Back behind the Laptop of Steel

Smugglers last Saturday. Track list below. 

1. (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear [Spankox Mix) - Elvis Vs Spankox

2. 20 Flight Rock - Eddie Cochrane

3. Brown Sugar - The Rolling Stones

4. Bad Moon Rising - C C R

5. Like A Rolling Stone - Dylan

6. Lost Highway - Bon Jovi

7. The Galway Girl - Steve Earle

8. Barrowland Ballroom - Amy Macdonald
9. Long Time Gone - Dixie Chicks
10. Twisting By Pool - Dire Strait
11. It's Still Rock N Roll To Me - Billy Joel
12. Shake Rattle Roll - Bill Hayley
13. Rock This Town - Stray Cats
14. A Town Called Malice - The Jam
15. You Can't Hurry Love - The Supremes
16. Bad Boys * - Alexandra Burke
17. Meet Me Halfway - Black Eyed Peas
18. Everywhere - Fleetwood Mac
19. Here Comes The Rain Again ( Mashup 09) - The Eurythmics
20. Break My Heart (Cassette Club Mix) - Taio Cruz
21. Money's Too Tight To Mention - Simply Red
22. Sexy Dancer - Prince
23. Need You Tonight (Streetlab Mix) - INXS
24. Heatwave - Martha Reeves
25. Flashback - Calvin Harris
26. I’m Not Your Toy - La Roux
27. Sweet Disposition - The Temper Trap
28. You Make My Dreams - Hall & Oates
29. You Got The Love (Pitron And Sanna Mix) - Florence And The Machine
30. Fight For This Love (Cahill Club Mix) * - Cheryl Cole
31. Bulletproof - La Roux
32. Fade To Grey 2009 (Future Breeze Mix) - Future Breeze
33. Ready For The Weekend - Calvin Harris
34. We Are The People (Shazam Remix) - Empire Of The Sun
35. Sexy Bitch (Robson Michel Ext) - David Guetta & Akon
36. Rock The House Yo - Black Raw
37. I Gotta Feeling - Black Eyed Peas
38. Just Get Up And Dance (K J Freak Mix) - Afrika Bambaataa
39. Come On Girl (Wideboys Club Mix) * - Taio Cruz
40. Empire State Of Mind - Jay-Z

41. Superstar - Jamelia

42. Buffalo Soldier * - Bob Marley & The Wailers

43. Reggae Got Soul - Toots And The Maytals
44. You Get What You Give * - New Radicals
45. Dancing In The Moonlight - Toploader
46. 2 Many Shots Of Jagermeister ( Garraud Remix) - Tocadisco
47. Bambuddha Groove (Huggy Remix) - Philippe_B._
48. Missing Rotterdam - Abel Ramos
49. Insomnia * - Faithless
50. Spaceman - The Killers
51. Flashback - Calvin Harris
52. One More Time - Daft Punk
53. Strings Of Life - Soul Central Krivit
54. Pjanoo - Pryda
55. Popiholla - Chicane
56. Fight For This Love (Cahill Club Mix) - Cheryl Cole
57. Show Me Love - Robin S
58. What A Wonderful Surprise - Louis Armstrong Vs Radiohead

* Request.

Some oldies at the start. Pub filled up by 10pm and stayed busy right through till nearly close.
Requests for Insomnia which I really don't like playing any more. It is now too cliched and I think it makes me sound lazy especially when I am playing out some up to date club music. It's like I have run out of tunes when I could play a two hour set of up to the minute house music.
Also Jay asked for the New Radicals 'Get what you give'. Not so bad you might say but , as a dj, I remember him asking for the same tune the last time he approached the booth in 2002. Even in 02 it was a good five years old.
So there have been no good tunes to replace that in your heart since then?  
There are times when you play and can forget small town parochialism and times when you can't.

As ever really heartening to see the butts sway to Toots and the Maytals. I enjoyed 2 Many Shots Of Jagermeister, Bambuddha Groove,and Missing Rotterdam.
Punters liked Guetta, Calvin Harris and Taio Cruz.

Not back now until the 21st November. Plenty time to dig out some new club toons and how good does
Mauro Picotto's 'Love Message' sound?
 
 

Looking for a happy ending.

Off to the local Odeon multiplex cinemall to catch 'Looking for Eric'.

