Tag Archives: brixton academy

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.

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What Jody Did in 2010

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It’s part pure-self-indulgence, and part diary… as since I started drinking less my memory’s started getting worse… and I thought it was supposed to be the other way round!

Below is a list of what I achieved/enjoyed/did during the year of 2010, which has gone down as One Of The Best Years Of My Life(TM). Most of you will have been involved to some degree, some of you will have followed my adventures, and some of you have come here wondering who the hell I am, and those that know me will wonder just how the hell I managed it all! Well, join the club.

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JANUARY

The year started with snow and Gareth “Big Perm” Brown stayed snowed-in at mine for a couple of days. It was also (my youngest son) Bam’s first real snowfall that he could go out

If you can't drop your trousers in front of a strange, hungover German, who can you drop them in front of?

and play in. Work and schools are closed as are most roads.

Started my radio career with Vectis Radio – an online radio station based here on the Isle of Wight – as Bully’s assistant during his afternoon show.

Brighton Tattoo Convention was also our destination at the end of the month where I got a shark tattoo on my thigh by Mark Halbstark -  a tattoo which ends up in Skin Deep magazine later that year!

The Wild Bunch hit The Folly for Richie’s birthday.

MARCH

For my birthday my sister Kay and her husband-to-be, Steve, got me 8 weeks of salsa dancing in revenge for the Des O’Connor tickets I gave her for her birthday the previous year. I take my partner-in-crime – Simon Cope – with me as punishment for him laughing about it. I won’t digress exactly what happened… as all these “birthday presents

Me, Ollie, Perm and Copey.

spiralling out of control” are for a future blog… or book!

My birthday is also shared by Amy Bailey! Who then ups and leaves me to go to Australia… this trend continues through the year as Gareth Brown also goes to the same country and Chris ‘Anal’ Ettritch and Caroline Uncle also head out to the far east.

The Ryde Taxis 16 seater bus I drive got on TV on South Today! I volunteered to sit in it while they filmed… they said no. Face for radio, anyone?

I’m also the bus driver for local band The Dead Perrys for their photo shoot. It ends up in true rock and roll style as we ruin places, pubs and rock out til 4am…

APRIL

I start my own show at Vectis Radio, playing soul and funk. The first show I’m nervous as hell, but soon into my element and start playing tracks that have sampled old songs, so hip hop becomes prevalent. The show morphs and later in the year I move to Tuesday nights

The WIld Bunch

and get free reign and host special shows covering the Wu Tang, the Beastie Boys, DJ Shadow and Cypress Hill. Thanks Macca!

The Wild Bunch hit the Windmill in Bembridge.

I see Mat Carrington for the first time this year after promising us both I’d make more of an effort to get over to see him in Wimbourne. I do well on that promise through the rest of the year.

I join Twitter. It takes me a good month or so to get into it but it is very rewarding and has allowed to me speak to many other writers, sports fans, stars, etc. By the end of the year I will have struck up a friendship with Dan Gold, and spoke to DJ Mistajam, page 3 girl Rosie Jones, porn star Rachael Williams, UK hip-hoppers Foreign Beggars, Brighton stars Rizzle Kicks, and writer Rebecca Woodhead! An honourable mention goes to Marni Mann, a writer awaiting publication who I will be talking to throughout my own process of trying to become a published author. *note to self: ask Marni if I can be the first to interview her once published!* (also, Marni’s blog is on this page under the ‘blogroll’ section)

MAY

The garden outside the flats Copey and I live in gets a big renovation! The grass and wild bushes are cut and a fence is put up by Lee Daniel… thus allowing us to have some big, crazy barbeque’s that run throughout the summer. Strangely, once the grass is cut, I find a

You can't actually see the pain we were in.

pair of Jamaican pants.

I win £400 as Norwich win League One.

The Wild Bunch hit the Folly. Again.

Copey and I Walked The Fucking Wight. All 26 miles of it for charity. It wasn’t my choice but Bully asked us live on air on Vectis Radio, so how could we refuse? My feet hurt afterwards. A lot. Almost as much as I hurt Isle of Wight Radio when I got to the finish line and they asked who I was walking for. I was wearing a Vectis Radio t-shirt and I proclaimed it live on their show!

Went to Wembley with Bully, Frank and his son Danny to watch England play Hungary in a friendly before the Shit World Cup. It wouldn’t be my last visit to Wembley this year.

We roll up at the Bournemouth Tattoo Convention. I don’t have any work done but I do get to meet Dan Gold of London Ink fame!

JUNE

The Wild Bunch hit The Sloop.

Got my picture taken with Kate Moss after driving her back from the Isle of Wight Festival, along with her rocker boyfriend, Jamie Hince – who was a lovely fellow!

But Kate wasn’t a patch on the Bunch’s own H-Bomb – Ms Haley Owen. We rocked up at On The Rocks in Yarmouth for her birthday.

