Monthly Archives: October 2011

Movember – Come and Join Us!

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Last year, I was watching Norwich smash Ipswich 4-1, when I realised our super striker

Grant Holt celebrates his epic moustache.

Grant Holt was sporting a moustache of such specularity that it made my weeks growth look like bum-fluff on my 16 year old son (sorry, Cameron!).

The commentator then informed us all that Holt and several other footballers were growing their ‘taches in aid of Movember – a charity organised to highlight mens’ health; particularly prostate cancer.

Allow me to be lazy and let the website give you the details:

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About The Campaign

During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces in the UK and around the world. The aim of which is to raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.

On Movember 1st, guys register at Movember.com with a clean-shaven face and then for the rest of the month, these selfless and generous men, known as Mo Bros, groom, trim and wax their way into the annals of fine moustachery. Supported by the women in their lives, Mo Sistas, Movember Mo Bros raise funds by seeking out sponsorship for their Mo-growing efforts.

Mo Bros effectively become walking, talking billboards for the 30 days of November and through their actions and words raise awareness by prompting private and public conversation around the often ignored issue of men’s health.

At the end of the month, Mo Bros and Mo Sistas celebrate their gallantry and valor by either throwing their own Movember party or attending one of the infamous Gala Partés held around the world by Movember, for Movember. 

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So, that’s the short and curlies of it all, and myself and a fellow band of Mo Bros are taking part through-out the month of Movember. My colleague and friend – Tim Pritchard – has organised a group of us into The Nose Neighbours. If you click the link it will take you straight to our group. Feel free to join and expand our numbers as we look to beat last years’ total of £500! The link to donate is on the page, or you can just donate straight to my Movember page. Even if you donate £1-£5 it will all add up in the end, and you will have my eternal thanks!

The King Lud here in Ryde has also suggested that we have a meet-up at the end of the month BEFORE we all shave our beauties off, so a piss-up with fellow moustachioed individuals is another incentive to get involved!

I did try to grow a moustache last year, but I only found out about it late, so this year I’m going guns blazing, and clean shaven for the first time in well over a decade, Hell, I was best man at a wedding once and didn’t clean shave for that… or my sisters wedding last week!

And which style am I going for?

Take a look below.

Right now...

 

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One Wedding, Four Litres of Vodka, and a 32 Yard Touchdown Run

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Regular readers of my missives may remember that last year myself and compadre – Darren Hall – both rocked up to Wembley for the Broncos vs 49ers International Series game. Darren wrote last years’ blog, so it’s my turn this year.

You may have noticed that in the aforementioned blog that Darren attended a wedding the day before the game. This year, I had my sisters’ wedding to see to before making the trek to London!

The wedding was great; family and old and new friends truly making it a day to remember, but – with honourable mentions to Becki, Deano (star of last weeks’ blog!), Mikey, and Josh – Darren and I got no sleep between Saturday morning and late Sunday night.

By the time we hit the train in Portsmouth at 9.15, we already had booze out; cider for Daz, double vodkas for Jode. Proper pikey action on a South West Train first thing on a Sunday morning.

Darren hadn’t drunk for seven weeks, so by the time we arrived in Waterloo the lad was halfway steaming. I knew of a bar in the station where we grabbed another couple of drinks. It’s the same bar DJ C-Kay and drank in before going to the SW4 Festival a couple of months back, and I’ve drank in here so many times I really should know the name of the place by now…

Time to hit the tube, and it doesn’t take us long before we arrive at Trafalgar Square to attend the Tail Gate Party – the warm-up before the game involving thousands of fans, lots of drink, and scantily-clad cheerleaders shaking their pom-poms.

Unfortunately, we arrived a DAY late.

Fail.

The Bear was the aptly-named pub that we hit next, and the place was awash with Bears jerseys… and Darren’s Green Bay Packers top stuck out like a sore thumb. He was also so lubricated that he decided to start taking the piss out of the biggest, gingerest guy in there – complete in 1985 vintage vinyl Bear bomber jacket.

I staved off Darren’s execution for as long as I could, but Big Red and his quiet friend (who had the air of a killer about him) had taken pity of my pissed-up, pathetic pal, and took us under their wings as we watched Man City DESTROY Man Utd.

Next, we got our stomp on, heading off for Wembley as Darren did his best to insult every Bear we passed, and high-fived every GBP fan we saw.

So, that was roughly 80 insults and two high fives.

He even shouted at a couple of Bears fans over from Italy, who didn’t seem to take it too funny. Cue Negotiator Jode to explain how his slightly backward friend was on day release and please could they not get the Capo Regime to pop a Capo in his ass.