Us and a further 5 folk. Yep a total of seven paying customers in Kilmarnock to see Ken Loach's

'feelgood fantasy footy' film. Meanwhile 101 others, carrying mega tubs of popcorn headed in to see 'Couples Retreat'.
I had some reservations as Ken Loach and feelgood go together as easily as Dundee United and the quarter finals of the League Cup (thanks Saints!).
I also had to wait patiently at the end as the other five folk filed out as I was convinced that beyond the credits a film postscript would see Cantona shooting up in grisly Greenock, as Ken had the last laugh.
No such joy. I bet he is keeping that for the director's cut.
Good film, please go and see it so our Ken starts to make some more happy films. I need to do something with my evenings as I won't be watching United in the quarter finals any time soon.

Found.

Deep, deep within the bowels of the p.c. Hidden within some weird file structure I stumbled across a History section and there unloved and abandoned lay the tracklisting for the gig on 10th October.
So fo anyone who is trying to collect the full set, here it is.

1 Wishing Well - Free

2 Let's Spend The Night Together - The Rolling Stones

3 Watch That Man - Bowie

4 Sha La La La Lee - The Small Faces

5 Are U Gonna Be My Girl - Jet

6 Molly's Chambers - Kings Of Leon

7 A Town Called Malice - The Jam

8 Where Did All The Love Go? - Kasabian

9 Golden Touch - Razorlight

10 Laid - James

11 Little Green Bag - George Baker Trio

12 Don't Get Me Wrong - Lily Allen

13 Just Can't Get Enough - Nouvelle Vague

14 Im Not Your Toy - La Roux

15 Call Me - Blondie

16 Celebration - Madonna

17 Love Takes Over - David Guetta

18 Love Kills (Buffetlibre Vs Sidechains Remix) - Little Boots

19 Here Comes The Rain Again ( Mashup 09) - The Eurythmics

20 Sweet Disposition (Dirty South Remix) - Temper Traps

21 Ready For The Weekend - Calvin Harris

22 Don't You Want Me - The Human League

23 Temptation - Heaven 17

24 I Can't Wait - Original Mix - Another Chance

25 Break My Heart (Casette Club Mix) - Taio Cruz

26 Knock You Down - Keri Hilson

27 Empire State Of Mind - Jay-Z

28 Controversy - Prince

29 I Gotta Feeling - Black Eyed Peas

30 Gettin' Over - David Guetta

31 I Want Your Soul ( Dusty Kid Mix) - Armand Van Helden

32 Beautiful ( Rizzo Funk Generation Mix)* - Akon

33 Happy Birthday* - Stevie Wonder

34 Dirtee Cash - Dizzee Rascal

35 Finally - Ce Ce Peniston

36 Show Me Love - Robin S

37 Sexy Bitch (Extended Version)* - David Guetta & Akon

38 I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho) - Pitbull

39 Downpipe - D.Ramirez, Mark Knight

40 Sweep The Floor - Joris Voorn

41 I Got You (I Feel Good) - James Brown

42 Bulletproof - La Roux

43 Ready For The Weekend - Calvin Harris

44 Do Your Thing - Basement Jaxx

45 Poker Face - Lady Gaga

46 Mr. Brightside - The Killers *

47Sex On Fire - Kings Of Leon

48 Jump Around (Deadmau5 Remix) - House Of Pain

49 Riverside - Sidney Samson
50 Thriller (David Jones Mix) - Diva & Jones
51 Boogie Wonderland - Earth Wind And Fire

52 Footloose - Kenny Loggins

53 La Bamba - Los Lobos

54 You’re The First The Last My Everything * - Barry White

55 I Want U Back - Jackson 5

56 All Night Long (All Night) - Lionel Richie

57 Rock Yr Body ( Oakenfold Mix) - Justin Timberlake

58 Love Sex Magic - Ciara

59 Get Down Tonight (Soulmakers Remix) - Supafly Inc

60 Not Fair - Lily Allen

61 Valerie - Mark Ronson

62 Walking On Sunshine - Katrina And The Waves

* Request

Like I said, couldn't remember much of it at the time. Recollection now is even more sparse.

Usual stuff- all guys, hence the rock stuff, for the first hour then 'here come the girls'. Emma's birthday as well and a few older folk who tolerated the dance stuff but then were happier with the party classics later.

Still working out the whole Traktor Pro malarkey and managed to drop a new track in over the one that was playing. This, obviously, resulted in the original track stopping and plunging everything into silence. No one would have noticed except it was at the peak time and the girls were having a dance off to 'Riverside'. Not the best time to draw complete attention to yourself and your inept dj skills.  With the laptop though you just hit a different button and a new track starts instantly so it wasn't quite as awful as it could have been. Bad enough though!.

Thought 'Ready for Week-end' sounded really fine with the volume behind it.

