#nick djing

[whilstiveputdownthisfic]

more from Nick's IG stories on this day - featuring Jake Shears and then having an early night bc he's hosting the Chris Evans breakfast show again in the (early) morning :))

May 31st, 2023; 8:27 p.m. DST

[y2ksnowglobe]

I'm a firm believer that the real reason Glenn Close was kicked out of the Glenn Close Trio was because he was missing too many rehearsals to pick up more DJing gigs to support himself and Nick and you can pry this head canon from my cold dead hands.

[starship-buccaneer]

The writing gods have blessed me, and I am picking my gigantic Nickroe Found Family WIP back up!!

Excerpt under the cut~

Roddy is banned from DJing.

To be fair, he does understand that his last concert involved him encouraging his rats to traumatize four people with the threat of being eaten, but still.

Nick says it's because raves are illegal, and someone was probably going to bust one of them anyway. He doesn't want Roddy losing his scholarship and getting a record over something that could be avoided.

Where Roddy has to begrudgingly admit that Nick's argument is logical, he can resolutely say that Monroe's is not.

"Heroin! Coke! Methamphetamines! There are all kinds of drugs at those things! There's no way in hell we're letting you go anywhere near one."

Monroe, the self-proclaimed live and let live guy, certainly does not offer the same mentality to the kids under his protection.

"I've been to a hundred and I've never done any drugs, Monroe."

Okay that's a lie, he's smoked weed a couple times after the rave was over and taken some edibles, but really who hasn't?

"Being out that late at night in a shady part of town-!"

"I live in that 'shady' part of town."

"-It’s not safe!"

"You used to do stuff like that all the time!"

And that's the real crux of the matter. Here Monroe is forbidding him from going to parties, hanging out late, and staying over at people's houses when he himself has done all of those things and more. Monroe's been open about plenty of his teenage fuckups, so Roddy doesn't get why this is the hill the blutbad wants to die on.

"Exactly! I know what bad decisions look like, and I'm making sure you aren't making the same mistakes!"

"I'm not you though! You can't judge my life based on your own!"

"Roddy, you tried to get a million rats to eat four other kids!"

"At least I didn't eat them myself! "

In the ensuing silence, Roddy realizes that he's fucked up beyond measure.

[idleorbitals]

only friends ep 3 watch through (part 1/2)

!! the mess is here. the mess is here and so am I

we open on nick catching even more feelings over bostonnick sex montage. oh this is painful to watch. lmao @ the of directors being the ones to give nick the tweet replies he doesn't want to hear though

I have to say I am such a sucker for the kind of aw noise boston makes at 2:26 it would get me too. but right after this he sits up and says the most manipulative shit about ~we might become something more~ nick baby. get out of there

raysand softest wake up together scene. this is very tender for a one night stand situation. my expectations for what we're supposed to want for them keep getting overturned. what I want for them has remained consistent but not bc of anything rational just bc I'm a simp

moment of silence for first kanaphan special acting ability where he manages to look like he's gazing softly up at khaotung's character while towering over him

moment of silence for sand who is already gone for ray and realizing it a little

moment of silence for ray who is still flirting having fun and feeling fancy free. oh boy when you torpedo this everyone will suffer you included

The Friends (tm) are eating and planning a pool party. they are having a fun chat about all the crazy things the cctv they want to put in is going to pick up. you know when you create all these opportunities for the narrative to screw with you it will babes.

ray remembers he knows a hot musician and volunteers to take care of the djing in a way that is so sus that the rest of the friends get comic whiplash sound effects and an eagle scream about it

topmew date time. sorry legitimately the only thing I can think about in this scene is how if everyone is dancing to different music everyone will look foolish as heck. forcebook really selling it here

I lied I have another thought and it's that these lyrics they are singing make me feel like the narrative is slapping me in the face

everyone regards me as a bad guy / I'm a villain, no matter how much I love you, I must die eventually / in the end, he's the one who has your love / I want to be a hero, but villain is my role

ok calm down top

if some of that's not metaphorical tho...yikes yikes

*begin vid section [2/4]*

an old familiar hookup comes to flirt with top in front of mew. can't totally read this dynamic. mew is clearly a little jealous but doesn't really have the standing to say anything. much like top's encounter with boston in the shower last week he's pushing away just a little but not putting his arm into it. top what is your game here?

nick getting boston to help him move lmao. that's right use him babe

sand is connecting dots. about bostonnick and about the hostel. ding ding ding baby you're all tangled up in this thankless situation. I wish I could have hope about sand and nick being good for each other bc they seem like the two most sympathetic characters this storyline currently has to offer but unfortunately my guess is they will both be too hung up on other people to be any real help to one another. and/or nick's going darkside idk you guys I'm starting to wonder. more on that coming up

ray wants to hire sand for ~party fun times~ so he goes to his work mom yo to clear it with her first. she says /why are you trying to get me wrapped up in your mess I'm a pure character/ and ray, about his intentions toward sand, rasps out "nothing is suspicious" while clearing his throat and shaking his head very quickly to indicate that nothing is suspicious.

yo's bf arrives on the scene to act as another character pointing out ray's day drinking. sorry ray the narrative agrees it's problematic to hang out at a bar all day when you're not sleeping with someone on staff. yo and bf have a cute moment and ray goes sweet and starry eyed about it.

