Julia, Julio or Hoolio?

The post-rave blues can be particularly acute in January, and the aftermath of the Bugged Out! Weekender was no exception. There were at least three moments in the following days when I thought the wolf was leering at my door. It was all I could do to stop him from getting in and giving my tear ducts a massive yank. It was a close fucking call.

Despite all this late night action, just days later we were back on it and taking a trip down to Brixton to journey into the dimly-lit heart of yet another rave. This time Julio Bashmore was playing as part of the Red Bull Music Academy take over at Plan B and we were booked in for yet another dance. After witnessing a street punch up over what appeared to be a plastic bag, we entered the club and got a right wonk on...

You can read what I had to say about it for Red Bull here

It was a suitably big evening with plenty of smiles, sweat and dancing - Check out the shakey video below for an indication of just how fiery Bashmore was. Make no mistake, this small ginger dude is gonna be ruling 2012...

Hanging with the real life Arthur Baker

Thursday night saw us down at the Scala for Red Bull's penultimate party - 12 X 12 - an evening full of dance music heavyweights taking their best tune and stretching it out for 12 minutes. Why? Who knows but we, like nearly everyone else who rocked up, were there on a freebie. Who cares why.

Although the night itself had all the vibe of a corporate Christmas lunch, we made our own fun by getting pissed, smoking doobs and hanging with the 'celebs'. Jazzie B, Arthur Baker, A Guy Called Gerald, Shy FX and a fake Andy Williams were all papped. We hobnobbed with other members of the glitterati, aka totally fucked PR people and Observer journos too shitted to even speak.

We even asked Gerald how much Red Bull was paying him to tarnish his legacy of acid house in such a manner. My one regret (apart from not getting in until gone 3am. Again) was never having a chance to ask Heaven 17's Martyn Ware what the fuck he was thinking in providing the gakked up crowd with a karoake take on Temptation. I think we could have been watching an old man breakdown. I guess he could argue he was overseeing the breakdown of 'youth culture' in thrall to an energy drink.

Whatevs - the turn up for the books was hearing him not maim Heaven 17's Let Me Go. Such. A. Big. Tune.






Andy Williams vs the Dominator



Heaven 17's Martyn Ware committing a crime



Vibing in the VIP area



Shy FX vs the Dominator