Had one of the greatest days ever on the Monday!...Had a wedding on Sunday so drove home heavily hungover Monday morning, quick pitstop home (I live just off Portobello Road, in one of the cordoned off/private roads) to change (Stuck the new Dave Rodigan 'Gimme Some Signal' T-Shirt on, kept getting stopped and getting complimented on it, always nice
) then went for a stroll, and first place I came across had a great oldschool garage thing going on, and couldn't bring myself to leave there for a while it was so good, and just loved the early groove getting on and everyone moving from head nodders to foot tappers then arm wavers, like a whole load of stages, I could quite happily spend a whole day there, though then the other voice in your head guilt trips you into feeling like you should do more with your day
, So then hooked up with some pals and just mooched around. Did an hour or so in the Redbull thing which all of my party commented was as last year and comically white, though I heard Zinc's 138 Trek and F.U.N - It's The Way which made me fell (and act!) like I was ten years younger and really kicked the day off and hangover from yesterday was a distant memory. I'm a deep/disco house DJ now and it's been my sole musical passion for 10 years, but there's a little bit inside of me that fells that NOTHING I've heard in the last 10 years will beat UKG when it's done good and full of drama!
Strolled around a bit more, checked out Sancho Panzo representing house (alone) - they will have to move their spot IMO if there's no Good Times as the top of a T junction is the worst possible set up for crowd wise - everyone is split up and you get no distance for your crowd (IYSWIM). Didn't see as much dub as I'd have liked, though nothing would have prepared me for what happened next
Strolling back to my flat after the 7pm curfew for a toilet break, my road is all cut off from everything and everyone (apart from residents and staff/emergency services etc) (you would never believe the mayhem going on at either end of my road which is a real blessing!), just as I'm about to stick my keys into my front door, I hear this "Wheey...signal man" turn round, and it was only the man Rodigan himself wearing the same t-shirt! I actually can't think of a bigger idol I've wanted to meet in my entire life, and here he is, on Carnival day, with no one else aside from mine and his other halves....here!....and basically completely contradicted the 'you should never meet an idol' thing - I've got him on a massive pedestal and he surpassed it all!, anyone who's seen him on tv or in concert can think of what he'd be like, well he was just that. But better! Stopped, chatted, allowed the obligatory photo, completely made me feel at ease (my legs were shaking and my words were struggling to come out I was so nervous/excited/in shock!) and was just the nicest guy that leaves you only in awe.
That was at 7pm and after a long sit down to regain my composure (and tell everyone I know!), I spent the next few hours going for a stroll in a daze with the most shit eating grin I think I've ever had, for some reason I love watching the carnage wind down and the before and after of the warzone slowly but surely folds back into the neighbourhood I know and love. The transformation is amazing, though I think the smell will take a while longer
I just bloody love it. Like any similar event, I'll have regrets that I didn't see more, I wanted to see some proper (what I call) lazer-gun rhythm track raggae, but other than that it was pretty much the perfect day!
And I'm sure it's not the rose tinted spectacles that I geninely couldn't think of anything negative that I witnessed (pissing in streets aside
)
Roll on next year!
not the best of starts! But it was all fun in the end.
but you are completly right!
which tbh could have been taken anywhere - apparently the others are too large. pfft.