ray: "can I get one like that?" p'yo: "here comes sand"

sorry I legitimately cannot continue without taking a moment for sparkly princess ray here. wtf. this look is, of course, aimed at sand but honestly that's not even what's important to me right now

cut to sand doing some of the most inefficient chopping work known to man while ray stands around flirting prettily with him and asking for favors.

trailer teasing us yet again on their dynamic. ray is the first one to say "you think I want you as my boyfriend? of course not!" while sand takes a long sip of his water and stares into the middle distance. oh sand.

sand calls him an asshole (affectionate)* again and gets up to go. ray grabs him by the arm and asks with feeling if he is really okay with this, which is the narrative reminding us that we are still allowed to sympathize with him even when he's being a little shit bc he understands consent. they have a nice little ~what are we~ conversation which, like—even though we know it's not actually going to work out ok for either of them even over the course this episode—is some pretty healthy communication, especially stacked right up against everything we've had from boston and nick this week. I'm honestly consistently surprised ray is being allowed to be a decent person but I'm not complaining

*nearly every time the subs say "dickhead" "asshole" etc what the characters are actually calling each other is สัตว์ "animal". I get that this is a more commonly used insult in thai but I think it almost holds up as a direct translation in terms of relative weight and I sort of wish it was glossed more consistently somehow. idk someone come tell me more tho

back at the pool nick meets top, who he recognizes from the photo booth pictures he found at boston's. they get a set of villain zooms, one each top and nick. nick baby don't do anything sand wouldn't do ok?

back to one of nick's online-in-a-dark-room moments. he's stalking top and finding boston comments all over his ig. the camera is not looking kindly on him here. something something the toxicity of jealousy and obsession. nick has real feelings involved so he's already at a disadvantage in his dynamic with boston, but suddenly I get the sense that boston is not necessarily safe, even if he's not going to catch feelings

how is sandray of the messy unrequited friend thing the only safe dynamic of the Big Three

(part 2) (all ofts watch throughs)

[randomvarious]

Today's mix:

Global House Diva 2 by DJ Irene 2001 House / Trance / Hard House / Progressive House / Tech-House

God, I really can't fuckin' stand this frenzied and debased style of DJing, man. It's just such a terrible joke. Don't get me wrong, prolific LA scene vet DJ Irene definitely stacked up a whole bunch of turn-of-the-millennium bangers here, but that doesn't really mean much, because the way she went about it is just so transparently cheap and silly. I mean, I often think that DJs can be an overappreciated bunch in the first place, because at the end of the day, they're really just playing other peoples' music, and then with the right marketing, they can overshadow the musicians themselves, but there is glaringly so little care that went into crafting this monstrosity here. Basically, DJ Irene tried to stuff 10 pounds of shit into a 5-pound bag with this totally jumbled-up, incoherent mess of a set, which is really more like three mini-sets in one: atrocious, mindless, simplistic, blaring, transactional, Euro-rave-type hard house to start; then a run of vocal trance; and then some sweet house tunes to close out.

Now, I have nothing against genre-hopping as a concept. In fact, as I'm sure some of you are all too aware by now, I love it when shit's eclectic. 80s DJs mixed all sorts of stuff together, from synthpop, to electro, to disco, to house, and so on, and I love that spirit. But there was a certain sort of logical fluidity to it all, and this is just so goddamn slapdash by comparison. Between the three mini-sets, there are pretty clear lines of rigid demarcation, and then within those sets themselves, the transitions are often times just dogshit, and are sometimes attempted to be masked with some sort of vocal interlude.

On top of that is the fact that there are a total of 31 tracks in this 69-minute mix, which means that a song, on average, only lasts for about 2 minutes and ~15 seconds, which is *way* too short, considering how long dance tunes typically are. But then when you take into account that two of these tracks, which are run back-to-back, actually take up around an *an entire fifth* of the whole set itself, that means that the average length of the other 29 are shrunken down even more significantly, which *really* prevents the listener from getting into *any* sort of rhythm.

And my final complaint within this multifaceted rant about this soulless waste of time is that, while I certainly dig a whole lot of the songs that were chosen for this mix, when it especially comes to the trance, DJ Irene is really doing little more than scratching the surface. She too often just haphazardly mashes together some of the biggest commercial hits that this genre had to offer at the time, not really connecting them in any type of way that could be considered even close to satisfying. There doesn't seem to be, like, any super deep knowledge of this particular type of music, because, I mean, any DJ can slap together Bedrock, Ferry Corsten, and Tiësto, man; it's not impressive, and you're basically the equivalent of a top-40 bar DJ spinning Pharrell's "Happy" at that point. And likewise goes for lining up Roger Sanchez' "Another Chance" and Kings of Tomorrow's "Finally" in the house set, and then cheesily transitioning into the final track with Chuck Roberts' iconic, but frequently used "In the beginning there was jack" monologue too. Please, just spare us all 😒.

So, believe me, I really hate to sound like a snooty purist here, but this thing was pretty much unbearable from start to finish. Grating, empty-calorie madness that feels like a forerunner to what our soon-to-come generation of AI DJs are gonna be spitting out, which honestly, might be better than this.

Listen to the full mix here.

