Asia '10 Tour - Part 2

Here's Part 2 of Simon Dunmore's Asia blog...

The plane was descending into Tokyo Narita airport, it was my seventh visit to Japan and I was as excited as the first time I was about to touch down. A lot of DJs never have the privilege to play Japan, and whilst that initial journey six years ago was a trip into the unknown, this time I knew exactly what to expect and that made it equally thrilling. I count myself very fortunate to have been able to experience a Tokyo club in a frenzy and to have two extremely good friends in Take (pronounced Tarkeh) and Youichi (Yo eechee). I could not wait to get there.

It was Tuesday, a full 3 days before the first gig at World, Kyoto. Take met me at arrivals. I had a number of meetings set up with our distributers, publishers, artists and licensees so by the time I crammed in a little Xmas shopping and kept up with the office, Friday soon arrived. We took the bullet train to Kyoto, passed Mount Fuji and arrived at lunchtime. Kyoto is the ancient capital of Japan and has an abundance of temples. The design and architecture is amazing...you can almost feel the Samurai  spirits walking amongst the throngs of tourists. It is a pretty magical place.

As night closed in, we met with DJ Kawasaki and the manager of World for soundcheck and dinner. I had met Kawasaki once before and he is a great and equally cool DJ. He had the crowd in a great place by the time that I actually arrived at the club. If I am honest the numbers were a little light (it the Friday before Xmas and the Japanese love their office Xmas parties as much as us Westerners) but what the crowd lacked in numbers was more than made up for in uber-enthusiasm...as usual they went potty from the first beats and made DJing an absolute breeze. It was soon obvious that they wanted the classics, after all it was a party, so it was a 3 hours cocktail of the anthems with a few current tracks as filling. Christmas tree tunes with a fairy on top were Diana Ross ‘The Boss’, Inner Life ‘Ain’t No Mountain’, Chaka Khan ‘Fate’ in amongst Reboot ‘Enjoy Music’ (the Riva Starr Rmx) & Mr Ferrer’s ‘Hey Hey’.

Up at midday the next day and took the bullet train back to Tokyo, downloaded and edited the pictures from the day before and caught up with my emails of line. Hit the shops (again) and then took a 3 hour disco nap before getting picked up. Checked in on the footie...Liverpool are the football equivalent of the Channel Tunnel at the moment....so I had a chuckle at the thought of Rafa imploding again. I should mention that I have the painful experience of supporting QPR so the only joy I get these days is watching other teams wallow in misery....and Benitez does misery exceptionally well :-).

Dinner again...I met with Hisa (the owner of King Street)...checked the results (United lost to Fulham....happy days)...and then downstairs to Air. This is a great club, it has House heritage, the booth is laid out perfectly (including the new Pioneer CDJ 2000’s) and you are right amongst the crowd. The sound system is immense and the technicians constantly stop you driving the levels into the red....it is sonic heaven.

I will stop bleating on about playing to such a crowd but 3 hours went in what seemed like seconds. The night was supposed to finish at 5 but we carried on an extra 30 minutes playing classics for the last half hour until I was told that the police were outside :-(. Stocking filler tunes were.... Arthur Baker ‘Tear Down The Walls’, Su Su Bobien ‘Wonderous’ and Solu Music ‘Fade’.

Another great, no fantastic, night and it would be rude not to mention my hosts once more so I would like to thank Take and Youichi for 6 years of amazing hospitality.

After the gig...straight back to Narita. Sleep always makes a 13 hour flight go a little faster and I was really looking forward to seeing the Yasmin, Louie, Millie and Lucas, to Xmas at home and to New Years Eve at Pacha, Ibiza :-0)

See you in the ‘10!

Simon

On Tour in Asia With Mr Love

Simon Dunmore reports on an incredible tour of Asia, taking in Rootz, Kuala Lumpur and Zouk Out! festival in Singapore...

The first leg......Kuala Lumpur

What a few days......

Last Wednesday (Dec 9th) I met Sam & Gav Copyright, Shovell and Slick Nick (Navaro) at LHR T3 (I was late because I forgot to read my itinerary and went to T5...doh!!!). We got the 10pm flight to Singapore, where we would land and transit to Kuala Lumpur and things were off to a great start; the check in assistant called Shovell (real name Andrew Lovell) Mr Love, which for some childish reason we all thought was hilarious. Plus the BA upgrade Gods smiled down (or took pity on us) so we all got upgraded...happy days!

