Ramones Wanna

Saw the original Ramones in a small hall, called 'Clouds' in Edinburgh in 1978. Still ranks as one of the best gigs ever. Saw The Clash, The Smiths and New Order there too over the years. And also Orange Juice and Killing Joke.  Good times, good times.

Another Saturday Night : January 22nd

Back at The Smugglers but only one week after my last visit. The 15th had been mobbed and again last night was just as busy. Two large groups of girls to my left and all the boys to the right. One issue is that with a bar in the middle of the pub I can easily see the groups in front of me but can't really catch sight of the others on the far side of the room. There is, therefore, the issue that you play to those you can see whilst those out of sight are definately out of mind. 
So most of the tunes were aimed at the girls. Their ages ranged from early twenties through to the late forties.
Another factor is the older patrons tend to be more exuberant whether that is because they are out less often or because they are no longer bothered about coolness I don't profess to know. It means that the older crew are more noisy, get up and dance or just wave their hands about in their seats and appear more appreciative. The theory of positive reinforcement means that as a dj faced with a bunch of happy people you are going to continue to play the songs that suit them.
However, it is a pub not a private party which means that the other customers have just as much right to hear songs they like and not solely a selection of hen party classics. The difficulty for the dj is when do you change it? No-one who has been stuck behind a bunch of cd decks armed only with a microphone knows that upsetting the sisterhood in full swing leads to anything but tears. The tears being yours.
It was with great trepidation that I musically moved away from the mainstream and went with The Waterboys version of 'On my way to Heaven'. Did I then face a mass of howls for an immediate return to 70's Disco? Thankfully not. Instead everyone becan clapping and singing along. Sigh of relief.
Chanced a few more modern songs from the Mumfords and Vampire Weekend before a couple of recognisable oldies then back to the girl's nightout faves.

Last half hour went all quiet as folk disappeared home or to the town's nightclub so I finished off with some mellower tunes. It sounded good after the volume of earlier and both Nat King Cole and Sinatra went down well.
Played Bert Jansch's 'Life depends on Love' for the first time and it sounded sweet and sentimental for a penultimate record without being too schmaltzy.


A fast night with, hopefully, something for everyone.

A week-end off next week. Back in February.

Tracks played here

1 Love Like This - Faith Evans
2 My Lovin' - En Vogue

3 Jumpin Jumpin - Destinys Child

4 Sweet About Me - Gabriella Cilmi
5 Sara - Fleetwood Mac

6 You're So Vain - Carly Simon

7 Mr Rock & Roll - Amy Macdonald
8 Expectations - Belle & Sebastian
9 Spring Rain - The Go-Betweens
10 Long Train Runnin' - Doobie Brothers