Highlights:

Bedrock/John Digweed/Nick Muir - "Heaven Scent (original mix)" System F - "Exhale" Ratty - "Sunrise" Gouryella - "Tenshi" Johnny Vicious - "Here With Me" Operatica - "Melancholy Rose (Richie Santana's Anthem mix)" Delerium - "Innocente (DJ Tiësto remix)" Pusaka - "You're the Worst Thing for Me (DJ Irene & the Evolution P.H.D. remix)" Two Phunk D-Lux - "Night Out" CZR & ITO - "Bring in the Funk" Raoul Zerna - "Feel tha Funk" Proton 2 meets Monie - "Higher (Tony B remix)" Hatiras - "Space Invaders (Hatiras' 2nd Encounter mix)" Static Revenger - "Happy People" Roger Sanchez - "Another Chance" Kings of Tomorrow - "Finally" Exodus - "Real Close"

[herbgroom]

arctic monkeys concert review time, for anyone who cares

so I was under the impression that the concert would start at 5:30pm, so I thought, great! I get there at 12 and I only have to wait 5 hours! WRONG.

the headliners would start at 9:40 PM. I WAITED 10 FUCKING HOURS.

when I got there, there were already so many people. the venue was huge and impossible to navigate, I had to go back and forth a couple of times to understand where I was supposed to go. the one highlight was a security guard who saw the books I was carrying (sartre, lol) and the pins (one was of dark side of the moon) and commented on them. that was nice

so, I arrive at my entry, and I still have a couple of hours to kill, since the gates open at 3pm. WELL. SOME DOUCHEBAG decided to cram up at the front of the gates and everyone followed, I was stuck in the crowd for the remaining hours with no water or food, just a cap, and the scorching sun above me (thankfully I had put on sunscreen beforehand)

the staff was also in a panic as well, it took them a while to check tickets and bags.

but I get inside! and the position I get it's great! just a dozen of meters from the stage, meanwhile people keep coming... and coming...

my friend also manages to get inside and we're finally reunited, we're both a sweaty mess. it is 3:30pm.

the bar is expensive and the water is scarce, it is really difficult to sit down given the amount of people (at max capacity, I heard there were 70-90k people inside)

the waiting game starts, but at about 5pm the first opening act (gli OMINI) comes on stage. they're neat 👍 they played covers of boys don't cry and my generation

another half an hour hour passes, it is getting so fucking hot, but some saint starts distributing water, you have to be extremely lucky to catch a bottle, tho.

second opening act (willie j healey) at about 6pm, they have strong dire straits and 70s soft rock vibes, one of their amps busted, but the crowd was supportive

some more waiting, the venue sponsors come on stage (a national radio) and they start randomly djing and chanting, they throw t shirts and gadgets. I didn't get one.

finally, at 7:40 pm the final warm up act, the hives. they even get a personalised stage with big letters and everything. they're absolutely insane, we didn't catch one breath while they were playing. special shoutout to the guitarist who was dying on stage, you're a true champ 👍

one hour left. and that hour feels like 10. at least the sun has gone down, but the heat remains, given how cramped up everyone is. I'm starting to feel very sick, nauseous and with a headache. I try to sit down the best way I can.

BUT FINALLY!! ARCTIC MONKEYS TIME!!! they come on stage and everyone loses their fucking minds, there's a huge mirrorball on the ceiling and a big circular projector behind them

here's the setlist

I had to literally block my ears a few time cuz the screaming was so so strong

alex speaks some italian and that also causes people to lose their minds, the audience mainly cares only for him. sad! I was cheering you on nick, matt and jamie! you were amazing! also the guys responsible for the moog synthesiser and additional guitars, awesome indeed

funny how everyone sang the most popular songs while barely anyone knew the songs from the car, well I sang those the loudest! mirrorball was fucking awesome, the highlight for me, cuz at the end the real mirrorball started spinning and shining. so so cool

I also screamed REALLY LOUD when they played sculptures, I lost my mind. I had waited for it FOR SEVEN MONTHS.

so, was it worth it?

arctic monkeys were amazing, but all the waiting made it unbearable, I couldn't wait to go home afterwards- and that too took a while because the subway was really far away.

so, there you have it, great concert, terrible experience. an overall 4/10, while the band was 10/10 (I wish I heard them more clearly, it was impossible to hear alex through the screaming)

[the-coolest-pharaoh]

how did you learn DJing?

Nick taught me. He is very smart.

[harvlekinkey]

What Doesn't Kill You Will Make You Stronger

Thought of creating something quick for two of my favorite The Quarry boys! More will follow, just a quick sneak peek of a... Can you even call it one-shot? Though I wouldn't mind expanding on it if anyone's interested! 😭 Really hoping I got these two right and it's interesting enough! 🤗

It was the first day of summer camp at Hackett's Quarry. Never the one to arrive on time nor too late, Dylan Lenivy was amongst the last counselors to arrive. "You really keep coming rather later than sooner, don't you?", Nicholas Furcillo smiled welcomingly as he approached Dylan. "Nicholas Furcillo. But my friends simply call me Nick.", Nick kept smiling as his hand reached for Dylan's. "Dylan Lenivy. My friends call me Dylan. But so do my enemies. Never know who's who.", Dylan smudged as he took and shook Nick's hand. "Hope it won't get to the latter then.", Nick now grinned, replying in an Australian accent to which Dylan replied with a smirk. "So, What Doesn't Kill You Will Make You Stronger?", Nick continued. "That's the only part that I remember. Which is embarassing, coming from someone who's been a camper for years. Think it's such a bop." "A bop? Wasn't there a song called like that?", Nick asked curiously. "Yup, took inspiration from us. Top secret. No one knows.", Dylan grinned. As soon as Nick wanted to know if he was legit or just messing with him, Chris Hackett approached to welcome the counselors. "Next time. You gotta tell me everything!", Nick gently bumped into Dylan who returned the favor, grinning.

