All reports from January 09 will appear only on my Myspace page - www.myspace.com/djdarz

NOVEMBER REPORT 08

First off, appologies there's not been a report since March, I promise to be more up to date from now on!

Been a busy few months since then for me. I was in Ibiza in June to play a few gigs. Whilst I was over there, a number of people came up to me and thanked me for the Ibiza Podcast I put online for people heading to Ibiza to listen to. It's the second year I have done an Ibiza Podcast, with 2008's edition being packaed full of the tunes which I predicted would be massive on the island's dancefloors that summer, with me talking over the tracks with various tips on where to go from the best events, clubs, bars, beaches etc. Over 1,000 people downloaded the podcast, and feedback, both online and in person, couldn't have been more positive. Miss Divine loved it so much she sent it out to her mailing list of thousands on facebook of Ibiza workers and clubbers, whilst Ibiza website Eyewitness Ibiza feauted it as their podcast of the summer! I'll be returning in 2009 with the third edition, so watch out for that around April 09 time.

After a complete washout of a summer in the UK, it was good to finally get some sun when I headed to Madrid with a mate in September, it was a top city with a chilled back atmosphere, which I enjoyed immensly.

There was a couple of days where the rain didn't fall in the summer in Blighty, thankfully durng the Mathew Street Festival in Liverpool, which was as good as ever, as I attended both main days drinking and catching loads of bands in the city centre with friends.

I have of course been watching Everton every weekend too, and after an indifferent start to the season we are now 7th in the table, hopefully soon pushing for 5th. The scenes at West Ham on Sat 8th November were the best celbrations in a long while. My friends and I were back row, and when the 3rd goal went in from Louis Saha in our 3-1 win, we were on the front row! This just confirms my view that you simply cannot buy the feeling of when your football team scores, and quite frankly, I feel sorry for anyone who doesn't attend Premiership games live, as it is the best football league in the world, by far.
There was a trip to Liege in Belgium with all my mates in October, but unfortunately this saw Everton saying goodbye to Uefa Cup football for a year at least. A top was had, bar actually getting into the stadium in Liege. It was 30 seconds away from a Hillsborough situation, the Liege police should be ashamed.

In October I also went to see my favorutie band Oasis for the first time, at Liverpool's new Echo Arena. Oasis and the Arena were awesome, but the crowd somewhat let themselves down throwing urine around and generally making a tit of themselves, even to the point where Noel said, "If you don't stop throwing beer at the band, we're fucking off." Enough said.

For a month during October and November I worked at Sliding Doors Publicity/Top Draw Music Management in London. They look after the careers of the likes of Judge Jules, Jupiter Ace and Riley&Durrant amongst others, and it was an insightful eye into working in the music industry, something, of course, which I want to do full time.

Before November was out, I had time to party at the DJ MagTop 100 DJs party @ The Ministry Of Sound (even helping out during the day when the club was empty) with my friend Mark, and my first trip to the Warehouse Project in Manchester for Sven Vath's Cocoon party, underneath Picadilly station with mates Coops, Warbgasm and Julie. Both were absolutely rammed, and with being in the middle of the credit crunch, is pretty impressive. I'll certainly be returning there soon. Finally, a tour of Liverpool brewery Cains saw out the month, which was top quality.

My latest mix Large And In Charge 008 is now available to download via www.djdarz.co.uk in the mixes section - it's been getting good reviews so far, so please do download and let me know your thoughts. All feedback is more than welcome!

Thanks for reading,
Darz

MARCH REPORT 08

I entered the nationwide Babycream DJ competition this month via mix cd, and was accepted onto it. However, as I will be in Ibiza for the latter stages of the competition, decided to withdraw. I have been announced as monthly resident at new Ibiza event D.Flawless, which will take place in the White Room of Eden in San Antonio. I will also be guesting at various other events around the island including for Pure Pleasure, The Orange Corner, 4Play Boat Parties and We Love To Freek, amongst others. Keep an eye out on the dates section of www.myspace.com/djdarz and on facebook join the group DJ Darz - Large And In Charge - just do a simple search for it. I'm looking forward to getting out to the White Isle. My Ibiza Guide 2008 is now available for download in the mixes section of djdarz.co.uk so for anyone going to Ibiza this summer, have a listen, it will get you even more excited than you are, if that is possible! It's got some of the top tracks which I feel will dominate the island's dancefloors this summer, along with info on all the clubs, events, bars, restaurants, beaches on the party capital of the world!

Bring on the summer!

FEBRUARY REPORT 08

February started off in the best possible fashion, as I found out I'd won DJ Mag's Pick N Mix competition for my latest mix offering Large And In Charge 005 – which you can download via www.djdarz.co.uk in the mixes section, or if you want a CD version complete with artwork please email me for a copy. The review is posted on my myspace page underneath my biography. I was delighted, and immediately texted all my mates. I was made up for a number of reasons. Firstly, I've been an avid reader of DJ Mag for the past five years, never missing a copy. They gave me a top review, and the fact that there are so many top quality DJs and producers out there at the moment, of which many post their mixes/tracks on DJ Mag's forum, so to win, I was, as expected, overwhelmed. Onwards and upwards! Cheers DJ Mag…

It took till around the middle of February for me to shift the allergic reaction to the penicillin antibiotics that I'd been suffering from since mid January. For a whole month I'd felt awful, only going out of the house to Everton matches (which are prepaid for with my season ticket, otherwise I wouldn't have gone). So I was glad to get rid of it, so I could at least get working on some tracks, the first of which can now be heard on my myspace page www.myspace.com/djdarz and is entitled Duomo Di Milano – check it out! Any feedback is more than welcome. I'm only two weeks into my production career, so it's very much work in progress at the moment!

Everton (my main passion apart from music) continued our amazing run of form during February. I attended on Feb 9th the Everton – Reading game which we won 1-0 thanks to a Phil Jagielka goal, to continue our fight for 4th place in the Premiership, which would be an UNBELIEVABLE achievement if we were to succeed this season, having spent a lot less money on our squad than the likes of the big 3, and Liverpool. The March 30th Anfield derby is looking like being a monumental game. We also made the last 16 of the Uefa Cup, to meet Italian giants Fiorentina, after defeating Brann of Norway twice during the month. Another win over Manchester City in the League meant we finished February in 4th place.

My Large And In Charge 006 mix is now available for download, so be quick and get ya digital mitts upon a copy of it from www.djdarz.co.uk at the top of the mixes section. Or, if ya fancy a cd copy complete with artwork, email me, and I'll do my best!

More next month, where I'll hope to have another track available on my myspace page for you're your aural entertainment (here's hoping!) Cheers for reading…

JANUARY REPORT 08

The first week in January was chilling out from a hectic December. On the Tuesday 8th I travelled to London on the train with Dan for Everton's semi final of the Carling Cup against Chelsea. After a few beers on the train, we met my brother John at his office on Liverpool Street in the city, before heading to Earl's Court for drinks to meet another friend. We had to take different routes to our original plan after two separate incidents of people throwing themselves under trains. We had a pint in a swanky wine bar near the ground, which reminded me of the kind of bar in which the most famous episode of Only Fools And Horses, when Del Boy fell over at the bar after telling Trigger to "play it cool" when trying to chat up a couple of ladies. The Wilmslow outside Goodison Park it was not! There was 6,000 Evertonians down for the match, anticipation massive ahead of our first semi final in 12 years. It was an exciting cup tie, with tackles flying. Chelsea took the lead, before Everton equalised with a thunder from Yakubu, and the celebrations eclipsing last month's Andy Johnson goal at West Ham. Everyone who travels to away games will tell you that it means a lot more to score away from home, the travelling support are the most hardcore of fans, the scenes were immense. You simply cannot buy the same buzz. Chelsea scored in the last minute to win the first leg, but being disappointed from taking a 2-1 away loss at Chelsea, a team who have spent £300 million more than Everton in the last 5 years on their team, shows just how far David Moyes has brought this Everton team.

