Sven again...

Three seems to be the magic number this year. Three times I shall potentially be seeing the wonderful German nutbag Sven Vath performing is skills upon the wheels of steel and in three different countries.

First up should be the Future Music Festival in Melbourne, Australia. This is the day after my buddies stag party so I'm playing that Sven is on pretty late so that I have time to lose the inevitable hangover. I still would prefer it was light so perhaps about 6pm would be ideal if you are reading this Sven....(I know you are)

Second up most likely be at Amnesia in Ibiza, probably around May or June. I'm undecided as to whether it'd be good to go to the closing party again this year as per 2009 or to go earlier and finish my summer as I did last year at Cocoon in the Park in Leeds. That was such a great way to finish off the summer so I'm certainly more drawn to that rota.

Last year at CITP I managed somehow to co-incide my wardrobe with the star of the show which was the cause of some amazement by fellow revellers so I'll have to do my research and try and get it matched again.

By the way, I know it's very difficult to tell but I'm the one in the second picture......We're soooo alike..








Seperated at birth wouldn't you say ?!?!? Albeit by a few years, different countries and quite obviously different parents, minor details....

One piece of news that was brought to my attention yesterday was that of a guy in the UK who has been convicted of indecent exposure. Now I would in no way encourage this kind of behaviour.............normally....however..

This guy, rather the worse for wear after a few ales walked into a McDonalds, proceeded to put his tallywacker on the counter then asked the cashier if he could "Go large on this one".

Imagine if you had to interview this guy for a job?

"I see you have a criminal conviction. Would you mind elaborating on this?"............."Indecent exposure you say and what we're the circumstances in which you found yourself doing this?".............."Pardon".........."And you said what?"..............."REALLY !!!"............"Oh my word you have nailed this job, welcome aboard."

This next new item is just funny on many levels and seeing as this blog has a kind of crazy German theme I just had to put it in. I find what the guy did quite disturbing but even more disturbing is the fact that he did it for a Mini !!! Not really saying much about his manhood, actually who am I kidding? I'd do it for a Lamborghini Murciélago LP 670-4 SuperVeloce - double spacing too.

Gotta love crazy tattoos. I mean I'm not a big fan of them myself and I'd never get one done unless it was something significant. For instance I knew of a guy who had a rare blood group and he had this tattooed on his wrist, very handy if in an accident or otherwise unconscious but that would be my limit.

These ones though..............brilliant for all the wrong reasons -

Actually this guy looks more like Sven....




The worst tattooed man in the world.




Look at the guys face behind him, even he can't believe it.




Judge Judy.....




Quiet clearly you mug....




toooooooodlepip xxx

Workin.....

Dagnammit I think these antibiotics are taking effect !! Certainly not as coughy as I have been the last few weeks and an pretty good nights sleep. Having said that I'm probably going to completely ruin it tonight by smoking about 5000 cigarettes and drinking copious amounts of beer for tonight is Brandon Block night :-)

I'm a bit sceptical about tonight actually. I really hope it goes well for the promoters but with so many people nipping over to the Isle of Wight for Bestival I'm doubtful as to whether it'll get a great turnout. Not that it'd matter one jot on the night because we're definitely going to have a good time :-)

So if you're at a lose end and fancy a boogie then please do pop down to The Venue in Reading and join us (My DJ slot is at 1am)

On the subject of festivals I'm not really sure why I'm not so keen to go to them myself anymore. I remember years gone by when the highlight of the summer was the Oxford Mayday Ball. When that came around it was the start of summer...Festival season had begun !!

Great little festival that was too, there were about 4 tents, all linked by tunnels and all completely decked out and carpeted. Even the toilets were pretty good. Of course it was full of students which is a downer but the plus side of that was cheap beer.

I think the next festival I would go to after the Mayday Ball would be Homelands down in Winchester. Absolutely huge event held in the Mattersley Bowl which was like a natural amphitheatre, this big crator in a field where everything was set up. At the start I loved this festival but then it got a bit too big, a bit too commercial and when I stopped going it turned all a bit chavvy.....Needless to say that was the final year and it is now defunct.