First day of camp as a counselor went by fairly quickly as Dylan got to meet all the new counselors as well as meet back up with Ryan who he'd have known ever since he first started attending. The sun was already setting as both campers and counselors alike made their way toward the central point to sit at the campfire. "Long time no see.", Nick bumped into Dylan who rolled his eyes with a grin. "Yeah it's not like I'm busy DJing while you're cooking. You at least can listen to me.", Dylan replied. "Guilty. Though I hope you enjoyed your stew." "Eh, could have been better. Not a fan of wet stuff. I'd prefer soup." Nicholas reacted confused, looking at Dylan in disbelief. "Hey it was delicious. Okay? Beware of Jacob, he'd eat you alive if you're not careful." "Really that bad?", Nick hesitated to move which Dylan quickly noticed. "You really don't get sarcasm, do you?" "Depends. Would he?" "Would he what?", now it was Dylan's turn to be confused. Even more confused, Nick stared at Dylan. "You know what? Just... Forget it.", Nick just shook his head but was quickly held back by Dylan. The younger counselor caressed Nick's hand, unknowingly to him but very knowingly to Nick. "Let's keep going, unless you want us to get the worst seats.", Dylan grinned. Nick could sense, that Dylan was a joy to have around and he'd be looking forward to spend time with him.

[joemuggs]

Brained

I wrote these sleeve notes. It's funny because this world was a fantasy for me at the time, I was 15 or 16 when the album was recorded, listening to John Peel and crackly reception of Kiss FM, but this music meant everything to me... Sorry it seems like a load of what I'm posting is super retro lately, and that's making me feel old, but that's just the nature of the stuff I'm digging up.

👇🏻

Back in 1991 everything flowed. There were still no boundaries between the subgenres of dance music, everything was up for grabs, parties and raves were still a total meltdown of class, race and sexuality. And old schoolfriends “Mixmaster” Morris Gould (aka The Irresistible Force) and Paul “Ramjac” Chivers had a live set that flowed together out of necessity: so limited were their samplers that they had to take turns jamming out a track while the other reloaded their sounds from floppy disc to prevent pauses in the set. But as with everything in that brave new musical world, they made a strength of limitations and produced a groove as futuristic as it was primitive. And, as the recording of their set at London’s notorious Brain club – promoted and introduced on this recording by the equally notorious Sean McCluskey – shows, they perfectly captured the sweat-drenched interzone of the dancefloor in their sounds.

Gould and Chivers had known each other since the age of eight, and both gravitated to the postpunk scene in London as teenagers. The collisions of punk attitude with world music, dub, electronics, jazz and more with the freedom afforded by squatter culture would set them both on exploratory musical paths and extremely catholic tastes. Chivers would gravitate to “real” instruments, learning Afro-Cuban percussion among other instruments, while Gould – always a technology fanatic, and working with computers in his day job – was experimenting with synths and tape edits from the start and got his first sampler around 1985. He took to DJing too, playing at gigs and private parties, soaking up lessons from the likes of Colin Faver and Coldcut in the warehouse party and alternative gay club scenes of London, and went to his first all night rave in Berlin in 1984 – so of course he was primed and ready when acid house hit big time in 1988.

For Chivers acid was a bit more of a surprise. He’d been immersed in On-U Sound style experimental dub, and was working on a live project with his Aniruddha “Dr.” Das – who would later found Asian Dub Foundation. They were using a drum machine, a TB-303 to make basslines, “and lots and lots of percussion”. One day, Chivers was tinkering with the gear in the studios of the Brent Black Music Cooperative in Dollis Hill, when a face peered round the door and said “I like what you’re doing, I’m having a party here later, if I give you £100 will you play a set?” This was acid maven Finbar O’Brien, and the party – full of 500 people, with the renowned Nick MindScape atop a ladder changing coloured gels over a spotlight by hand – and Chivers was an instant convert. More than anything it was the “fluidity” he loved, and the fact the DJ (and him) were hidden away and the crowd were reacting purely to sound, not to a performance as such.

Acid house kept Gould busy as a DJ – his own club The Madhouse was one of the first regular acid nights in London, and he manned the chillout room in Heaven among other places. He expressly set the Heaven ambient space up as a democratised counterpoint to The Orb & KLF’s “White Room” in the same space another night of the week: “Actually, it was better because their room was only for VIPs, for the elite, but I’d been reading about Prometheus, and I wanted to bring fire to the people!” Chivers was also out and about being booked as a percussionist to jam over DJ sets. And both were in demand for live sets; often playing to tens of thousands at the foundational orbital raves outside London, and really honing their skills when the Shamen set up their endlessly mutating Synergy tour, bringing on Ramjac and The Irresistible Force as residents, as well as hard industrialists turned rave converts Meat Beat Manifesto and newcomers Orbital.

It was this latter environment more than any – where DJ and live sets were all part of a continual stream of sound, and sounds, visuals and crowd were all part of the same experience – that brought together the set you hear from the Brain. You can hear Chicago and New York house in it (as well as acid trax, the pair were both devotees of the likes of Mr Fingers and Pal Joey), you can hear Yorkshire bleep and clonk, you can hear the breakbeats and big riffs that were beginning to be known as “hardcore”, you can hear Chivers’s Afro-Latin percussion training, you can hear Gould’s confidence with beatless sections, you can hear elements that would soon become integral to trance, progressive house and other subgenres but in 1991 were still part of the same flow. And most of all, you can hear that direct connection to the dancefloor that Chivers first experienced in that studio party: the sense that this isn’t a performance to a watching crowd, but the music is part of a single system with the people hearing and reacting to it.

