Yesterday’s gig at Maison Du Peuple was fun. Although we got some strange requests, crazy people babbling on about the Simple Minds (and when I told I hated them, I got asked repeatedly what music I liked – mind you, I just had finished a 6h set) and mad drunk people falling into the booth constantly, we also got a lot of love. For which we are thankful. Even got a guy telling me that if I were a girl he would have told me I was a hot thing. Yep, it was one of those nights.

Great bar although they got to work on the sound. Will need to test my new edit on another system to know how hard it pumps. Big up to the nice owners, Anthony and the lovely staff. And to our little family always supporting us.   

And got to tell y’all, not drinking any alcohol opens up new worlds for you. Never knew everybody (and I mean everybody) was that drunk at the end of a night. I’m beginning to really enjoy that part of going out.

Weekends are too short. Did a whole lot but still not all I wanted to do. And for once not because I’ve been slacking. I need 30-hour days and 3 day weekends. What I managed to get done was fun. A cratediggin’ trip to Antwerp (see also our Podcast) being the absolute highlight. Should do that more often. I adore working my way through stacks of asorted vinyl to find some gems. Result being dusty fingers and plenty of top class vinyl I wouldn’t have found through my usual routine of checking the new releases in my favourite shops. And certainly not for the prices I’ve paid. Expect to hear lots of them in our radio show next few weeks.

Last few weeks I came to realise nothing can beat vinyl. For me personally that is. This has little to do with the technology or skills of CD / Serato dj’ing nor the quality of the sound (I rarely play on sound systems good enough to hear the difference).  I just love the total package of vinyl better. I has probably a lot to do with the fact that a grew up with the medium. Anyhow, when I play with vinyl it feels more natural. Selecting records knowing them by sight is a big factor. Can’t seem to find anything in my CD map and I always play the same stuff from my computer. Vinyl makes me explore, makes me more adventurous. And I rate that as one of the main things in life. Exploring new territories in every way possible. Plus as a dj I love the fact that you need to make a selection before going out to play. It may be nice to have your entire collection at your disposal when your playing with your laptop but for me the main task of a dj is to make the right selection to create the right atmosphere. I too love the romantic idea of a dj having all his music to choose from and freestyling with that but I don’t believe it’s reality. It all begins with preparation. Selecting, knowing your records, knowing which ones segue well. And vinyl just is the best medium, for me, to do that.

It has come so far that I rather wait for stuff to come out on vinyl before playing it. Even if that means being a bit “behind” others. Which I don’t mind, because I dig deeper than most giving me an edge anyway. And I take the annoyance of carrying the weight of a bag of vinyl as a necessity to enjoy the fun of playing with them later. I don’t complain.

Had a good time at Strictly Niceness too. Being one of the only sober ones had a lot to do with that. Some wasted people at the end of a night. Some can hardly hold on their feet but still think they have a chance with ladies. These are the funniest. Saw some fierce dancing too. Didn’t know we had such quality dancers in Brussels. Big up to them. I’ve noticed that the best dancers are very often (not always) black, gay men. Is there a reason for that ? It makes my conviction stronger that every good dj needs / has a black gay following. I, myself, still have a long way to go to reach that goal.(Oh, please don’t take all of this too serious).

Big up to Kwak and Bernard for playing and saying some nice words about my Diana Ross edit. Still needs to work on the sound of it. Thanks to Kwak and LuiGi for offering to help me with that. I take those offers with both hands. And it motivates me to keep on and produce some more.

Up to the next weekend. Meanwhile enjoy the Podcast mix I’ve made. 

What was supposed to be a chill weekend turned out to be an highly chaotic one. I seem to have a knack for not sticking to the plan. Had some good times though. One of the few scheduled things I did was going to the Strictly Niceness party. Nice to see it packed once again and to see Mad Mats back. He proved he’s one of the top dj’s around to all who didn’t know already. Although I didn’t get the back to back thing. He should have played a 2-hours set at least. That would have been better use of the man’s huge potential behind the decks. He would have ripped it completely. Not that I think Kwak or Bernard aren’t good dj’s but I believe in flow and storytelling when it comes to dj’ing and I missed that.

Next time I’ll see Mats it’ll be in Stockholm as promised. Got to see it for myself if the women over there are even better looking than at Strictly. Haha.

