I'm lucky enough to travel a lot. Some weeks the work-life balance seems just right, whereas there are occasional 7 day periods when I wonder what possessed me to take on board such a silly schedule. It's never my management's fault- ultimately the decision regarding where I play and how many nights I spend away from home rests on these shoulders.
If 25,000 miles in a week seems like a lot, you aint kidding... It started with three consecutive nights spinning in Southern California, with the first date falling on Thursday April 26th in Newport Beach, Orange County.
This month the US Dollar hit a 25 year low against the UK Pound, dropping equally against the Euro. Whilst it makes America a coast-to-coast bargain hunter's paradise for shoppers, the same can't be said for those who go there to work. I've become very cost conscious when choosing flights getting over there.
Thankfully there's a raft of new low-cost business class-only airlines that have appeared on the market, including Silverjet, Eos and Maxjet. Most of them only fly to the East Coast, but Maxjet has three flights a week to Las Vegas. The value is extraordinary. For £350 one-way you get a bed/seat with 160 degree recline, fully laden business lounge before you fly, and first class service all the way. The same one-way flight with a conventional airline would be up to four times the price.
I travelled with my manager Charlie, who hasn't come along on a US trip for some time. Maxjet leaves from London Stansted, allowing a much shorter check-in time than long-haul from Heathrow. Once on board Charlie slept, whilst I listened to the week's new tracks and penned last week's Diary Report during the 11-hour flight. They served unlimited Grey Goose vodka on board, which was a dangerous touch.
Maxjet has 100 seats on a plane designed for 280 passengers, meaning that we transited through Vegas immigration in no time. Switching terminals, we flew with Southwest Airlines, over to the amusingly named Orange County 'John Wayne Airport'. Southwest allowed us to check in as standby passengers for an earlier flight than our original booking. Our bags were tagged through, and we were told that if there were no spare seats on this earlier flight then our bags would be there to greet us when we arrived. On the one hand we were very pleased to travel earlier than planned. On the other, in the UK bags can never travel without the accompanying passenger- it's quite a security risk.
I've not been to Newport Beach before, and we didn't know how long the journey from airport to hotel would take. About two minutes was the answer. Whilst there was a small issue with airport noise in the hotel, if only every journey was so simple. At check in we were told that we'd been upgraded to 'rooms with a view'. Of the runway. I'm not sure what could be seen from rooms without a view. Nevertheless it was a comfortable 5 star hotel, and our earlier-than-planned arrival allowed a two hour disco nap pre the gig.
The car journey to the club was equally speedy - in fact it would have been quicker to walk. I was playing for pioneering Southern California promoters Giant, who stage weekly Thursday/Friday/Saturday events in Orange County, San Diego and Los Angeles respectively. Charlie and I had dinner with head honcho Dave Dean, as he reminisced over his two years spent living in London during the late Eighties/early Nineties rave era. We ate incredible Japanese food. Whilst the UK has plenty of Japanese restaurants, in America it's taken a stage further with far more inventive menus, adding the chef's own twist to traditional Japanese ingredients.
The club was part of the same complex, and I had the luxury of hearing the tunes being played next door, whilst sipping on a large glass of sake at our dining table. A bit like the legendary scene from the movie Goodfellas, we then filtered through the restaurant's kitchen and onto the decks. The 700 capacity club was busy and the crowd were jumping, as I took some great photos to document the night.
The following morning I hit the hotel's gym for a run. When anyone travels from Europe to the US, the time difference guarantees that they'll wake up at the crack of dawn, and a workout is a good way to pass the early morning. A decent length run is also a great way to get shot of a hangover, although you'll feel like it's time to call the undertakers on the treadmill. After running for half an hour I lay on the floor motionless for a good five minutes. The two fellow hotel guests in the gym must have been about to call an ambulance, when eventually I got up and headed back to my room.
At 11am Charlie and I went to the Avis desk at John Wayne Airport and rented a Mustang Convertible to drive between Orange County, San Diego and Los Angeles over the next couple of days. The weather was glorious and we were pasty-faced, needing the sun badly. Our first stop off was one of the largest malls in the US. There was no chance of checking out every shop and still making San Diego by lunchtime, but we both came away with brand new 80 gig video i-Pods from the Apple Store. Because I keep all my music on hard disk I've never felt the need to get an i-Pod, but Amanda uses hers at home all the time, and we've got docking stations in quite a few rooms. It seemed like a good time to get one of my own, as they're nearly 50% cheaper in the US with the weak Dollar.
Our rental car came with a user-friendly Sat-Nav, which informed us that the journey down to San Diego was 110 miles. The US freeway speed limit is 65 mph, and last time I'd almost been stopped by a patrol car, which pulled over the car immediately behind me (travelling at exactly the same speed.) So on this occasion I took it steady, as we both took in the Southern Californian landscape en route to the West Coast's most southerly city.
