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DJ Diary: Spain 2005
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The date is the 2nd of July. After traveling nearly nonstop for over 36 hours I finally arrived at the excellent Hispera hotel in Bilbao. I could write an entire other diary involving the dodgy hotels, flight near misses, bad Chinese food and bus crashes I experienced leading up to today! But we'll leave that for another time. After meeting up with Brian Cross, my part time agent, organizer and translator for the trip, we headed out into the city to find something to eat in the mid afternoon. In the north of the Spain many places still shut for mid day breaks in summer and then open up later for business. This practice proved to be widespread in Bilbao and we eventually succumbed to the large Burger King with doors wide open for business, not your typical Spanish meal but it filled the spot. Brian and I then walked around the city centre chatting and taking in the sights. The city is home to the Guggenheim art museum and even though I didn't venture inside, it was quite spectacular to see. After returning to the hotel for a nap, we had a rather expensive neaveua arty farty style meal which consisted of not so medium slices of steak with sides of noodles?!? and crisps? Much bread was needed to fill the rest, but it did just fine. Let me write now, moment for moment, the progression for the rest of a night that I'll never forget. The gig: A white Mercedes picks us up to take us through to the club nearly an hour away. How do you stay STYLE in Spanish? That hour in the car seems to fly by though as my mind races through my set in double time. By the time we arrive at the club I,ve played the set in my head twice over already! The car park is full of people hanging out in their cars. Txitxarro (Pronounced:Chi-Cha-Row) is a strange club because the inside can be empty but the parking area full of people opting to not pay the entrance fee and just sit and drink in their cars all night. Tonight thankfully though its packed inside and PG2 is playing a great opening set filled with subtle prog trance hits. The crowd in front of him are generally young and friendly. No posh posers, just hard core clubbers! The kind that make or break a DJ. Below the DJ box is a huge poster advertising Txitxarro versus "SUD AFRIKA" with James G in big Bold letter all across the bottom. If the nerves were gonna overcome my coolness, this was the moment! A few double tequila's soon sort that problem out and Im relaxed / intoxicated enough to step proudly into the box at 3AM. I quickly realise the job at hand has been made that much more interesting with the presence of only one CD player. I planned to play a largely vocal free set (as I was advised the crowd dont enjoy vocals much) but assuming that I would have the use of 2 CD players (Damn!!). I plug my headphones in none the less though and begin my set. Opting for the safer choice of playing music the spanish crowd can relate too, I begin by playing some tribal beats with constant build ups to hopefully win them over. Exactly three songs later and the floor is packed and bouncing! Brian is grinning at me and I'm secretly shouting Yes! Yes! inside. It looks like I've taken the next step in my career and succeeded! Scanning and reading the crowds movements through out the first hour I realise that they like it harder without the big trancey breaks we are accustomed too back home. I soon end up at the back of my vinyl box, which doesnt see the needle very often: my techno section. Out comes the agressive, hypnotic beats and the whistles soon prevail. I relax for the rest of my set and enjoy my time with the crowd, at one point jumping so hard in the DJ box I made the needle jump... whoops !!!. My two hours fly by like a bullet train in Japan and I soon hand over to the next DJ to huge applause from the crowd. They were pleased and believe me, so was I. After signing some fans (hand held cooling fans), not actual people!! We depart the club at 5.30AM in celeb style, our white Merc! I'm slightly drunk from the oversized spanish tequilas, smiling from ear to ear and jumping all over the place... this is the rockstar life! The rest of the next week was spent in Barcelona doing business and working on a secret project that you'll all hear about soon, Im sure. Friday (8 July) was another brilliant night for me. I got to meet and hang out with my personal favourite on the decks, Armin Van Buuren. He was playing at Pacha that evening in Barcelona and Brian was the middle man for it all, so we enjoyed a dinner with Armin and his lovely girlfriend, I then shadowed him in the VIP at the club that night. Pacha's VIP is directly behind the DJ box, a level above the crowd so I was able to chat with him pretty much most of the night. He told me to tell all his South African fans that he can't wait to play here and hopes it will be soon. Stay tuned! We drank a toast to his visit one day. He is a really down to earth guy and its easy to see how he got to where he is now with so much energy, both in his music and his personality behind the decks. Brian opened for him and played a great set with some serious skills on the mixer. During Armins set, I was like one giant input machine, taking in all the movements and small tricks he applies to the music. I learnt a lot that night. It was a major highlight in my DJ career! I got to spend 3 days in the UK after the night at Pacha and used the time to maximum opportunity, seeing my sister and old friends as well as spending a day in Studio with Gareth Emery (GTR), another top man with some hot tunes coming out soon! It all went so fast really. It seems like a blur now. Thank goodness I wrote this Diary to keep track of the memories. HUGE THANKS to BRIAN CROSS and ESP for making this all happen. It was a dream come true. James G. |
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Comments(2)
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Ignore the grammatical errors ;) I was clearly still learning how to master the English language when I wrote this folks. My apologies.
By: James Gladwin
, On
Friday, 28 August 2009
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Sweet Nice one china! Living the dream. Much respect.
By: Rob Dickens
, On
Friday, 30 October 2009
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