My trip began with me feeling rather under the weather on the way to airport. My darling girlfriend had been sick with flu for a whole 2 weeks prior to my departure and I had managed to avoid catching it from her or so I thought.

Stocking up on flu meds I dosed myself with enough vitamin c to turn my complexion a light shade of orange and fell asleep on my way to Dubai (my connecting point to Austria). On touch down in Dubai I was definitely beginning to fight a mean case of h5tammy in my system. Onwards to Vienna international and I wasnt getting any better. I was greeted by DJ Observer, or as I started soon calling him: Obsi. We checked into my hotel across the road from the airport and I was soon in recovery position fighting the chills again. Thanks god it was the day before the event and I still had some time to get it together.

Upon waking in the evening I enjoyed a dinner with Obsi, his lovely girlfriend and his good friend Chrizzi (what his real name was I will never know). I was now full of gunk and feeling like a big blob of steaming horse..radish. We proceeded to Viennas longest running club. It has an underground look and feel to it but as I soon discovered, played old cheesy house all night (No offence to house music. But this was really old stuff!). The vodka started flowing and I really became good mates with my hosts, amazing how alcohol is conducive to that. We carried on way past our initial proposed leaving time of midnight and I believe I climbed into bed drunk as a mule and feeling fine at 4am.

When I awoke I could have sworn it was somewhere around 10am and I had the whole day to get out and explore the city. To my dismay it was closer to 2pm and I was feeling so sick I thought Id have to be quarantined to go back home. Telling myself that I was wasting this trip, I got dressed and caught the next train into the city centre. Vienna is beautiful. It really is. Some amazing sights and sounds to be experienced and I loved every sickly minute of it. The city is a hybrid of old and new with these amazing historic churches and museums parked in between ultra modern highrise buildings. A site to see indeed.

Obsi, hung over worse than I was, fetched me from the city centre and we went to see the club I was to play at that evening. It was an old casino converted into a club with room for 2000 at a push! Wicked sound and lighting ready to rock that night. I returned to my hotel after this and enjoyed a few hours more rest.

I was fetched 2 hours before my set by a friend of Obsis and upon my arrival at the club could tell it was going to be a good time. Not as many people as Id hoped but a nice vibe and smiling faces. Obsi played a great set before me and he will soon be coming to SA to show us what hes got. Great guy, great DJ.

I took the decks at 1.30am and played the newest and greatest tracks I had, accompanied by a great visual display on big projector screens either side of me (there really is nothing like seeing ur name in big bold letters all over the wall). Although I was getting a good reaction from the crowd, it soon became apparent that Vienna is actually a clubbing crowd that enjoys classics (remember the house club the previous night? I do, barely). I dropped a couple of said old school and the floor was soon jumping. This state of affairs remained all the way till the end of my set at 3am. I didnt want to get off those decks and was considering spilling a bottle of something sticky all over the next DJs bag (Its evil, but itll work!). It all came to an end too quickly and the drinks started flowing again. The club emptied out soon after my set and we ended up at MacDonalds at 6am in time for breakfast.

After a short-lived nap early Sunday and a quick pack of my bags, I said goodbye to my new friends and boarded the plane back home: still sick as a dog but smiling at least. I had a scary experience at my stop over in Dubai on the way back where I went deaf in 1 ear as a result of the de-pressurizing on the plane and my new buddy the Flu. For all you traveling DJs reading this. Go to the first pharmacy you can find and ask for nose spray, it works.

48 hours later and it was all over. See you again soon Vienna!

James G