11 Never Give Up On A Good Thing - George Benson

12 Lovely Day (Phatt Mix) - Bill Withers

13 It's Ok - Cee Lo Green

14 Prayin' - Plan B

15 I'll Be Around - Hall And Oates

16 Here With Me - Dido*

17 You're The One For Me - D Train

18 Madd Luck - Dimitri From Paris

19 Signed Sealed Delivered - Stevie Wonder

20 Get Ready - Ella Fitzgerald

21 Hard To Handle - Otis Redding

22 Loca - Shakira Ft. Dizzee Rascal

23 It Just Wont Do - Tim Deluxe

24 Better Than Today - Kylie Minogue*

25 Poison (Glam As You Club Mix) - Nicole Scherzinger

26 West End Girls (Grum Mix) - Pet Shop Boys

27 The Flood (Wideboys Mix) - Cheryl Cole

28 Flawless - The Ones

29 Gypsy Woman - Crystal Waters

30 Always There - Incognito

31 Rock The Boat - Hues Corp

32 September - Earth Wind And Fire

33 Stars On 45 (Der Zwan Remix) - Stars On 45

34 Heartbeat (Cutmore Club) - Enrique Iglesias

35 Only Girl - Rihanna

36 Superstar - Jamelia

37 Superstition - Stevie Wonder

38 On My Way To Heaven - Waterboys

39 Little Lion Man - Mumford And Sons

40 Subterranean Homesick Blues - Dylan

41 Bad Moon Rising - C C R

42 A-Punk - Vampire Weekend

43 Common People - Pulp

44 Street Life - The Crusaders*

45 I Wanna Dance With Somebody - Whitney Houston*

46 Hot Love - T Rex

47 Starman - Bowie*

48 Virginia Plain - Roxy Music

49 What's My Name - Rihanna

50 The Time (Dirty Bit) - Black Eyed Peas

51 Hey Boy, Hey Girl (Soulwax Remix) - The Chemical Brothers

52 Proud Mary - Tina Turner*

53 Soul Man - Sam & Dave

54 Working My Way Back To You - Spinners

55 Black Horse & The Cherry Tree - Kt Tunstall

56 Barrowland Ballroom - Amy Macdonald

57 Just Can't Get Enough - Wallis Bird

58 Valerie - Mark Ronson

59 Your Love Gets Sweeter - Finlay Quaye

60 Let There Be Love - Nat King Cole

61 Nice And Easy - Sinatra

62 Late In The Evening - Paul Simon

63 The Whistle Song - Frankie Knuckles

64 L O V E - Al Green

65 Life Depends On Love - Bert Jansch

66 New York New York - Sinatra

* request.

Saturday at Smugglers Track List

The Tracklisting from the night mentioned in the last post.  

There were eventually three parties in this evening. A funeral one, a 30th and a leaving to emigrate party.

Started off with some easy house, used The XX and Temper Traps to move into stuff with guitars to keep the lads and the older guys happy before the cake cutting. Then some toe tapping pop. Pleased with myself to have dropped Maya Jane Coles into the middle of the Rihanna track. No-one else took a blind bit of notice though.

Grum's mix of West End Girls brings the song up to date, I have a better mix of Guetta's 'World is Mine' but couldn't find it in time.

Went with the 14 min version of 'The Bomb' and got away with a good 5minutes before the drop kicked in. Still one of my favourite pieces of early house music. Mixed it soon after the break down into Seek Bromance. I prefer the original but the youngsters want the words. Been waiting a while to find the time to play Herve's take on Primal Scream's together and finally went with it. The older crew may remember the original and it was suitably elektro for the youf.

Happy drunk sing a long for the last hour. Evening rounded off with some good old jingoism to celebrate the emigree's departure to New Zealand.

A busy evening for mid-January.

Back this Saturday. Hope it is as busy.

A Kind Of Magic (Eddie Valdez Mix) - Queen
Sitting On Top Of The World (Dj Memê Mix)-Joey Negro
Let's Get It On (Patrick Alavi Phunky Remix) - Sharam Jey
Abracadabra ( 7th Heaven Mix) -Steve Miller Band
Rockin Music - Martin Solveig
Who Keeps Changing Your Mind ( Rox Dub Mix) - South Street Player
Sweet Disposition -Temper Traps
Intro (Xx Booty Mix) - Sander Van Doorn

Golden Touch- Razorlight

Smile Like You Mean It -The Killers

Red Morn Light - Kings Of Leon

Mountains - Biffy Clyro

Brown Sugar - The Rolling Stones
Summer Of 69 - Bryan Adams
Happy Birthday -Stevie Wonder
The Cave- Mumford & Sons
Cracklin' Rosie - Neil Diamond
Hey, Soul Sister -Train
Accidentally In Love - Counting Crows
I'll Be There For You - The Rembrandts
Be Bop Baby - Westlife
All Time Low - The Wanted

You Make My Dreams - Hall & Oates

Mr Blue Sky - Lily Allen

Only Girl (Bombs Away Club Remix)- Rihanna

What They Say - Maya Jane Coles

Tocas Miracle (Wez Clarke Big Room Mix) -Fragma

Anyway ( Dlg Bigroom Remix) ¬ Ducksauce

The Happening¬¬¬ - The Supremes

Well Well Well - Duffy

Tainted Love - Imelda May

Too Busy (Black Tiger Refix) - Marvin Gaye

Working My Way Back To You - Detroit Spinners
The Time (Dirty Bit) - Black Eyed Peas *
The World Is Mine (Milan Jacquet's Sunshine Remix)- David Guetta
West End Girls (Grum Mix) -Pet Shop Boys
Make_The_World_Go_Round_(Deep_Dish_Vocal_Mix) -Sandy_B