Big up to everyone I had a good time with this weekend.

Check the Strictly Niceness pics here.

A bit late. But here it is. Really enjoyed our set at Cafe Belga. Even though most people don’t really listen it’s fun to play there. And the few that did focus on our music, appreciated it. We don’t need more.

Saturday was a blast too. Lots of people at Brussels Soul. Not too many faces I recognised. Always a good sign. The music was fine. In hindsight would have loved to play earlier on. 2 o’clock was a bit late. Had way too much time to get into the party and a lot of people had already left by the time we started. But that’s only a personal and maybe selfish thought. The dance floor was packed most of the time. Big up to Thierry, Atze and Yves. It was a good one.

The Afro Heat party was very good. Nice venue, heard nothing but good music and it was a full house. A welcome and interesting new player on our nightlife scene. Keep up the good work dj Reedoo and friends. Nice one. Left quite early aiming to be home at a reasonable hour. Failed miserably. Thanks to the guys at Henri. Haha. Always nice to meet them though. Ended up at the nice Bonnefooi bar and got home much later than I hoped. Had a good time nevertheless.

The dinner and music lesson I got served earlier that evening was a superb start of the night. Thanks N’Dae and Didier.

 And recording the radio show on Friday was a lot of fun too. We had Thierry Boulanger from Brussels Soul in the studio for, what I think is, a great interview. And some 24 carat Soul music, off course.

And we’ll play at the Live Music Cafe on Friday the 28th if I understood everything well. And somebody very special from Toulon might come over that weekend for some serious partying. Nothing but goodness. I don’t even mind that my vacation is over.

Back after a short trip to London and Southport. Batteries reloaded, mentally. Still need to recuperate physically. But it was a blast. Visiting Tate Modern, shopping and checking Deviation in London is my perfect getaway from day to day life. Benji’s party was everything what I expected and more. Although the sound wasn’t the usual high quality one it still topped everything we’re used to in this country, they had Leffe at the bar, Rick Wilhite is one hell of a dj and  the vibe was awesome (felt like home immediately).

Southport Weekender was just as great. From partying hard with Trus’me on Friday to catching superb sets by Kon, King Britt, a hint of Dixon, Greg Wilson, Alex and Jurgen from Jazzanova, Benji B, Moodymann and Rick Wilhite once again. Seeing back the Southport family from the Netherlands, Liverpool and Belgium (nice to see some new cats discovering it). This year was the first time I didn’t miss anything I wanted to see. Even got to the end on Saturday. Solely on greasy food and a moderate amount of Cosmopolitan cocktails. Kinda proud of myself for that. Haha.

Anyway big up to Trus’me (Sambucca shots kill you, don’t they?), Phil Asher (thanks for the nice words about the mix – can’t wait for the 29th), Benji B (your set Saturday was way too short), Nick & Claudia (after this weekend I know all music is basically UK Garage / and was it the cocktails speaking about the Funktion One & Jazzanova ?), the rest of the chalet 70 posse (Nick, Betrand & friend), Bjorn, the Soulspinnas & posse, Jos and the Diephuis Mafia, Lefto & Fatou, the bPm, Simbad (some fierce sax-playing on Wednesday), Paul Stuart (I always feel ashamed I don’t go to the Sands more often), Alex & Dave (for fixing another killer SPW edition) and most important of all, our own little crew. Certainly because they were all at the Fuse on Monday night.

Which was a killer experience. Headed almost straight from England to the fm Brussel tonight party. On the high of the past experience and the chance to play at the same venue as the Respect parties (one of our main influences when we started). And I think I can say we brought a bit of those days back. A full house, a packed dance floor and we playing some funky music. Felt really good. Big up to Chantal, Koen (x2), Jeroen and the whole fm Brussel gang to give us this chance. Some time after our set I crashed physically and headed home. Energy was gone.

Now I’m on a diet of fruit and other healthy stuff to get my body where my mind’s at. 

Strictly Niceness this Saturday was all niceness indeed. Defi J played some mighty fine Boogie tunes, full house, lots of nice people, … in short I had a good time. Good to see this party booming. We need this in Brussels.

