January 2013 - Newyear Entry for Rob2Paul

Hey Folks,

Happy NewYear




Well went to Hardtimes, Music was outstanding, big thankyou to all the Hardtimes folks, Leeds was awesome, here is the moments I captured,





Robert Owens played a really good session on the decks and also smashed out an epic live PA session, great part about this for me was that I just happened to be in the right place at the right time to capture a full 6 mins of the actual Live act, simply awesome,  Owens was really in the zone...





Next on for Hardtimes is a trip to London for the 3 Kings, not sure if I can make that one yet but never say never, found out last week that Danny Krivit will be at the Warehouse in Leeds in February, which has got me very excited indeed, well who knows what will happen before Saturday but this will be a good night for sure :-)

After Christmas and into the new-year then it started with a bang, a few new tunes from some of the early Sasha sets, deep house was all a wash and after watching the sets from Never Say Never Sasha was on the prowl again once more, getting ever closer to that release date for the Involv3r Album sometime in the new-year I had the pleasure of playing a gig with Lee Softley of Blue Amazon and Convert Recordings.
















Lots to look forward to already then, the Retro Scene is still booming up here in the North as ever and it was nice to See a local Lancs lad from up this way burst into the limelight after he became an internet sensation with his keyboard and piano classics, nice work there Davos, most people have seen the footage by now I guess but for those that have not here it is again, In addition there is another bit of footage I found on the tube, amazing what people power does...... :-)






This post below was put out by Davos when things started to gather pace and the media & sun newspaper got involved....

Davos - Makes it Big - Read More..............





The next Retro party  is already proper planned and looks very well organised tickets are about all sold! its  at the Musiquaruium a retro night with Brad Kells @Joy loads going on in Leeds, this is a smaller venue and I have heard great things.

As I attended some of these nights I was not a regular at these events and it will be a good opportunity to see this one in full flight, Looking forward to going over and support Brad the Joy night  February 23rd, and do a write up.





But until then, Paul & I decided to travel further out towards the coast and I got the call to play out in Scarborough for my birthday with Lee Softley (Blue Amazon) Nic & Toby from Method and it was a really good positive gig, nice to see so many new people and have a good old smashup in North Yorkshire :-)


















In Scarborough I was lucky to have access to the Funktion One at Vivaz, and it was lovely to meet up with various people from Leeds and locally in Scarborough, Ian Ossia is to play next month, should be a good night again and already a buzz about Renaissance when Ian Ossia is in town love it!!!  :-)


Lots to look forward to then already and its only January.

In other news both Paul & myself had some big discussions before Christmas with our music subscription to Soundcloud, and we have worked together on a project to consolidate and cut our losses, as personally we feel that it is an over-hyped, overpriced piece of crap which everyone seems to think is where its at, but after discussions about prices and what you are getting for your money, the hideous new layout and all the downtime it has, we are gonna pull the plug on Sound-cloud as our main music provider, no doubt we will have a basic account with about 3hrs or so, but in the main it will all be found here to listen & download, with track-listings and other stuff we might like to share, Fuck Em, we are gonna have a crack at doing it ourselves... :-)


Also it would appear from the Copyright issues we have been getting after posting a mix on Soundcloud even when all the tracks have been purchased, it suggests they don't want DJ's on there really which is a bit rubbish so another reason why we are kicking it in the bollocks and leaving it for dead....







Below  is an article about Soundcloud also which makes for interesting reading and set the ball rolling a few years back when we saw and first started experiencing this awful service, what is even more annoying is that people are actually selling likes and can for a fee get you so many thousand plays on soundcloud, well we don't need it, and deffo would not pay for it either, in a word absolutely shocking enjoy the article below... ;-).....


Why You should   NOT    Use Soundcloud



Well enough about the Sound Cloud negative aspects and on to other news, January sees the Launch this week of Nick Warrens Entry to the Renaissance Masters Series


I have already put out a Renaissance Masters Series Mix from the last batch of tracks by Hernan Cattaneo which were absolutely superb, Below is my entry which I managed to upload onto YouTube without too much Hassle over Copyright however it is blocked in some countries??? but here you go!