There was a literal truth to that: the upstairs room of the Brain where live music happened on a Thursday night had no stage and held less than 50 people. The sounds that you hear flowing through this record are a document of that intimacy: you can almost feel the sweat evaporating off them, and you can hear in McLuskey’s declaration of “FUCKING BRILLIANT” at the end, not just praise of the music, but the enthusiasm of someone who’s just been through the full dance ritual. This kind of live set – genuinely created on the fly with no technological or musical rules beyond the steady beat, made to flow like a DJ set and react to the dancing crowd – would continue to have important offspring. 

The kind of studio and warehouse parties that Gould and Chivers would play at, as well as Synergy and the Brain, directly gave rise to live experiences like The Drum Club & Club Dog’s Midi Circus tour (which would feature Aphex Twin, Orbital and many more), and Underworld’s Experimental Sound Field at Glastonbury 1992 with its weekend-long stream of all-live music. But it would not be long before these scenes would also generate star acts playing on stages in concert halls, and DJ culture itself would generate new idols for the audiences to face and focus their attention on too. In 1991, though, everything still flowed, and everything was still new. It’s been hard for writers and other documentarians to capture that, given that the understanding of it is dependent on duration and immersion – but impressively, amazingly, this recording manages it. Forget what you think you know about the era and its signifiers, try and absorb this as sound created in the moment, and you’re there.

[theartofjournalling]

There was a post that said

If you’re in a room

With everyone you ever met

I’d look for my love and friend Daniel who I miss so much

I haven’t seen him in so long

He punishes himself with isolation

He was never interested in girls

He held my hand on many occasions and I wondered why

Was it just innocence

Or was he gay

He wasn’t a child

He was two years younger than me and old enough to realise what he was doing

We swam together

I felt bad when I flirted with him

One time I laid on top of him

I just wanted to make it obvious that I was gay without saying it

Idk

He looked up to me but we never took it anywhere

I wonder who he is and why he isolates himself

He said to me

I’m not gay

And I was like neither

And winked and joked

Idk

I’d look for him though if I was in the room with everyone

I painted it like I was weird to him

We camped together

Shared a tent

It wasn’t like that at all

We both loved each other

And I miss him

That’s story I shared about meeting him by the dock of a lake

On a pier with our feet in the water

That I loved you

That was him

And no

He wasn’t my first Love

Nick

I remember when it was Christmas

And I wondered where he was at the Christmas party

I was DJing but I wanted to find him

So I put the Dj on auto

And left it

Even though the people complained that they couldn’t dance to the automatic selected songs picked by the computer

Where were you they said

I said

I had to

Help Daniel

Why

Well

It’s because I found him on my balcony sitting on my balcony chair staring over the flashing Christmas lights which reflected on his soft solemn complexion

I asked him what was wrong.

Why are you out here

He was crying

Just life

Is hard

Why is it hard

Idk

Your handsome

You could get any girl

You’re young

You have you’re whole life ahead of you

Hell

You’re even smart

You understand physics

He studied mechanical engineering at tafe

You have nothing to worry about

It seems like he was holding back and I wondered

He made fun of me and my eczema

He was harsher than the others

And I wondered if it was his defence mechanism

To attack or be attacked

Kill or be killed

He always seemed to light up when we met

That time you were on the cruise

You had that fling with that girl who loved you

You seemed so sad

As if you were just going along with it

Because you had to to prove a point

Idk

You broke up so soon and she was upset at you when the cruise was over and we returned to our lives

You stopped emailing she said

I always wondered

You were beautiful

I could date your sister because I thought I was closer to you in a way by being with her

When I touched her

I thought of you

I always thought I wasn’t present enough as I could be in every day interactions with people

I used to just zone out and be in my own world

Because I didn’t relate to what anyone was saying and I felt so inherently different as if no one could relate to me

Now I realise it was all nothing and my own mind

I could have been just as open but it led up to where I am today so I wouldn’t change a thing

Today I listen to peoples conversations and am present even if I don’t talk as much as the others

Unless I’m in a podcast that is

I share more than the others

Obviously

When performing I noticed I always gave more than anyone else

Maybe because that was my way of reaching people

When I couldn’t everyone else

Introverts make the best performers as they notice all the subtitles and curate their performance where everyone else is lacking

But I realise my family are even worse

My dad just frankly dissociates from every interaction

He’s not even there

Like talking or spending time with a brick wall

My mum

She doesn’t speak

She’s present but avoidant

She has nothing to say

Only criticisms when I do something wrong

Never anything meaningful or constructive or loving

[whilstiveputdownthisfic]

Reel from Virgin Radio UK's IG account featuring Nick promoting his (then upcoming) week filling in for Chris Evans as host of their breakfast show - this was awesome and put me so full of joy getting to listen to Nick daily on the radio for an entire week - what an absolute treat to my soul

May 26th, 2023; 8:05 p.m. DST

[ajoytobeheld]

UK Tour: post-mortem

November 2nd, 2009

Here is an overview of our past fortnight, in the form of statistics, rubbish camera phone pictures and superlatives.