The flight was pretty uneventful, email catch up and a few Ableton edits on my Mac, a movie and 6 hours sleep so it whizzed by. We landed, swiftly transited to the officially named Budget Terminal to get the Tiger Airlines flight to Kuala Lumpur. It was way better that the name suggested it might be and having flown Ryan Air a few times it was almost luxurious. It was my first time in Malaysia and so I was pretty excited. We were met at the hotel by an old friend and Defected artist Haze, who took us to the Chinese section of the city (Old Klang Rd) for some amazing Dim Sum. We eventually went to bed at the jet lagged time of 5am :-(.

8.30....BAM! I woke up and could I get back to sleep, not a chance. A quick text found that Sam and Slick Nick were also up. We had breakfast, an hour-long foot massage and then went sightseeing to the Batu Caves and a local park where we fed the monkeys and took an impromptu shower in an amazing water fall, a great day! Gav and Mr Love sleep through the lot...bastards!

10pm rendezvous for  dinner (Thai) and met Ali (the promoter) for the first time. He is Australian and supports Chelsea but once we got over that he turned out to be a pretty cool guy :-). He took us to Rootz, where Slick Nick had set up the décor and we were ready to rock. The place was packed...great crowd that took a minute to warm up but we really got them going by the end. Dr Love was in fine form and possibly stole the lime light; no bloody surprise there! I was a little pissed off because I had changed my CD wallet around before I played and could not find a bloody thing that I wanted to play. Copyright smashed it, so by the end the crowd were happy, Ali was happy...so we all went to MacDonalds to celebrate! All of us except Mr Love....who was seen helping a young lady across the road before he mysteriously disappeared.

Up at 12...we were taken to the airport. Wrong airport this time (much worse than the wrong terminal) so we were in a real flap about missing the flight. We hired a kamikaze Taxi driver who made a 35 minute journey last only 20 minutes and we sprinted through immigration and security to the gate, and guess what? The plane was delayed anyway. Typical!

Zouk Out....the second leg!

We arrived and made haste to the hotel, the Rasa Sentosa on the beach and the actual venue of Zouk Out. We checked the venue (amazing) and had a buffet dinner where I met Chris Rodrigo from Zouk and the legendary Lincoln (Zouk’s founder and owner). We were also joined by Christian from Dragonfly (Jakarta). No time to pig out at the buffet as time was flying...a few interviews and off to the venue.

3 arenas and 30,000 people meant that all the areas were packed. By the time I played at midnight Jeremy and djB had set the tone, the venue was two thirds full and Mr Love had already  infected the crowd with huge doses of his special ‘Loveness’ The vibe was electric. We were joined by the incredible Yasmeen on stage and she got amazing feedback from performing ‘Glad I Found You’ and ‘Ready Or Not’. I had re-organised my CD wallet so actually enjoyed myself this time ;-)

I was followed by Martin Solveig who literally tore the place apart. When he finished he was so excited he jumped off the stage, the crowd were equally excited and surged forward and a barrier collapsed crushing my French friend underneath. At first I thought he was being attacked by the Irish football team who could not forgive him for coming from the same region as Thierry Henry, but of course I was totally wrong and it was simply the crowd (still high on Mr Love’s Love potion) wanting to squeeze and hug him. No one was hurt so we all thought it was hilarious.

The Martinez Brothers followed. Well Steve did (because Chris was quarantined with Swine Flu). This was a tough job because Martin had the crowd in a frenzy and Armin Van Burin was about to take the main arena. Steve did a great job, he changed the vibe by playing tech house....but the crowd (who were amazing) went with him.

We checked in on the footie scores...Chelski drew and United lost, as did Spurs to Wolves (more hysterical laughter) and  we also heard that Stacy had been voted off X factor. We were all rooting for Oli; the night could not be going better and we were ecstatic!!!

Exhilarated by the news from X Factor Copyright took the stage at 6am. It was the finale and the sun was about to rise. This was a time to celebrate the finer tracks that House had offered over the years. Lincoln joined Dr Love on stage and together they spread more Loveness. It was a perfect moment. Slick Nick (who had been filming beautiful girls and less attractive DJs all night) could not contain himself; intoxicated with Mr Loves Love Juice he did a crazy conga with a group of fine ladies and equally fine lady boys. Insane but it was that kind of night. It was now 8am...still pretty early I reckon, but we had to finish........BOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

Next day was rest day. We got up had breakfast at 6pm, had lunch at 8pm and then went to dinner at 10pm (I obviously eat a lot when I am tired...as do the others). We watched the football (Liverpool v Arsenal)....Mr Love is a hardcore Gooner, whilst Slick Nick & Sam Copyright root for the Mickey Mousers (Scousers). Arsenal pulled off a shock victory and Nick was extremely pissed and very upset but Dr Love gave him some Loveness and our trip ended as it started with hugs and laughter.

