Living it up in Barcelona November 27th, 2005 Savaaaage! The business... Giiifffft! Eeeexelent! :-) There are times when everything works out well. Raffaello's is an classy, stylish and cool italian style restaurant in Calle Mutaner 146. Good food and the best cocktails. And sadly no more as that was their last night open. That caught me by surprise but at least I got one cocktail in before going to Zentraus. They were not the fastest in serving though. 2 hours after arriving we still haden't eaten anything. I couldn't wait that long. How times have changed. There was a group to 12 guys having wine and food in Zentraus on the dance floor! - or what used to be. All the staff there we thinking "I can't believe what is happening". Although there was few people there (over 100) it didn't get anywhere near rammed. The sound level is such that even though the music might be good it isn't going to make spontaneusly dance like a mad thing (unlike before), so last night there were only a few people dancing, but with plenty of them fully charged and ready to go. Charging them up were tracks like:       Trever Loveys - Turn it up       Robin Porter - Crowd Contol       Jeff Bennett - Signposts       Belladonna - Ebatule       DJ Sneak - That's The Groove       An-2 - Midnight Radio       Ross Couch - Late Nights and a few more from 3am Recordings. So a mix of funky house, a little bit of samba (my new Brazilian influences), minimal techno, etc. a lot of which came from Leeds (nice one lads!). Winding up on the dot of 3am it was time to plan the next scene. From the view of the DJ box, playing music I also watch the customers. Especially to see if what I am playing is working well with them. So there were these 2 girls in front of me chatting, doing shots, and cubatas (vodka something). They seemed pretty much into the music, and occasionally over my direction. Another 2 blokes just beside them were in the same vibe. So next round was 4 shots to tequila. All of them grimacing, and 'whoooah!', and some lemon. All seems to be fine and dandy, so I decided to add to the feel good factor by giving them some free drink tickets. Ahhhh. Sweet. The 2 girls were still there as we were starting to clean up and the rest had gone. So I walked over and one of them goes 'Hey! It's the DJ!'. I reply 'so where are you off to now? Wanna come to a cool party?'. 'Sure! Why not? We can go in my car.' Perfect! Nice merc. She says 'I hope it's not going to be any shitty house music!' in a semi assertive, authoritive tone. 'It has to be proper techno and electro'. Deadly! This is my kind of girl. I say 'Yeah yeah, no worries, you'll absolutely love it. It's going to be amazing.' Flaix FM has some really good music for a change. There is an almost monthly party in Poble Nou run by some English guys and it is always the bizz. Starting at midnight it goes on til about 7am. A reasonable hour to finish. It is run as a proper club - 7 euro in. Full bar. Only one toilet for 500 people is a problem though. You're better off going for a wizz before you arrive. The space is dark, low ceiling in parts with lots of UV drapes. Massive clear sound pumping system. Generally friendly people (not typical in clubs in Barcelona) and an electric - charged atmosphere. This club for me is the ideal underground party. The epitome of the genre. The age group is of the 20 - 40s, with as many older as younger. In the door and you can feel the heat, and bass thumping, smell the sweat, smoke. This comes as a relief as it is freeeeeezing outside. (Hace un frio que no veas!) Loads of familiar faces. Yeahh. Eeexceleeent! At the bar I spot a bottle of Can Peixano cava rosado. My favorite tipple. Deadly! At 15 euro it is very pricy, when you can get it for 2.40 in the bar in Barcelonetta (it's a famous place with tons of (mostly young) tourists there - highly recommded). I'll have another please. There are several rooms appart from the main area. 2 or 3 smallish ones with comfy arm chairs and sofas, brighter lighting and not so noisy. A ridiculous queue for the toilet, with quite a few (girls) legging it out side to piss in the street. There's also another room with sound system, dj and dance floor. But the main action is in the largest area. It all finishes up at 7 and so it's time to go home. I didn't fall asleep on the trien this time. The journey home after awaking in God know's where is an unpleasant one that I hope not to repeat. The only choice is to move closer to the city. I'm working on it. Collserola is a huge forest along the circumfrence of Barcelona. It spans all the way from the city limits towards the Tibidabo to Cerdanyola in the valleys of the interior. Trees, hills and valleys. You can walk here for hours without seeing a single person, or hear any cars. Only trees and sky. And perfect for recorvering after a good night (all) out. It also contains some Roman ruins, lika a vaiduct, and a small church in ruins. Prohido de pasar. Police cordon. I go inside. Spooky. Nothing inside. Just an ornate vaulted roof, blank walls defaced with grafiti and charred by small fires. From the tops of the hills there are spectacular views of Barcelona and all the valleys as far as Mont Serrat. During the summer months you see the occasional runner totally naked. Never saw that before. The park is kept almost immaculate, with hardly