We visited these cities, in this order:

Coventry Southampton Exeter Cardiff Manchester Newcastle London Oxford Leeds Glasgow

Percentage of venues which didn’t have toilet roll backstage:

60%

Percentage of promoters which took any notice of the fact that we informed them a quarter of our band are vegan:

20%

Best related quote: “Yeh, sorry, I didn’t know what vegan meant, so I got you some nuts”.

Percentage of Sold Out gigs:

70%

We owe a huge amount of thanks to Nick Coppack of Manchester United Football Club who invited us to Old Trafford to do an interview for the magazine and have a tour. To be recognised by your favourite football club, I can tell you, is an amazing thing. It was also incredibly flattering that Nick was a proper fan of the band and came to the show afterwards and made requests. I could never tire of discussing mid-’90s league cup defeats, so thank you Nick.

Thank you to Les Savy Fav for DJing at our aftershow in London, and thank you to Wichita for organising such a spectacle. I was in a bad mood after the show due to getting punched in the face after going into the crowd and somebody wrestling the microphone from me and refusing to give it back. To rub insult to injury, after the gig they approached me and told me I was a great “modern poet”. Yuck. Who even thinks like that?

So spending the night dancing to ’90s club hits amongst good friends was an awesome tonic.

This is a picture of Stuart off of Copy Haho standing on Tim off of Les Savy Fav’s shoulders:

I had three of The Best Nights Of My Life on this tour.

1. A travel lodge, a putsch on a WH Smith and reckless abandonment of all regards of common decency.

(not suitable for platform)

2. After our Friday gig in Leeds. Dananananaykroyd, our own private disco, the first time we managed to get a DJ to play Dexys, dance offs with people I miss far too much, and conga lines.

3. Best gig we’ve ever played in Cardiff. Infront of family. It felt like a home coming. Watching members of some of my favourite bands crowd surf to our music. Silent Disco with newly found best friends and pals who’d come from out of town, alike. This is a video of us performing Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks with Calum off of Dananananaykroyd and Alexei off of Johnny Foreigner.

When we all got swine flu. I look forward, in ten years time, to being able to say “I survived Swine Flu”. Hats off to Kim who soldiered on through gigs despite vomiting non-stop for two days. Hats back on to all the “media outlets” who somehow managed to spin a badly informed news story out of three caps heavy tweets I made.

Thank you ever so to Rob from Sparky Deathcap for coming on tour with us. Having him as the 8th Campesinos! is something we’d love to make permanent if we could afford to (which we can barely with 7, so we’re gonna have to get famous or something). His musicianship really adds something to us playing live, and means I don’t have to play any instruments. Something I’m very grateful for. Also, his solo sets at the start of the evening were always amazing. I cannot say enough that I think Sparky is the best songwriter in the UK at the moment, and to have the chance to play in his backing band was a real honour. I hope we get to do it again sometime soon.

Copy Haho: We’ve made friends for life. I couldn’t have dreamt of meeting four people as hilarious and nice and just amazing to be around as them. I would never complain about being in a band. There are loads of negative aspects, believe me there are, but they are far outweighed by the opportunities we have to play our music and to have a platform for the things we want to say and to create. But the worst thing is saying goodbye. You travel the world meeting amazing people. You forge really close bonds in no time at all. And then at the end of a tour you say goodbye and resign yourself to the fact you live hundreds of miles apart, and that the next time you’re in their city, they’ll probably be elsewhere, making other new friends to break their hearts. It’s like a divorce that neither side wants. And oh my god, the poor kids.

“but with XBOX Live, hope and skype I could find you in a keystroke…”

Never has this been so true as it is with Copy Haho.

Thank you dearly; Joe, Richard, Stuart, Rikki, Rob, Todge, Jason, Stan, Lewy, Ceri, Gavlar, Jason and Stacey. I love you all.

Everyone who came to this tour, thank you. Every gig felt really special, and I feel like with fans friends like you, we can achieve everything we’d ever want. Thank you for letting us be a band, and see you soon.

[artistbookings]

DJ Amit - Bollywood Style

As an experienced DJ with nearly two decades of experience in the industry, DJ Amit is dedicated to delivering unforgettable music experiences to audiences of all ages and backgrounds. The ability to break through and mix the music seamlessly to keep the party going is his specialty!

He crafted his skills and started DJing, transitioning into the mobile DJ scene performing for weddings, school dances, corporate & other social events. Now he is a highly trained professional who brings along many years of experience performing for a variety of events.

Whether it’s a cultural or western event celebration, DJ AMIT and his team surely know how to cater.

Music Genre: Bollywood, Traditional and Contemporary Indian Music

Size: Solo

Buy Music: Mixcloud

Hire For: Weddings, Private Events, Corporate Events

Equipment Supplied: Yes

Languages: English, Hindi

Covered by the Artist Bookings 100% reschedule/replace/refund guarantee

"DJ Amit assisted us with our needs on song mash-up for our wedding reception intro. He produced it exactly the way we wanted. Highly professional and a simple person with a bright smile. Highly recommend his services to anyone seeking solid entertainment. He is more than a DJ package himself alone..."  -- Shalend P. "Worked with Amit for our wedding reception - great service, extremely reliable and friendly. Couldn't have asked for someone better!"  -- Vaishali S. "DJ Amit did an exceptional job for our wedding reception. He catered to the guests and ensured that everyone was having a good time. Amit went above and beyond our expectations with the cold sparks and cloud effects. We highly recommend him to any couple for their special day!"  -- Angela P. "Thank You DJ Amit for providing excellent entertainment. Amit played a nice variety of music. Throughout our planning, he stayed in touch about what we wanted for our party. He listened to our requests and put together a killer playlist. He cared about the subtle details and showed that he wanted to make our experience unique and matching to our theme/tone. The dance floor was full the entire night and our guests loved the variety of music. Highly recommend!"  -- Sneha S. "DJ Amit is the best! He was the DJ at an event for 700 people and he rocked it!!!! He played the tunes for my show, was so easy to work with and very talented! I highly recommend booking him for your event."  -- Nick B. "Thank you so much for and absolutely amazing and entertaining night for my dad's 50th birthday. We thoroughly enjoyed it!"  -- Shikha M.

