Firstly a belated happy new year! No posts for a while but then I've taken some time off for the holidays, and also had a great few week-ends travelling around the place for some rather tasty gigs at the tail end of December.
First up I was in Russia, in Moscow and Volgograd. The Moscow gig was cool but not at all what I'm used to. The place I played, Pyramid, is more of a restaurant than a club, so while it was nice to be there I'm not sure the clientele really needed to hear my tunes while tucking into their sushi. All very relaxing, but thankfully my lovely friends from Chelyabinsk came and kidnapped me, and after a rather drunken interview for MTV, we wound up in a club somewhere till the early hours jumping around to my old mate DJ Koreetz. Nice one Pasha.
So after what should have been an early night, but wasn't, I was slightly, erm, tired, when I wound up in Volgograd the next day, and the hotel room was definitely the best place to be for the first few hours (complete with somewhat disconcerting real live Piranha bobbing about in a fishtank in the lobby - her name is Masha apparently, but I didn't ask her). I managed to get in gear in time for the party - I played after the lovely Masha from Moscow (this one's a DJ, not a piranha) The club (also called Piranha btw, there's a theme running here) didn't disappoint and the crowd were up for it, and it looks like I will be playing there again, so all good :-)
The next weekend I made it over to the Ukraine. On the friday night, I played Patipa in Kiev - a wicked club with a great crowd, rammed to the rafters, I thoroughly enjoyed my set. Following on from me was the excellent DJ Sender, who is such a star in Ukraine that he even has "Senderettes", a group of girls who turn up at his gigs in home made "Sender is the best" t-shirts. He played an absolutely wicked closing set and I didn't leave until the lights came up in the club.
Saturday saw a drive up the motorway to Vinnitsa for a party at Amagama. I played in the same club two years ago and had a great night, but it wasnt too busy. This time was the complete opposite, completely packed and full on crowd. Again, the night went off, and I had a great time.
The day after was my birthday and I had planned on hooking up with friends when I got back to London, but sadly my flight wound up being delayed by six hours and I spent most of the day and evening in Kiev Borispol airport due to the pea soup fog at Heathrow - so birthday drinks had to be postponed :-)
After the Christmas break, it was time to get revved up for my new years eve in Maribor in Slovenia. It's a few years since I've played there, so it was great to go back. I played alongside my old friend Wayne Fountain (who I always seem to see on New Years eve in Slovenia, even though he lives in East Anglia!) and bumped into Liz Cirelli and Kid Dub, who happened to be playing in another club in town. The Selected party was great, small but perfectly formed, with a properly debauched and enthusiastic crowd. Wayne and I played three hours each, ably preceded by local bod Grex, and had a grand old time, before heading off in search of an ever more elusive after hours party, and finally being poured out of the cab into the hotel.
Thanks to everyone involved for the great parties, and hi to Misha, Serge, Dima, Anya, Max, Masha, Zhenya, Andryi, Limonoffa, Darko, Robi and everyone else I hung out with and chatted complete nonsense to. As soon as I get pictures from any of the events, I will post them on my Flickr site.
This weekend I am playing in (drumroll....) London. It deserves its own separate blog post, which is coming up next!
