02.03.08. Location: Belgium
Moodclub @ Apero / Fluffyclouds @ Silo, Leuven

Just returned from a fantastic few days in Belgium. Myself and Adam headed over to play a few gigs in Leuven (aka Stella Town), first up on Thursday 28th February was Moodclub and the very intimate 'Apero' in the towns main square. What a cool little place to spin, full of people wanting to hear good and fresh new music, we played some nice deep house ranging through to some more Chicago sounds. The gig we had on the Friday night in Brugge cancelled due to a broken window... so we ended up back in Apero sampling various strong Belgium beers. The main event of the weekend was on Saturday night at the mighty Fluffyclouds, we had played at Fluffyclouds back in 2004 and did the 'breakfast slot' (6am - 8am), which was wicked as we could take it down a little, real deep heavy moody stuff. Some friends came over on the Saturday afternoon so we headed out to sink a few Duvel alongside Kelvin and friend... it did get a little messy! Managed to get to the club at around 2am, a Red Bull and 2x water later and all was good. The club, what a place! Silo is a fantastic venue, 1000 people crammed in, amazing sound system and lights and some heavy, heavy house music. Ken ECB and Kelvin both played solid sets which went down really well and myself and Adam were again doing the early morning slot which we were both relishing. Standout tracks of the night were Silicone Soul - Chico Laa (H-Foundation Remix), the latest Buzzin Fly release, Soul Vision - Tracey In My Room and Milton Jackson - Cycles. Finally managed to get to bed around 10am, was a awesome night! Massive thanks go out to all in Belgium, Jeroen, Kristoff, Pierre, Tristan, Kelvin and Remy! Viva Leuven!
09.10.06. Location: Northwich
Mi Casa, Chester

It's always a pleasure to head over to the City Bar in Chester for the monthly house shindig that is 'Mi Casa'. This small but excellent little house night recently celebrated its 2nd birthday and myself, Adam, Nathan and Woody all popped over on Saturday 7th October to spin some beats. I was pretty knackered after being out in Manchester the night before and moving house that same day, but as soon as I hit the decks all was forgotten! They definatly know their house music over in Chester and all enjoyed the sounds of Derrick Carter's remix of Modjo's 'Lady', Woody took over after me and laid down some slick house grooves, followed by Adam and Nathan's back to back special sprinkled with classic house tracks and remixes. Hosts Chris and Matt are always welcoming and its always a great laugh when we are invited back.

15.08.06. Location: Northwich
Croatia Tour 2006 - 01.08.06 - 08.08.06

Tuesday 1st August 06
Right, off to Croatia we go… head down to the airport in the avo' as the Aussies say. The flight is delayed so we hit the pub and have a quick pint before settling back for the 3hr flight that somehow only takes just over 2 hrs, the pilot must have been speeding, disgusting. We arrive in Dubrovnik just after 10pm local time and are greeted by our friends who bundle us into a minibus and we set off on the 2-3 hr drive to the island of Korcula (we are meant to be playing at 12am). The James Bond action takes over as we board a speedboat and make the 2mile trip over to the island, arriving shortly after 12.30am. A bit of spliff-induced rally driving later we get to the club and straight onto the decks. So with a large crowd gathering I kick off with the devastating Darkmountaingroup's ‘Lose Control' and after being passed a large vodka, I get fully into it quickly! The floor is packed as I finish and hand over to Adam who pitches up the tempo and plays an awesome set of strobe bothering house music, Nathan takes over shortly after 5am (as Adam chats up a couple of Californian girls) and plays until a thunderstorm stops everything… and we proceed to get piss wet through, as well as slightly pissed.

Wednesday 2nd August 2006
Wake up at 10am, feeling slightly rough… no water in the apartment so make a trek to find a shop, all we can find is a shit car wash with 2 bottles of coke and 6 bottles of water, we buy them all. Finally feel human by late afternoon so we head off to the town of Korcula and relax with some drinks for the rest of the day.