Thanks to everyone who came out to dance last night at Go Bang!. Yet again the vibe was wonderful and I’m pretty pleased with the set we played. Hope you liked it too. Still, there could have been more people and it started kinda slow. Makes you realise that there’s still a lot of pioneering work to do. In Brussels / Belgium a lot of people seem to be oblivious about the fact that there’s something between Deep Funk / vintage Soul / Hiphop and Electro / Techno / cheesy House. Soulful Disco, House and Broken beat is a big blank in their dance floor vocabulary. We’re educating but it takes time. Don’t really mind as long as we got a responsive and enthusiastic crowd like yesterday (and we don’t lose too much money).  Always nice to have people congratulating you after the party. Gives one confidence to keep on doing it.

And slowly but surely the family is growing. Good to see some faces I hadn’t seen in a very long time.

Big up to everyone helping, everyone supporting and certainly everyone dancing.

Had read some reviews beforehand, heard good stuff about it from people who saw him in Rotterdam or London but it still took me a bit by surprise. Didn’t expect it to be so good. I know the man has got an endless reservoir of classics to compose his setlist out but there are so many traps to avoid. Minor quality backing, little motivation, incorporating too much cheese, making it an oldies revue, … . None of that though. Tight band, Stevie clearly had fun on stage and enjoyed every minute of it, little cheese (only “I Just Called” and “My Cherie Amour”) and although he played lots of classics he played some less evident ones too.  He got the entire concert hall up dancing (it was a seated concert) more than a few times. Really glad I experienced this.

Really weird mix of people though. All nicely dressed 40+ Germans. Where were the youngsters ? I know it wasn’t a cheap concert but this is required for anyone who digs Soul music. Still, nice to see them all lose it to the music.

Made it a slow weekend. With little action and lots of sleep. Still felt extremely tired yesterday. Weird. Anyway, my main goal was to be in good shape today so I wouldn’t miss the Stevie Wonder gig in Köln tonight. In which I succeeded. Paid quite some money for the tickets. More than I usually spend on a concert. But it’s a legend who’s still on top of his game and he doesn’t tour that much. Heard lots of good things about the show. So a bit hyped.

I’m on a high. Way above everything and everyone. I got to meet, interview and see perform Blaze. There aren’t many artists who I respect so much. Really love their music, their ethics. And talking to them only made that respect bigger. After yesterday I know we chose the right path with Onda Sonora. Not the easy one but the lasting one.

Seeing them perform later that night was magical. I’m not the guy to go crazy. I’m almost always cool. But when they played / performed “Elements of Life” I lost it.

Big thanks to Nick and Claudia. For everything. Hope your life together will be as good as the party yesterday. Big respect to Kevin and Josh. Talking to you was inspirational. Thanks to Rainer for joining the interview, the compliments and the ace set. Thanks to Phil (being on the same dance floor means it’s quality and fun), the Disco dj who opened, Armani, and our extended family. Last night is up there in my personal pantheon of great parties. So good.

And big up to Joanna. A shame I had to miss most of the birthday party. The food was top though..

Here are some pictures of the Spectakulo festival with Mad Mats. Much more are to be found on Facebook. We will try to gather them somewhere more central and easy to access.

Still a bit exhausted after what’s been a fantastic weekend. Glad I took the day off. The party on Saturday was a blast. Like always it was a bit difficult to keep the people inside. The smoking ban inside and the fairly nice weather made it attractive to some to stay outside and talk. But those on the dance floor enjoyed it a lot and showed it by dancing. And that’s what counts.

The DJ’s did a mighty fine job. Missed most of Soul Rebel’s set but what I’ve heard was top as always. Lefto never fails although I didn’t connect to his last few tunes. A bit hard for me. Mats is one of the best DJ’s we’ve had. No doubt. I had a great night and from the reactions I heard I am not the only one.

But the thing I enjoy the most when we are having an international DJ as our guest is that it opens your world. Talking to him, hearing and seeing him play, … it just puts things in perspective. In short, the afternoon was just as much fun for me as the night. Like you’ll hear on Tuesday in our radio show. Where Mad Mats mixes some killer tunes and talks to Dieter. Mats will be back in Brussels in December by the way. To play at Strictly Niceness. Can’t wait for that. And I’m really thinking about going to Stockholm to celebrate the Raw Fusion (and my) birthday end of next month. Just got to see how I’m going to finance it all.

