Hi hi hi all, decided it was time i actually Blogged instead of posting photos & press release stuff - not very personal is it? Just sitting here in the office, in my Royal Tannembaums tracksuit, a Mozart Flute Quartet floating away in the background, periodically interrupted by the pneumatic drills and diggers from roadworks outsite - oh, and of course I have my trusty second espresso of the morning by my side...
Feeling a bit frazzled, this weekend was heavy - Friday night was cool, flew to Frankfurt for a gig at MS Connection in Mannheim, which was great at always - lots of 'John B is my homeboy' shirts in attendance, and i think I got through at least one whole bottle of wine during my set - which helped me go on for almost 3 hours. Was very conscious that I've played in Mannheim quite a few times recently, so made an extra effort to switch up my set and play some different stuff - sometimes its too easy to just play things I know will work & not take as many risks... Lame. Anywayyyy, so yeah, that was fun, oh, and seeing the look on the Gas Station attendant's face when i stumbled in there, totally raved out, with runny makeup and rave-dirt everywhere on the KASESALAT BROTCHEN mizzzion afterwards...
Flew to Kiev in the evening, on not exactly my favourite airline - Ukraine International Airlines... Just about one step up from the Russian one, Aeroflot. I think it was probably the oldest Boeing 737 in operation... And my seat was damp. YuK. Beat Mohammed Ali on my PSP boxing game though, somewhere over Poland.
Arrived really late in the Ukraine, like midnight, and I was due on stage at 1230. Theyd booked me a special apartment to stay in, not a hotel, just because there's no middle ground in hotels over there apparently, its either total shithole for 10Euros, or a superluxury 5 star for 400Euros a night. And seeing as I was only going to be in the country for 9 hours that would have been a mighty waste of money, especially for a place where the average salary is seriously low... ANywayyyy, it took aggggggges to find the apartment, we had the wrong adress - ended up there, some scarey looking Orwellian block, felt like I was back in 50s Russia or something, scarey KGB dudes hiding in the shadows etc. Managed to shower and do my makeup and everything in 20 minutes. It felt like i was in a crazy old revolutionary sympathiser blind grandmother's safehouse or something, really bizzarre - i think i videod a bit so I'll show zap it up in a bit.
So yeah, got to the gig, was greeeted by loads of intense fans, hahaha, oh god yeah, now i remember, and getting to the bathroom was an ORDEAL! They insisted on taking me to the VIP bathroom - which was guarded by like 2 bodyguards and a keymaster dude - hilarious. Smashed it at the gig - as you will from the video, when I get round to editing it... Then one hour's sleep in the supermegacomfy old Ukrainian Grandmother bed (on my own...) and off to the airport. Totally slept the whole way back to England, apart from waking up adn twitching and banging my head on the window several times. I've started doing that on planes now, can be embarrassing. On the plane back from America last week, it turned out that the guy sitting next to me was one of those air marshall security guard dudes, and gawd he must have thought i was wierd. It only ever happens on planes, but I'll be having a dream about sharks or something, and wake up suddenly with a jump, or realise im totally slumped over and wake up and jerk and smack my head on the chair in front or something. Ah, the glamorous life of an international superstar DJ.
So anyway, had an interesting chat with the cab driver on the way back from Gatwick - turned out he'd only had one hour of sleep too, with Ramadan & fasting etc - so we ended up talking about religions and islam & stuff almost all the way - quite a harsh task when you're not exactly with-it. Got home & monged out with Pizza & posh wine from Waitrose. And watched Party monster for the 89283492384th time...
Am off to Austria for a gig on Wednesday, so only got a couple of days before then to get my officey Dj things done, and PLEEEEEASE have time to get in the studio - and I need to go for a run or someting, and TAN - im totally tanorexic now, and feeling pale. Roll on Miami baybeee. Oh, Australia actually, mmmmm and winery tours in the sun. Yes.
Almost finished editing video from Iceland, so should have that up tonight for you, and don't forget to check out the latest Redux mix I did - Electrohouse mix though, not DnB - one of them coming soon i promise...
OH, and don't get me started on the BT Digital music awards - or should I say total FIX awards. WTF was up with Lorraine winning best electronic artist?! The only other people in the group, apart from me, were Pete Tong & Rob Da Bank - both HUGE Radio 1 DJs, who do podcasts and lots of online stuff, and Coldcut - who also have a really good website and lots of content & video - and all of us have 20-30K myspace friends... Lorraine on the other hand have a bog standard Record Label sorted out website, no podcasts, less than 2K myspace friends (even though on the tv show they claimed to have 30K). AND they can hardly be considered an 'electronic' artist. They are a band with a keyboard player. Like every other band. A VERY poor man's royksopp. But they happen to be on columbia. Who also 'happened' to send out an 'INTRODUCING LORRAINE' bulk email the day after the awards... INTRODUCING? How can a band that's being introduced have had enough votes to win over everyone else in that category? I would have been honoured to have been beaten by anyone else in our category, but that's just bollox. AND they didn't use the VT clip I especially edited for them for the CH4 show. Anyway. Rant over. If I ever see them live I'll throw a bun at their manager or something. Or do a remix and massively overcharge, then spend the money on revenge.
Oh, and you can see some photos from the Cinema Club in Kiev, Ukraine gig here:
http://dnbpix.kiev.ua/thumbnails.php?album=34&page=8
john b robot drum & bass diary