In Regard to the new Nick Warren mixes & tracks me and Paul have spoken briefly about this and I will keep giving it a listen, as the first part is very sound garden and down-tempo, this I would definitely say is a signature mix of Nick but got to give it some more ear time, I have now all the tracks and will do some mixes of my own soon enough and post


The other part of the Mix on CD 2 to which I have not checked out yet are some clips below, its more upbeat and a lot more like the Warren we know I guess if you did not know about his Sound-garden sessions,


for more on this latest release see here:



Well what do you know! I just found out this week that the Garage in Leeds have the pleasure of Andrew Wetherall and Leeds own Ralph Lawson, so I decided to buy a ticket, its been many years since I have seen Andy Wetherall & last saw Ralph Lawson Play with Sasha @Basck2Basics at Victoria Works in 2009 so it will be a fantastic night can't wait for this one :-)




Always loved some of Britain's finest DJ's and these two are amazing live, Wetherall has a new Album coming out early February too here is a cut from it...




I love all the eclectic taste of Andrew Wetherall, here is a recent mix that he did on the BBC live at 6 series....





Ralph Lawson over the years has delivered some quality productions and as a Leeds Back2Basics Resident he has played some really fantastic parties there and in London, here is a Mix I particularly liked from we love Space in Ibiza always plays great sets both in the UK and abroad....




well if that is still not enough for you I have just uploaded the Live Set I did in Scarborough for Method @Vivaz....





Well below is the Mix and there is also a link if you would like to download it also, track-listing is included for you to mull over Enjoy folks.


Tracklsting:

• 1.Good Love Sweet Love (Shadow Child Remix)
• 2.Her Song
• 3.Back to Basics (GR1N Remix)
• 4.Flashmob - NInety Five (Dirty Channels Remix) (D. Gudinin
• 5.Layo & Bushwacka! - Raw Defined (Aidan Lavelle Remix)
• 6.Calling Me [School]
• 7.Graffios (Wehbba Remix)
• 8.Everything feat. Meggy (Mark Fanciulli Remix)
• 9.Regrets We Have No Use For feat. Name One (Original Mix)
• 10.Lazer Beams (Original Mix)

DOWNLOAD LINK
So I might See you about somewhere Stay Safe Folks..... Enjoy the music
Rob 2013.......... :-)

Hard Times - Leeds Warehouse Queens Jubilee 03-06-2012

Well just recovering from yet another fantastic weekend in the Best city in the world Leeds, So I hear you giggle and mock, but I have to say if you missed it you missed out big time, here's why? I Rang Paul a while ago after the Renaissance gig at the VOX and told him this was on at the Warehouse, I remember all these nights from Back in the Day and as I have stated in Previous posts I am not into big retro nights as I feel that they are hard to recreate, it was a time and a space way back when in Mirfield, or as I remembered Camden Palace (London) and Glasgow I have travelled to Hardtimes, on the point of back in the good old days I do remember Leeds when Armand Van Helden's Witchdocktor [possessed mix] was on the platter - I was a little worse for ware - I looked to the dance floor MIXMAG had huge cameras with t'aud VHS cassettes in lol spinning and circling round the dance floor, I looked right folks were choking and bouncers were rushing over to the fire exit..

At a point in the record a fog horn goes off, I look at all the chaos, then look at everyone enjoying themselves on the dance floor, fire doors fling open I am grabbed and ushered outside, Apparently some buffoon put a CS gas tablet in an ash tray left a ciggie on it and left. folks were getting gassed lol. Well soon back inside and we carried on till the early morning.... needless to say first chance Steve luigi's record shop opened in the corn exchange I was in - looking somewhat spangled, I said I am after a toon ....something about a witch and a doctor.. £6 quid later it was in my bag and I was heading home... very special that track is for me, truly Awesome night, another time when HardTimes went to Glasgow I would witness a mad Glaswegian pull off Barbara Tuckers Wig... but that is a blog on its own...lol
a couple of months before the gig at Leeds I decided to do a little tribute session to get me in the mood, the memories of 1994/5 for me were awesome at Hardtimes.. below is the Mix for you to checkout :-)