Up to the next party. The 26th of this month. You might have seen the flyer already. But not before I thank everybody who made this weekend happen. First of all Yoeri, Alewijn, Steven, Jan, Joke, Karl, Lieve, Dirk, Jouri, Steven, Kleo, Veerle, the Chiro girls, Ward and everybody who do their share of organising. The entire festival was superb and that’s all thanks to a lot of voluntaries of which some put a lot of effort into it. I know cause I’ve done it all previous years. Felt good to be a bit more of a tourist this year and see it all was done even better than the years before. Big up to that.

Other thanks are to all the DJ’s off course. Mats for the great sets and company, Lefto and Soul Rebel for the music. And to Phil for driving us around, FM Brussel and our sponsors for everything, Dieter, Karl, Jenna and everybody who helped us out. Truly appreciated.

And now I’m going to enjoy the CD’s we got from Mats.

What a weekend. Hilarious Friday with the usual suspects. Saturday started very nice with the recording of our Radio Show. With 2/3 of Made In Japan in the studio. And Alex from On-Point. Had a blast and I think it will be a good show to listen to. Check it tomorrow evening. After the football game we headed to Forest / Vorst, a part of my city I hardly know but sure is funky. Bar du Matin is very nice and Christian Sand played some top tunes. Great evening out.

Only minus of the weekend is the cold I have. It was the first decent weekend weather-wise in a very long time but I blew my nose way more than I liked. Awful summer.

Now it’s up to the Spectakulo festival. Next Saturday. With Mad Mats, Lefto, Soul Rebel and ourselves. Really looking forward to it all.

Managed to go to the Mambo Kings party on Friday. Although I really try to be organised, more often than not, I get things mixed up completely. With as lovely result, this time, that I ended up in Antwerp. Café Capital is a nice venue (sound could be better but that’s something I think of every single Belgian club). Loved the vibe there with lots of lovely and sexy people on the dance floor. I will be back soon.

The party itself was a lot of fun. Had a blast. Big up to all the DJ’s.

And, since last weekend, I’ve got a fancy espresso machine. I need some more practice to fix a decent coffee but once that’s all right I’ll be ready for long nights of making edits. I’ll play a new one of those tomorrow in our radio show, by the way.

What a mad weekend. Started out in Leuven with a nice DJ-gig at the Apero bar. Maybe no dancing on the tables but really enjoyed it. Nice bar with a decent sound and good looking women. What do you want more ? Big up to Tristan and Igor for fixing this. A shame we couldn’t stay longer.

Big up to Brekbit too for the ace birthday party. Had a blast. Big up to the Belgian Olympic Football team for kick starting my Saturday in great style. Had a hilarious afternoon. After some top Italian food at Café Bota I enjoyed the Strictly Niceness party there. Good sets by all the original DJ’s but I must say I always hope they’ll dig a little deeper in their, no doubt, superb collections. On the other hand, I always forget not everybody is in it as deep as I am. And people still need to recognise the music before they’ll start dancing. A fact I that puzzles me a bit, I must say.

The night ended on a bad tip. If I find the fool who stole my jacket it won’t be his best day. Not even Usain Bolt will be fast enough to avoid my fury. Really loved that piece of clothing.

Big up to Thierry and all involved with the Brussels Soul weekender. Had a blast. Superb music, lots of nice people and booze galore. Talked to a lot of people and although I’m pretty sure a lot of what I’ve said was plain nonsense I had a lot of fun. Even went back on Sunday. Not all that well due to partying a tad too hard the day before. But enjoyed the music sitting down. We need more of this.

And great that Disco Dalglish is back from the States. With a crazy amount of records (which should result in new Podcasts) and lots of stories and experiences. Which means we’re ready to take it up a notch Onda Sonora wise. We’ve received a lot of good news and promising propositions, plus some of our plans are slowly coming together. Once things get confirmed or are ready to share with the world you’ll read about them here.

Hectic week ahead. Hope to finish some more edits. Maybe even an mix. And hope to finish rearranging my collection.