We host a barbeque to end all barbeques for an England World Cup game. It’s still talked about in pubs and clubs across the island. Apparently. Also, it isn’t a patch on the

She was a little starstruck at first.

monster BBQ we hosted the month before, in which we had more people than the pub across the road! Inman also supplies much mirth with his bionic leg…

The Wild Bunch hit Portsmouth for Copey’s birthday. (I do realise that some of you have no idea who the Wild Bunch are, but they are a close group of my friends and will feature in a blog coming soon!)

My bus and I ferried passengers backwards and forwards to a church and reception in nearby St Helens for one of Jimmy Choo’s designers.

The Bunch hit the Alamo for Emily’s birthday.

I start up an email-writing-humour-filled friendship with Mr Jason Tabrys; truly my partner-in-crime. One of us will end up famous. The other will be riding the others coat-tails… but as long as there are big houses and bitches involved, I don’t care who does it.

JULY

I finally take over the gold mondeo I’ve been driving sporadically over the last couple of years. I’ve no real intention of driving it as I need to give my dad some more work as the markets he’s been grafting for years don’t seem to be a viable long term prospect. Plus it’s warmer in the car. Only downside is he’ll probably meet some of my idiot mates… but at least the car is now mine after a long, drawn-out process of trying to buy it. And blowing an engine in it. Twice.

Bam, Jo and I go to the Isle of Wight Zoo which is always good fun. Her brother – Darren (of the NFL blog fame) – works there and feeds the goats with Bam while I look after the monkey. *ahem*

Tommy Harding manages to coax me out of beach football retirement to play a game for

What the fuck were we thinking?

him along with some of my old team as he’s short of players. We lose. I don’t even make it onto the pitch after realising how unfit I am walking to the pitch.

The Ryde Taxis weekly golf tournament starts. Copey and I are very similar in scores throughout the next few weeks. The sessions also allow Frank Allen the following observation:

“Jody’s golf swing is perfect – he actually looks like a pro… until he hits the ball.”

The Wild Bunch hit Weatherspoons. Hard.

Had a five minute chat all about Bam with Hawksbee and Jacobs on their brilliant TalkSport afternoon show. I have intentions for TalkSport but all will be revealed at a later date…

I take Bam to the Thomas Day Out at Havenstreet Steam Railway, a day we always both enjoy. It’s also probably Bam’s favourite place on the island and we’ll be back again a couple of times during the year.

And in July I started blogging.

AUGUST

Take Bam to Space Island and catch up with some old friends in the form of Skeete, Lucy

Lee’s photo of Bam, through a treestump

and Lee Richards and all their kids. Lee takes a photo of Bam which gets reproduced many times by myself and ends up as a Christmas present to my mum. Lee definitely needs to get more involved in photography. And he also qualifies for a blog on his own… not just through his photography but because every time he asks me to come out for a quiet drink, things go veeeeeeeeeeeeery awry.

Went to Brixton Academy with Lindon Plumley and saw the Wu-Tang Clan! Blogged.

Bam and I go to the Chale Show to confront my fear of flying by going up in the helicopter tours they do every year….

…this year they’re not doing them.

It’s my old friend and boss Andy Younies’ 40th birthday at the Oakfield Club House… a truly colourful event!

Andy's 40th

Saw Mat Carrington BA Hons III again!

Gabbi Wickes and her dad, Kev, come down for a week and we end up on a good night out.

Back to Havenstreet with Bam, this time for the Steam Fayre.

The island is besieged during it’s always-brilliant Scooter Rally, and Frank Allen and I are convinced to go down to the King Lud pub wearing our football shirts as we were informed THAT everyone would be doing the same that night. Frank and I are the only ones with football shirts on.

The last barbeque of the year is – as always – a big event, and this time we even have the debut of local island band The Hay Stack Rats!

SEPTEMBER

It’s off to Thorpe Park we go on a day out with Copey, Jo, The Guv’nor (Andy) and others. I worry Bam will be scared of the rides… but he soon puts me straight on that one. We also see Louie Spence, Duncan James, and Tamzin Outhwaite there. As you do.

The Wild Bunch hit Appley Manor for some joint birthdays. It ends up in my garden at 2am doing headstands.

OCTOBER

Most of this month is taken up with Jo and I going on holiday to Canada. I’ve already blogged the hell out of it so go read them.

The Wild Bunch hit Ryde Tandoori.

I hang around with him for his intelligence and humour. Since he sold the car I haven't been over to see him, however.

Saw Mr Carrington again.

Bump into old friends Joz and Jodie on a random night out in Spoons. It’s messy, but fun. Some of the Bunch are in attendance.

Remember the salsa dancing Kay and Steve got me? Well, I make them read The Worst Poem In The World(TM) at the Quay Arts Centre in front of the Island Poetry Society. Again, one day this will be a blog or a book. Or read out at my funeral.

Darren and I go to Wembley for the Annual International NFL Game. Again, blogged.

NOVEMBER

Andy, Bam, myself and loads more kids go to Splashdown in Poole.

Bam.

The island suffers some heavy floods. Bam and I go play in them!

The Ryde Taxi drivers have a Jolly Boys Outing to France and Belgium.

DECEMBER

Snow falls heavy right at the start of the month.