So after a few radio shows and the hype of Hardtimes gathering momentum I eventually persuaded Paul to get some tickets, Young Hollie from Pickering who is an excellent clubbing partner also wanted some of this action, so I have two people going who are not that convinced right... Speaking also to Mark and his missus Linda and meeting up with many clubbers on FB and a fellow DJ Tyrone McLaughlin who has already played there arrives with with Nicole, Tamsin and her friends, through FB we decided to meet up at Distrikt - Euan Mitchell & Malcom we love Lewis's Den... We had Joked about a Flag as its the Queen's Jubilee and lo and behold Mark and Linda turn up with this bag containing the biggest flag ever... it was/is fantastic - I am now the proud owner of this legendary artifact.....

Malcom We Love Lewis @ Distrikt is in action right here alongside Euan Mitchell :-)


It was lovely to catch up with these guys finally, I have seen all their hard work that goes into their productions, we had a couple of drinks here, reason I was smiling so much was that I had 2 pints of Duvel...9% proper strong beer, I loved the atmosphere it was pumping, great music & upfront pressure :-)



So here is the Handy work of Linda & Mark Fantastic mates from Guisley in Leeds, absolutely fantastic people and as a couple, really looked after us, proper clubbing community people, this is how it should be... :-)



Me and Young Hollie having a magic moment, without her dazzling good looks and speed at technology I would not have got in cheers for sorting out my ticket sweetheart :-)



Here we are, Army Pal's and have stayed intouch ever since, Clubbing, Mixing, Technology & Fine music is the Glue that keeps us Dancing into the future, still got lots to do my lad! Love ya man! :-)



So we all piled down to the Warehouse it was a lovely evening quite warm summer evening! chatting to each other about the days of the Warehouse and who we had seen there etc..Gets to the queue we have a ticket issue, easily rectified in the end as the door staff were more brains than brawn tbh and we were pleasantly surprised at how swift they handled the situation and sorted it out, everywhere was clean including the toilets, a nice friendly atmosphere and a great crowd a mixture of young and old.

we soon got our dancing spot at the podium in the back corner over looking the decks and the dance floor, had a walk around and saw some old old faces, smiling bright and everyone was well up for this.. Have to say hats off to the Warehouse on this one, no trouble, even the big Muscle Monsta in the Pink T-shirt was in the zone and had a boogie with us!

So Jason Shaw is on the Decks and I started gathering footage with my Canon compact which captured some fantastic stuff, the majoriy of the footage can be found on You-tube here:



with this in mind and now being 40 year aud my ears are not what they used to be but I will say that the sound system in the Warehouse is second to none absolutely stunning sound, I would really love to play on it its on my list of things to do before I die (play at Warehouse) Check....lol anyway here is a little picture of it cos I am such a geek....



By this time I am being weaved into a dream by the Hardtimes DJ's what a fantastic night, just once again have to say a big thankyou to all the DJ's and the Boss Steve Raine for keeping this dream alive, We have Little Louie Vega next in the August Bank Holiday 26th 2012 and I can't wait.... Right I think that's about it but only to leave you with my favourite clip of the Gig at the Warehouse, which is simply staggering:-)

I hope you enjoy it, I sent it over to DJ's in the States such as John Julius Knight and Sheldon Prince, also got a lovely Reply from Morales saying how fantastic it was, and as I said it was such a fantastic Moment I sent the clip to A scottish Auntie of mine who lives in the US Ar Julie McKnight - Finally you getz it...hahahahaha onwards and upwards people, see you on the 26th at the front..... lets make this even better.... LEEDS I LOVE YOU.....XXX



So this is it for Hardtimes till August 26th for 19th Year Anniversary - I feel both a mix and a flag comming on strong, See you lot at the front, as an update I could not resist it and have mixed up a Hard Times Session for you all to Enjoy please feel free to Listen and share, see you on the August Bank-Holiday 26th :-)