I went to see Jah Shaka on Friday at the Rocket. On my own. There were some vague arrangements to see people in there, but it didn’t pan out in the end. Excellent session anyway. I was seriously put off The Rocket last time – we got there about midnight and Shaka’s crew were still loading the speakers into the venue.

Then inside there was a large contingent of pissed students who subtracted any vibes from the place by rolling around on the floor and being ‘hilarious’. Disrespectful. I suppose that’s kind of half the fun of being a drunken student and I daresay that I did equally embarrassing things in my day as well. I think with Shaka it’s kind of different, though. It ain’t your regular DJ session – for some people it’s a religious experience and if it isn’t then the lyrical subject matter suggests a certain degree of seriousness anyway. Killjoy time – everyone wants to have a good night out, but the middle class whiteboys behaving like arses to records about slavery, oppression and beating down babylon grates a bit for me.

Anyway, there was none of that on Friday. Everything was already happening when I arrived at 11:00 (via the new bus which goes from outside my flat to outside the Rocket – thank you Ken). Coupla warm up tracks like “Hail HIM” by Sister Rasheda and The Disciples, plus that instrumental one I never know the name of that goes “diddle dee DUM” at the beginning. It’s probably some total classic that everyone else bought 10 years ago, but I have no idea who it’s by. Place started filling up shortly after and it was great to see what I consider a typical good Shaka crowd – old and young, black and white… everyone into it.

This was the 2nd session since Shaka was hospitalised after a house fire towards the end of last year and I think everyone was making a special effort to spur him on, and he was certainly riding that wave of appreciation and pulling out all the stops. Tellingly he was doing some mad tweaking with the soundsystem fairly early on and also dropped some stone cold 70s classics like Tyrone Taylor’s “Sufferation” (Observer – the 12″ version – didn’t know there was one, but there you are. Oh – Russ D has a label scan on his site!) and Rod Taylor’s “Ethiopian Kings” -I think: “King David he was a black man”- on Freedom sounds). This is stuff which is usually left for later in the night, so we were clearly up for a good one.

Nice selection of mainly digi cuts, but all quality. Some great workouts with the bass on the versions as well (and not too many cuts either – I’ve seen him play about 4 dubs of one track, and apparently he’s done about 12 before!). I just got lost in it all really – that’s one plus point for going to these things on your own – you can totally lose yourself in the sound and not worry about your mates. I used to go to gigs on my own quite a lot when I was still at school…

You could have your tea and then nip off on the train don to London easy. Plus if you were going to somewhere like Dingwalls in Camden if you showed up early enough they’d sometimes have the door open and you could just walk in and try to look inconspicuous – free gig! Grab a couple of beers and maybe have a chat with some guy trying to flog you a fanzine and check out whoever it was (Suicide and Spacemen 3 spring to mind – possibly on the same bill?).

I kind of miss that sort of self-belief, energy and determination now. On one level it was kind of nerdy, but in many ways it was better than keeping yourself locked in your bedroom listening to records (or blogging these day, ahem). It was freedom in a way – not being constrained by your friends’ tastes in music, or worrying about looking like billy-no-mates in front of all the cool London gig-goers. Or not having a girlfriend. And you always get into some freaky random stuff on the way home as well.

At reggae sessions there’s always a feeling of anticipation weighed up with fatigue. Shaka plays from 9 til 6 in the morning sometimes and always keeps the real deal until the last couple of hours. Those almost mythical dubplates that nobody else has – the best cuts, the best tracks. A reward for the hardcore. I rarely get to hear them, of course. I lasted until 2am on Friday and was happy to leave. There was still a queue of people waiting patiently to get in…