|
 |
Features mentioning
Darz - Expand
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
HarderFaster DJs >> Darz >> Column
|
Column by Darz
Submitted 31-Aug-04 (1921 views)
|
August’s busy month of gigs kicked off with a trip to London to play at Heaven, a venue I’d previously played earlier on in the year. On that occasion, the event was Fusion boasting four rooms of trance, hard house and funky house, meaning that the funky room was pushed into the un-atmospheric VIP lounge, which didn’t suit my uplifting party style at all. This time was to be different, playing in the Dokota Bar of the Bigger Better Louder night, run in collaboration by the promoters of Frantic and Wildchild. I travelled to London via train on Friday 6th in preperation for what I thought was a midnight set for an hour. With three hours between Liverpool and London, and travelling on my own, I had only Gazza’s autobiography for company. Arriving in Camden, I then headed to Heaven, in the capital’s Charing Cross. Here I met up with fellow Thirsty DJs Chewy and Rob Alexander. The opening of the funky room had been held back by an hour and a half meaning that I was to be playing b2b with Chewy. We played to a packed floor, and although personally not a massive fan of b2b sets, the crowd seemed to really enjoy it. Also on the bill were Filthy Rich and PK, I’m glad to be a part of a such a fresh new funky house scene.
On the Saturday, I returned to Liverpool, before catching a shower and heading out with my mates for my gig at the massive Passion night in Coalville. Accompanied by my driver Pez and mates Coops and Olley we went for a drink in one of Liverpool’s Albert Dock bars before the journey to Coalville, which is near Leicester in the Midlands. Usually, when travelling in Pez’s disco mobile, the tunes are cranked so high that there is little conversation to be had. Again this was the case on Saturday, but whilst usually we listen to mix cds ranging from local djs to the world’s finest, this occasion Radio 1’s coverage of Ibiza gave us our aural pleasure for the journey there and back with Jules’ and Fergie’s show and also the Essential Mix from Amnesia. Arriving at Passion, I was expecting to be playing in the Red Room, however was playing in one of the bars instead. When I took to the decks at 12.30am for my hour set the room was pretty empty, however by the end had filled up, so I was happy to have got the room rocking for the next djs. We headed back to Liverpool and to our favourite late night café, ordering pizza at 4am!
With a weekend not djing, myself and Pez checked out a new night fairly close to our homes, at the Liquid Lounge in Winsford on the Friday 13th. Jules was headlining, and the night went well apart from somebody spilling a drink all over Jules' cds. We spend the next 20 minutes cleaning his cds, they needed to be cleaned straight away or they would have been unplayable. Friday 20th I headed down to London with mate Pez to play Thank Funk It’s Fryday at the Cook in Acton. After ditching our stuff at Kurruption promoter Zoelee’s house in West Ealing, not far from the venue, and having a quick beer, we made our way to the Cook to play the last set of the night, 1-3am. To say the atmosphere was incredible is an understatement. Chants of “1 more” at the end proved how good a night it was, so here’s hoping I’ll be invited back to play shortly. On the Saturday Pez and I met my brother with some friends. My brother, Pez and I are all season ticket holders at Everton, and generally my brother and I make about half the away games per season, the majority of which being in London, near to where my brother John lives. It had been nearly two years since we had seen an Everton win away from home, so as we beat Crystal Palace 3-1, it was celebration time. Saturday night, after meeting Tommy Four Seven and his mate Liam, along with Pez, we all went to Serious’ Bday @ The Cross, in London’s Kings Cross. This is one of the best nights I’ve ever been, the atmosphere and crowd are second to none. Djing was Eddie Halliwell, who is the best DJ I’ve ever seen, the excellent Judge Jules and Simon Patterson. I finally stumbled into bed at 9.30am a very happy, yet drunk man…
The Bank Holiday weekend of August 28th-30th is one of the busiest of the year, this year being no different. This had been planned for the whole summer, with loads of events packed into this hectic weekend. After watching Everton beat West Brom 2-1 at Goodison Park myself and Pez headed to Creamfields at the Old Airfield in Speke, Liverpool. After checking out Jules’ Radio 1 show and a quick mooch around some of the other tents, we left for destination London, after picking up Coops, to play Hard House Academy. Being sold out for months, Hard House Academy was Frantic’s 7th Birthday party, held at the massive Brixton Academy venue. Encorporating four rooms, 3 of which being hard house, the one I was due to play in – the corridor being the only hard house alternative – my usual uplifting funky style. Arriving in Brixton at 1.30am in preperation for my main time 2-4am set, I took over the decks from Rob Tissera, who went straight from the funky room to play the 3,500 capacity main room. I was sandwiched between two of the worlds most known DJs in Rob Tissera and Phil Reynolds. The set rocked, the crowd going mad to every tune, dancing in every imaginable place, including the speakers!! On Sunday we checked out the Notting Hill Carnival, the Good Times stage where Norman Jay, one of the founders of the festival was playing. The atmosphere rocked. Unfortunately we had to leave early, as I was djing at the Southside Bar in Central London for Funky Foreplay. I’ve played the Southside Bar on a few occasions for Thirsty DJs in the more atmospheric lower room. On this occasion Hard House was the music of choice in that room, and I was playing in the more laid back room on top, so I played a less driving set, keeping it funky. After leaving here, we checked out Wildchild at Heaven for an hour before booming back to Liverpool in Pez’s Disco Car. Monday we went to the Matthew Street Festival in Liverpool, a festival held every year where the Beatles were made famous. After all that, I need a sleep…
Cheers,
Darz
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by
their respective companies. All other content is (c) 2001-2024 HarderFaster.
|
![[HarderFaster] - Work Hard, Play Harder!](/images/mainbanner_top1.gif)