any rubbish around and just purely natural untouched forest. Bliss. On a Sunday evening in Cerdanyola there are a few cool places to go. One of them being just below my flat. Perfect! Well, almost. Bar Boheme. A brik-a-brack style of furnature, and assorted paintings on the walls by local art students. And warm, cosy. They don't generally play good music. But this time it was right. Sweet dreams. Out with the locals November 26th, 2005 Out and about in Cerdanyola del Valles yesterday I went into Circus bar (Calle Parsers) - an unuasual space in a quiet residential area (massive houses). It's a kind of indie-rock music bar - with occasional live act playing. But one thing that generally got to me was the appalling sound equipment. All top and no bass. Well at least yesterday they has and extra setup which was just about up to the job and sounded OK. Djing was Pau, Kanika (monthly in Zentraus) and Neil. Excellent music with the odd few pop choons from Kanika, it was mostly a mix of minimal house, and techno. Opening times is from 10pm until 4am. A reasonable hour to be going to bed doncha think? All in all good fun. That's what's important. Back again in Zentraus bar tonight - the name has changed and the decor too. The vibe too is not quite what it used to be. Now you can gto there by day and have nice bocadillo and coffee. Last Saturday was good but with a lot less people there than before. The place has a lot of class, and the sound quality is tops. Now that's what I like. At least it is still open and continues to be a cool place to be. There's another big party on in Poble Nou tonight with one of guys from Groove Armada DJing. This is an excellent venue - dark warehouse with a savage sound system. For me this is the epitome of an excellent party. With so many regulations in place these days the only way to go is illegal, unfortunately. But that's the way it is. Next week is going to be a massive one! My first visit to Holland. Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Utrecht visiting friends. Sound Architecture are running an excellent night called Less=More in Maassilo, Rotterdam on Friday 2nd. I'm not sure of the full agenda of all the days there - I'll do a round up on December 7th. Bar hopping November 19th, 2005 A relatively quiet night last night, as i am trying to take it easy after my adventures in Saarbrucken and Manchester/Leeds which was tops! (Nice one Pam, he he). So first off to Oven in Poble Nou (Ramon Turro 126). It is located in a semi warehouse / residential area. A very spacious bar/restaurant, big red sofas at the front and several lines of tables further back and finishes off with a massive video screen. The kind of people that were there, mostly late 20's and in their 30's (like me) - very yuppie in fact. Sound quality is so-so, not great. It is the usual lacking bass, but that's aqlmost the norm these days now theat there are tighter regulations in regards to noise pollution. It is a bit pricy with 5 euro for a beer (more than club prices) so be warned if you spend an evening quenching a great thirst you'll be digging a great hole in your wallet in the process. As for music, hmmmm. Not it's best point, so we promply left for another venue. Bar Mor Cheema near Placa molina. We had to ask to get there but it was easy enough to find even though it is off the beat. Has a capacity for about 100. Basic 80's club decor (a bit cold feeling to it) and a small stage. But one major problem - the sound was horrendus! No bass at all (rolls off at 200 Hz approx) and the top end was distorted. Ugh! No one ever really goes there either. There was about 15 people there - kind of sad empty space. Not for me. So off we go. Next to Dr. Astin in the Born area. This has a very discreet red door in a side street near the cathedral - completely sound insulated from the outside so you cannot hear it even if you in front of the door. Inside it has basic metallic decor, a sound-limiter controlled system (with almost all bass end killed because of regulations). This is the kind of place that fills and empties in a second. A large group of friends comes in, stays for a while, and then goes off to another small bar. Anyway we stay to see DJ Kanika and his blinding turntable skills (yes, his is one of my mates in case you're asking). All of the places mentioned above well all free in and have opening hours from 11pm til 3am - the usual bar licence time. Some places might go a little flexible with the closing time on occasion depending on how much hassle the get from the local authorities. Now it's time to get ready for the big match - Barcelona vs. Madrid. This is the biggest football fixture of the year and involves lots heated tempers, and parading on the streets after it. When ever Barcelona wins the city goes completely nuts with masses parading up and down las Ramblas until the lat hours of the morning, and the place getting totally trashed with bottles and cans of beer (and people accuse the Irish of being bad?). Later on I'll be back in a transformed Zentraus (not a club style now, shit!) to play some nice house and funky techno as ever, but at a much lower level then what was before. Damn it! Just when the place was doing so well with almost 500 people going there nightly we have this local authority clampdown. Sucks! Hopefully it will be OK tonight and