I take Bam, Cameron and Chloe to the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth, and a quick trip round Gunwharf.

I manage to get a part as a zombie in The Zombie Diaries 2: World of the Dead thanks to old family friend Liam Kealy! The film is released this coming July (2011) and I will put up the blog about my day of being dead up then.

A man of natural beauty.

The Wild Bunch have their annual Christmas dinner… this time at the Beijing Palace. Nothing like a good old traditional chicken korma for Christmas…

Chris ‘Anal’ Ettritch and I take out Jo’s car with Bam in the snow… and rag the shit out of it. Must admit, it’s a gem in the snow, that little Fiesta!

This is quickly followed by Anal and Caroline’s leaving do, as they are off around the world for four months

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So, that’s my year in summary. Again, self-indulgent and a good way for me to look back in years to come and remember just exactly what the hell I was doing, but it’s fun nonetheless, and it should be a good read if you’re one of my friends or if you simply want to know about me!

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve still got a bloody book to write!

One Jag, Two Lads – Wu Tang Brixton Academy 4th August

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There you go, there’s the tickets owned by myself and Linden Plumley for our trip up to the Brixton Academy in London last Wednesday (4th August) to see the Mighty, the Massive, the Masters, The Wu Tang Clan.

I’ve been a fan of the Wu since I was a young lad, early teens when they first erupted from New Yorks’ Statton Island and covered the world with their killa bees. Enter the 36 Chambers is one of those albums that is truly timeless – raw, gritty, uncompromising and you can tell that they just didn’t give a fuck about anyone or anything.

Heck, maybe that’s why us teenagers loved ‘em back then. I followed them for years and bought all their albums and avidly watched channels like MTV (later the Base channel before it became pop-tastic) and gobbled up any and all videos I could get.

So, and this actually warrants a ‘funnily enough’ tag, but about two weeks ago I was sat at my computer having hammered some new Wu tang thru my speakers when I wondered if there was any chance that they’d ever tour again. Google be thy friend, and what do you know – they were on the last leg of their European Tour!! And their FINAL date was in London in 7 days time! Fate?

It took me all of 5 mins to buy two tickets, and the look of contentment on my face as I sat back in my easy chair grinning at the ticket receipt on my computer screen slowly started to fade as I realised that I hadn’t actually asked anyone to go with me!

First port of call was a guy called Kev, who I knew was as big a fan as I was, but at such short notice he couldn’t get it off of work as another of our friends had just decided to go on holiday at late notice – thanks Jozwell!! Hope you got the shits!

So, armed with two tickets, no partner and the magic of social networking I hit Facebook and whored myself and my Magic Ticket out. Literally first up was Linden. The rest is history.

We drove up to Brixton in my Jag in the pouring rain and in vain search of a Burger King which I desperately needed. Every islander knows that it’s Written In Stone that you hit BK when on the mainland.

Burgerly-disappointed we got to Brixton and managed to park right next to the Academy. Two white kids in a jag in Brixton. Safe as houses.

After some chips and foul (not sic) chicken in the Nando’s opposite we strolled on over and queued. A few hip-hop-hopefuls patrolled the throng selling their own cds and I picked one up from a guy who had toured with the Wu on their last British Tour. Can’t remember his name but he’s featured on Radio One Xtra, Kiss, etc. Still haven’t listened to the cd yet though!!

[Note: The guy is called Achilles Charrington and his cd is really, really good!]

Once inside and the Brixton Academy is obviously decades, if not, hundreds of years old. Two staircases sweep up the sides as the foyer filters the majority thru the middle and into the chamber itself (nice Wu reference there, Jode). The main room is like a bowl with a steeped curve that allows those at the back a view of the stage.

When we entered there were a couple of young lads playing a dj set (Juicy, I think they were called) and these guys were followed by The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble – a group of 8 brothers (same father anyway) who all played brass instruments in Hip Hop flavours! Very impressive…

Next up was MistaJam from Radio One Xtra who tore things up with a live mix set of 90s New York Hip Hop which he smashed. His energy and vibe and ability to work the crowd and know what they liked was spot on, although by the end you could tell he was being told to keep going while the Wu readied themselves. The shouts of “Wu Wu Wu Wu” were growing stronger and stronger…

Then they hit the stage. I haven’t got many photos as the crowd surged forward and I couldn’t hold my camera up high enough to get any good ones, but luckily Linden’s clearing 6 foot, so, flicking the camera to video mode he got some good footage of the Wu live and in full effect. Add me on facebook and see the videos on there.

Alas, ODB had passed away the year previously (although this allowed RZA to rap ‘Shimmy Shimmy Ya’ – something to tell my kids about) and Method Man was either a/ filming a new film, or b/ with his wife because she has cancer. Seeing as RZA said he was filming and some guy in the queue mentioned cancer I know which one I’m holding onto.

So, a twenty year love affair with a gang of black men from NY culminated in an explosion of sound and jumping sweaty, bodies in Brixton academy. It was worth the wait. I can’t think of anything better.

Oh, except maybe watching the Wu Tang sing The Beatles ‘Come Together’.

Fuckin’ A.