Friday January 12th 2007

So, farewell then Robert Anton Wilson and Harry Horse.

Sadly I am only updating this page to commemorate two great human spirits who have just left this world.

I use the term 'mind blowing' far too often. I use it about records, films, books etc. and use it flippantly. How many of these things really blew my mind? Someone who did completely and utterly blow my mind to shreds with repercussions that are still ricocheting around my brain twenty years later was Robert Anton Wilson. I'm convinced that his Illuminatus! Trilogy and Cosmic Trigger series as well as some of his other writings permanently changed the way my brain is hard wired. For the better. Thank you Robert.



Robert Anton Wilson laughed in the face of death. His final message to the world - "Please pardon my levity, I don't see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd."

All hail Discordia! All hail Eris!



Harry Horse was a great (honorary) Scot from Coventry. In the late 80s in Edinburgh he fronted a wild troupe called Swamptrash who played bluegrass with a punk intensity. They seemed to play every weekend in Edinburgh back then and I must have seen them a dozen times, every time thinking they were the best live band in the world. Maybe they were as they even managed to get roomfuls of goths dancing which is quite a feat. They also introduced me to Johnny Cash. They used to do an epic, turbo charged version of 'Ring of Fire' which was always my highlight of their set. I remember telling a friend it was my favourite Swamptrash song and him looking at me like I was an idiot (I was!) only to inform me it was by The Man In Black.

I had forgotten all about Swamptrash and their association with my drunken teenage nights out in Edinburgh until I read today that Harry had left us in circumstances you can read about elsewhere - circumstances that could be called tragic or that could show that true and total love is the most powerful thing human beings can ever know.



Harry made his name in recent times as a wonderful cartoonist, often political and fiercely critical of our war mongering leaders. He also wrote several sublime children's books, was a phenomenal artist, was a lover of some of the greatest, most esoteric music out there and still played his beloved banjo. I hope you and your soul mate are at one with the stars Harry.

in your words -

All my heroes are dead : Just like Schopenhauer said A freely chosen Death Is only waking up From this nightmare We're prisoners to a savage god Blind obedient from beatings Ordered by Bush and Blair Those times new roman converts. All my heroes are dead : Blake, Burns, Byron and John Balance Kurt Cobain Hart Crane Hemingway Virginia Wolf Sylvia Plath Vincent Van Gogh Cut his ear off All my heroes are dead : As Hugh Cornwell said No more heroes anymore Just Tom and Katie Waving from the door Of their retreat in Tuscany A fame addicted nonentity And none to rouse us From the nightmare And lead us to the morning

Tuesday July 11th 2006

Wednesday June 21st 2006

Last year I wrote about Pure, the club in Edinburgh I played at between 1990 and 2000. That rambling can be found further down this page. On June 10th 2006, The Venue which was Pure's home closed its doors as a nightclub to await conversion into yet more luxury flats for Edinburgh's booming property market. It really feels like Edinburgh's cultural soul is being sucked out of it at the moment, but then nothing is able to stand in the way of rampant capitalism.

On Friday June 9th, we were invited back by The Venue to do one last final, farewell Pure. This was the last ever Pure. No more anniversary parties. No more reunions. Without The Venue existing anymore, this had to be the end. All good things should go out with a bang and this last blast was no exception. While perhaps not quite scaling the heights of the craziness of the early 90s, the atmosphere came pretty close and a legion of old faces came out of the woodwork to say goodbye. I thought I would feel quite sad that The Venue was shutting but there was so much love in the air that the only thing that did make me sad was the thought that there would be a lot of people I would probably never see again.

Around 850 people crammed themselves in for this last hurrah and amongst them were a fair few people who were having their first and last experience of Pure. I was asked by a few of them if Pure had always been this intense (both musically and atmospherically). I answered in the affirmative and a couple of them then asked me if I had any mixes from the early days of Pure. Sadly, the early days of Pure are very badly documented as I think we were all too busy having crazy times to think about recording very much of it for posterity. Both myself and my co-conspirator Andy (Brainstorm) made several Pure mix tapes over the years but I have long ago given them all away. So, I thought I'd do a mix to give a taste of what Pure was like. I'm not sure how well this captures the intensity, but hopefully it captures some of the diversity of music and shows that the 'techno' we played covered a very wide spectrum of sound.

Most of the music on this mix is from the early years of Pure. For me, 1987 - 1994 was a golden age of innovation in electronic dance music. While many great records came out in the next few years after that, by the mid to late 90s, it seemed the originality and diversity in sound had more or less dissipated and a lot of the music being produced was fairly uniform and all about how hard it was. That's when I decided I had to start Optimo. Thankfully electronic dance music subsequently found it's way again and today we enjoy a diversity of sound in dance music that at one time I feared would never return.

At 40 minutes, this mix can't begin to touch on all the music that was played at Pure. Over the years we also played lots of deep New York and Chicago House, Detroit Techno, Sheffield Bass, UK and Belgian Rave (particularly the mighty R&S Records from Ghent, which on reflection it seems a bit of an oversight to not have included anything they released) and countless other offshoots of House and Techno music. This mix concentrates more on the Acid, European / North American Techno and Hardcore sides of the Pure sound - the sounds that we were perhaps the first in Scotland to champion - but does also include a couple of 'deep space Pure moments' and the odd track that on first exposure literally had some people running for the doors in fear!

The mix is just over 40 minutes long and is 38mb. Apologies for some of the records sounding a little rough but Pure was a tough environment for vinyl.

The mix is here. For maximum effect, play VERY loud.

