... As usual you can find them at www.john-b.com/clubs. I'll have a bash at the new photoblog feature on here soon too... Next stop is Seattle, so see ya there! Austin Pix    San Francisco Pix    Houston Pix    
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11.4.04 23:38
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> In Seattle right now <
Long day getting from Houston to Seattle today, 2.5 hrs to Denver, Colorado, then a damn quick connnection, i had to run to the next gate pretty much. The first flight had been delayed because someone's seat was jammed and kept on reclining! haha. They held up the whole flight for that... Fair enough I guess.
Finished reading "the Crystalids" by John Wyndham - really enjoyed it, great book, Loved Day of the triffids and Mydwych Cookhoos - so I'm gona make sure I read all his other ones too now. Just worked on S'Express remix Samples on my powerbook for the rest of the flight from Houston. Oh my god, there was this IdiOt kid next to me with his ffather - i duno what it is about america at the moment but i have really been noticing a trend in kids that fly with their parents - REALLy annoying and REalLLy dumb and stupid, asking stupid questions constantly, way beneath their age and jsut behaving really spoilt and useless and childish, like years younger than they actually are. I will continue my studies on this tour and get back to you on that though, before i generalise further.
Seattle is ok, better than last time, when i almost went mad from jetlag post australia etc, jsut went out for dinner adn pool&drinks tonight with DJ nitsij & his lady - nice and chilled. Played some pool and did some mighty shots, clinched one game with a jump shot and potted the 8 ball. BOH.
Just staying in the hotel 2moro, gona rinse out the fitnesss room, and get some work done laptop styleee. Playing at the "Baltic Room" in the night... Then off to Arizona on Wednesday... HooraH. Will try to take lots of exciting pictures.
OH, and my shagging knee injury seems to be tryiggn to come back, im not happy about that at all. hopefully some jogging will fix it.
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13.4.04 11:29
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> Met Lemmy from Motorhead in LA! <
I'm in LA right now, the party in Seattle was great, probably my favourite of the trip so far, really nice people, and it was nice to chat to everyone after the show. Went for dinner before with Hande and Annie and some Flamenco Dancers came adn did a performance! Never seen that before, pretty neat.
LA has been pretty cool, except im in some dumb hotel by the airport and have had some expensive cab rides into Hollywood. I guess its OK though, cos my flight to Florida tomorrow is sooo early at least I won't have to worry abotu traffic.
Oh yeah, im on dialup here, so no photos this time around, but I asssure you ive got some classsics...
ON Friday night I went out with Dylan in Hollywood - had a blast. My cab cost 40 bucks to get there though! WE went to Miyagis, jsut some dumb restaurant, but they did good sushi, I had an electric eel roll. The waitress was really nice and said she woudl come to the rave, but she didn't. Then some wierd drunk girl jsut came up to our table and started talking to us, and eating our edamame beans. She had some huge bottle of corona but with hot bbq sauce in it. Gross. Then she dropped it on the floor and tried to get us to buy sakis or something. I sent her away, then she moved onto some other sukkaz who fell for it and bought her saki. Hah.
So we left there, couldnt find a time out anywhere, so got a cab to the Viper room, a pretty good band was playing, along the lines of rage against the machine i guess - but the bizzare thing was, when they finished some DJ came on, jsut playing totally commercial wanky krroooklyclan dumbass hiphoprnB tracks, adn the crowd didnt care - jsut carried on with it like nothing had changed. Went from nice edgey interesting stufff to completely bland spoonfed american tv bizniz. ERG. We left and then went to the Hustler Store and had a look around, then went to Whisky a gogos, but it was closing soon, so we went to a sorta rock-punk hangout called Rainbows. amuch nicer crowd in there, had more drinks, met some girl who put lipstick on me, which i forgot about, and she did some nice eyeliner on Dylan. Then Lemmy from Motorhead turned up adn we said hello adn took a quick photo with him - ive got it on my cameraphone, so have to figure out how to get that uploaded onto here... Then we met these guys in a punk band that Dylan knew about - I forget their name, but they were really nice chaps - told us about an afterhours place - which i found out yesterday my friend Riley More calls the Freekydeeekyfreeeekfreeek club. i was certainly different from anywhere ive been before, really nice though. Kinda underground basement thing, big video projections on the walls, i think they were showing the Chris Cunningham DVD, and very gothy peopel in there, well, pretty mixed, jsut interesting folk i guess - really good music, sorta rock/goth/synth. I was really drunk by this point, and so was Dylan. There was a hot girl in a bikini sitting on the couch, and we noticed later a group of 2 or 3 guys all kneeling around her, and they were doin foot worship stuff!! hahah. Maddd. WE got talking to her (much older) boyfriend/owner - not sure how that all works, but he was explainging how it all works, the guys have to ask his permission and stuff, then apparently he got mad cos one of the guys bit her heel a bit or something. very interesting... Oh yeah, and then we met a trannnie called Roxanne adn Dylan was asking him all sorts of probing questions etc. WE had to leave though, I was feeling v drunk, and we'd both been flying all day. Another 45 dollar cab ride and home again.
So, Saturday night was the party here, called Elevate. i was expecting it to get shut down or some sort of venue problems, but actually it all went well. It was the most ravey rave ive been to for ages. I personally am not really into that stuff, but I realise lots of kids love it and I'm all for freedom of expression and all that - it was jsut soooooo hot and smokey and humid in there, and hahaha the drum and bass room was basically a shed, iunside the big hall, like a littel sauna. madness. I havent sweated like that in forever. Got lots of funny pictures ill upload when i get somewhere with DSL. Got a bit lost on the way back home, driving in LA is sooooo lame. Today I jstu have to get on with laptop work. BlaH. Off to Gainsville 2moro...
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19.4.04 00:10
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john b robot drum & bass diary