Bruksellive was fun. Not too happy about my own performances I must admit. The first set didn’t go as planned due to some technical problems. Not everything was connected when I started and the slightest bit of bass made everything feedback. Problems got fixed halfway through my set but by then my flow was thoroughly messed up. So the quality wasn’t up to what it should and could have been. Not too happy about the technical side in general. The bargaining with the mixers for the second set was far from professional.

My second set, the closing one after Lefto’s sublime performance, wasn’t what it should have been either. This time mostly out of my own fault. Should never have said yes when Lefto asked me to play after him instead of what was planned. Try to follow that. Anyway, should have been much better. Sorry.

But apart from that it was a good festival. The overall vibe was nice. Chatting, chilling, enjoying the mood. Heard a good concert by Baloji. Laid back were bringing it deep. Lefto was his superb self as always. The backstage was very nice. Great food as always. Although I kinda missed the grilled Camembert. Big up to Dieter, Lucas, Jeroen and everybody involved. And shout out to everybody I met, to Karl for the ride, my godson Alex & family (almost 2 years old but the first to shake his hips to my music), the Laid Back crew, Lefto and Marie-Ange for wearing the Onda Sonora t-shirt.

Back home after a week of enjoying the sun and some fine music. Very tired, sunburned and with aching feet but in the meantime happy, inspired and motivated. It was a good week.

The place where we were staying was niceness galore. Very decent accommodation, a superb big breakfast every morning, the nicest host we could wish for, a swimming pool right outside our little chalet, a sound system where I could connect my laptop to, … . Just perfect. A slight minus was that it was in Béziers and the Worldwide festival was 50 km away in Sète. But it didn’t make me enjoy it one bit less.

The festival itself was good. Maybe no Southport. It was a bit too much a la Française with lots of room for improvement organisation-wise but maybe we Northern folk are a bit too much used to everything being strictly planned. Anyway it was irritating to hear Lefto begin his set but not being able to enter the site because for some dark reason the security didn’t open the doors. Or to have to wait at the bar for more than 15 minutes before being able to order when you know you could organise the whole thing far better with just the same amount of people. But it didn’t really spoil the fun for me. They got the sun and the genius setting to make up for it big time.

Music-wise there were up and downs. Lefto played one of the best sets I ever heard from him. Eclectic and with an impeccable flow. Setting standards for the rest of the festival that would rarely be topped. The first day he was by far the best act I saw. Didn’t see Benga though. And only a little of Gilles Peterson himself. Didn’t connect to the grimey M.I.A. Influenced female MC’s at all. Not my thing. Enjoyed Roots Manuva. Can’t wait to play that new single. Left halfway Ben Westbeech and Die’s set. It simply didn’t make me want to stay.

Second day started badly at the beach. Just missed an apparently ace set by Toshio Matsuuri to hear a cat named Dynamax play an awful R ‘n B set that literally scared everyone away from the dance floor. Made us leave for La Theatre de la Mer early. Where Little Dragon impressed me and Breakestra rocked the venue. At the beach party afterwards the decks had been recovered by decent dj’s and both Simbad and Pilooski got me dancing. This was what I hoped for and they delivered it nicely.

The last day I went to the beach early. Although the afternoon dj’s hadn’t been nice to my ears some other things had been just that to my eyes. Haha. Anyway, far better music this time. Enjoyed it a lot but it was getting a bit too hot for me and I left for Sète centre. To eat some ice cream and watch the boat game they like to play there. And to be early for the Pascal Comelade and Cinematic Orchestra gigs at the theatre venue with sight on the sea. They both blew me away. They could have played on for much longer and I wouldn’t have minded it. The combination of spheric music and top surroundings was a winner. But they stopped and I dragged my ass on last time to the Base Nautic where Henrk Schwarz had begun his ‘live’ ableton set. Which was dope to say the least. The man’s got an oeuvre that stands, brings it with enthusiasm and reaches that deepness I love so much. Loved every single second of it and ending with his Omar remix got me all exited. Together with Lefto and Cinematic Orchestra my personal highlights of the festival. Only watched Laurent Garnier begin. Was too tired and we needed to drive 50km over dark French roads.

Felt bad I had to miss the Sunday afternoon afterparty (Gilles Peterson vs Laurent Garnier) but we had to come back. Could have stayed for much longer and it will take me some time to get back in the daily rhythm. But the inspiration and motivation shot I got make we want to start some things urgently.