Monday....day 5..... Knackered.....we left for the airport!

To be continued..............

Much Love

Simon

White-Knuckle Terror Ride

It is quite amazing just how much you can cram into 5 days…especially when 2 of those days were spent flying. Thursday afternoon I leave London, Heathrow for Jakarta. I land at 4pm the next afternoon and crawl from obscene congestion to my hotel. It takes 2 hours to go 20 miles and I arrive at my hotel fit to drop. I phone the office, pick up my emails and then grab a 90 minute disco nap before heading off to eat with the promoter (Christian) and our agent in Asia (Jonathan Yeo).

The restaurant is a sushi bar called Blowfish, the food is stunning and I discover that it has been voted one of the top 100 restaurants in Asia; justifiably I reckon. I then move across to the local hot spot 'Dragonfly', where we are hosting a launch party for Dragonfly In The House – our first album release in Indonesia. I have to admit that it is a tough crowd to play to, but we get there in the end. Christian is happy as he sells over 200 CDs in the club a week ahead of the release. Tara McDonald surprises me as she is in town...always good to see a familiar face.

Check out the pictures of the night right here.

I hit the sack at about 5.30 am and sleep for 8 hours. 30 minutes in the pool, a massage (no happy ending) and a sauna put me in a good mood. We leave at 6.30, have some more stunning food and then travel for 3 hours along another oversubscribed motorway to the next event. I am told that there is no speed limit in Indonesia....they have no need for one as there is way too much traffic for anyone to drive over 20mph.

Anyway, he hit Bandung at around midnight. Great club, packed and a great warm up from local DJ Melody. My first record is the new MTV remix of The Believers ‘Who Dares To Believe’...the crowd go nuts and it stays that way for the next 2 hours. I play until 4 when they drag me off the decks as we have to leave for the airport, our flight is at 7am and the airport is on the other side of Jakarta. I quickly work out that it took us 3 hours to get to Bandung and 2 hours to get from the airport to Jakarta....that means we have 2 hours to do what took us 5 hours earlier.

So I mentioned earlier that there is no speed limit in Indonesia. We literally tore past the traffic on the road...normally you overtake on the outside lane...but not here!!! I cowered in the back as we passed startled and equally terrified drivers of other vehicles on the inside, sometimes using the hard shoulder...sometimes nudging the car in front into another lane. It was bumper cars at 120 mph and my life flashed before me. I am not sure who put my itinerary together but this was an impossible journey to make. Christian and Jonathan in the back with me were both asleep...or perhaps they had both had heart attacks or were in a speed induced coma.  We get there. Christian wakes up and says “great, I told you my driver would get us here in time” as I collapse out of the car and kiss / hug the ground in sweet relief.

We then take a 2 hour flight to Bali. We are doing Defected In The House at a 3 day festival called Junction. I am driven to my own villa (which is pretty spectacular with my own pool), I see it and immediately forget about my encounter with Indonesia’s Lewis Hamilton wannabe. I take a quick skinny dip in my exclusive pool (even I feel nausea at the thought of me swimming with no trunks on but fuck it I bet you would all do the same) and then I take another extended disco nap.

That night is quite amazing. Great venue set just off the beach. Amazing grounds and club...check the pictures....it was packed by 11 and Danny Marquez was playing before me. He set it up nicely and the again the crowd really reacted positively, again I play The Believers first. Karizma asks who did it and said he would love to do a mix as well. Anyhow – and this is no lie – I’m playing ‘Church Lady’ and Dennis Ferrer walks into the DJ booth. I knew that he was in Bali but for him to wak in at that very moment was freaky. He was pissing himself, or as he would say, “laughing his friggin’ ass off!” The night got better when Osunlade and Cevin Fisher both came down to say hi! Karizma finished the night off and the crowd went insane when he played Bill Withers ‘Lovely Day’. I finally retired for the evening at 6 tequila shots past 5am.

I woke the next day. Had a great lunch and was driven to the airport by Jonathan, Christian, Anton and Lita. I thanked them all for their amazing hospitality and vowed to return next year!

2 days travelling. 3 cram packed amazing days...even the kamikaze suicide driver attempting to break the land speed record at night was forgiven!

Much love