TOUR DIARY
NOVEMBER 2006
This is the first of a series of tour diaries that I'll be posting on my myspace blog, I'll try and keep this updated every month, although I'm usually pretty lazy when it comes to this kind of thing. Oh well, we'll see how it goes.
It was a really busy month, as the end of the year always is for me, with gigs every weekend, spanning four different countries. I started off this month in Santiago, Chile, for the Hypnotic Festival. This was formally the Earth Dance festival in Chile but they had to move it due to the Beastie Boys concert at the same time. Surprisingly, the numbers weren't affected by the Beastie Boys, and we had a fantastic time, at a venue on the mountain overlooking the whole of Santiago, with around three thousand people. Unfortunately I couldn't hang around too long afterwards, pity cause it was my first time in Chile and it seems like a wicked place to hang out in. Caught a long flight home and made it back just in time to head off to Mexico.
I've never had quite as bad a flight as I did on my way to Mexico this month. Seems flights are getting more and more difficult to find as the fuel price just keeps going up. Ended up having to settle for a flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg, wait twelve hours, then Johannesburg to Heathrow, London, two hour bus trip to Gatwick, Gatwick to Newark, three hour stop over, then Newark to Mexico City. What a mouthful… the whole damn trip took me over forty five hours! Was exhausted by the end of all of it, then rocked up at the party, only to find out that it had been canceled due to a sound truck that got stuck up the hill. Was really disappointed to find out that after canceling the party, the promoter had been attacked in her car by some disgruntled kids and ended up with stitches on her forehead. Come guys… I know its crap it was canceled, but that sort of behavior is absolutely appalling. Anyway, headed back to the hotel with Arturo from Maia records, and some of the other artists and friends of mine, bought a stack of beers and tried to make the best of it.
Had some problems getting out of Mexico on the way back, nearly missed my next flight to Brazil. After another 37 hours back to SA, and a lot of dealing with airlines and booking agents, I managed to make the flight one day later, and arrived just in time for Creamfields in Brazil. There must have been between 10 and 15 thousand people I reckon, fantastic production with a line up featuring Atomic Culture (my new project with Atomic Pulse) Skazi, Ernan Katanya, Sasha and Wrecked Machines. Great party guys, had a fantastic time. Unfortunately missed my next gig in Caisa do Sol due to delayed flights, so my apologies to the guys down there for not making it out.
Arrived home with only a day, once again, before leaving for Melbourne, Australia for the annual Earthcore Carnival. A stellar line up graced the dance floors, including Raja Ram, John 00 Flemming (wicked set), Freq, Xavier Morelle, Mark EG, Fatali, Oforia, 1200 Mics, Phony Orphants, Tsuyoshi Suzuki, too name but a few. I've got a lot of good friends on Oz, and I love the Australian crowd, so as always I had fantastic time. It ended up being 42 degrees Celsius on the Saturday, so I ended up drinking about 7 bottles of champers with Emok in the Artist tent… what a laugh, although I didn't find it too funny when I woke up with the hangover from hell. Looking forward to getting back there again in February for the Metrayu Festival.
Well that's about it for the fun and festivities this month. Will be playing at the Vortex in Cape Town this weekend, and then heading off to Japan, but I'll write more about that at the end of December. I'll try post some pics of this month later when I get round to it.