[raedroid2004]

Star Covers Bios #13: Hailey Stevens

Age: 10 (beginning of series) 18 (current age)

Birthday: June 15 2004

Ethnicity: African American (Mom: South African Heritage Dad: Nigerian-Sudan Heritage)

Born: St. John’s Newfoundland, Canada

Hair Colour: Black

Skin Tone: Bronze

Eye Colour: Brown

Colour Scheme: Red, White, Orange, Maroon, Yellow, Brown, Black, Coral, Pale Red, and Blue

Instruments: Electronics, Vocals, Drums, Acoustic Guitar and Harmonica

Magic Element: Fire

Non-Topic Ability: Mind Reading/Control

Weapon: Ball and Flame

Hobbies: Reading Books, Writing, Watching Movies and Television, Djing, Carpentry, Making Furniture, Doing Arts and Crafts, and Studying Writing Critics

Good Qualities: She’s a fun-loving and free spirited girl who’s not afraid to speak her mind. She’s very honest and is creative and crafty when it comes to her writing. She’s likes giving advice and tips for others and always look on the bright side of things

Bad Qualities: She’s a bit of a maniac and a dumbass lol. She and her girlfriend Richelle constantly get into mayhem and she has a hard time settling down and she’s a huge pyromaniac. Additionally, due to her honesty, she is a horrible liar and can blow her and her friends cover during dangerous situations by accident

Inspirations: Kiss, Duran Duran (specifically Nick Rhodes), Diana Ross, Rei Hino/Sailor Mars from Sailor Moon, and Bloom from Winx Club

[toastlab]

It’s Not Too Good To Be True, You Can Earn A Great Living As A DJ (Here’s How!)

Courses run rampant. This is the digital age, and while that means tons of cool learning choices and a plethora of ways to meet really awesome people, the decision fatigue when selecting the Right Course For You can be…a lot. 

DJ courses are much the same; Google is rife with selection, and it can seem too good to be true – because much of the time, it is. 

That’s where my DJ course, Toast & Jam Lab comes in. We set ourselves apart from all the other courses by integrating a healthy portion of the boring but extremely necessary business stuff. Like business financials, automation, when to scale, and a little about DJ etiquette. 

We organize our course in a digestible, accessible way. It’s easy: students have access to the material forever and can start immediately upon sign-up in the comfort of their homes. 

Let’s dive into a little about how I got started and outline the bare bones of what you need to succeed as a successful DJ – and how our DJ course can help.

My Origin Story:

I founded Toast and Jam in 2005. The company was rooted in the idea that my clients and guests should be entertained – not overshadowed. I’ve been music-obsessed since childhood and got my start in community radio while in university. 

I began DJing events when a listener called the request line on the radio show I worked on and asked if I would DJ their wedding. During the wedding, not only did I get to play cool music, but I got to play an integral role in the structure of the event. I got to be the boss for that little slice of time. Everyone was excited, everyone danced, and I remember feeling like…this is the rest of my life. I incorporated my business the next day. 

Since then, my company has provided the soundtrack to thousands of weddings and events in Chicago and beyond, most notably for Barack & Michelle Obama, Vince Vaughan, and so many more awesome people.

Over the years, I started consulting. Helping others in the entrepreneurial space – even if it wasn’t a DJ-focused project. My latest venture, The Toast & Jam Lab, is a comprehensive online course for mobile DJs looking to transform their business into a thriving empire. I got the stuff you need. 

Okay, let’s get to what you came here for:

The Business Stuff:

Hone in on your ideal client:

This is a key boundary I set very early on in my business which continues to serve me to this day. It’s serving the client, yes, but serving the right client for you.  

You can’t be everything to everyone. Some clients won’t be right for you. Your service offering and the ideal client that it works for needs to be niche enough to work. If you’re good at it and trust the process – you’ll never work with the wrong client again.  

That doesn’t mean you won’t have jerky clients. Jerks are hiding in plain sight everywhere. But at least you won’t be doing things outside your scope of work and breeding resentment and burnout. 

I looked really hard at who the Toast & Jam client is. We are not the DJ for everyone. We aren’t the DJ for a $500,000 wedding and we don’t want to be. 

Give me a 28-year-old that wants to hear Tame Impala and Nick Drake during cocktails and dinner and then Dua Lipa and Biggie for a dance set rager that will live in the hearts and minds of their friends for eons.

The T&J client is a couple that understands that for them, music and a fun raging party is the most important thing for their event. They want their wedding to feel very personal to them. 

To suss out your ideal client, consider the following:

What’s the most important thing to this client? 

What does this client do for a living?

How old are they? How do they like to spend their free time?

What are they spending on their wedding? 

How are they paying for your services? 