Wembley looms ahead, and I bump into Elliot Day – a fellow islander NFL fan – but we don’t get to chat much as Big Red has got his stomp on and Darren is still firing incendiary remarks to anyone in dark blue.

We reach a section where the security are mob-handed and aren’t letting anyone through at all, so we turn back and head up Wembley Walk again… until I realise I’ve lost Fuck Nut aka Darren.

“Guys, I better go find him,” I say to my two new friends as we shake hands and go our seperate ways.

But I can’t find the pissed-up idiot, not until I become exasperated and look over the wall of the walkway and down into the private section that security wouldn’t let us into.

There was Darren – pissed up, bewildered, and looking very smugly up at me.

“How the hell did you get in there?” I asked.

“I told them I needed a wee.” came his reply.

Security obviously on top of their game, then.

They wouldn’t let me in, however. Luckily, a drunk Darren becomes a brainier Darren.

“Hey, Mr Security Man, sir,” I squeak.

“No chance, mate.” comes the gruff reply.

“But but but my little backwards brother is in there crying!” I state, pointing at a GBP jersey wearer slumped against the wall, crying into his sleeve. “Look,” I add, waving Darren’s driving license in Mr Security’s face. “I’ve even got proof that he’s my brother!”

Guess what? It worked.

I get to Darren and he’s so convincing I tell him to really dry his eyes. Either that or all that cider has caught up with him and he now has the Alcohol Blues.

Our entry into VIP land is short lived and boring. There’s fuck all to do, except get security checked again for the VIP section, and neither of us look like we should be there at all. With shifty looks all around, we scarper up some steps and decide to make our way into the stadium itself.

Our seats are good, as are most of the seats in Wembley, and we’re soon cheering (or in

The Tailgate Party

Daz’s case, spiting abuse) as Jay Cutler and a few more Bears warm up in front of us. The Tampa cheer leaders are hot, but not quite the Gold Rush standards of last year.

The game gets underway, and soon Matt Forte has rushed a 32 yard touchdown into the end zone before us… and suddenly I realise another ambition of mine – to watch the Bears play before my very own eyes.

14-5 at halftime (thanks to a Roy Williams touchdown) and all my dreams are coming true. Add to that a black guy called Trey sat behind us who is quite possibly the funniest commentator I have ever heard and my whole weekend has become one of legend.

Until I realise Darren has fallen aseleep next to me. he had the proper ‘nodding dog’ thing going on, head lolling all over the place like a hippy chick on too much acid.

I consider letting him sleep… until I doze off myself and awake with a start.

Now it’s time to go home.

Three days on the piss, and two days without any sleep take it’s toll on me, and the previously tea-totaller Darren is clearly way too far gone to be of any use to anyone.

So, it’s off home we head, to fall asleep on the train to leave the Bears to score a 21-18 victory.

We’ll be back next year. And we’ll be more prepared.

Probably with some extra sleep!

Three Idiots and a B-Boy Battle

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October 16th saw myself, Lee Richards and the man-beast Dean Jennings leaving the island to hit the mainland and the days B-Boy Championship Finals on at the Brixton Academy in London… the same place I saw Wu-Tang last year and will also be going to the Soulwaxmas event in December.

I wonder if I should just get a room there…?

I prepared for our train journey the night before by drinking a shit-load of vodka, smoking too much shrubbery, and throwing around more bag than a Woman’s Institute party.

We hit the train at 12.15 which would give us plenty of time to ruin ourselves up in the big smoke. The boys had bags of alcohol, but I was a little disappointed to find that they were stuffed full of cider… I haven’t drunk the stuff since I was hanging around bus shelters at the age of 16. Still, when in Rome… or at least on a second rate train to London.

(Which, incidentally, Lee picked wrongly which meant we were stuck on there over half an hour longer then we should have been. Tit.)

Clapham was our stop, and more than a little oiled up we debarked, hitting the first pub we found where we watched Arsenal beat Sunderland before Lee started a conversation with a pissed up old Irish boy which seemed to go on forever. I tried to save him, but old Irish had his sinkers in pretty deep.

Shaking him off, we burst into the sunshine across from an old church where there were LOTS of people dressed in fancy dress. Last time I was here in Clapham with DJ C-Kay we saw the same thing… I was getting a deja-vu…

After amusingly watching Lee run after a taxi and catch it we jumped inside and spent the next ten minutes seeing the sights of London… which involved a lot of smoke, smog, Indians, and people unable to look each other in the eye. Bit like the last orgy I attended.