A few days later I went to the opening of the Liverpool European Capital of Culture 2008 ceremony at St Georges Hall in the city centre with Coops, and 40,000 other people. Ringo Starr and the Wombats played, along with a 40 minute show from the city's various artists and musicians. It was an awesome spectical . The city has, and will be transformed with £5 billion. The city has a rich social history – and the depth, variety and sheer quality of culture in Liverpool is overwhelmingly impressive, and without doubt deserves the triumph. Afterwards we went to a few pubs. Up and out early the next morning, I headed to Goodison Park for the Everton – Manchester City match. We won 1-0, and climbed to 5th, level on points with local rivals Liverpool. After the match I stayed out and celebrated a friend, Julie's birthday, drinking in various pubs, until collapsing onto her couch at 5am after playing drinking games.

I was then wiped out for three weeks with a chest infection, and to make matters extremely worse suffered an allergic reaction to the Amoxycilin antibiotics I had taken to clear the infection. I felt so ill, no energy atall, completely fatigued, was horrible.

Even though I felt awful, I made the effort to go and see a friend, Warbgasm play a gig in Liverpool on the 31st. He rocked it as usual. Earlier in the month (when I was healthy!), I managed to get myself two free tickets to the premiere of the Skins 2nd Series at the Barfly in Liverpool for 1st February. I must confess to have never seen Skins. I received a mailing list email from some VJs called Eclectic Method explaining that they would be playing all of the premier gigs up and down the country. I've been wanting to see these guys for ages live, as their online videos rock, and so waited for 5pm on Thursday 17th January for the release of the tickets on Skins' Myspace page. At 5.04PM the tickets were gone for every gig. Unbelievable! I managed to get two tickets, but there were thousands who didn't, and were truly gutted. I had to miss this night due to my illness too, I was devastated. I got some stick off friends for not going out, but if they'd any idea of how bad I felt, they would have understood.

In better news, I was featured in February's edition of dance magazine IDJ's Raw Talent section. They review the eight or so best mix cds they receive each month, so I was made up to see my Large And In Charge 004 mix on their hallowed pages. Eddie Halliwell made a comment about it, saying "well mixed, and builds up really well." You can see the review on my MySpace page. Onwards and upwards!

Also, although rumoured for some time to be closing, January came the official announcement that the legendry London club Turnmills was to close to make way for flats. It's a big shame, as whenever I've been to Turnmills (I've had the fortune to DJ and club there on several occasions) it has always been rammed packed. I've had so many top nights there over the years, and together now with the Cross, and other clubs around the same area (the Key etc) closing due to building work on Kings Cross train station, what does this mean for London clubland? It's a MASSIVE blow that's for sure. Here's hoping I can get to Turnmills one last time before it's closure over Easter weekend.

DECEMBER REPORT 07

Apologies before we start, but this could be quite a long one…

The party month kicked off with the annual Christmas mates meal on December 8th. Earlier in the day, I had been at Goodsion Park to watch Everton defeat Fulham with a Yakubu hat-rick. After all meeting at Pez’s house, we then made our way to this years venue of choice – the Toby Carvery on Queens Drive, Liverpool. Pez, Coops, Grimes, Ste Hill, Ste Duffy, Warb, Hendo and myself were this years attendees. As per usual at a Toby Carvery you can pile up as much on your plate as you like, and I got my money’s worth of turkey, ham and vegetables to say the least. After the meal, we headed into Liverpool city centre and had many many drinks in various bars. At 3am we made our way back to Pez’s house where we all watched the Ricky Hatton and Floyd Mayweather Undefeated fight on Sky Box Office, with loads of food and more beers! The fight had been by far the most hyped fight I can ever remember. I had earlier in the day put a bet on Mayweather to win on points. He won in the 10th round after knocking down Hatton for the 2nd time. We then stayed up till around 8am playing on Grimes’ Wii, although I was having great difficulty playing it in the pissed state I was in. I slept the whole of Sunday fighting off a massive hangover.

The next day I flew to Milan with a mate, Sean. We had booked 1p flights, and as I’ve never been Italy before, decided to have 24 hours in the fashion capital, although fashion was the furthest from our minds. After flying to Bergamo airport, a one hour coach transfer to Central Station in Milan was followed by eating the nicest hot dog I have ever eaten from a food stand close to Statione Central. As it wasn’t the nicest area at night – full of pimps and prostitutes, we decided to get some kip at midnight, in preparation for a busy following day. We were up and out by 9am, after having an awesome all you can eat continental buffet breakfast, eating as many croissants and French Rolls as I could, which set us up nicely for the day. Having bought incredibly cheap all day travel cards for 3 Euros, we caught the Metro to Duomo, where we were greeted as we stepped into the square by the beautiful Cathedral. Built in the 1300s, it is the 3rd largest Cathedral in the world, and it’s stature was immense to say the least. Milan, like any major European city, was buzzing in the lead up to Christmas, and there were hundreds of market stalls lining the streets selling anything and everything from Christmas ornaments, to a whole selection of amazing foods such as various cheeses, hams, salamis, sweets and nuts. We then made our way into the Cathedral to have a look around, whilst I lit a candle and said a few prayers. There’s some photos in my Myspace gallery, although having problems with my camera phone, not as many as I would have liked – check them out! We made our way from one Cathedral to another – the San Siro, home to two of Europe’s biggest football teams – AC Milan and Inter Milan. It was a good half an hour outside the city centre by tram, and having arrived around midday, was told that stadium tours wouldn’t start until 1pm. As there was a pub directly next to the stadium, we sank a few beers, and got talking to some West Ham fans who were waiting for the tour too. The tour didn’t disappoint. From both the outside and inside, it was gigantic. Mahussive. Immense. Outrageously large. The pitch was being relayed, and our tour guide told us that because of the state of the drains underneath the pitch, the pitch has to be re-laid seven times a year, at the cost of 200,000 Euros per relay! We then headed into the dressing rooms. AC and Inter have different changing rooms, with AC’s being the superior of the two. We were told there was no particular reason for that, just the two clubs decided separately how to design their respected rooms. Sean had his photo taken in world player of the year Kaka’s seat, before cheekily asking the tour guide if he could leave a written message for the team to say congratulations for beating our ‘beloved’ neighbours Liverpool in the Champions League final in May. His request was refused. We then headed back into town to the Duomo, where we was having a lovely beer and pizza/pasta before Sean realised he had left his bag in the pub next to the San Siro. We dashed back to get it, luckily it was still there. More beers and gorgeous food was had before boarding the bus back to Bergamo, which took two hours instead of the usual one, due to Italian lorry drivers parking their lorries directly in the middle of the road in the run up to the airport in frustration of petrol prices. A top time was had in a new European city to both of us. I am most definitely a fan of short European city breaks, of which I’ll be looking to do more of next year. Milan – most definitely recommended.

The next day I was up and out early to catch the train to London for a few days to stay at my brothers and watch both of Everton's games against West Ham in the capital. On the train I met a couple of mates
also who were down for the game, and so had a beer with them. I met my brother and friends in the city, and had more beers, before making our way to Upton Park for Everton's Carling Cup Quarter Final match
against the Hammers. Everton haven't been involved in any major cup run since David Moyes' arrival as boss 6 years ago, so it was an awesome result for us to beat them 2-1 in their own back yard. My bro
and I go a kebab at Victoria before heading back to his home in Oxted.

