Paddy's Day

Woh it's pretty cold and miserable today! It's Friday and a national holiday here in Ireland because of Paddy's Day. I stayed in bed this morning because I'm not heading to work till about 3PM and have my quietest day of the weekend today. Yesterday was really busy so I'm gonna give my ears a rest for a few hours and not do any music today. I'm headin out tonight after work to check out some of the tasty gigs that are coming to Cork for our St Patrick's Festival.

Last night was unreal! The highlight of Red Drive was local world music promoter and advocater Phil B texting me to tell me he had just collected Dawn Penn from the Airport. I played a big request welcoming her to Cork and Phil said they were just driving down the Airport Hill when she heard it and she was delighted!

The show went well enough and even though I was a little bit too sloppy for my liking I had recovered by the Teenage Thursdays section of Music Overload, where I interviewed Swatting Flies (pictured with me above!). I didn't know much about these guys beforehand but i could tell immediately that they are gonna do well. They are managed by a young guy I know called G-Force and he's already a budding entrepaneur at 18! Once the band stepped in the studio though i knew they were gonna be good. They were very relaxed and comfortable with each other and not fazed at all by being live on air. We had a good little chat about their origins and future prospects and plugged their gig in the Pine Lodge on Saturday. We also played a couple of tunes off their demo which went down really well and we received loads of texts so all in all it was a successful show!

Headed straight into town after the show for my gig in the Savoy. There were six turntables set up in anticipation of the visit of World DJ Champs the Scratch Perverts tonight! I helped test out to see if all the decks were in order before reverting to my own more restrained set-up of two turntables, two CDJ's and a mixer! The main stage set-up looked class though and in a big theatre like the Savoy I reckon the Scratch Perverts will tear it up yet again! I was really happy with my own gig last night. I don't do Thursdays so wasn't sure if it would be busy but it was full with over 1,000 people quite early! The bank holiday vibe certaintly helped and i could tell from early in the night that the crowd were really up for it.

I had been dissapointed with my last couple of DJ sets earlier in the week. Last Saturday the Savoy was stuffed as usual and the place was rocking but I wasn't as at 100%. I did what I had to do to rock the place but I couldn't put my finger on it (pardon the pun), there was definitely something missing! On Monday I DJ'd with Colm Kenefick at the Savoy staff party till about 6 in the morning but again I felt there was something lacking! Everyone said it was great but i was silently dissapointed all week and determined to have a good one last night!

Some nights everything goes just sweetly. I always bring loads and loads of music and had about 300 records with me, not to mention loads of CD's too. I always try to keep it pretty soulful on the music front, while mixing my core of hip-hop and r&b with some old Skool styles like disco, reggae, soul, electro and funk. I like all music so I try and play some rock stuff too-the ultimate aim is to join the dots of different musical styles while keeping everyone rocking on the floor! You get so much freedom when you are open to all music and there are no boundaries, even in a big club with a 1,000 people you can express yourself and your music.

I kicked off with some new hip-hop and soul stuff and moved gradually into disco territory. Some of the big party tracks around at the moment also got a spin before I went into an old soul set and a rock set before bringing it back to more hip-hop and dancehall reggae stuff. I'm not interested in the whole Paddy Whackery image of Ireland but since it was Patrick's Day tomorrow I played a track by one of my favourite bands, the Pogues, at the end of the night and it tore the roof off! It was the classic Ewan Mac Coll number ("Dirty Old Town") which still sends a shiver up the spine. I even got some Johhny Cash in at the end. it was one of those nights where I put it together better than I could have imagined and everything worked! I'll post my top 10 from last night in a sec!

I'm off drink till June so went home soon after the gig and chilled out watching the "Helter Slelter" movie about Charles Manson. I've always been facinated by the 60's and this movie was pretty good. Tonight it's a choice between Dawn Penn and co in the Mardyke and the Scractch Perverts in the Savoy but I think I'll check both gigs out! I'm on the radio beforehand and headin into town after so I'll let ya know how i get on tomorrow!

Rapture at the Savoy with Stevie G
Paddy's Eve 2006
Gnarls Barkley "Crazy"
Kanye West/Curtis Mayfield "Touch the Sky/Move on Up"
Lefties Soul Connection/DJ Shadow "Organ Donor"
Chris Brown "Yo, Excuse Me Miss"
The White Stripes "My Doorbell'
A Tribe Called Quest "God Lives Through"
Johnny Cash "I Walk the Line"
The Four Tops "It's the Same Old Song"
The Pogues "Dirty Old Town"
The Clash "I Fought The Law"