After Homelands I think it would be the Gatecrasher Summer Sound System. The first year they did it was on the same day as England were playing Germany at football (soccer) in either some big competition or it was a qualifier for a big competition and they had these massive screens showing the game. It was a terrific day, really sunny and of course England won which just made the atmosphere electric.

Throughout the night in one of the main arenas they had the England goals on loop continuously behind the stage on more huge screens. Alas though I think this festival too is now defunct :-(

So after that would have been Godskitchen which is held in the exact same location as Gatecrasher, some airfield in Stratford-upon-Avon if I remember correctly. Pretty much of a muchness however it always seems to rain when I go to this one and in fact I think it was the last of the "biggies" that I went too.

The actual last one was not such a biggie but it was certainly more for me these days and Cocoon in the Park is now the only festival that is firmly listed as a yearly must do and the others I think I could take or leave.

Then in between these there were trips to the biggest festival of them all......Ibiza.

Hmmm of course where the festivals are concerned they've not changed at all have they? I've just got older.......

The Weekend is upon us.

So it is to be sure to be sure.

Well had a great nights sleep last night which can only be a good thing because it's gonna be a crazy one today.

Proper work will be busy enough but also I have to prepare for a long night of DJ'ing and....................we'll call it "Socialising"

(Mix Bar, Reading 7pm til 8pm then Mango, Reading 9pm til 1am on the terrace.....back to back with my extra special guest and good chum all the way back from Thailand Mr Keith Newman.........if anybody is interested

Not really going to have any kind of break in between so might as well just crack on.

Must mention about an ex work colleague who after reading the blog went and ordered and brand spanking new Audi A4 with fully on Wavy LEDs, good work Sean :-)

Audi if you happen to be reading this I'll take commission in the form of a long weekends use of an R8 without LEDs please and if you could give the drivers seat a good steam clean before handing it over that'd be great.

Little one was funny yesterday. We're off to Great Yarmouth at the end of the month and unbeknown to her we'd arranged with our friends that their girl could come with us too. Apparently when told there were tears of happiness and "This is the best birthday ever" was blurted out.....bless her.

Great news too for the Vreeman family over in L.A. and their adoption proceedings. On their way back now from Ethiopia with the new family member. This young girl can not only now look forward to much better life but will also be spending it with a great and wonderful new family. Truly fantastic and an inspiration for us all.

Back to German efficiency. I'm hoping that this will again prove to be head and shoulders about all others as I ordered another Party Animals, Ibiza T-Shirt from Cocoonclub in Frankfurt (the most perfect club I've ever been too......German of course, well done Papa Sven) just two days ago in the hope that it might arrive today.....We'll see.

Oh blast, have to bugger off to Pinewood studios now which wasn't expected and will set me back an hour or so.

Toodle pip :-)....for now.

Bedtime Reading

I'm really struggling this morning to find something to ramble on needlessly about. Was going to describe how bloomin brilliant it was so see Cocoon recordings had linked directly to my last blog on Facebook......How good is that ?!?

Was going to add the super groovy picture that is on Carley's phone of yours truly at CITP wearing the same shirt as Sven but I forgot the camera :-(

So I've decided on the subject of bedtime reading.

Last night after watching that fantastic program that Griff Rhys Jones did on ITV 4 about New York I thought that seeing as I'd been yawning all day I'd grab myself a book and nip up to bed for some serious relaxing.

So I'd got to about 5 pages in and was totally enthralled. You know when you have a really good book and just the fact that you're going to be turning the page soon gets you really excited because you want so desperately to read the next bit?

Well anyway I was feeling very much like this.

I'm assuming now that you just want to know what book it was that I was reading?

Was it a tale of adventure? Pages upon pages of wonderous tales from exotic corners of our globes...............ERM................No.

Was it an epic romance? Unbridled love and passion that would tweak the heart strings of even the most brutal of men and make women swathe in a sea of eroticism, heart racing at the thought that one day this could all be a reality..............ERM............Not Exactly.