A day later, I was up and out early again, into London. I tubed it to Highgate in North London, where my brother used to live, and as I was after some decent exercise, walked to Hampstead and back, a good 3 miles. I then went to Liverpool Street to meet my brother and friends for lunch, before hitting Oxford Street. It was packed in the run up
to Christmas. Asd Fabio Capello was about to be announced as the new England manager, I took a detour from Oxford Street into Soho Square, home of the FA. It was packed. A fire alarm had meant the whole of the FA Headquarters had spilled onto the streets, of whom I spotted Martin Tyler from Sky, and former England keeper Ray Clemence. Dan Roan did a live segment for Sky Sports News as I stood just yards away, which was quite a surreal experience for me as Sky Sports News is on 24/7 in my house! I then headed to the Royal National Hotel in Central London to meet a friend, Dan, who is a member of ESCLA - Everton Supporters Club London Association. David Moyes was meeting ESCLA members for an hours Q&A. It was a brilliant experience to be in the company, along with around 100 other Evertonians of one of my heros and listen to his every word for an hour. I even asked a question regarding former Everton striker James Beattie, which he answered well, before getting him to sign my season card.

Thursday I was out in London again early, and after poncing around Camden Market, decided to have a bit of a Gunniess crawl. I had pints in the World’s End in Camden, an Irish pub in Kings Cross, Old Street, and finally Dirty Dicks on Liverpool Street. I then had a few more with my brother and friend Angar, who was in town for Christmas, having spent all year working in Abu Dhabi. My bro and I then headed back to Oxted where we had a few more beers in Oxted Old Town, before ending the night with a kebab. With surprisingly no hangover the next morning, I was up at 8am playing with my neice Mina and into Oxted with her and my bro for coffee and cake, before I put on the same bet at the bookies as I did on Wednesday, a fiver on Everton to beat West Ham again. I met a friend, Dan, in the Market Porter pub near London Bridge, and made our way to Upton Park for the 2nd time in three days. We beat West Ham 2-0 with goals from the Yak and Andy Johnson. The scenes at the end of the game was one of the most celebrated wins I’ve seen at Everton and showed the brilliant connection with the players and fans. I’m not sure any other Premiership team has such a relationship with the fans as the Everton players do. I was pissed off my camera phone was playing up, so despite trying to get as many photos and videos as I could, couldn’t get any. Everton are now 12 games unbeaten, an amazing time to be an Evertonian. I caught the train home to Liverpool after the match, and chilled the next day watching ‘Grand Slam Sunday’, which was two of the most boring games of football I’ve seen in a while.

Monday 17th December was my 25th Birthday. With mates Warb, Pez and Dan, I headed to Manchester for some beers to celebrate. We drank German beer at the German Market, with loads of gorgeous food ranging from cheeses, sweets, salamis etc. We then made our way around some of Manchester’s Ale houses, and had some beers from different countries ranging from Polish, Czech and German. The next morning I woke up with a pounding headache though!

The Wednesday 19th I travelled down to London, wandered around Camden Market, and met my brother to stay at his house. Up and out early on the Thursday at 7am, we made our way to Gatwick for our flight with a friend, Dan, to Amsterdam to watch Everton play in the Uefa Cup against AZ Alkmaar. After being delayed two hours due to fog, we arrived after our 45 minute flight into Amsterdam, and after ditching our gear in our hotel, met up with friends Bren and Dan (another one!) for beers. We met more friends throughout the day, before making the 45 minute train journey from Amsterdam to Alkmaar. We had more beers in a bar filled with Evertonians, before trying to find our way to the stadium. With it looking as if we would miss kick off due to taxis being fully booked etc, we saw a local 50/60 odd year old man park his minibus and leave it unlocked. Within 30 seconds, there was 20 of us on the minibus singing Everton songs. His face when he came back and saw us was a picture, he literally couldn’t believe it. Although we offered him 200 Euros to drive us to the stadium, we were told strictly to “get out of my minibus!!” In the end, we boarded an Alkmaar bus to the ground, before taking our seats in the members section. Everton won the game 3-2, extending our unbeaten run to 13 games, with a reserve team. We enjoyed the match drinking beers, which is usually banned at Uefa Cup games, but we were allowed to drink due to being in the members area. Woo! We caught the Everton supporters’ buses back to Amsterdam, and continued to drink beer in various bars until 5am when there was no more left open, when we wandered around the red light district at the various gorgeous prostitutes. . It was –6 temperatures, and snowing, very Christmas like. It was my first away European trip with Everton, and a top time was had drinking in various bars, with loads of mates, around 3 thousand Evertonians, singing, dancing, no trouble. Waking up 4 hours later with a massive hangover, we headed back to the airport to deal with a 4 hour delay, again due to fog, before finally making it to Euston from Gatwick, and then back up to home, Liverpool. Bed was very much on the agenda when I returned home. The next day, after a mammoth 13 hour sleep, I was up and out to celebrate my birthday with friends in Liverpool. There was loads of mates out including Pez, Coops, Warb, Ste (his 25th Bday also), Duffy, Olley amongst various others who we seen in the Blue Angel, as we danced away to cheap drinks and Christmas tunes. Another hangover followed the next morning, and after watching Everton get beat 2-1 at Manchester United on TV, slept all day.

After sleeping off yet another festive hangover, Christmas Eve I was DJing in London. I left with mate Sean around 6pm, with driving conditions South absolutely awful, rain bashing down on my car. We arrived safely into London with the help of Sean’s awesome N95 mobile phone sat nav around 10pm, and had some excellent food in an Indian restaurant on Brick Lane, before Djing at the Ditch Bar in Shoreditch. The gig was poorly attended. We left London at 3am, and arrived at my front door at 8am, after the worst driving conditions I have ever experienced. It was foggy as fuck! I literally couldn’t see a thing in front of me, so had to drive slow, and really concentrate. I slept most of Christmas Day, before boxing day going to Everton’s 2-0 victory over Bolton. I had been looking forward for months to going Circus in Liverpool on Boxing Night, and after expecting to meet Stuart around 9pm, received a text from him saying he had lost the tickets. What a clown. So I stayed in Boxing Night watching Match of the Day, and sorting out Large And In Charge 5, which can be downloaded now via djdarz.co.uk in the mixes section, or if you prefer a cd version complete with artwork, do ask me!

I then chilled for a few days, read Russel Brand’s autobiography, did some online shopping, after going to Liverpool and lasting an hour in the rain/packed shops, before again heading to Goodison Park to watch Everton, this time against Premiership leaders Arsenal! Although we played well, individual errors saw us beaten 4-1. Afterwards I headed into Liverpool to meet a friend, Coops, for beers to drown one’s sorrows. Sunday 30th was recovery from another hangover, and then on New Year Eve, ater having some beers in the Stanley in Huyton, went to friend Pez’s house to see in the New Year with a big gang of mates, finally getting to bed at 7am after playing the drinking game Kings. With a massive hangover, I was up and out to the pub again to watch Everton beat Middlesbrough 2-0 on New Years Day.

Phew! What a month. The next few won’t be quite as exciting, as I’ll be hiding in the studio working on tracks – the aim in 2008 to make my first album! Happy New Year! x

NOVEMBER REPORT 07

Saturday 3rd November I attended as usual to sit in my season ticket seat at Goodison Park to see a late Everton win against Birmingham. I watched Match Of The Day, had an early night before leaving for London early Sunday morning for a Sunday afternoon/early evening gig for Silly Sundays @ Inigo in Clapham. I arrived in London, headed to Camden to The World's End pub for a pre gig pint of Guinness. I made my way from North to South London shortly afterwards. I've played on a couple of previous occasions for Tony Aggro and his Silly Sundays event with fellow Brother of Woo and best mate Warbgasm. I played a 6-8pm set, with a friend Mark by my side. Tony plied us both with endless tequila, sambuca and lager. I was to coin a phrase - absolutely legless, although Mark wasn't - clearly he can hold his drink a lot better than me! I stayed at Mark's flat in Muswell Hill, and as I was in the area met my brother's best mate Hunty for coffee in his house. I then spent a day wandering around central London, and then headed to Oxted to see my little neice Mina, spent a few hours in Camden walking around the market - anyone who hasn't been simply has to, it is brilliant, before heading back up to Liverpool in preparation of my gig later in the week in Belfast.

