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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