Despite our best intentions, by the time we'd checked in at the hotel all the local restaurants had shut, so we had to make do with bar food at 3pm. We then slept until heading to the venue at 9. Local promoter Tim Ortiz treated us to dinner at the club, 'On Broadway'. The evening at On Broadway starts as a restaurant, and as the last tables are cleared away it becomes a club. There was no need to order from the menu - the chef brought us dish after dish of his own recommendations. If you're open minded about food, many restaurants have a bespoke'tasting menu', where the chef gets to show off his skills.
In its former life On Broadway was a huge colonial-style bank, with the main vault in the basement now being used as a vip area. There are four additional dancefloors, and I played in the main arena from 11.30 til curfew at 1.30am - most clubs in Southern California shut at this time. I managed to squeeze in a couple of extra tracks at the end, before reluctantly shutting down the power at a relatively early hour.
The following morning Charlie and I set off north for Los Angeles. Entering the city, I dropped him off to visit friends in Venice Beach, and hit the funky stores on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood. Melrose is a potted version of LA society, with homeboys buying cool sneakers, Latino beauties fixing themselves up with clothes for Saturday night, and gay couples taking coffee at one of the many bars and restaurants (obviously I'm generalising a bit…)
Once I'd bought enough funky t-shirts to fill two hands' worth of shopping bags I headed back to our hotel, the Roosevelt on Hollywood Boulevard. It's located directly opposite Mann's Chinese Theater, home to all the LA premieres, directly on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. Thankfully I've been to LA many times and done the touristy thing. A pre dj'ing disco nap was all I could think about- the next couple of days would provide precious few sleeping opportunities.
LA (and California in general) has the strongest dance scene in the US by far. Los Angeles has a number of big Saturday club nights, and Giant at the Vanguard is the one they're all talking about right now. However I had some major competition on the same night. The legendary Coachella festival was taking place in nearby Palm Springs, with Tiesto playing at virtually the same time as me. Coachella had sold out on Fri/Sat/Sun with 60,000 on each day. It's not just a dance festival- the Red Hot Chilli Peppers were headlining, amongst numerous other music legends.
Los Angeles metropolitan area has more than 10 million people, so maybe any nerves about potential numbers at my gig were a little paranoid. Giant was busy, and the atmosphere in LA is always so good. I've spun in the city twice per year for some time now, and it never lets you down. Yet again, the photos from the night (to be posted in the 'Gallery' section of the site) beat my limited powers of description hands down - please have a look when you get a moment.
Despite having slept at length in advance of the night, I was still groggy and blurred as we headed back to LAX airport around 8.30am on Sunday morning. I average 200 flights per year and treat that as the norm, but my journey on Sunday 29th involved four fights - the first time it had taken so many legs to travel from A to B. I was heading to Russia's second city St Petersburg, with the routing LA-Chicago-London-Helsinki-St Petersburg.
Via the wireless connection in the lounge at LAX Charlie and I hooked up to my satellite tv receiver back home in London, and watched Arsenal v Fulham on my laptop, before boarding our flight to Chicago. Our fellow business lounge guests must have been both bewildered and pissed off at the noise we made, as Arsenal scored twice in rapid succession. For the benefit of those who don't read this column regularly, at home in London I've got a 'Slingbox', which enables one to view whatever's being shown on your home satellite tv receiver remotely via internet, anywhere in the world. You can even change channel over the internet.
Back at London Heathrow I said goodbye to Charlie, continuing on my own to Russia. It seemed weird returning to London without heading home to Amanda Jake and Phoebe. BA only have one direct flight per day to St Petersburg, and our arrival time in from the US meant that I couldn't catch it, hence why I had the lengthy transit via Helsinki. Travelling through five time zones, I lost track of how long the journey took overall, but it probably lasted nearly 24 hours hotel door to hotel door.
St Petersburg is a seriously beautiful old city- of the most stunning I've been to on my travels. It was still light as we landed after 9pm - it would have been a shame to have missed out on the views en route in from the airport. I was playing at a huge event called Dance Planet, with a massive dj line-up including my homeboys Above and Beyond.
After such a mentally long journey I squeezed in two hours sleep at the city's Renaissance hotel, before being driven to the venue 90 minutes in advance of my set. I didn't catch exactly what was played there, but the party took place in some kind of sports arena. I knew this because the artists' backstage area was in a changing room, where I met Dutch hitmaking dj Mason for the first time- he's spinning this summer with us at Judgement Sundays Ibiza. It was good to put a face to a name, and Mason looked far younger than I'd imagined.
Outside in the main arena Above & Beyond's Tony and Jono were dj'ing before me, plying their trademark trancey sound. There were over 10,000 people going crazy. I've only played once before in St Petersburg, two years ago at the Planet Dance festival, surrounded by topless podium dancers. With the best will in the world, it didn't help my mixing one tiny bit. Although there was plenty of theatrics, with visuals and performers high on the agenda, this time round the dancers were fully clothed, which was a much better idea. The atmosphere was awesome - catch the photos in the 'Gallery' section of the site.
The travelling continued a day later as I flew another 15,000 miles. More about that next week…