On Friday 9th November I flew to Belfast to play for Kinetik at Mynt. After a short 40 minute flight Mynt owner/promoter Lawrence picked me up and dropped me off at my hotel before Belfast living friends Julia and Melina took me out on the town, as it was my first time in the city. We ate tapas at the Apartment bar, and sunk several drinks. They don't half know how to drink in Northern Ireland!! We visited 3 or 4 bars/clubs before hitting Mynt at 1.30am for my 2-4am set. The two previous Friday's Filthy Rich and Johnathan Ulysses had played, so I knew I was in good company. In keeping with the Irish drinking culture we knocked back a bottle of vodka between us. The crowd were wicked, extremely appreciative of the music I was playing and screaming not too dissimilar to that of a crowd at a football match. There were over 400 in the house meaning a top notch atmosphere. For the last hour 4-5am I played back to back with resident DJ Dale Hooks, before getting a kebab and collapsing into bed at 6am. I was up and out 6 hours later, and, with a stonking hangover, headed to check out Belfast in the day, went on the big wheel seeing top sights of the city and wandered around the city. Various market stalls were dotted around the city, with one selling black and white prints of Belfast days gone by during all the troubles, a photo of which saw a gunman pointing his loaded gun at kids in the street. Lawrence's son gave me a lift to the airport for our 25 minute flight back to Liverpool explaining and showing us as I passed the differing Catholic and Protestant areas. I had a big smile on my face having had a top gig and 24 hours in a new city. Here's hoping I'll be invited back to play again soon! There some photos of the night in my Myspace gallery, check them out!

A week later I drank in Liverpool city centre with a mate watching the Scotland - Italy European Championship Qualifier from Glasgow. Scotland had been put in a group a year ago with two of the giants of world football, France and Italy, yet with this the last game to play, a win over Italy would see them qualify for next summer's tournament in Austria and Switzerland. Four years ago, I travelled to Amsterdam to watch Scotland play Holland in a similar qualifier, so I like to think of myself as an adopted Scotland fan. Unfortunately, Italy won 2-1, meaning Scotland wouldn't be going in June 2008. Hopefully, I will be though for a few days to check out the atmosphere, like I did in 2006 to the World Cup in Germany. A week later, after watching Everton play Sunderland at Goodison Park went out with friends in Liverpool for a mates' birthday. The rest of November was spent daily in the weeks learning music production. My good friend Warbgasm is now starting to have tracks signed to labels, and it has taken him five years learning how to produce. I have taken the decision to 100% completely work on tracks from January to May without gigging.

Cheers for reading, more next month which will be a very hectic one to say the least…

SEPTEMBER REPORT 07

Quiet month this month, recovering from Ibiza in the early part. I mixed the third part of my mix series Large And In Charge 003 during September, which can be downloaded from the mix section, or if you want a CD copy, email me. I'll be working on producing tracks throughout October before hitting the road to test them out at my gigs in November and December. Have a good month!

AUGUST REPORT 07

August saw the return of the greatest football league in the world, The English Premiership, and after the most dismal summer weatherwise any of us can remember, it was most welcomed. My team Everton clocked up wins against Wigan and Spurs, a defeat against Reading, and a game at home to Blackburn. The day Everton were facing Blackburn, one of my best mates Peter and I had travelled to London to my brother's house the night before, and despite only getting to bed at 2am, my little Neice Mina woke us both up wanting to play at 5.45am, not best preperation with the day ahead planned. We entertained her until leaving for central London around 11am to ditch our suitcases and bags at my brother's office opposite Liverpool Street Station, before heading to Wembley for the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final between St Helens and Catalan, the first French team to ever compete in the final. There was 6 of us, so we had a few drinks around the ground, some inside before the game, and then, whilst actually watching the game. It was by far the hottest day of the summer as we frazzled in 100 degree heat. Saints won easily, and directly afterwards we headed to the nearest pub to watch Everton V Blackburn on TV live from Goodison Park. Just three days earlier, a young Evertonian Rhys Jones, just 11 years old was gunned down dead walking home from football training, a minute's applause took place on the pitch before kick off with his mum, dad and brother joining David Moyes pitchside. After watching a 1-1 draw, we headed to London's famous Brick Lane for a curry before heading to pick up our bags from my brother's office, before catching the Stanstead Express from Liverpool Street for our flight to the White Isle. At least, that was the plan. We arrived at the office only to find that throughout the day the security guard had been and put an extra lock on. After an hour frantic phonecalls from my brother to various co-workers and managers, he managed to get hold of the security guy's number, and he came and saved me and Peter a heart attack. We then left for Ibiza...

We arrived in Ibiza 6am Sunday morning, and after a few hours kip, headed to the beach in front of Bar M to catch some rays, before eating at the awesome Nandos. We then headed to a Scottish bar to watched the Man United - Spurs game, sinking several beers. Sunday night saw us return to Bar M for the Judgement Sunday pre party, some more bars for pre drinks, and then to the biggest night in San Antonio, Judgement Sunday. As we entered the funky room John Kelly was DJing, and we talked to Jules before downing tequila with him. After a few tequilas, sambucas and muchos cervesas, I was extremely drunk, and stumbled back to our hotel around 6.30am. Monday's hangover was worsened after being stung a jellyfish on the leg whilst swimming near Kanya. Later on that night, we headed for a Chinese meal, then helped a drunken guy who had bust his nose falling head first onto a curb back to our hotel where he was also staying. We met friend Tony Aggro, with his missus and mates at Hush where he was DJing, before heading off to a cove on the beach with beers and chilled for a few hours. Myself and Pez then caught the last two hours 4-6am of Dusted at Eden, where I met Kate Lawler, who was extremely nice in real life.

Tuesday was spent eating at the Orange Corner, and chilling on the beach, before heading out drinking until 4am in the various bars, before again catching the last 2 hours of Eden, this time for Gatecrasher Dance Anthems. Alex Ellenger, the resident DJ of Eden is a good friend, and he introduced me to his best friend Dermot C, who runs the awesome Plastik bar, which used to be situated in the West End, and has now moved to an even bigger and swankier venue near the Egg roundabout. Dermot asked me to play at Plastik on Saturday, just hours before we were due to fly home. We danced away with Jonathon Ulysses, who had played earlier, and he promised us guest list for his gig later in the week at El Divino. Wednesday, again with hangover in hand, we headed down to the Orange Corner to play a 6 hour set from 2pm-8pm. Myself and Peter played back to back, playing tracks ranging from funky house, vocal house, Ibiza classics, electro, progressive, melodic, anything and everything. I played my own tracks 'Clapham Sunrise' and 'Colossal', both of which had good reactions. We met a variety of people throughout the day, ranging from two gorgeous American girlies, of whom you can see a video on my myspace page, seasoned clubbers, pure randoms, and even lucky lucky men who loved the music so much we exchanged sunglasses for mix cds. Hangover after hangover was beginning to kick in, and we made it to bed at the unbelieably early time of 2am, kipping until 4pm the next day. A gorgeous meal at Kanya was followed by drinking in Ibiza Town at the Rock and Base bars, before seeing Jonathon Ulysses rock the arse off El Divino. The mixture of lack of sleep, too much sun, loads of alcohol had left me feeling really bad, with the Ibiza flu well and truly kicked in.

Friday was spent kipping all day, with various texts being sent to and from the UK keeping up to date with the final day transfer activities. Everton re-signed Mad Dog Thomas Gravesen. Friday night was all about Tong at Mambo live on Radio 1, where thousands head for the sunset. We ate at the excellent Curry Club, then partied at Plastik to check out the music policy for my set the following evening. We chatted to a friend Jay Hynd, who was out with fellow Radio City presenter Pez Tellet. Saturday was spent in bars watching Everton defeat Bolton, and Manchester United beat Sunderland, before DJing at Plastik, meeting friends, the bar was rammed with hundreds despite being just 50 yards from an also rammed Bar M with the Arctic Monkeys kicking arse out of it. There's photos from the whole week on my myspace gallery, check them out. I'm now back in the UK, wishing I was back in Ibiza, planning to hopefully go for 10 weeks next summer, it is just too damn good out there. This year was by far the most packed, and the amount of gorgeous girls is uncountable. I'll be DJing out and about in London and Belfast in the coming months, with hopefully more to come, and continuing cracking on with producing tunes, whilst my new mix cd Large And In Charge 3 is nearing completion so get downloading it or requesting a cd copy...