Thursday 3rd August 2006
Get picked up mid afternoon and make the 2hr trip back to Dubrovnik with Zoran the Croatian Dj and part time stoned rally driver, stopping to admire the fantastic views of the islands. Arrive in the city late evening, get changed and head straight out for some good Biftek (Croatian for Beefsteak, or a new techno sub genre) steaks, we all then hit the bars and proceed to have a couple of shandys each… if your in Dubrovink check out a small bar called Fresh, owned by Tokyo John and get some of the cocktails downed, all good stuff and very lethal! You can even make your own and if they are good enough they end up on the cocktail wall, check out our friend Russ's ‘Supernova' one. End up in a latino club till 6am, drinking and dancing to euro house and speeded up latin folk music played by our rally driver dj friend, make it back to the apartment around 7am and pass out.

Friday 4th August 2006
Woke up with a shock at 10am, fucking boiling and sweating the alcohol from last nights activities, jumped on a bus and headed to some friends apartment to have some kip and a shower as I didn't fancy trying the Trainspotting style shower at the accommodation we were in. A good kip later and after some more biftek we headed back to see the venue. This was probably the most surreal venue for I gig I had seen, it was three massive bombed out hotels that had been used as a military base during the war a few years back, it was quite eerie walking around seeing bomb holes and bullet holes all over the place, we popped back to get our records and then went back to the venue… then the local police stopped uus... that was some scary shit being searched by them, they took all our records out ripped the lining out of the bags, threatened to take Nay to the Police station as he didn't have his passport on him. Was pretty fucked up, saw loads of people turned away and a few being piled into the back of vans. Once we got to the gig there we're police all in the venue, which made it quite a tense atmosphere, the promoters were very unsure about if anyone would come. I hit the decks after Adam and a few people we're starting to get onto the dancefloor, after an hour or so it was packed out and they we're going mental to the homegrown beats. Nay took over and then a thunderstorm hit, records got blow off the decks, we all got drenched, all the equipment got ruined, lost my headphones, we all managed to shelter in the remains of the hotel… and I made a dash into the storm to retrieve a bottle of vodka, which was niiiice! The storm only lasted half an hour or so, but the party had to finish as the decks we're bust, shame as there were hundreds queuing up to get in, was defo a different gig!

Saturday 5th August 2006
Off to Montenegro, as far as we were aware the gig was half an hour away, little did we know it was half an hour to the border… it was 3 and half hours to the gig! We crossed the border by foot and were picked up by one of the djs, he did mention it was 300km, but I thought he must have been mistaken and meant 30km! The drive was long but the views of the mountains and coastal road were stunning. We got to the town of Ulcinj, which was 10 miles from Albania at around 9pm, went straight to the club which was located on the beach and set back into the cliffs, was an awesome club. We grabbed a bite to eat and then hit the decks, the owner was showing me records he wanted playing, Bob Sinclair etc, so I just said ‘Yeah, no probs' and kicked off with some Joey Youngman cuts! We partied it up until the club got raided by the police, led by some man mountain of a guy in full combats and beret, he looked like Jean Claude Van Damme in Street Fighter, they walked round for 5 mins then left and the party continued, was good fun and everyone we met there were sound and gave us lots of booze!

Sunday 6th August 2006
Got up at 10am, went back to the club to await a lift, at 11am a dodgy looking Mercedes taxi rocks up, out gets the driver with fag in mouth, this can't be it I though… it was. The drive back wasn't as bad as I expected, and took less time as we caught a ferry, but the taxi driver insisted on dropping us off round the corner from the Croatian border apparently everything is ‘Fine… but a little fucked up' with the border crossing, we walked the half mile to the border shitting it about them being funny with us, but they only checked my passport then let us all through, very strange. We got back to Dubrovnik at 3pm, and Adam and myself hit the beers good time! Got some food and had some rum on a pirate ship, gaaaarrrrr! Had an excellent night out on the local Karlikivo beer in an Irish bar and passed out sometime early in the morning after giving some good abuse to an unhelpful taxi driver.

Monday 7th August 2006
A day off! Hit the beach and went for a swim, then relaxed in the beach bar which was super slick, ran back to the apartment (up 240 steps) to avoid a storm. We all went out for a final meal then went to the beach bar and watched all the posing locals dancing (as well as Woody's dirty dancing with two local fittys) and the shit DJ who must have been deaf as his monitor was on +11. Bit of an earlier night (3am), and packed our stuff for a flight in the morning. Had an amazing / scary / completely different time over the last week and can't wait to get back to the area next year!

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