Written In The Stars Vs Pass Out Vs Kickstarts- Tinie Tempah Vs Example

Things Can Only Get Better - D-Ream*

I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Hot Tracks Mix) -Whitney Houston*

Aint No Love No Use - Sub Sub

What's My Name (Feat. Drake) - Rihanna

Something's Got A Hold On Me -Christina Aguilera

Pack Up - Eliza Doolittle

Why (Hot Toddy Club Mix)-Joey Negro

The Bomb - Kenny "Dope" Presents The Bucketheads

Seek Bromance (Axwell Remix) - Avicii

Temple Of Dreams -Future Breeze

Together - Herve

It's Ok - Cee Lo Green

We Can Work It Out -Stevie Wonder

Move On Up - Curtis Mayfield

Living In America - James Brown

Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen

Bad Moon Rising - C C R

A Hard Day's Night - The Beatles

Are U Gonna Be My Girl - Jet

A Town Called Malice - The Jam

Baby Love (Halfby More Shambles Remix) -The Supremes

I Want You Back -Jackson 5

Ms. Grace ¬¬ -The Tymes

Shame Shame Shame - Shirley & Co

Beautiful Sunday - Daniel Boone*

January - Pilot

Letter From America - The Proclaimers

Caledonia - Frankie Miller*

Loch Lomond - Runrig

 

*Request

I used to be punk rock

Seems a long time ago now.

Party night was in the bar the other evening. It was a 30th birthday party. Now in my time I have played a few party events. Usually I work out the year when the group would have been about 17/18 and play the songs from that time. So for my birthday party I would expect the songs from 1976 onwards to be played. You can play the cheesy pop stuff from a few years before too.

Again for my age group you can spin pop tunes from 1973 onwards and rockier stuff from 76 through until 1984. It is a fair bet that the punter's interest in music will wane in their late 20's as mortgages and toddlers kick in.

In 1977 I discovered punk. To be accurate many others had stumbled upon it first but in sleepy Galashiels it first reared it's pretty head in the Jubilee year. I had just finished my first year as a student. The soundtrack to this had been 'Born to Run'. The summer of '77 was lived to the beat of The Ramones, The Clash and Talking Head's debuts.  It is music that still lives with me now. Chuck in Blondie, Costello and the MC5 and you can see how influential this music was and how easy it is for a dj to play in 2011. Even if it all originated 35 years past.

Now if you are out celebrating your 30th birthday you were 17 in 1994. That was just yesterday.  You have missed punk, post punk, Smiths type indie, acid house, Nirvana, Primal Scream and the Roses.You came along after rave, after early hip hop but in time for the Spice Girls and Natalie Imbruglia.

If you are 30 then you can call Britpop your own. Most folk would gladly hand it to you anyway. Then scenes split and becime indistinct as everyone gets hold of an ipod and disappears into their own white inner ear universe. So what music binds the 30 years old together at parties? You can't just play Oasis and Blur all evening. Suggestions welcome in the comment box, thanks.

As it was there were two other party groups in that evening so I was able to disguise my out of depthness but if it happens again I'll have that haunted look of someone trying to remember what a Cast song sounded like.

Half a Century. Songs from Anne's Party.

The wife turned 50, so we threw a party at the pub. Lots of nice people came. We had a cake with candles but not 50. That would not have been a cake it would have been a furnace. Anne had a nice time, she said and got lots of presents.

Being a social introvert with questionable hygiene I hid behind the dj booth and played some tunes. These are the songs I played.

1 Riders On The Storm - Bambuddah Grove  **
2 Highway To Hell - Be My Guest
3 Keep Up -  Motor City Drum Ensemble
4 Mystery Land (Moonwatchers Remix) -Y-Traxx_
5 Vcr (Matthew Dear Remix)   - The XX
6 Blackwater (Behrouz Ibiza White Sunset Mix) - Carl Kennedy
7 Ibiza ( Babanow Jazz-Funk Remix) - Yuriy Poleg
8 Chicago (Erick Decks Remix) - Dbn
9 The Whistle Song - Frankie Knuckles
10 Miss Sarajevo - The Passengers **
11 The Celtic Of Scotland - Dinka
12 Piano Africano (Original Mix) - Cosmic Cowboys
13 Regret (Fire Island Mix) - New Order  **
14 Fool's Gold - Tall Paul Mix - Stone Roses **
15 Loaded - Primal Scream **
16 The Boy With The Arab Strap - Belle And Sebastian **
17 French Navy - Camera Obscura **
18 He's On The Phone - Saint Etienne **
19 Heart - Pet Shop Boys
20 Everything Counts - Depeche Mode
21 Raspberry Beret - Prince