JULY REPORT 07

July kicked off with my sister in law Christine's 40th birthday BBQ at my brother's in Oxted, Surrey on 07/07/07. Apparently, this wasthe date that the most wedding's will take place in the UK this year, due to it bringing good luck. Thankfully, although having rained for weeks in the build up, we had an excellent day's weather, with a marque in the garden, and with around 75 people was a top day, lots of good food, and alcohol of course.

A large group of friends a couple of weeks later headed into Liverpool for one of my best friend's Adam Olley's leaving night out before he left to live in Sheffield with his German girlfriend Julia. It was during a Marc Romboy gig at the Lemon Lounge in Liverpool in which myself, Olley and Warb attended that I egged Olley on to get her number. 18 Months later he is moving to Sheffield with her! Another top night was had...

Other that that this month I have been continuing the music course in Liverpool, really enjoying it. My first two tracks are also now finished. You can hear 'XXL' and 'Clapham Sunrise' on my Myspace page - myspace.com/djdarz - any feedback is good, and if any DJs want an Mp3 copy, email me. I hope to have two more finished to complete a 4 track demo EP before I head to Ibiza for a week at the end of August with my friend Peter. More next month, including full Ibiza report!

JUNE REPORT 07

Throughout June I've been on an open learning Music Course which runs through until October, so that's been keeping me busy, learning everything about the Music Industry including things such as creating tracks, performing, recording and production, marketing and promotion, distrobution and retail, copyright, legal stuff, pretty exciting stuff for someone immersed in the music industry, and wanting to become a more prominant part of it.

Apart from that I've added loads of mixes to my website www.djdarz.co.uk in the mixes section, new mixes, plus I've added older mixes too, and my Radio Shows from Halton FM with loads of guest mixes. Feel free to download, wack on cd, tell ya mates. If you want any on cd, feel free to contact me.

On Saturday 9th June I was at Old Trafford cricket ground for the England - West Indies match, with my brother and a load of his mates, one of whom was the 3rd naked streaker of the day, and even made it into the Observer on Sunday at the end of June. I was meant to DJ at a night called Front at Bedlam in Manchester that same night, but due to unbelievable messing around from the promoter I decided not to.

I've been and will be working on some tracks throughout the summer, and here's hoping I'll have one sorted for around August time, to take Ibiza with me, where I'll be playing a few gigs. Here's hoping the weather sorts itself out and we get a bit of sun! If not, I'll have to wait until Ibiza...

MAY REPORT 07

Early May saw my CDJ800 finally arrive, and now means I can record new demo cds, fire them out to promoters, and here's hoping get back DJing frequently. My new mix can be downloaded in the mixes section of my website www.djdarz.co.uk, would love to hear feedback. There will be a new mix every few months, with a new podcast monthly mix also to come in the next few months.

Highlights of the month include a Pro Evo tournament at my house with myself, Pez, Warb, Coops, Chris and Carl, with which Warb took home the money, beating me at the finalie. Pez's Bday night out in town was also top, with a surprise meal at a Mexican restaurant in Liverpool for 15 people. Liverpool's Champions League defeat to Milan also had me smiling considerably for the ensuing few days afterwards.

Gigs confirmed in Manchester and Ibiza coming up, here's hoping more to be added to the dates list, and for a hot summer of tunes, and hopefully, my first releases too...

APRIL REPORT 07

April kicked off with an away trip with friends Pez and Dan to Villa Park in Birmingham to watch Everton gain a further point towards European football next season. We visited Pez's Aunty, Uncle and cousins on the way who made us feel extremely welcome with steak buttys and beer!

The following Monday myself and Hendo, a friend, headed to Blackpool for the first time in our clubbing lives for the UK's biggest club, The Syndicate. Judgement Sunday's were hosting the first of their warm up UK events in preperation for their weekly shananigans on the White Isle this summer, and we joined the 5,000 strong crowd witnessing Jules rock it as always. The following week was the Grand National, the biggest horse race in the world, and despite being pissed off that not waking up till midday meant me missing out on a free £75 luxury ticket for the event, still managed to beat the bookies for the 4th year in succession. A week later it was down to London with Dan to stay at my brothers to catch up with my little neice Mina, and to watch Everton at West Ham, and go out in Clapham for another firend, also called Dan's 30th BDay celebrations.

On Saturday 28th I saw James Zabiela and Nic Faniciulli rock it as One+One at Circus in Liverpool with my friend Mark. It was massive inspiration for me to get back out there onto the scene DJing and producing...

MARCH REPORT 07

St Patrick's night in middle March I travelled with mates Peter and Sean to Chester to Peter's girlfriend Charlie's house for a gathering with her hot mates before heading into Chester. A top night was had, and the next day, although nursing a bad hangover, made our way to Goodison Park to see Andy Johnson hit the winner at the Street end in the last minute over Arsenal. Awesome is the word! Late March Everton legends played Barcelona legends, and although I wasn't expecting a very good game, it was a nice surpirse, with 8 goals, Barca running out 5-3 vitcors!

Late March with my parents visiting my brother down South, I felt it necissery to invite my friends round to my gaff for a to put it politely, piss up! The weekend turned out to be a 48 hour drinking bender, to which I'm still recovering!

In the next few months, I plan on making my way back into the dance scene, here's hoping with some gigs, and tracks to my name, looking forward to a good summer, with Ibiza, as always at the end of it, for a week.

FEBRUARY REPORT 07

Currently taking a few months off the dance music scene, I still felt the need to write a report, even if just to remind myself what I have been up to in years to come reading back! Anywa, yeh February kicked off with the Merseyside derby at Anfield, and being a massive Everton fan, and season ticket holder/frequent away game attender, I was delighted when my good friend Oggy secured me a ticket for the biggest away game of the season. I met a friend, Dan, early at around 10.30am as it was a 12.45pm kick off, we headed to County Road for a few pre match beers, before heading over to Anfield for the game. Everton held out for a 0-0 draw, a good point on our quest for European football next season. Although it wasn't a win, it felt like it, as our draw had virtually ended our neighbours slight hopes of winning the Premiership, and so myself, Dan and a few others headed out celebrating in Liverpool city centre.

Games at home to Blackburn and Spurs followed, before a trip to Watford. With most London away games watching Everton, I like to stay with my brother/sister in law/niece for a few days in Surrey where they live. With football being my main activity outside of music, alongside exercising, I feel it best for these pages if not talking about music to talk about Everton! We beat Watford 3-0, and then spent a night out in Watford and then back into London...

More next month!

JANUARY REPORT 07

I'd been reading dance music magazine Mixmag over the Christmas period when I saw an advert for Egg nightclub in London (voted 25th in the world by DJMag last year), advertising for a new resident DJ, and for DJs to send it demo mix cds. That I did, and having forgot all about the comp then received an email literally 10 days notice that I'd be playing in the semi finals alongside 7 other DJs on Friday 26th January.

