Hey DJ! Tear up the place…..

Nick Warren. Sandwiches, Wellington, New Zealand. 29th September 2005. One of those dates when someone asks you where you where, you’ll go quite misty eyed, smile for a second and simply remember…..

I’ve clubbed a lot. A LOT. I’ve been fortunate enough to have clubbed at various places around the world. I’ve been consummately off my tits more times than I care to remember. I last saw Nick Warren play Cream @ Nation in Liverpool sometime in ’96. That night it was a pretty much straight forward trance set. I remember the night clearly coz there was a girl – Jenny – who danced for nearly 6 hours with me and apart from exchanging appreciative smiles about the ongoing tune selection, I don’t think we said more than “Hi. I’m Dave” and “Hi. I’m Jenny” to each other all the time we danced. That was fine though. Nothing else needed to be said. As the night wore to a close, we hugged, kissed and then departed. Another 6 hour clubbing relationship over. If clubbing wasn’t simpler back then, it sure as hell seemed like it! Anyway, let’s fast forward to September 2005…..

400-odd people there was. It felt like more. I loaded up on Vodka + red bull. Nick arrived at the decks around midnight. He’d changed a lot since I’d last seen him. 9 years does that to a person though I reckon. Still, all the old enthusiasm was there. Hands in the air behind the decks, singing along to his own tune selection and gratefully accepting all manors of shots that the crowd threw at him. The set was a blinder. Stomping funky trance, driving progressive trance/house with more peaks and valleys than the Alps could ever muster. I didn’t move of the dance floor for his entire set other than to get water. He as meant to finish at 3.30. At approximately 4.40 he dropped a rousing stompy version of ‘Anarchy in the UK’ by the Sex Pistols and then finished us off with ‘3am Eternal’ by KLF. Bangin’ my son! He played for nearly 5 hours. Well worth the entrance fee and what made it special was that he enjoyed himself. Some DJs can be very sterile but not this geezer. He loved the crowd. We loved him back. He sang. We pointed. He drank. We fucked ourselves up. A beautiful clubbing harmony. There aren’t many nights like that anymore in the current clubbing world, especially in Wellington (and that’s not a dig), so maybe that was why it felt so special. Plus, it’d been a while since I’d been on a clubbing mission like that. So thanks to: Corey, Chris, Justin, China and all the other people who I was with who I can’t remember the names of, the rest of the crowd and, of course, Nick. You rocked.

I should really write about the NZRU sports day which was on Friday 7th October, but I’ll do that later…….!

Walkin' in a Boogie Wonderland....

Going out on a skool nite can lead to a total inability to do work the next day. Couple going out on a skool nite with free alcohol and you have a rather top notch recipe for disaster pie. Unfortunately for me, I like pies. The reason for putting oneself thru the grinder in such a manner was for the opening of Boogie Wonderland. If you know Wellington and, more specifically, 'The Paramount' cinema, you'll know exactly where the place is. Opening nite at a club or bar, I find, is a great time to be in the place. I only got in coz Anji had a spare ticket and as Heiniken and an hourly changing cocktail were free till 1 or maybe 2am, I got more than a little messed up. I think the only round I paid for was for a couple of Jaegermeisters at the end......enough said me thinks.

The club itself is, sadly, pretty average. The shitty soundsystem makes it sound like you are listening to the music with a couple of sponges strapped to your ears. I'm hoping that this was maybe just opening nite gremlins, but I think not. If anyone went on Friday or Saturday nite I'd be happy to be put right. Maybe after years of clubbing to dance music my ears are just fucked. I hope that's the case for the rest of you into ya disco stuff, but not for me coz I want my ears to be working properly thank you very much. So, the music. Pretty much every and any disco song that went mainstream was played. When you're pissed, you don't care. It's like being at a wedding, only you don't know so many of the people and the bride and groom aren't dressed like those twunts from Abba. I did refrain from doing the actions of YMCA though. The dancefloor is the best bit. It's like the one from Saturday Night Fever, a myriad of coloured squares all blinking away to grab your attention. And yes, the tunes from that film were played. Twice in fact. It was also good to see that people made a sterling effort in the clothes stakes. Over half the crowd was well and truly diggin' it but the lack of any decent air conditioning did prove to be a problem for some of the party faithful. I was hot in there and I was dancing in a t-shirt. If I'd have taken THAT off, well, who could imagine what would've happened.....

Fast forwarding to the 29th September. Nick Warren is here. Hurrah! A nite of (hopefully) bangin' trance and some other stuff besides. The gig is at Sandwiches and you know you want to be there.....

Finally....can't believe it fuckin' well snowed around ChCh over the last few days. I go to ski, instead get a suntan and now there's more snow than you can throw a snowball at. Go figure...

Ohau do you do it?

Well, well, well. Pussy's down the well. Who put her there? I did, coz I hate cats. No, that's not true - See blog name. After numerous problems with my old blog (which had been alive for a staggering 6 weeks), I've moved here. It's a pity really cos I liked where I was. Nothing like being forced to move when your bed is nice and warm and it's cold outside....

Anyway, what you been upto? I was in Ohau at the weekend. The idea was to ski, get drunk and meet new people. 2 outta 3 isn't bad. Can't ski without snow - generally. Have seen those ppl who ski on grass an' stuff but that's just cheating as far as I'm concerned. I've got some rather nice photos that, once I get hosting sorted for them, I'll share with you. Played golf, on Friday of said holiday, for the first time in years. I was fantastically shit. As one of the lads - Justin - later said: "I thought you were a cunt for losing a ball on the first hole....." And quite right too. In the end I only played 5 holes (fnar! fnar!) which was probably for the best. Good times nonetheless. Friday night involved our good friend beer. Beer was later joined by his rather wayward pal, Vodka. Vodka also decided to bring one of his closest pals, Red Bull, along for the ride. Soon there was a right ol' party happening in the bar (Ohau Lodge) and in my head. If playing pool badly wasn't enough, playing darts badly and, as a forfeit, having to drink a saucer of milk from the bar while having your neck stroked by a random bloke, certainly was a highlight. Once back at the abode, decided to get stuck into more beer and then talk soccer till 4am with Justin (not Timberlake in case you wondered). I must point out that the food, cooked by Matt and Jess, sorry, Tess, was out of this world. Seriously fucking good. Humbly, I give thanks.

Meandered through the hangover on Saturday and ended up at Chris' farm on the outskirts of ChCh on Saturday. Justin was also in tow. We built a fire, got naked, painted each other and.......no, no, we didn't. We did build a fire, drink wine and talk about random stuff (yes, women) before hitting the sack and it was all very cool indeed. Sunday involved me driving over Chris' pine trees on his quad bike and generally enjoying being out of the city. Stunning views all 'round and a sky so blue and cloudless with a temperature to match, you could almost believe you were in summer. My face was a lovely shade of crimson by the end of the day, which made look rather like a battered alcoholic. Sweet as (bro). Upon arrival in Welli, Justin and I decided on a couple of beers to stave off the end of the holiday. After sampling the Guinness in Kittys (not that bad), we moved to the Backpackers and danced rather splendidly with 2 cracking girls - H and Nicki. If you ever see them out and about, get them to do 'The Butterfly'. Glorious.

Right, am rushing this post to get it out for Caroline. I also must remember to e-mail ppl to give them the new site address.....see you anon.