How can I find this client? Where do they live?  

This will help you narrow your ideal customer into a few different segments, and will help inform your messaging and how you conduct your business. 

Cultivate a solid brand identity:

This almost goes hand in hand with honing in on your ideal client. Once you narrow down who you’re looking to serve the most, you can get granular on how you’re going to position yourself to them and your team. 

For me, it was being armed with the knowledge of who I wanted to work with, culling through the mass of cheesy DJ gimmicks in the Chicago area, and identifying how my service offering differed from the competition.

There’s plenty of DJ selection in Chicago, but setting myself apart from my competition and appealing to my target market through my messaging and brand identity was key to my success. 

There are a few ways to do this:

Develop actual branding. Having a professional logo, color scheme, tagline, images, letterhead, or brochures makes a huge difference. It helps you stand out and shows your prospects that you’re the real deal.

In that vein, with your branding identified, get a website set up. This is the customer’s first impression of you; your storefront. Make sure it’s easy to navigate and that it’s very clear to your customers who you are, what you do, who you do it for, and how to contact you.

Be sure the messaging on your website is targeted to your ideal client. Toast & Jam’s website is fresh, inclusive, snappy, cool, and fun. While folks of all ages and walks of life enjoy this,  it’s targeted to our ideal client – the one that wants a super fun, super personalized raging dance party.

Ensure that the messaging and branding (so, images and color scheme) on your social media accounts, your website, and anywhere else your brand exists is consistent. Always show up professionally and ensure there are no grammatical gaffes. 

Create (and stick to) a business plan:

There’s something to be said for viewing yourself as a business that provides a premium service versus just one person who does work for others for money. 

Identify your goals. Your five-year plan. Do you want to DJ for the rest of your life? Do you want to be able to step away and have some free time? Do you want a more strategic, network-y style role eventually? Will you want to sell your business? 

Well, you won’t be able to do anything but work unless you cultivate a solid business plan and stop trying to do it all yourself. 

When you can stick your head up above the mire, you can strategize, figure out where your leads are coming from, how many leads you’re losing (and why), develop customized pricing, level up your marketing, and make sure you stay on top of taxes and other serious financial stuff.

We can use what we’ve covered so far to help inform a business plan:

Leverage your ideal customer into action – where do they hang out most? Do some market research to find out how you can meet their needs. 

Gather data on your industry. What’s the going cost of weddings in your target area these days? What are the going wedding DJ and entertainment trends? How can you bolster your offering with this in mind?

Conduct an unbiased competitive analysis. How do you measure up to the competition? What do you do well? What are you missing?

Develop a robust Sales and Marketing plan. Will you run ads? Will you post on social media more? Will you incorporate organic SEO into your web messaging so people can find you easier?

Develop an operations plan. Who is doing what in your business? What resources do you need to keep things afloat?

Develop a financial plan. How will you pay your employees? Overhead costs? Pay yourself?

The DJ Stuff

All of the above is very well and good, but you won’t get super far if you don’t exercise a little quality control with your DJ gear and stay abreast of industry trends and learning. 

This means making sure your gear is in good condition, educating yourself on mixing and making sure you stay on top of DJ etiquette. 

Be respectful to your team, your clients, dress properly for the occasion, and always stay aware of the vibe on the dance floor. If there are teens on the dance floor and they’re having a fantastic time, it might not be prudent to switch over to lesser-known genres from the 1980s. 

Let’s talk!

You’re likely at the end of this missive and dealing with a bit of information overload. That’s okay. The goal here is to communicate that earning a living as a DJ is very possible, you just have to lay a little groundwork – as with any business. 

The Lab’s DJ lesson framework is meant to be super digestible and informative. We’ve got worksheets, financial resources, templates, and checklists. Plus, our courses are available in video and transcript format, which makes learning that much easier. 

I want to help you scale. To be successful. Toast & Jam has been alive and well for over 15 years, and we’ve managed to survive and thrive even through COVID-19. Through The Lab, I’ve got things to teach you. 

Have questions? Check out our FAQ. Wanna take the leap and enroll? Check out our sign-up form here. 

[jonathantoubin]

FRIDAY! AUG 19! 11pm-4am! TV EYE! stoked to be djing the dance after thee amazing DION LUNADON’s record release party! also featuring SWEET KNIVES (memphis supergroup with 3 former members of LOST SOUNDS!), and nyc’s own rollin’ COLD DICE! DION is initially from AUCKLAND, NZ (where everybody knows his name!) and was in the FLYING NUN band THE D4 before moving to nyc - when we became friends djing together at the legendary MOTOR CITY BAR in the 2000s. he since spent years globetrotting with A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS before starting a solo career - developing crushing garage punk compositions that are noisy and rockin but at the same time thoughtful and melodic! his current heavy duty band, featuring CLAUDIA LILY of BABY SHAKES, JAKE PFLUM of NATIVE SUN, and NICK FERRANTE of BLACK HOLLIES, are tougher than leather and you gotta come feel their fire! FRIDAY we celebrate the release of his new LP, “BEYOND EVERYTHING,” on one of the coolest labels of all time, LA’s iconic IN THE RED RECORDS! def turn up early! and stick around for the night where i’ve continued to develop my MOTOR CITY “maximum rock and soul” aesthetic weekly since 2008, SHAKIN’ ALL OVER UNDER SIDEWAYS DOWN! (at TV Eye NYC) https://www.instagram.com/p/ChYEJ8sumGX/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=