22 Keep On Movin' Soul 11 Soul

23 True House Music - C&M **

24 Coma Cat (Round Table Knights Remix) - Tensnake
25 Better Days - Fabrique
26 When Love Takes Over - David Guetta
27 Is This Love - Groove Da Praia

28 One Love - Bob Marley & The Wailers

29 Better Together Cuba Version - Jack Johnson

30 Peaceful Easy Feeling - The Eagles

31 American Pie - Don Mclean

32 Somewhere In My Heart - Aztec Camera **

33 Absolute Wood Beez - Scritti Politti

34 What's My Name - Rihanna *

35 Dj Got Us Falling In Love - Usher

36 The Flood - Take That

37 Many Of Horror - Biffy Clyro *

38 Doctor Robert - The Beatles

39 Brown Sugar - The Rolling Stones

40 Virginia Plain - Roxy Music

41 Happy Birthday - Stevie Wonder

42 Hot Love - T Rex

43 Tell Her About It - Billy Joel

44 We No Speak Americano - Yolanda Be Cool Vs. Dcup *

45 Million Dollar Bill (F Knuckles Mix) - Whitney Houston

46 I Want U Back - Jackson 5

47 Only Girl (Bombs Away Club Remix) - Rihanna *

48 Watch That Man - Bowie

49 A Town Called Malice - The Jam

50 De Do Do Do De Da Da Da - The Police

51 Brass In Pocket - The Pretenders

52 Wasted Little Dj's - The View **

53 You've Got My Number - The Undertones

54 Mr Blue Sky - Lily Allen **

55 Hey, Soul Sister - Train **

56 Little Lion Man - Mumford And Sons **

57 Friday I'm In Love - The Cure

58 Waterfall (Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osbourne Remix) - Stone Roses **

59 Dancing In The Moonlight - Toploader

60 You Make My Dreams - Hall & Oates **

61 Jenny Don't Be Hasty - Paolo Nutini

62 Say It's Over (Cahill Club) - N-Dubz

63 Bromance ( Avicii's Arena Mix) - Tim Berg

64 Ace Of Spades (Acoustic) - Motörhead

65 Buffalo Soldier - Bob Marley & The Wailers *

66 Rattlesnakes -Lloyd Cole & The Commotions **

67 Blue Boy - Orange Juice **

68 Intro (Xx Booty Mix) - Sander Van Doorn

69 Coma Cat (Round Table Knights Remix) - Tensnake

70 Tainted Love - Imelda May **

71 Hotel Yorba - White Stripes **

72 The Size Of A Cow - Wonder Stuff

73 Sparky's Dream - Teenage Fanclub **

74 Allison - The Pixies **

75 Passionate Friend - The Teardrop Explodes **

76 Disco 2000 - Pulp  **

77 This Charming Man - The Smiths

78 Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen

79 Rock This Town - Stray Cats

80 Suspicious Minds - Elvis Presley

81 The Gambler - Kenny Rogers *

82 The Cave - Mumford And Sons **

83 Sweet Caroline (Live) - Neil Diamond

84 New York New York - Sinatra

85 Zorba's Dance

86 Hit Road Jack - Ray Charles*

*Request

** Anne's Choices.

Although officially now very old, her reminiscence therapy means that Anne will smile benignly when she hears The Stone Roses, Pixies, Belle and Sebastian and Orange Juice. Despite circulation problems her toes may still tap gently to Teardrop Explodes and Pulp. Even though the proper name in question will evade her for several days we know she still recognises Lloyd Cole and New Order. They say the hearing is the last sense to go.

Thanks to everyone who came along, it was appreciated. Like the Queen we will hold a second party for her at the house in May when more folk may come along.  Hope to see you then.