Oh how about a fast pace espionage saga? One man on a quest to find out the truth behind suspected government lies, ducking between the shadows of night, he'll stop at nothing to find and expose the truth that will ultimately save the whole of the human race...............WEEEELLLLLLLL.......ERM......No.

OK what was it?

It was the Good Housekeeping Institute's revised Cookbook......OH Yeah - Rock'n'Roll

Not an ounce of adventure, not a knob of romance, not even as much as 200g of espionage mixed with Vanilla sugar and Chantilly Cream. However I do know now how to save a Hollandaise sauce should it curdle and surely thats enough to give anybody sweet dreams?

Festivals, Friends & Fun

Lovely weekend..........thats about it..Bye.

No seriously what a wonderful weekend I've just had. Everything was just right. The car journey, the festival, the music, the weather and of course the company.

The festival (Cocoon in the Park) was even better than I thought it would be. Of course I expected great music and to a certain extent I also expected good weather as this was predicted by my own personal weather station Mr Winfield but what I didn't quite expect is the utter Germaness of it.

Firstly tickets via SMS or Email as a barcode which is scanned at the gate ensuring prompt entry and very little queues. OK the barcode scanner wasn't too clever at picking up the image off my phone and probably was the same for many others but still potentially very efficient......very German.

Secondly whenever I got to these things I sometimes think that the DJ's just don't get enough time to create a vibe for their sets so therefore it's all very crammed up and probably not as good as they could be. Here it's 11 hours, 4 DJ's & 1 Stage. Good long sets which the DJ could use to his full advantage...........very thoughtful, very selfless......very German.

Thirdly the sound system.......WOW....Full Funktion One throughout, clear rumbling bass, crisp and sharp high frequency and a perfectly balanced mid-range mean't that wherever you stood you could hear it perfectly. Such a fantastic achievement at an outdoor event.....very high-tech...........very German.

Fourthly what is it that you need other than music and people at a festival? Bar, Food, Loos, Security and First Aid I reckon. What did they have? 4 Bars (one bottles only and one just for WKD's) Girls Loo's, Boys Loo's, Van selling Pork Rolls, St Johns Ambulance and some pleasant Security presence. No merchandising to be seen, no hippies selling herbal highs, no dodgy looking fairground being run by dodgy looking people and no bloody Bungey rope......Very Simple, Very Minimal............Very German.

Fifthly, and I suspect most importantly were the people that went. Of course all of my friends who attended and their associates are wonderful anyway but as a collective mass I think the whole crowd were amazing. I'm guessing it has to do with the second point I made. Each and every person who went to this event went because they knew what to expect and they weren't let down.

Because there wasn't 8 tents and an outdoor arena playing 9 different genres of music with 150 DJ's clambering for some space on the bill it made the whole thing less confusing. There was no "When's so-and-so on and in what arena?" or "If we go here first and catch Doodah we can then swing by tent 6 for 15 minutes and catch a bit of Wingwang before popping over to the outdoor stage for a touch of Pingpong".

Nope there was none of that it was just "Grab some beers, Stay right here, enjoy the day and get right on it".......very regimented, very well-ordered..........very German.

I won't go into the DJ's and their sets too much at all because words really cannot describe the different energies that individually they brought to the day, plus if you haven't seen them yourselves they I'm not sure you'd understand so probably best that you get involved next year and join us for what I'm certain will now be an annual pilgrimage.

Adam Sheldon - Great warm up, set the day up perfectly.
Loco Dice - Why weren't you at Amnesia last Monday instead of Carl Craig ?!?!
Ricardo Villalobos - Crazy, Wierd and I've still not worked out what the hell he was doing but brilliant and the perfect foil for Sven.
Sven Vath - GOD !!

To say that there are people in the world who either don't like Sven Vath or people who do like Sven Vath is completely wrong.

It should be there are people who haven't seen Sven Vath and people that have because once you seen him performing once he'll have you hooked.

Footnote for quote of the day

"Some people just cannot seem to pace themselves" - James Winfield (10th July 2010......about 4pm)