It was my mate Chris’ birthday party on Saturday, so I blagged the warm up shift on the decks. Playing to an empty room is harder than you would think – you have a key role in drawing people in, rather than forcing them to go to another pub for some dutch courage. Anyway – I did alright:

Sound Dimension – Drum Song (Coxsone 7”) so the obvious thing to do would be to play an all Studio One set in honour of the man like Coxsone. But it wouldn’t have gone down t0o well and I doubt my collection is up to it. In fact I know it isn’t, but it’s something to aim for…

Hopeton Lewis – Take It Easy (Soul Jazz LP) off 300% Dynamite – not very “pro”, but a corker nonetheless. Anyway – I left the Drum Song seven on the decks for a while in case any purists wanted a ruck about it: Gladdy reckoned it was an original JA press and it certainly has that look about it.

Barry Brown – Every Knee Shall Bow (Attack 7”) “The good you do, it will follow you…” includes what sounds like a false start on one of the choruses… ruff and ready!

Aggrovators – Dub on My Pillow (Attack LP) “Johnny in the Echo Chamber” – Mr Clarke jumps in and out of “Tears on My Pillow” whilst Mr Tubby and Mr Lee mash the place up.

Willie Williams – Armagideon Time discomix (s/t Studio 1 LP) Cos everyone knows it from The Clash or from Ghost Dog or… they just know it.

Scientist/Jammy – Flash Gordon Meets Luke Skywalker (Trojan LP) This track kicks ass – a massive anticipation-builder as it has virtually no beats in it. Stripped down minimalism that is all the more powerful for it – you know what SHOULD be happening, but just get teased. When the entire tune kicks in just before the end it feels like you’ve just come.

Gregory Isaacs – Thief A Man (African Museum 7”) “You’re Just A Part of Babylon’s Plan”

Dennis Brown – Wolf & Leopard (Trojan LP) classic niceness.

Observers – No Conscience (Trojan LP) the dub

The Mighty Diamonds – Stand Up To Your Judgement (Hitbound 7”) pure soul, blogged about this one before I think.

Abyssinians – Declaration of Rights (Studio One 7”) OK, so I did end up playing quite a bit of Brentford Road output 🙂

Bunny Lee – Version (Jackpot 7”) the dub of Johnny Clarke’s version of “Declaration” – again, not very “pro”, but it means you can mix it all together rather than buy two copies of the same tune, or do a Shaka-esque ‘turn the record over with big pause’. (This is when people started arriving en masse, so time to move up a gear)

Joy White – Idlers on the Street (Grounation 7”) dunno if I actually played this, but it’s great – she has an almost too squeaky voice, but it works: “a girl can’t walk in peace because of the idlers on the street”.

Ward 21 – Ganja Smoke (John John 7”) never fails

Nelly Furtado – Turn Off The Light (FiWi 7”) ditto

McKay – Take Me Over (Go Beat 12”) From last year on “Double Barrel”)

Barrington Levy – Murderer (Jah Life 7”) Nice bit of swirly dancehall anthemia. Not the right time to follow this up with the more shouty Levy/Beenie Man collaboration as usual.

Pad Anthony & Tonto Irie – Champion Bubbler (Greensleeves 12”) If I had my choice I’d play stuff like this all night but it doesn’t really work when you kick off at 8:00pm. “Yellowman him yellow/him yellow like cheese/Bob Marley died of cancer disease…”

Frankie Paul – Pass The Tu Sheng Peng (Greensleeves 12”) never fails because of the “darker shade of black”/”Norwegian Wood” riddim, coupled with it being about smoking. Plus you can tweak away at the Radics extended instrumental at the end. But I didn’t do too much of that because time was running out and I had to play:

Jah Screechy – Walk & Skank (Blacker Dread 12”) Or “where SL2’s ‘On a Ragga Tip’ came from” as it is most commonly known to people who ask me about it: “a hand in your pocket and one by your side”.

Nerious Joseph – Sensi Crisis (Fashion 12”) pull uuuuuuuuuuuup!

I had a ton of other stuff to play, but forgot to pack a load of it because it was hectic times dropping off the daughter with my Mum and Dad. So if you’ve seen me DJ over the last year, you will have heard quite a lot of this. Needless to say, I was already on my 2nd pint by the time I’d finished and was therefore slightly the worse for wear when the late licence came to an end at some ungodly hour of Sunday morning.

The rest of the DJs done good, especially Danny Chin who finished off with a propah party hip-hop set.