Excursions

I do occasionally get away from Portsmouth and Bournemouth and DJ elsewhere, like Slimelight, Bratcave and various gigs...

Bratcave, Highbury Garage 12th March 99

OK, so I was only there for about an hour or so, but here's the rundown:

Too Early: Wake up. Phone printers. Discover that the 6000 Resurgence and Dream Disciples flyers which should have been ready for today won't be ready till Monday. Swear.

On Time: Stagger with several hundred CDs and a bag of vinyl to Fratton train station. Get the fast Waterloo train. Look to be at the venue well before 8pm.

Later: Notice that the "fast" train is running suspiciously slow. Cue the dreaded words "We apologise for the delay...". Swear. Apparently the train in front of it at Fratton had farted, causing the entire of Network South East to grind to a halt and this train to somehow be stuck behind four farm carts. At least that's what I think they said.

Even later: Arrive at Waterloo. Run to the tube. Discover a police cordon around the entrance. Ask policeman what's going on. Apparently one of the fire alarms had gone off and they'd had to evacuate. Consider getting the bus. Ask how long it'd take. "Oh, it'll only be a few minutes"... Then the fire engines arrive.

Half an hour after that: Attempt to phone alien to say I'll be late. A robot voice says "Sorry, this phone service is only available between the hours of 12am and dawn on the night of a full moon". Or something.

Swear.

Unfeasibly later: Eventually get let into tubes. Which, of course, seem to be running a go-slow...

8.55pm: Stagger into the Garage 5 minutes before my set is due to start.

Incidentally, it's true: if you stagger into a venue carting loads of gear and shouting "I'm one of the DJs and I'm on in 5 minutes!" they don't even check your name on the list...

First impressions of the venue: not bad at all. I thought the size was just about right, and the atmosphere was good even at 9pm, when most people were still arriving.

[equipment whinge- probably best skipped]

However, the mixer was annoying: rather than having separate faders for each channel, it had dials and a crossfader. I hate crossfaders- first thing I normally do is disable them, as I prefer to work with 2 decks and 2 CDs on 4 channels, so I can have 2 or 3 items lined up at once in case something goes wrong (as it invariably does).

Given the choice between the dials or the crossfader, however, I opted for the crossfader.

Cue much swearing and muttering of "I hate crossfaders" to various bemused net.goths.

At least the mixer was helpfully labelled "CD1", CD2", "Phono 1" etc.

Unhelpfully, the labels were wrong.

Even more unhelpfully, the CD players were located at the back of the DJ booth and the decks were at the front, which got a bit confusing when going from CDs to vinyl.

Note: this isn't a whinge at the Bratcave setup, this is just the venue.

God knows, I've worked with worse. At least the ceiling didn't cave in halfway through the set.

[/equipment whinge]

Anyway, I had a vague plan of what I was going to play- it being Bratcave, I thought I'd try something slightly different and avoid Trad Goth if possible. Proving that Great [1] Minds Think Alike, two of the bands I'd been meaning to play were New Order and Foetus- which Hirez had just played.

I was also unsure as to whether to attempt to be "interesting" or to get people up and dancing- in the end it was something of a compromise...

So my setlist went something[2] like:

Proof of the good atmosphere and people was that even this early, before 10pm, people were prepared to get up and start dancing- PASC is obviously still active, as the Poppies got a surprising number on the floor, and people were dancing to stuff I didn't expect them to.

Unfortunately I had to leave not long after my set to get my train, but if the atmosphere and numbers when I left were anything to go by it should have been an excellent night.

[1] Or insert the adjective of your choice here, preferably avoiding the term "old codgers"

[2] This is from memory- it may be wrong

Slimelight, 22nd May 99

(Not the only time I've DJ'd at Slime, but the only time I've kept a setlist...)

OK, here's the setlists- mine and one of Irish Dave's. It should be noted that this is not a typical Slimelight setlist as neither Steve nor Rednettle & Ophelia were there, and they're better than me since they know the crowd and I don't!

So it shouldn't be used as an example of what Slimelight plays, it's just reproduced out of general interest:

Pete 11.00-12.00

Dave 2.45- 4.15

[haven't got this one I'm afraid]

Pete 4.15-5.15

I also wound up helping Irish Dave out a little bit at the end, though it was essentially a case of being around and providing moral support and the odd suggestion rather than actually doing any DJing.

I can't remember everything that was played towards the end, but it included Rosetta: Nothing, Suspiria: Awfully Sinister, Xymox: A Day (those 3 tracks being left by Dave whilst he went to the loo), Sisterhood: Giving Ground, Depeche Mode: Policy of Silence, Duran Duran: Hungry Like the Wolf, Delerium: Incantation, Joy Division: Dead Souls, PiL: This is not a Love Song and The Damned: Eloise (which I think was Orfeo's request).

I've still got the request list from Saturday, which includes "Killing Miranda: Three Wheels On My Wagon" (hmm, wonder who *that* was!), "Go on Mr Scathe, roll another fat one!" (Uncle N, I believe!), and "Where's the Furby?".