Breakout Update

At 11:00 last Friday evening, Bevan and I took our turn on the decks in the knowledge that there had only been four paying customers up to that point. 'Aries' had arrived and walked through an empty dancefloor to drop off his records, and I was a nervous man.

By the end of our set, a handful of people had made their way onto the dancefloor, and there was a small crowd gathered at the bar, looking on. I remained quite worried as I wondered towards the bar and made my way through the small crowd, until I turned the corner to see that the rest of the venue was packed! Given that any deficit on the night was coming out of my own pocket, I was understandably relieved.

Perhaps I was also nervous about the fact that Aries might have come all the way from Birmingham to play to an empty room. I decided to go and have a chat with him, as I'd only managed a brief 'hello' when he arrived. I scoured the venue, but I couldn't see him anywhere. At least the dancefloor was picking up by now...



After ten minutes of searching, I liased with Sam, Ben and Chewy to see if they could help. They all agreed that he has a very distinctive blond goatee and long hair, so couldn't really be missed. Suddenly, I spotted someone in the darkness with a cap and a blond goatee. Sam agreed that it must be Aries, so I went to say hello.

As I approached, he made eye contact with me and then instantly looked downwards, lowering his cap to avoid my gaze. Convinced that I had the right man, I leant down towards him and said 'Hello'.

At this point I realised that it couldn't possibly be Aries, as his goatee was nothing more than a bit of stubble. It was too late to turn back, so I had to come up with something, and quick...

"Umm, Are you umm...are you Aries?" I muttered.

He shook his head.



After shaking off my embarrassment I did manage to find the real Aries eventually, and we had a great chat about drum'n'bass and the arts of promotion, and production. In fact, it was nice to get a few tips from him about vocal equalisation, which I employed on my latest tune!

Thankfully by the time Aries hit the decks, King Toby had the dancefloor rammed and it turned into a fantastic night...

Toby Poole came along as a Don't Stay In.com 'spotter' and took these pics too, which are much better at portraying the general atmosphere than mine.

I can't finish this post without briefly mentioning a couple of incidents involving Sam.

Firstly, he took a turn on the door later in the evening, and let someone out to speak on her mobile. When she returned, he jokingly asked her for £20. She leant down, and licked his cheek from chin to eye-socket. His face was a picture.

Secondly, he was convinced by Rosie that drinking a glass of water up side down was really a good idea to cure his hiccoughs. Unfortunately I didn't witness the incident, but apparently it came out of his nose before he'd had a chance to swallow. Rosie said it was one of the funniest things she'd ever seen.

Finally, I know I say this every month, but I'm really looking forward to next month's event. Never one to shy away from a gimmick, it's 'Ladies Night!'