Today, June 24th, beautiful sunny day in Montreal, everyone’s celebrating St-Jean Baptiste day which is the big fiesta for the people living in the region of Quebec. Happy St-Jean everyone!!
I got back from Europe yesterday night… for once I got back not food-poisoned and not too tired. I couldn’t have been tired after this tour as it was the most relaxing tour I have had in a long time. I ended up playing only two gigs in two weekends! First of all, last week, weekend of June 14th and 15th, I worked only on the Friday, in Rotterdam. On the day of departure for Europe I found out that Luxembourg gig (which had to be on the 15th) had been cancelled. So after playing in Rotterdam on Friday night, at Nighttown, I packed and flew to London where I got to spend a Saturday night off! I watched the England VS Denmark game on that Saturday, in a pub in London…. What an experience! It was fun. I mean, my team in my heart is Italy of course, but I felt quite happy to be part of such an experience and get to see an England game live from a London pub. I got so much beer on me as it was flying all over the club since England played an amazing game and they won 3 – 0 against Denmark. I then spent the whole week in London, relaxing more or less and sleeping a lot. On Tuesday it was my turn to be stressing in front of the TV as I watched the Italy match and I must say that I was really sad (tears and all) when Italy lost against South Korea. No offense to Koreans, but I think the referee has been paid or something because Italy have been victim of MANY injustices in that game! Really! Just as Spain did as well when they have been eliminated by the same team… South Korea! What is this? Asian Mafia or something? I hate when things go wrong by big organization’s fault….! It doesn’t make me think that it’s about bad luck… and I will talk about many more like these right now…
Does anyone know GO airline? Well, that airline can GO to hell I say! On Friday 21st I had my first gig in Ireland. I was quite excited as many DJ friends of mine have told me about how techno is going down well in Ireland and how the crowd loves it hard and all and I was so much looking forward to go play there. So Brian and I get to the airport to check in and GO asks me to pay £ 40 extra as my records were too heavy. There was nothing to do there to avoid this as the girl was not very kind and she insisted in having that money paid. While I pay I tell her that I hope the records were going to make the flight at least since she was keeping them on the belt and I told her to go ahead and send them while I was paying but she didn’t seem like she understood the importance of it at all and she didn’t seem like she was in a rush at all! I arrive to Belfast and….. of course…. my records didn’t make it!! OF COURSE!! Because I am such a lucky person and this happens to me ALL THE TIME! (Just like I LOVE TECHNO in November 2001!) But this time my clothes did! Isn’t that frustrating?!! Like if I need my clothes more than my records! So Brian calls GO a million times to make sure the records would make it on the next flight to Belfast, but the airline seems a little retarded as they don’t work with the phone and neither the computer… but still with Telex!! And we are in 2002!… Oh God.. so you know what I was thinking… Yeah right when am I going to see those records again!! And I was stressing so much, not only for the gig on the night but also for the gig the next day, Gatecrasher, very important gig as well for me! Of course the records never made it to Belfast. There were 4 flights until I was leaving back to London on the next day, and nothing. No records. When I get back to London I go at the GO desk and ask where the hell my records were and they said that they had been loaded on the Belfast flight that was departing…. right now!! I’m like WHAT?!! But the girl that helped us out (props to Johanna) was so kind that she called the gate to try and stop the plane and unload my bag, and she managed bringing it back to me.. PHEWF!!
Nevertheless, the gig in Belfast at Evolution went really really well! I loved it and I was so happy to see all those screaming people on the dance floor. They really liked what I was playing and that was fun. With what records did I play? Colin Shields!! My savior! He is the resident DJ at Evolution and when he picked me up at the airport and saw I had no records I asked him to please bring me a case of his records from home with the most funky techno ever. He knows my tastes anyway otherwise he wouldn’t have insisted to book me there. Thanks to him, he brought me all records that I did have either in my record bag or at home and I managed playing a brilliant set!! Also, he was so kind that he let me bring some of his records back to London so I could use them at Gatecrasher, in case I wouldn’t have found my records when back in London. Now isn’t that nice of him? Props to him too!! Also as he did a very nice job opening for me. The people there were all so nice. I told Gawain (the club owner) how much I loved everyone as they were so kind and that they made me think of Icelandics. In Iceland people are just as nice and kind, no stress and calm life with their beer and their music. Too bad Belfast has such a hard time with the war that goes on there sometimes, it really doesn’t deserve this as it is so calm and people are so nice! Why is there so much injustice like this in the world!!??
So when I get back to London and I have Colin’s records with me and I also find my records I should have all reasons to be happy right? So I can play the best set ever at Gatecrasher…………… But no… In the morning on that day, at 10AM, the Gatecrasher organization decided to cancel the Carl Cox arena! The party was still on, but Carl’s arena had been taken off the party! What a weekend, I tell you. Was anything else going to go wrong again? I don’t know why this happened. I presume it is politics again. But whether it is politics or not, I do think that this is another injustice! Maybe I will never know why, and I don’t mind, but I really wonder how can someone like Carl Cox get cancelled off a party like this when he had his own arena?!! I was looking forward to that night, also because I had such a good time slot. I was going to play right after Carl, at 04:30, until closing (06:00), with the sunrise and all. It was going to be an amazing night, not only for me but for all the fans and for Carl and all his guests: Luke Slater, Umek and Valentino, Green Velvet, Trevor Rockcliffe and others, but it all has been cancelled. I didn’t take it so bad myself, but I was more concerned about all the people that bought their ticket to see us and I was also very concerned about Carl. I was sad for him because this wasn’t a nice gesture towards him at all! Whether there is more behind this or not, it is not right! And what about all the techno and techno-house fans that bought tickets and were looking forward to hear us all on that night, and haven’t been told at all about the arena cancellation and that couldn’t get a refund??!! It is not right!! Anyway.. I have to give Carl all my respect because once the arena has been cancelled he’s been asked to play anyway in another arena, but he refused. He said that if all his guests have been cancelled that he would stand up for them and wouldn’t play either! Now, who else would have reacted like this? Isn’t that amazing!? I really have a lot of respect for such a “family mentality” that he has, because not many people think like this as this is a selfish world, big time! I am happy there still are people like this around, as we need them. As I am happy there are Colin Shields (Belfast) around, and Johanna’s (GO), because they all are smiling people with positive thoughts and they don’t only think of themselves and they love their jobs and they understand the importance of thinking a little bit of the others too and not only about what makes them and only them happy. And Carl is one of them! So I give him and all those souls all my respect! Finally, I would have never been able to go through my weekend without Brian. He is amazing and I have never seen such a gentleman! He works very hard, he loves his work, he is very patient and a very generous man. If I would have been alone on this past weekend I would have lost the plot big time, but thanks to him I didn’t!
As ALI G says: RESSSPEKKKKK!!!
Barbara x