Big up to Meriam, Axel, Yayou and Elsa for being such great hosts. Big up to the crew; Phil, Dizze, Lieven, JF, Fluppe and certainly my main man Karl. Had a blast. And shout outs to Jos Diephuis and his girls, Lefto and Fatou, Simbad, Gilles and everyone else I talked to but forgot to ask their name.

There are pictures of our troupe in the official Southport Weekender gallery. Haha. See I you can spot ‘em. Tip, check the Jae Moonrisingnyc.com ones.

Almost forgot to let you know how the weekend went. It was a nice one. The gig in Ghent was nice. Maybe not a mega turn up but all the rest was nice. The boat was very classy, the jazz trio off the hook (very on point for such young cats), the women were good looking and we had all the candy we could wish for. The sugar rush kept me awake long after I had returned home. Big up to Jeroen and John. Hope you keep up the good work.

Saturday was cool. BBQ’s with friends are always the shit. Certainly when there’s so much cool cats. Getting your meat grilled by a senator, betting on an ace football match, playing some music, … . Had a really good time. Decided to go to the KVS afterwards which wasn’t a good idea. Was a bit too drunk and missed Red D and Lady Linn to see a very average set by Ray Mang. Met Joris from Stanton / Charlatan which is always nice. And ending our night at a Quick restaurant wasn’t that bright either. Stomach not all that well the day after.

Survived the weekend. Pretty heavy one. Told you already about Friday. Saturday was a blast too. The VK gig was nice. My first time on stage there. The venue where I’ve seen groups like Rage Against the Machine, Carter USM, Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and more some 15 years ago. Kinda meant something special to me. Getting old, getting melancholic. Strictly Niceness afterwards was good. It’s always nice to see so much family gathered under the same roof. Big up to Kwak, Bernard, Joel, Cris, Rainer and everyone who made this party possible. Great sets from everybody. But loved every minute of Rainer’s set in particular. Need that Omar & Stevie joint. So dope. Liked the hat by the way.

Next weekend will be a chill one. Time to visit the family. Don’t mind a calm weekend every now and then. Got a constant tiredness running through my veins lately. Really looking forward to being in the South of France in a week or three. Need some vacation.

To finish one last thought. We have no clubs / venue’s with a decent sound system. The one at JH Eenders tops them all. A bloody youth centre for crying out loud. Come on you club owners. Invest some money in a Funktion One system and let it tweak by a professional engineer.

Man, I love taking cabs in Brussels. The madmen the put behind steering wheels. Always a trip.

Had a real good time at Tilt!. Opened, began with some real deep shit and ended in full vocal NYC mode. And it worked. Disco Dalglish’s edits kick ass. Will have to take my game to the next level. I like that. After our set, stayed until the end. And although it wasn’t all my type of music enjoyed it all very much. Big up to Samy, Laurent and Geoffroy for the dope sets. A big, big thanks to Carlos, Virginie and the crew. It was an honour to play at your party.

And love to all who came out, Eff, Phil, the Evere crew, all those I don’t know their names, to give us some props. That always strikes us and does plenty of good. Love to Mitch. No worries you spelled our name not entirely correct on the back of the flyer. We don’t care. Big up to Chantal for the interview and the nice evening. Same to Nico. Will visit the Fuse one of these days. Been too long since the last time. Classics shouldn’t be taken for granted. Big up to all at the Sibemol. Brilliant way to start your evening. And love to all at Le Bazaar. Great party, great night. Can’t wait to start the next one. But first need some sleep.

Had a blast this weekend. Like said before Friday was nice. Saturday I skipped almost entirely. Couldn’t sleep after our party. I blame the adrenaline. Why does this never happen in Southport ? Anyway, pretty knocked out in the afternoon. Stayed home. Which made that I was feeling mighty fine today. To spin while Koor was putting a piece on a wall in the Rue Blaes. Selected a lot of old skool Hiphop records. Stuff I hadn’t played in a while. Don’t really know why and certainly don’t understand why after this afternoon. Going to do a mix with those records pretty soon. Seemed like a lot of people liked it.