I travelled down to London, and met a friend, Dan, in an Irish pub in Kings Cross for a few pre gig beers, before heading to Egg to play a relatively early set of midnight until 1am. At the start of my set the room I was playing was empty, but throughout my set it busied fairly quickly, and at the end of my set was rammed, and I could of played all night gladly. The set went OK, not the best, nor the worst I've ever played, and we'll see if I progress into the final. I've played a few DJ competitions before, and never has the winner deserved to be the winner, it's usually how many mates ya bring on the guestlist etc, not the talent that wins the day, we'll see! I actually didn't hang around much longer after my set, so didn't get to check the other DJs out. Saturday was up early, and then spent a few days at my brother n sister in laws in Surrey playing with my two year old neice Mina, shopping in London, before heading back up to Liverpool. For the past few weeks I've been converting my hundreds n hundreds of records over to cd/mp3, which is a timely task! I'm finally going to get stuck into production in the next few months taking a time out from gigs, so here's hoping I'll have something to offer in the near future.

Cheers, n thanx for reading!
Darz

DECEMBER REPORT 06

My friend Mark and I bought a cheap flight to Barcelona for my birthday 13-15th December. We arrived having not slept for 24 hours due to an early flight and having never been to Barcelona before was fairly excited! We arrived around the main area Las Ramblas, think Oxford Street, ditched our gear in the hotel, then headed out for a couple of beers in some Irish bars. At night we decided to go to the Espanol Vs Austria Vienna Uefa Cup game at the Olimpic Stadium. We left hotel at 6pm, and with a 8.45pm kick off thought we had plenty of time, but, as hardly anybody spoke English, was tough communicating. We managed to get to the stadium just in time for kickoff, Espanol winning 1-0 with a goal from former Birmigham player Walter Pandiani! We walked back into Barcelona, had a couple more pints, and finally, after 48 hours awake got so much needed kipo!

Thurs 14th we were up n out early, made our way to the Nou Camp, Barcelona FC's massive 120,000 capacity stadium for the ground tour. It was awesome! We had our photos taken with the European Cup, visited the changing rooms, press areas, pitch side, in the stands and commentary boxes etc. The rest of the day was spent sightseeing of which we seen Sagrada Familia, built by legendry Spanish architect Gaudi. Everywhere we went was packed, we must of walked 10 miles each day. We did lots of press photos doing various things, playin footy etc. We visited La Boquera, the biggest food market in Europe, and voted the 5th best in the world, buying some special Spanish sausages for my brother which he'd requested. We did everything we could in 48 hours in the Catalan capital, we blitzed it, with very little sleep. At night we checked out Port Olimpica, down near the beach, and as expected it was cheesey as fuck, very Magaluf-esque, where stag/hen do's would frequent I'd imagine. The weather had been glorious for the two days, but after over sleeping we just made our flight fighting our way through the pissing down rain in rush hour…

I had a brilliant birthday night out the Saturday before Christmas with all my friends in Liverpool, before watching Chelsea beat Everton at Goodison Park on my birthday. I unfortunately had food poisoning from eating a dodgy burger from outside the ground, and was out of action over Xmas/New Year for 2 weeks.

Have a good year!

NOVEMBER REPORT 06

The first weekend in November I was in London for a gig with friend Warb as part of our side project Brothers of Woo. We both DJ seperately under aliases DJ Darz and Warbgasm primeraly, but it's fun to hook up once in a while to play a Woo gig. That we did on Sunday 5th November for Silly Sundays at the Play Bar on Old Street in the capital. On the Saturday I'd been with my brother and friends to watch Everton play Fulham at Craven Cottage, and despite a 1-0 defeat, a good day was had, with some beers with more friends who hadn't been the game, in Islington. Silly Sundays is a small, intimate affair, and with around 100 people in the house the Woos did our best to rock it. It was good to catch up with lots of friends, including promoters Tony and Megan.

That was my only gig through November, but I kept myself busy. I went with mates to see Mitchell and Webb in Liverpool, which was surprisingly dissapointing. And two more away trips to watch Everton, again in London at Charlton, and away at Manchester United saw out the month.

I'm currently taking a couple of months off giging learning stuff in the studio, so hopefully sooner rather than later should have some of my own stuff out there for ya to listen to.

cheers

OCTOBER REPORT 06

I'd already written my September report before the month was out, so had to include the following which happened towards the latter end of the month in this October offering. On September 20 th, one of my best friends, Kevin Wilson sadly passed away. It was an incredible shock as he was just my age, 23, and for anyone to die at our age is unfair, and unforgivable. My friends and I whom I went to school (St Edwards College, Liverpool) are a really tight bunch, we look after each other, always socialising regulary. Kev loved our school that much that he had returned to work there after gaining a degree at the University of Liverpool. And it was there that he died at 8.35am on that Wednesday morning, through what we believe to be Adult Sudden Death Syndrome. One minute apparently he was fine, the next he collapsed, with no pulse atall. As a group we visited his devastated parents and sister Michelle, and shared some good stories about Kev. He had been to Ibiza with us on three occasions, and would have been coming with us early September had he not been starting the job at St Edwards.

I know it's a bit of a cliche when somebody dies to say this, but in this case it is 100% true - Kev was probably the nicest lad you would ever meet, wouldn't hurt anybody, never a bad word to say about anyone. A total legend, a brilliant friend, he will be sadly missed, and there's no doubt where he is now - kicking a footy around heaven.

A few stories I've got that stick in my mind with him - the lad made Speedos fashionable again, there's no doubt about that in Barbados walking round the beach when all the other lads in swimming shorts he just let it all hang out in his Speedos, he didn't give a care what anyone thought about him, as Michelle said in her speech at his funeral he knew himself he was a cool dude, and that's all that mattered! And kareoke as Brian Adams too in Barbados (we all went to Barbados in 2000 playing cricket). In Ibiza a moment when we were just walking along and he saw some random lads playing with a footy I've never seen anyone run so fast in my life Kev just Peter Kay'd the footy AVE IT! Hillarius. He was nice to evry1, always asking bout my DJing, took a genuine interest in everything. The last time I spoke to Kev, I wasn't too well and it wasn't looking as though I'd be going Ibiza. He simply said, "mate, I hope you go, all the lads want you to go, I want you to go, it won't be the same without you." He wasn't even going, and he said that! Always thinking about others. The fact that there was 450 people at his funeral says it all, what a genuine bloody nice guy he was. His dad (Big Kev) said something to us which I'll always remember – "live life for every day, you never know when it will end." I'd like to think we do that anyway, as did Kev, but from now on, I'll certainly be living for every single day and getting the damned best out of it…

I've added some photos of Kev to the gallery (with myself from an Ibiza holiday 5 years ago), and also a report from the Liverpool Echo. RIP mate, we love you.

My only gig of October was in Liverpool on October 12th, and my first in the city for 3 years. Although it's the closest city in the UK to my home in Cronton, I haven't played there in years as I've played a lot in London, partly because to play in Liverpool you have to be part of a clique in my opinion, and the other reason is that Liverpool nightlife is stale, and 5 years behind London. This gig at the Lemon Lounge for Forbidden Fruit didn't do anything to change my mind. I'd been the Lemon Lounge 6 months previously to watch German DJ Marc Romboy. Now he's a fairly well known name, and there were only 20 people there that night. Had it been in London, the club would be rammed with an open minded crowd. The Liverpool crowd in general are stuck in a rut, not open minded, and just stick to the funky dirty house, laa! There was around 20 people at Forbidden Fruit, of which 10 were my mates who'd come to see me play. Thankfully most of my gigs have been wicked, and you only have the odd few which are poor, but my enthusiasm is still massive, and I look forward to November's gigs with my Djing buddy Warb as part of the Brothers of Woo in November ( brothersofwoo.co.uk), until then, take care, thanks for reading…

SEPTEMBER REPORT 06

I recovered just in time literally last minute to head out to Ibiza for a
week's DJing and partying with five of my close friends Peter, Mark, Adam,
Sean and Brothers of Woo DJing partner Warb on September 2nd through to the
10th. We arrived early Sunday morning, so the only right thing to do was to
hit the bars, have a few beers and catch a few hours sleep before Sunday's
madness. In the afternoon Mark and myself headed on the boat to Cala Pinar
to catch some rays. Sunday evening was all about Judgement Sunday @ Eden,
where I was to be playing in the legendry funky room alongside Judge Jules,
the Trophy Twins and Eden resident Alex Ellenger. I last played at Judgement
Sunday two years ago, at the later time of 5-7am closing set, and was meant
to play last year, but again through illness had to cancel, so it was good
to be back this year, at the earlier, more warm up set (although any set
time in Ibiza is a main time set the crowd are that bonkers!) of 1-2.30am.
Check out photos of my set in the gallery. We stayed in Eden all night till
closing (7.30am) before Peter and myself hung around in the Garden of Eden
bar next door chatting to resident Alex till 10am.