We arrived outside the Brixton Academy… and dived straight into another pub to wet our beaks, before stomping down the side of the Academy, where we found a scuffle involving police and a group of lads. We were too lubricated by now to pay attention so staggered on past and into the hall itself, where we each got searched… Lee thoroughly. I think they liked his pretty features.

We’d arrived a good hour and a half late – due to alcoholic intake – but the show hadn’t started, and there were people tucked away in corners busting out moves, pop-locking, and generally just being cooler than us. Which wasn’t hard.

The battles started soon after we took up positions in ‘the bowl’ – the area where the crowd stands. It wasn’t a bad view, and the big screens showed us what we might have missed, and the crowd started to get lively as the breakbeat boomed.

I’d like to give you details of the battles, but the compare was so busy shouting ‘yo yo yo’ down the mic, we missed a lot of it. Plus we were steaming drunk by now.

But what we saw, I was impressed with… after a slow start. The moves were swift, and I spent most of my time slurring about how the French were going to win it.

The French won it.

Must admit, that just by watching the beginning ten minutes the French Vagabonds look like they piss it, until the Korean Jinjo Crew step it up some…

Soon we had slipped out, leaving a couple of ropey birds who had clung to us to ‘watch our drinks for a moment’… and we were back out and on the town. Things get a little vague around this point, but I

The quality isn't great... but neither we were right now.

know we all jumped in a rickshaw… several times… and were ridden around London like a two-bit hooker. I vaguely remember nursing a drink from one pub into two or three more, and then cradling it in the back of said rickshaw.

We managed to get the half ten train back… where we then had to catch a fucking bus between stations which took fuuuuucking ages.

Fucking ages, man.

I was almost sober on the boat home… well, once we’d finally found Lee after he wandered off on a top-heavy lean well past the boat, and once on the boat the two boys crashed out, leaving me with my lager. And then the JD when I got in.

Yeah, this is a pretty vague blog, but I consumed enough alcohol in over 14 hours of drinking – and I’d hit the cider again – that I couldn’t really remember a lot of what went on.

Maybe Lee and Dean could fill us in a little…?

Dean and Mr Rick Shaw.

One Giant Literary Step…

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If you follow me on Facebook (and feel free to add me if you don’t… I am a massive social whore) then you will have read about me basking in my own spotlight today after I managed to bag one of my short stories a slot in a forthcoming anthology:  New Tales of The Old Ones.

It’s a book about tales based around stories written by H P Lovecraft, a writer of ‘weird fiction’ who amassed a collection of horror books called the Cthulhu Mythos and the Necronomicon story cycles.

The editor – Michael Dick – actually asked me if I could turn a story in to be considered, so I obliged… although like a true writer I left it right up to the last minute to submit my tale!

I hammered it and hammered it in those final weeks, finding myself completely drawn into the tale, loving the characters and the beast that I had created… remembering how much I loved to write and what a world of escapism it is to be in.

But I digress… My name is going to be in print, and a good year before I had envisaged it! If you recall my blog from January this year, I was hoping to get The Book finished by the end of the year. She’s currently sitting at 20,000 words and 40+ pages, but I now have the added incentive of actually believing that I can get it published now that someone has accepted my work!

So, yeah, this is a bit of a ‘filler’ blog, and I know I haven’t written anything of any real substance blog-wise for a few weeks now, but that’s all about to change with some of the big events I’ve got lined up.

I’ll also reveal all the info on the anthology I will be in as soon as I have the details myself.

Stay tuned.

Interview With DJ C-Kay

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If it wasn’t for the wonders of Twitter, I would never have had the opportunity to meet Cesar Sangwa – aka DJC-kay. Now a London native, C-kay was promoting his latest Smooth DnB mix on Twitter when I took the chance to listen… and I’m glad I did.Our friendship has grown, and now Cesar and I are parts of the International Mix Train Collective, where CK contributed to the last IMTC mix (‘The Drop’ – see my previous blog) as well as continually supplying people with mixes covering a variety of genres. We’ve also visited the SW4 Festival and the Ministry of Sound and shown them both how it’s done!

C-kay’s mixes have appeared so many times on my Vectis Radio show I now call him ‘Our Resident DJ’!

This is his interview.

1/ C-kay – I know very little about you, other than that I have every mix you have given me on my iPod! Tell me more about your upbringing and what/how music has influenced you into the DJ you are today.

I was Born in Switzerland, Bern in 1982. My dad used to DJ in Germany back in the 70s so he used to collect Vinyl Records when I was growing up so as a family we always listened to music. I moved to London in 1991,  but even though I wasn’t born here I definitely see London as my home. I love London, especially the Music & Art that stems from it.

2/ What sort of music did your dad play? And does this mean you’re sat on a large collection of old European vinyl that’s worth a mint?! And have you ever played any of these old treasures in your sets?!