The vibe was very chill. Everybody checking out the master at work (I mean Koor not myself). Lots of friends who made it. Drinking beers, Carpe Diem and Italian coffee. Only thing missing was a barbecue. Lost of beautiful women. Probably men too but didn’t really paid attention to that.

Big up to Nick for hooking me up. To Allesandro for organising this dope event. To Koor and kids for the nice piece and the compliments. How cool must it be to have a dad who’s doing graffiti and MC’ing.

And Nick, what was the original I must have danced to but didn’t know ? Forgot the title.

Well. Lets start the Southport Weekender 42 Report. But where to begin? What to put in it? Let’s start, for once, not with all the good stuff but with some apologies. First of all to everybody involved with the Sands parties. Because we couldn’t stay on site Thursday night we decided to skip the pre-party all together. Although we had a really good time last year. But that shouldn’t be an excuse to not make it on all other days. Only been there Sunday at noon to eat the roast. Sorry for that.

Oh, and sorry to all for being a bit grumpy at times. I just don’t like to move in big crowds. I’m a loner. Never expect me to be social with more than 5 people at once. Will never work. And I get grumpy if you try to make me. That and I need my sleep. Never ever mess with that. Everybody who knows me a bit knows that. Not proud of that, nor feel I sorry for it. It’s just how it is. Respect that and I’ll respect you. And I’ll even try harder next time. Promised.

Now that’s out of the way, lets start the real report. I had a blast. Although it’s never perfect. After 4 editions I finally start to come to peace with the fact you can’t do everything you wish to do. Because it happens simultaneously, because I guess you can’t check the entire afternoon and evening programme on just booze and instant pasta, because my physique isn’t all that, because getting older is a fact of life you shouldn’t fight, because missing acts is just part of the whole experience I guess.

So I missed a lot I wanted to see. Among others Tortured Soul, Theo Parrish and Eric Roberson. Heard they were good. On the other hand had Mr. Scruff, Rahaan, Snowboy, Tawiah and the Sunburst band surprising me by being way better than I expected (and that’s saying a lot). Tawiah in the Funkbase on Sunday afternoon touched me very deeply. Even if it was for a hangover crowd tired of 2 days of intense partying it still had a big impact on me. The Sunburst Band sounded more classic than most vintage Disco bands and had us dancing crazily in the big room which had more of a sauna than a dance venue. Mr. Scruff is a genius, always topping the high expectations I have. Rahaan delivered a more than solid Disco set with lots of deep ditties. The way I like it. Snowboy hammering that Deisler track and shouting in the mic was a piece of true dedication.

There were lots of other high profile guests delivering the goods nicely but I figured out I don’t necessarily seek for that at Southport Weekender. The party would be nothing if I would have missed Terry Jones & Andy Davies playing Four Below Zero’s “My Baby Got ESP”, or if I missed the Saturday afternoon vibe in the Funkbase. Or without enjoying the massive love the crowd showed at Billy Davidson’s last appearance tribute. Or without meeting our last year’s neighbours and it being like family seeing each other again after six months of absence. Or without running into Phil Cooper on Saturday morning and going for a breakfast and some wandering around with him. Or meeting Nick, Claudia and the other cats coming from Belgium. Or meeting Phil Asher and being thanked for something 99% of the dj’s wouldn’t even bother asking. Or seeing Kerri Chandler being nice to everybody who wants a chat or a picture taken with him. I really like that family vibe that’s running around.

And that’s why I don’t really feel bad for missing out on some things. Because after all I still had more fun than on 6 months worth partying over here. Not because it’s bad over here. No, just because it’s so nice over there. I am already missing it. Although the wait between May and November is slightly less hard with the festival season softening the pain.

Rests me to thank everybody. First of all Dave, Alex and all involved with organising this ace event every 6 months. Nice work. To all of our crew. Phil, Jonathan, Marijke, Nina, Yoeri, Lieve, Jenna, Kathelijn, Dieter, Maarten, Stefano, Tom, Karl, David, Jonas, Jouri, Adriaan and Jonas. To Phil, my Welsh brother, for the fun and all the music. Nick, Claudia, Ste Hodge, Nick Benton, the other Belgians, our neighbours from last year and all others that crossed our path and shared some fun with us.

We are gathering all pics taken by our group on this Facebook group. Feel free to add if you got some photos or videos.