After having drank ourselves silly at JS, Monday was a fairly easyish one
having food at the excellent Curry Club and the Plastik bar for some electro
house. Tuesday, in the daytime myself, Mark and Olley were treated to an
impromptu performance by the Automatik's What's That Coming Over The Hill
(Is It A Monster) in Bar M as we swam in the sea, and as nighttime hit,
after a few beers in Bora Bora Mark, Peter and myself made our way to
Gatecrasher Classics @ Eden. It was quality listening to some of the tracks
from around 7 years ago that first got my friends and I into dance music.

Wednesday I hooked up with my Brothers of Woo partner Warb for a four n a
half hour set at the Orange Corner (check out www.brothersofwoo.co.uk for
full report) in the afternoon on the beach, and later on that night we
played a set at the Guilt Villa Party in San Rafael. After that, I headed to
Garlands with most of the crew, again until the early hours, getting to bed
at around 8am. Thursday was all about chilling, and four of us headed to
Cala Bassa on the boat, where we swore we could of seen Prince. The night
time was spent drinking in bars until the slightly modest, yet by Ibizan
standards early one of 5am.

Friday, the only dissapointing night on the island was spent at the
ridiculous money grabbing machine that is Manumission. Now, I'd been to
Manumission with friend Coops four years ago and really enjoyed it, and, as
none of my other mates had been we decided to go, over one of our favourites
night - Pure with Pete Tong at Pacha. at 50 Euros a ticket, it's the most
expensive night on the island, 10 euros a drink, and, get this, 250 euros to
sit down in a little enclosed area. Madness. We waited at Bar M for 2 hours
for our bus to take us to Privilege, the world's biggest club (10,000 people
in one club is still a spectical to behold), yet all in all, it seemed that
Manu were more interested in people's money than they were putting on a
wicked party. The tunes were ridiculously chart like, which one doesn't wish
for in Ibiza.

Saturday we woke up, put our bad night behind us, and headed into San
Antonio's West End to watch the 204th Merseyside Derby. Myself and Peter are
Everton season ticket holders, and when the fixture list came out we were
absolutely gutted to be missing this one. We found an Irish bar with a
mixture of Blues and Reds, and let's just say, the 3-0 drubbing of the
redshite more than made up for Friday's Manumission dissapointment.

We arrived home early Sunday, before me and Warb, both suffering from Ibiza
flu caught the train down to London to play at the appropriately named (for
the state we were in!!) Silly Sundays. We are good friends with the promoter
Tony Aggro, and were to be playing after the legendry 2Phunked Up. Again,
you can read more about this on the Brothers of Woo site
(brothersofwoo.co.uk), but let's just say the Woos well n truly rocked the
arse off it.

Catch ya soon and thanks for reading,
Darz

AUGUST REPORT 06

I was due to play three gigs in the capital over the massive Bank Holiday
August weekend, but due to illness had to cancel all three. I was absolutely
gutted, as I look forward to every gig and rocking it, even more so as this
was the busiest weekend of the year with so many events on throughout the UK
such as Creamfields, SW4, Reading/Leeds festivals, Notting Hill Carnival
etc. The events I missed out playing were Aug 25 Affinity @ The Living Bar
in Brixton, Aug 26 Excess Baggage @ Belushis on London Bridge and Aug 27
Push @ The Whitehouse in Clapham. Understandably I was pissed off to miss
these, but here's hoping I'll be back playing at them shortly...

JULY REPORT 06

Saturday 8th July I Virgin trained it down to London for a gig in Camden Town. A friend, Coops, from Liverpool, had been working in London for the week so stayed around to party at the weekend, and so I met up with him. On the train there had been a group of teenagers travelling down to the capital to see a band. Blurring away in their headphones was loads of tracks which I was familiar with through the radio. It occurred to me that in Goths/emos genres there doesn't seem to be much underground stuff, whereas the music we play there is. Just a thought. After meeting with Coops, we went for an Indian in East London's famous Brick Lane at my favourite Indian restaurant, The Famous Curry Bazaar. Some top scran was had before we made our way to Camden Town to meet up with another friend, Angar n his mate where we watched the 3 rd/4th place playoff of the World Cup between Germany and Portugal over a few beers, just a stone's throw away from the venue I was to be playing later, Bar Uno. We arrived at Bar Uno to a fairly empty venue, but as my set progressed the bar became packed, and really enjoyed playing, alongside a precussionist. It was my debut playing in Camden, the place where I've spent so much time, as Coops used to live there, and his flat was the place for many an after club kip over the past few years. Also, it was the first club myself and friends visited in London back in 2002, where we checked out Peach @ The Camden Palace, the now called Koko. From there we headed over to the Ministry of Sound in South London to club till the early hours to Yousef's Circus night, before boarding the first train back up to Liverpool and getting in bed finally at 1pm. Phew…

I was back down in London again on July 20th, a A Thursday night party which a friend of mine Gary was promoting. It was the launch party for clubbing website Partysan, held at Hidden in Vauxhall. After having a few beers with my brother n mates around London Bridge Borough Market, I headed to South London. I'd played at Hidden once before when it was named Studio 33 for Graham Gold's night Peach. The night was running from 7pm-1am as it was a school night, and I played the modest set time of 10-11pm to a packed crowd (check photos on the site). After me was South African's number 1 DJ Ryan Dent, with whom I carried on partying back at Gary's flat drinking whiskey and Djing till around 4am. July ended with a trip to Glasgow to watch Everton play Celtic in a pre season friendly and a night out up there, and catching the test match between England and Pakistan at Old Trafford, Manchester. Busy July, just the way we I like it!!

Catch y'all next month!

JUNE REPORT 06

June 14th to 18th I visited Germany to experience the football World Cup tournament with my brother John, and friends Hunty, Ernie and Angar. It was an awesome few days, which all really rolled in to one what with all the drunken antics. But here's a few highlights/points from the four days. In the middle of the city was a Fanfest where all the fans of each nation hooked up. Each country represented in the World Cup (32 in all) had their own tent each with their own people serving food and drinks from that particular country. Everyone was so colourful, dancing, seeing people from Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil, Germany, England, plus all the other nations brought together to party was what it's all about. We had aimed to go to 2 games, one in Hamburg (Costa Rica – Equador) and one in Hanover, which is a 90 minute train journey (Mexico – Angola). Because these two games weren't the most exciting of the tournament on paper, and also that Hamburg, where we'd previously been two years earlier, and Hanover are two of Germany's most kicking cities was the reason for our whereabouts. There was no trouble, no ripping off, everything (apart from the ticket prices on the blackmarket – we couldn't get to the games themselves as touts were accepting no less than 1200 euros for the Mexico game, and 250 for the Equador game) was cheap as chips. So apart from the bars, n clubs which we visited, we spent a lot of time at the Fanfest as mentioned earlier. The fanfest is like a festival, Creamfields for example, music, food, drinks, atmosphere all in abundance. A massive screen in the centre of the park, and each tent having their own screens for people to watch the games. Literally thousands of people from each country.