a reasonable amount of people with be there. Fingers crossed. Barca! Barca! Barca! Living in Barcelona: It should come with a health warning October 23rd, 2005 Another excellent night in Zentraus club last night, but I am still recovering from it! There was plenty of people there when I arrived at 11.45 which was surprizing as most of the time no one comes until about 12.30 or so. This place can really fill up sometimes so fast it's unreal! I bend down to look for a record and then come back and about 50 people just walked in! There was a mix of ages there, from people in their early 20's (like the drop dead gorgeous staff) to a few in their late 40's so it kind balances out the atmosphere. People come in waves... at 12, another at about 1am and another at 2:20am. The last wave of people stay until then end and most of them then go to other clubs, like Moog, Apolo, Felini, la Paloma, City Hall or Razzmatazz, all of them being walking distance from Zentraus except the last one which is a taxi ride away. Don't pay 20 euro to the taxi though - some taxi drivers are total chancers and say "at this time of night that will be... ". Lying cheating bastards! In the rush to get to the club in time (and I was a bit late anyway) I forgot to bring a load of new records with me, so I had to use the older choons I have left in the club. So what started as nice mellow and minimal house finished in a storm of techno beats and then finally with Active8 by Alternate. The place was packed and they loved the sounds. There ware so so many nice girls there I had to intervene (I am normally desperately shy) so let's hope I get some results in the next few days from the contacts I got, ha ha! Cheers to Geoff Walters and Joe McGrath for turning up at the club - they will be DJing there at some time in the future. They tried (and failed) to convince me to go to Felini (on las Ramblas), I just wanted to chill out. Jose's bar is a small cool spot just off the Rambla del Raval - where we go for a late-night drink after Zentraus club. You ring the bell and if there aren't any police about he'll let you in. There's always a few interesting characters there and for me it's the perfect spot to wind down and pass the 2 hours between then end of Zentraus and the start of the trains running in the morning. So off home at a nice sensible hour, when a couple from Toulouse ask me where the Moog club is... it was almost 6am so it's about to close now. So where to go now? Well the bar beside Placa de la Universidad is always open at this time in the morning and full of clubbers. I decide to show them the way there and have a drink with them - being the nice sociable person that I am. The place is mayhem! Full to the brim almost and barly a seat left. They serve food but you have to queue at the counter and then shout your order. Nuts I tell you! There are other places open at this hour but this is the most lively. Barcelona has this one unuasual aspect - you can get a cold beer on the street at anytime of the day or night! For 1 euro, or sometimes 1.50. You should always argue and haggle with the sellers as they make a hefy profit from this. A can costs less than 40 cent, so buying a can for 2 euro is silly. Somehow, I have one in my bag this morning. How did it get there? No idea. Uh oh! Health warning! Party nights in Barcelona September 5th, 2005 Went to have a look at the ICMC tonight in the Metronom in Barcelona, in the Born area. Nice place, but a bit of a sauna inside - no aircon and way too hot. The free beer helped us chill out (it was all free! Imagine that!) and have a mellow and pleasant chat outside the door. I saw Chris Brown + reacTable. Pretty mad shit there. I managed to get a short video clip of it, so I must up load it. It looked and sounded like a 50's sci-fi film set. Bizarre. these two guys were moving shapes around a circular table lit from below, and tthe shapes lit up, and wave patters could be seen jumping and buzzing between the objects. A sight to be seen. Yeah, OK I better post the video because I am not explaining it properly. Hi to Andre and Kenny I met there. Addendum: camera robbed. Aaaagh! Starting Blog today! August 15th, 2005 So, today I updated a load of stuff and links on this site. After messing for several years with Perl and Java, and not implementing any of it, I finally just did it all in plain old HTML. There is an experimental feature of RSS 2.0, but it is not right just yet. Anyway, last weekend I went to Alcarras for a mini festival called H2Zone. The names of tthe different stages made me laugh: IntenseZone, MentalZone, and SistemZone. I know these guys here really like their techno, because it was essentially 3 stages of just that, with a bit of regge at the beginning. Starting from 9pm and going on unitl 9am! Just like the festivals in Ireland. Not! The whole place had a vibe of just a local event, with most people knowing each other and so it had a really nice chilled and familar atmosphere with no on causing any soft of hassle. Nice. More of that please. Mmmmm, happy days! I just bought a new camera. I hope it won't get robbed on me tooo soon. Canon Digital IXUS 40. Yep, I suppose I'm a bit if a sucker as this is an end-of-line camera, but hey it wasn't all that expensive. It's about time I put up a load of nice new pics of my mates not looking their best.