He was a DJ back in 1976 at a Club called Tam Tam for eight months in West Berlin while he was a student. He used to play American Pop music, Soul, Disco and also African High Life. All the vinyls were lost before I was born, but my dad collected music right when I was growing up. I only found out he used to DJ a couple of years ago. I was really surprised when he told me. I actually couldn’t believe it. Its a little bit like fate if you believe in that!

3/ So when exactly did you first take to the decks? When you arrived in London in ’91? And did you start out with drum and bass?

I first started mixing to UK Garage back in 97-98. I think I was hooked to the music from the first time I listened to it. This was when I was in year 10 or 11 in high School. There was a real buzz about Garage at school. A few of the guys in my year were DJ’ing and MC’ing. My older brother and my friend used to throw local Garage events at Edgware Town Football club, North West London. I think my first clubbing experience was to Garage music. It was all about going to a club, no-one cared what you looked or dressed like, or danced like, etc. Just enjoy the music and have fun. That’s what I’m about!

I used to tape record DJ mixes from local pirate stations, Mac Fm & Lush FM. But I think the actual time when I realized wanted to be a DJ was one night in a club called Gas Club just off Leicester Square, London. I was under aged but I was glad the bouncer let me in. To cut a long story short, DJ EZ was on the decks and I was the guy standing behind the DJ Box watching his every move. I think that was probably the first time I ever saw him DJ live and I was totally Moved & Inspired. I knew I wanted to get behind the decks and get that kind of reaction from the crowed he got. He made it look so easy! But it isn’t that easy, its actually very very hard!

I’ve only just started mixing Drum & Bass this year in January. I got a real BIG inspiration to start mixing D&B, so I did it! Back when I first started DJ’ing, it was very expensive to buy Vinyl Records. The only option for me was to choose one genre, which was Garage. I was into Jungle, Drum & Bass and House Music back then too. Fast forward 10 years on and you can now buy Mp3′s for £1.50 max. Now I can mix whatever type of music I want, which is great for me!

Thanks to the inspiration I got, I’m now a now also a D&B DJ. This is great for me because I now Love Drum & Bass! :)

4/ As a big, big fan of your drum and bass mixes I’m shocked to find you only started making them a few months ago! I think it’s safe to say you’ve definitely taken to the genre like a duck to water! So, we have to thank DJ EZ for being your ‘mentor’ of sorts (as well as your father), but what other DJs do you feel influence your work? Which were the garage DJs and who are the DnB DJs that inspire you?

I think especially in Garage music, there was only one DJ! That was DJ EZ. If you know how complex and hard it is to mix,  and then if you heard him play Live, it blew me away. I don’t think anybody that I’ve heard Live came close. I think What I wanted to do is try & get to his level. I didn’t worry about any other DJs, I just wanted to find my own style and take on the biggest DJ out there in the world. Whoever that may be!

5/ That’s definitely a big question to ask; who IS the biggest DJ in the world right now? Do you consider guys like David Guetta to be DJs? Or is he too commercial, or more of a producer?

I would say David Guetta is probably the biggest DJ.  As in the most famous. Maybe even Deadmau5. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re the best behind the decks. I’m sure there’s a DJ/DJette out there sweating blood and tears, tearing out a club somewhere in the world. Would love to find them and hear them play!

I think to be a great DJ you also have to be a great producer. It comes with the job. It also helps you understand the psychology of music and shows through your mixes!

6/ At the recent SW4 Festival we managed to talk a great deal about music, but which DJs impressed you most while we were there?

One of the DJs I really wanted to see and was one of the first DJs on was Swedish DJ Ida Engberg . I’ve been following her for a couple of years now and she’s a great DJ and also a great producers. But we kinda spent too much in in the pub in Waterloo and missed her set. But an hour after we got in SW4, I had to switch off as a DJ and listen to the music and enjoy it! Magnetic Man was a great set! Loved it!!!!!

7/ Agreed! And we certainly bounced around to Sasha as well as Pendulum right at the end! Ok, final question… where do you see/wish to see yourself as a DJ in 5 years time…?

That’s a tough question… I’d love to see myself DJing all over the world. I’d love to DJ in Ibiza, WMC Miami, Japan, South America to New York! I’d also love to get back to producing music. So by that time my productions would be up to scratch & I would be making the music that I want to make.

But at the end of the day its only music… a wife, a couple of kids, cats & dogs running around the house to share my dream with me! :)

Thank’s C-Kay! I think we’ll end this interview with your latest mix: Smooth Drum and Bass Grooves Part 10!

Smooth DnB Part 10