Late June (Thurs 29th ) I played at Mashed promoter's after wedding party in Blackpool at Klub DNA. I headed up there with friends Mark and Sheeda. The gig wasn't well attended, but it was the first time I'd played a gig solely on CDJ1000s, which I'll be doing from now on. Photos from this gig, as all gigs can be found in the gallery section of djdarz.co.uk. Friday 30th I spent travelling to London and time with my now nearly 2 year old neice Mina, whilst chilling out in the sun watching the Argentina Germany quarter final World Cup tie, drinking Stellas. Friday evening I headed into Croydon to meet up with friends Steve and Emma for a night drinking in Croydon, and a gig at Latino for promotion Crackbaby. Again, this wasn;t the best attended gig, but a top night was had. Downing 5 shots of sambuca after 10 or so pints of Stella seemed a great idea at the time, but the next day certainly didn't feel good! Adding to that it was the hottest day of the year in London. However, it was England's massive quarter final against Portugal, and no football fan was going to miss this. I watched with Steve in Croydon, which after England's defeat to Portugal in 2004 European Championships had seen the town destroyed, with shop windows put in, fighting between locals and police, this time there was a massive police presence, and despite England's defeat everything went off without a bang. Quite simply, England were not cheated, they just weren't good enough. They had been poor for the 4 games previously in the tournament and now they had come up against a half decent team were exposed for what they are – a bunch of misfits. Sven's a joke, we all know that, but they players are to blame also, Rooney's an idiot for getting sent off, England will never get a better opportunity to win their 2 nd World Cup, with 80,000 fans over in Germany, the support was there, more than any other nation, they had 6-10 world class players, they just won't get another chance like it. Sunday I shopped in London, and Monday headed back up to Manchester to watch Lancashire 20/20 cricket with friend Pez. Catch ya next month!

May Report 06

May 6th I was booked to play for the first time in Kettering. The event was named Random, at the Voltz club. As I was to be playing 2-3am, we left at 10pm for the 2 hour drive, driven by mate Pez, with friends Mark and Shaheeda in the back. It was the first time since August 04 the disco car was needed to drive us to a gig, usually relying on trains otherwise. We arrived around midnight to a fairly empty club, although when I took to the decks at 2am the club was more or less full. Again, as like last week I'd took my digital camera to take some photos for the site, and again, the battery went! Boo! Anyway, the gig was good, I played slightly more commercial stuff, as I thought that was what the crowd wanted. We arrived home in Liverpool at 5.30am before spending Sunday watching Everton at Goodison Park in Duncan Ferguson's (Legend) last game for the Blues…

A couple of weeks later (May 20) I was down in London playing for Dominic Daley's Random promotion again, this time in conjunction with Fallen Angels 10th Birthday at the World's 23rd Best Club according to DJ Mag, Egg, in Kings Cross. I travelled down to London on the Friday, did some shopping, and stayed at my brothers. Saturday I headed into London to meet a friend, Angar, going for pre gig drinks on Caledonian Road, before making my way to the gig. As I arrived at Egg at 1am for my 1.15-2.45am set, the bottom floor where I was playing was absolutely heaving with about 600 clubbers in party mood. I took to the decks, with promoter Dom alongside me in the DJ box wooing it up, the crowd going crazy to every track. Was an awesome gig, up in the top 10 definitely of my career so far. From there I went to Turnmills to Party Proactive to check out DJ sets from mates Steelo and Alex Parsons, before making my way down to Cornwall with my brother, sister in law, and baby neice Mina for a week's holiday. I cained the onsite gym, running 4 miles each day, with days out in Padstow visiting Rick Stein's seafood restaurant, Newquay (where I'll be playing in July), an aquarium in Plymouth, St Ives where I've been so many times with my mum and dad as a child, the Tate Gallery, and watched films, read books, was a top week despite the weather. Thanks for reading, check ya next month when I'll have a packed gig diary, and a trip to the world cup to discuss! Cheers

April Report 06

I was due to play in Kent on April 1st for new promotion Knowledge, but it was agreed that I'd play in the summer when attendances increased. And so my first gig in April came a week later in London for a promotion which I haven't played for for quite some time, Affinity. Affinity started life as a hard dance promotion, but moved over the house as a sign of the times. I was due to be playing 12-1am but having to catch the last train back to my brothers by midnight, played the early set of 9-10pm. I'd met with a friend, Dan, before my set and we had a couple of beers in Clapham before heading to the venue. Despite the warm up set, there was a fair few revelers out early. I was tucked up in bed by midnight, earlier than most clubbers' nights were even beginning!

The next day I spent watching Everton at Charlton in most possibly the most boring game of football I've ever seen. I was out with my brothers n friends all day drinking, boogying in a funk club in Angel before heading back up North a few days later where my mate Pez and I spent our third Easter Sunday in a row at Gatecrasher in Sheffield…

On Friday 28th I returned to London for a double gig header. Meeting my brother for beers at 5pm is really handy, but as I always usually arrive in London at this time, and as it's heading home time for most Londoners tubes/buses etc are packed. Despite this, we spent a few hours drinking around London Bridge. Saturday I awoke with as not a bad hangover as I was expecting, and after watching Chelsea claim their second successive league title on TV, headed into London to meet a friend, Hendo, who was to be accompanying me for the day/evening's festivities. We headed to the Echo Boat Party who boarded from Temple Pier opposite the Houses of Parliament, meeting up with a couple of girls Holly and Ally. We also got chatting to a bloke who came all the way from Chicago in the USA specifically for the party. Hardcore!! Anyway, the boat party was simply awesome. 300 people on board, I played last set to an absolutely crowded dancefloor, check out the pics in the gallery, thanks to Ally for that! Myself and Hendo left the girls to head home, as we made our way to Tuffnell Park to play at a friend's house party. A £2.5 million house, 150 people, again one of the best gigs in my life, I played loads of 80's stuff remixed in the past few years, borrowed off a mate, Pez. The following day we spent all day/night drinking in Clapham at Push at the White House amongst various others, even meeting by complete coincidence some girl who had gone our high school in Liverpool ten years earlier. Monday I went to Alexandra Palace in North London to see Morrissey, and Tuesday I collapsed. Nah I didn't really, but was a heavy weekend. This time last year I wasn't well in the slightest, which lasted for 8 months, it's good to be back rocking and rolling 12 months later. Catch ya next month...

March Report 06

To read up on the Brothers of Woo, my new project with Warb, and all our latest info and reports of gigs, for March, then check out www.brothersofwoo.co.uk

I had 3 gigs with the Bros of Woo early March, and late March (24th) I was on my lonesome for the trip to London to return to solo action behind the wheels of steel. The Cook in Acton is one of my favourites venues. I know loads of people there, the management team are really good friends, it's a damn club to rock, and I get endless amounts of free alcohol from promoter Gary. The last two times I'd played there I'd played in the bar at the front, as the lack of people meant the club section needn't be opened. This was again the case on Friday. I've had so many good gigs in the club over the last two years that it could have become somewhat taken for granted that the club would always be full and rocking, but with myself that wasn't the case, I relish every single set in there, as you never know when your last set might be. Anyway, I played 1-3am back to back with South African mate Ben. The Cook will close within the next month for a refurbishment, and the plans look hot as hell. I can't wait to get back there in the summer playing at the new venue. I was dropped off in Gary's van from West to North London after my gig, to a friends in Muswell Hill, who looked slightly bemused yet amused when he saw my mode of transport. Travelling in style, I tell ya!

Saturday 25th March was Merseyside Derby day. I'm an ardent Everton
fan, having a season ticket. With an early kick off, Angar n I went
for brekky before meeting up with my brother John at another mates in
Muswell Hill to watch the encounter. The result wasn't what I wanted,
a 3-1 defeat, but enjoyed watching the match anyway, with beer n
entertaining Hunty's little two twins at the same time. We was then
out all day drinking in Muswell Hill, and stumbled in to bed
veryveryveryvery drunk at around 2am. I'm off to Beckenham tomorrow to
have my ears custom fitted for earplugs to wear during my gigs to
protect my hearing. Catch ya next month where I'll have four gigs to
report on!

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