So here i am sitting in my hotel room in Barcelona, it is late in the afternoon and i just woke up from a 13 hours sleep! I needed it! I arrived in Europe last week and since then I have played in Croatia, Turkey, England, Iceland and Spain! I think I beat my record of staying up for the longest time.
My tour all started with the Croatia gig. After landing in London on Friday morning may 3rd, and after not sleeping all night as I can’t really sleep on planes and I flew all night long, I had a connecting flight to Brussels and then, later on, the last flight to Zagreb, in Croatia. When I arrived there I thought finally I can get some sleep now until I play later on, but the promoter that picked us up (us: Brian and I, Brian works for my management in London and he travels with me sometimes) said that we had to drive to Opatja as the gig was there………. we drove for 3 hours! I was exhausted, never been so tired in my life I think! When we arrived there we had some food, then I slept for maybe 2 hours at the most and afterwards I played at that wicked club right on the beach! That place was so beautifully stunning that I didn’t want to leave after my gig. I wanted to stay there for a week and have a vacation…. but no time for that at all as after my gig I had to leave straight away for another 3 hours drive to get to the airport in Zagreb so we could catch our flight for Budapest, where we connected to get to Istanbul.
Istanbul: I thought I was competing in the Formula 1 or something. Honestly, I had always thought that the worse drivers were the Italians, being Italian myself I know what I am talking about… I had never seen worse drivers than in Naples, more precisely, where they don’t care for stop signs or red lights, but that is until I have been to Istanbul. Oh-My-God! On a 3 lane road there were about 2 cars per lane, and every car was accelerating when it was time to break, then obviously breaking a year after they were supposed to. Nevertheless I made it to my hotel, in one piece. I had a stunning room with a beautiful view of the city and the water at the Ritz Carlton, but instead of sleeping I started watching the football game from my window where I could see the stadium as well. In Turkey they are big fans and very passionate of football, just like the Italians. And well….. because of that I ended up walking to my gig later, since the roads were jammed by cars and police after the national team had won the game, and there was no way I would be stuck in a car for hours to get to my gig that was only 3 blocks away from my hotel. So we walked, thank God they invented record cases with wheels…..! The gig was wonderful, could have had a better sound system but for the rest it was wicked! The reaction of the people to my music made me think like I was in Spain or Brazil or something. They like it pumping and hard! I had a great night.
After a couple of hours of sleep I must get up again to catch my flight for Zurich, where I would connect to go to Birmingham. On that Sunday night I was playing at Code with Carl Cox. WOW! What a night we had! First of, that club was stunning! What a place and what a sound system!! Really cool! Then, I played a warm up set for Carl but people were so excited to be there and to get to listen to a 6 hours Carl Cox set, that they wouldn’t let me warm up much longer and by 11:30pm they were banging their feet to have more volume and tougher music! So I gave it to them and BOOM, there goes the first explosion of the night, followed by many others during the rest of the night given by Mr. Cox, whom music made me dance all night long, on the dance floor, among all kind of smiley great people! I had a wicked night.
Check this link out: http://www.godskitchen.co.uk/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=020662
At on point I thought I had to stop drinking for a bit……… you know how it goes…. and only then, after drinking 6 bottles of water in a row to try to feel better, I realized that the water had caffeine in it! I know…. weird stuff eh?! Well, yes. The water (called MOJO) was water with a high amount of caffeine, it was clearly written on each bottle, everywhere around it too! Well, I think I stayed up for about 14 hours after that night, and only went to bed Monday night! But what a night we all had. We had a wicked time, Carl, Lynn and Ian my manager/agent, and a bunch of other people, on our way back to London on a coach tour bus. Wicked fun times!
On the Wednesday it’s time to start being on the road again. I went to Iceland, in Reykjavik, where I had been already a year and a half before. However, when I first went there it was dark all the time, and this time it was clear all the time. So strange. We were having dinner and at midnight it was still clear out. How cool though because finally I got to see some land, as last time I saw nothing as it was too dark, and Iceland is a very beautiful country. It is all volcanic so there are very little trees and lots of lava stones everywhere. The crowd there remembered me from when I went in December 2000, and it was so fun to see such a packed club on a Wednesday night! Rocking crowd, rocking gig! There too I wish the sound system would have been a little better, last time it was definitely better, but it doesn’t matter as the people didn’t really care for that and they were enjoying themselves so much! I am always so touched when I meet such kind people. I feel like I want to give them a world of things. Same thing as in Croatia, the people were SO KIND that I left the place so happy and surprised. I wish the whole world would be kind like this, but unfortunately it isn’t always like this. So I know now that the Icelandics are indeed wicked people as it’s the second time I go there and both times I had been welcomed in such a warm way. Oh, and, the lobster there is to not miss!! What a meal I had. I don’t remember the name of the restaurant unfortunately but it’s one of them that has been voted to be in the top 50 restaurants in the whole world by some funky magazine. Well indeed, what a meal!! Right after my gig in Reykjavik I had to go to the airport to catch my flight to London, and from there to Barcelona. By the way, I want to ‘booo’ Iceland Air for being so strict with their weight limits. I had to pay a total of £ 390 to get to Iceland and back, because I had extra luggage weight!! It really sucks, and they are a very strict airline so there is no way to go around it with a smile or something. That’s the only thing that really turned me off about Iceland: their main airline!
In Barcelona I played at Row on Thursday night and I was so happy to finally get to play in the new set up. Row had changed its DJ booth almost a year ago, but I had not played there since May 2001. I was all happy about that, however what a strange night it has been…. I played for 2 hours and a half, until 4:30am, and I was supposed to play until 5:30am but the police came and shut down the club. That made me real sad as I felt like I played for only 5 minutes. I definitely wasn’t done with my story and I left unsatisfied. The crowd was wicked, they had fun, but I am sure they also left unsatisfied as it was too early to be done with the night! I look forward for my next time so I can come and rock it properly again! It’s no one’s fault obviously when the police comes and breaks everyone’s fun. Not cool though! 🙁
I was off yesterday and this is why I had been able to sleep 13 hours. Tonight I am playing at Florida 135 in Fraga. That should be a wicked one as it is all the time! It is such a big club, always packed, always rocking. I look forward to make 3000 people dance for 3-4 hours while I drink Cava and while I receive smiles from all over the place. Yesterday I had 3 interviews for Spanish magazines, TV and radio, and to all of them I was raving about how much I love the Spanish people because they show you emotions so much and you can always tell that they are enjoying what you play since they party and dance so hard! Latin crowds, so cool!
And, finally, tomorrow as a last gig before going back home I am getting to play the cream of whole gigs. My favorite and very special gig in Alicante, at Metro, where I play for only 75-100 people the earliest set I ever play: from 8 till midnight. Alicante is for me the most special gig ever, as it is the only place in the world where I play slow techno! Not house, not techno-house, but pure tough techno, however I play it at a house speed if not slower than that. I don’t know… I can’t explain, you just have to be there! And the people are so nice, I recognize each person’s face and I feel like it’s like a family there. In fact, I think it is. A big family that comes and spends a very relax Sunday night among friends, with a few drinks not more as they are still probably trying to catch up from their weekend, and where the only true pleasure of the night is music and friends! I look forward to be there tomorrow, as it is the best way to end such a tough tour.
Now, needless to say my fingers hurt…. Time to take a break.
Till next time….. Respect and much love to techno!
Barbara xx