Punter's favourites were Guetta, Killers, and 'Riverside'.

My faves ; Jay Z, Joris Voorn and 'Downpipe'

Back tonight - we'll see what that brings.

Smugglers 10th October

Have just upgraded my digital dj software from Traktor 3 to Pro. In so doing I have managed to lose the History section (don't ask, I don't know what I did. Might have to break with a habit of a lifetime and read a manual). Long story, short outcome - no tracklisting for last night.
I could try and remember it but that's tricky at my age.

Busy night - all guys till 10pm, then the girls until 12:30am leaving a few party stalwarts till 1am.

On Friday, went up to Spit Fire at the Merchant City in Glasgow. The guys who run it are the opposite of me. Where I try to make the music flow whilst still going through various genres, Keith and Scott just play what they think of at the time. When it works, it is wonderful. It contains the element of perpetual surprise because you genuinely do not have a clue about what song will appear next. When it fails, it does so spectacularly.

So on Friday, Keith felt that Joy Division's 'Transmission' should be followed by Toni Basil's 'Mickey'. No where else on Earth would two more incongruous toons be played back to back.
Not to be outdone Scott felt the world was now ready for the Tavares revival ( ask your mother).
Did some drunken shuffling on the dancefloor to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Camera Obscura. Also liked hearing 'World Destruction' by Afrika Bambatta and John Lydon, Wave of Mutilation by Pixies and Subterranean Homesick Blues by Dylan.

A good night, despite Ms Basil, with us again still standing, if a little unsteadily at 2am.

I have lost the wee picture icon at the top of this post. It was the same for my Pixies piece- so no pics. Sorry.    Ooh- it's back.

Pixies at Glasgow, SECC

'Been dying to meet you'

Twenty years since the release of Doolittle and eighteen having passed since the band last played indoors in Glasgow means that expectations are high. It also means the venue is packed transforming the venue from a soulless, sterile, atmosphere lacking SECC into a soulless, sterile,atmosphere lacking SECC that is full of people.

Sons and Daughters did the honours as support act. Happy to be there in front of a crowd that was, even at that early hour, packed in front of the stage awaiting the headliner. They sounded bright and fresh making sure that 'Dance me in' and 'Johnny Cash' got a good airing.

As ever the mavericks, Pixies began the set with no stadium rock grand entrance followed by the big tune to get the crowd jumping, instead with the band on stage and with backs turned to the crowd we all watched five minutes of Bunuel's surrealistic film 'Un Chien Andalou' An eye opening start to a major gig.

To bemuse and scare more than Buneul's movie the band opened up with a string of b-sides. It had been interweb rumoured that the group were going to do a b-side gig but most of us had conveniently dismissed this before parting with our £30 for a ticket. For four songs some of us had that sinking feeling that this might just be the worst concert ever.

Ever the tease, remember that fun day when Frank Black announced on radio, without telling any of the rest of the band, that the Pixies were over? A joker is that Mr Thompson IV. Kim Deal then announced the start of Doolittle. Cue tears of gratitude as 'Debaser' kicked in.

The band then played the whole lp right through in order. The biggest cheers were obviously reserved for 'Monkey's gone to Heaven', 'Here comes your man' and the album's opener.
Surprisingly, I really enjoyed the other tracks much more. I felt that 'Crackity Jones', 'Mr Grieves' and 'Tame', songs that I thought were lightweight on the lp, came across with more conviction than the hits. Perhaps they scored more highly as a result of not being so well known and so often heard.

An encore of 'Into the White' with Kim Deal in the spotlight and then gone.

Only for the band to return to the stage and play what would have been the songs lost to the audience when the stage gave way in 1991.
So we got 'Caribou', 'Holiday Song' 'Isla de Encanta' and a blistering 'Nimrod's Son'. This was the highlight. Whereas, 'Doolittle' had been played with reverence it did all seem a bit heritage band stylee. If you look at their touring schedule you'll see that the 'Doolittle' tour continues into March 2010. Same songs, same order every night. By contrast the punklike thrashing given to the songs of 'Surfer Rosa' was enthusiastically the real thing.

So a great ending to a gig that is as good as it can get in the cavern of the SECC. The added value of the songs from their 1988 album sealed a wonderful evening.

The question left unasked though was, 'At what point does a band move from being relevant to the zeitgeist to being on the heritage tour stage?'
I mean is going to see Pixies now absolutely no different from heading out to see The Swinging Blue Jeans or Kajagoogoo? Is it all just a paean to nostalgia?
Sobering thought? Not half as sobering as 'Un Chien Andalou'. Gouge Away.