The tracklisting is -

Adonis - No Way Back (Chicago 1986)
Armando - Land Of Confusion (Chicago 1988)
F.U.S.E. - Substance Abuse (Detroit 1991)
Essit Muzique - Essit Muzique (Eindhoven 1994)
Up! - Spiritual High (Detroit 1992)
C'hantal - The Realm (acappella) (New York 1990)
Pergon - The Deliverer (Frankfurt 1993)
Speedy j - Pullover (Rotterdam 1991)
Holy Noise - Get Down Everybody (Parkzicht remix) (Rotterdam 1992)
Alec Empire - SuEcide (Berlin 1992)
Linea Alba - Space Travel (Ghent 1990)
Code 6 - C.O.D.E.S. (New York 1991)
Dimensional Holophonic Sound - House Of God (New York 1990)
Fierce Ruling Diva - Whipped Kream (Amsterdam 1990)
True Faith - Take Me Away (acappella) (Detroit 1989)
2 Bad Mice - Waremouse (London 1991)
Genaside II - Narra Mine pt. 2 (London 1991)

Monday June 27th 2005



I spend most weekends on the road. I have got so used to it that if I ever have the weekend off it feels a little strange. I don't know how long all this traveling will last but while the offers are there, I intend to make the most of it. I always have a copy of 'Planet Joe' by Joe Cole with me. Joe Cole was Henry Rollin's best friend in the mid 80's and 'Planet Joe' is his diary of life on the road as a roadie with Black Flag. Black Flag would do crazy tours playing 90 dates straight, sleeping on floors or in the van, playing the crumbiest, sleaziest venues imaginable, often with an element of the audience trying to beat them up and making almost zero money. If I ever start grumbling about the traveling, a quick glance at 'Planet Joe' soon puts it into a bit of perspective. In 1991, Joe and Henry came back to their place in LA and got held up by two gunmen. Joe was shot dead in front of Henry. How do you ever get over something like that?

I don't really mind the traveling. It means I get time to think, read and write crap like this. The hardest part is the lack of sleep. Normally Jonnie and I both do gigs together but this weekend I was playing solo. I played in Paris on Friday. It was ok although all I can really recall is how hot it was. It was 33 degrees outside but in the club it felt like it was pushing 50 degrees. I couldn't wait to get back out into the slightly less hot streets. The highlight was getting to see my sister who lives in Paris and also Charles from Tigersushi who released our Kill The DJ cd. Anyway, I got back to my hotel around 6am and had to get up at 7.30am.

Several hours later I am in Bergen, Norway for this mini festival. It's about 20 degrees colder than Paris and grey like Glasgow. Bergen is beautiful. I really wish I had some more time to check it out. It is on the coast in a valley surrounded by tree clad mountains and the air is really, really pure. The people are really beautiful. Strikingly so. They all look incredibly healthy and well to do. I guess you have to be well to do to live here as Norway is one of the most expensive places I've ever been to. There is a market in front of my hotel by the harbour and despite being exhausted I am drawn by the allure of freshly caught fish. I buy some just landed prawns and some really cheap local caviar (about the only cheap thing I see the whole time I'm here) and then go and get a couple of hours sleep.

I get picked up to go to the venue a little later by T-Bone. He's a big rockabilly guy and we instantly bond over his brothel creepers which I know can only be bought from this one place in New York. He's hilarious, particularly when a couple of hip hop guys that are playing and who are also getting a lift ask him if he knows where they can get some grass. It turns out he's on his day off and is doing the driving as a favour for his friend, the promoter. Normally he's the local chief of police! Chief T-Bone? The hip hop guys start squirming but T-Bone laughs and tells them he's very liberal and doesn't care.

Getting to see places like Bergen and meeting characters like T-Bone are the main reason I love doing all the traveling and will put up with almost no sleep. And hey, sometimes the gigs are fantastic too. Unfortunately tonight's isn't. Well, not my part of it anyway.

Bergen is about the size of Dundee but has an incredible amount of stuff going on for such a small city. Perhaps musically most famous as the birth place of Royksopp and Norwegian Black Metal, there are an incredible number of local bands here, a lot of them associated with the local Telle label. Annie is from Bergen and I am delighted to find that she is playing tonight too with her partner (my old and great friend) Timo from Helsinki. Timo used to be in the Opel Bastards, one of the first bands to ever play at Optimo and still plays with his other band And The Left Handed who have also played the club. I haven't seen him or Annie for a few years so it's great to hang out with them. They insist I go and see local stars Data Rock. They are great fun, super camp and the locals plainly adore them. They are unashamed pop so I am surprised when I later meet Fredrik from the band and he tells me his main activity is running a noise club in Bergen. He loves Japanese noise artists and brings many of them all the way to this town where the sun doesn't set in summer. I am quite partial to a bit of Japanese noise myself. It can be strangely soothing and I find it clears the cobwebs out of my head. I also like its' honesty. Unlike some other forms of extreme music, Norwegian Black Metal for example, there is no posturing involved. It just goes straight for the jugular without any agenda. Recently someone posted on our bulletin board that they thought I was trying to play willfully uncommercial music at Optimo. I found this hysterical, as really, Optimo is more or less a pop club. OK, so it's maybe not top 40 pop but it IS pretty poppy - Poptimo! If I unleashed my Japanese noise cds on the Optimo crowd, THAT would be the definition of willfully uncommercial. That won't happen any time soon as much as I like my noise, I know playing it at the club is probably not going to convert anyone and would no doubt cause me discomfort as I would pick up on everyone else's discomfort.

Next I watched Annie and Timo do their Anniemal show which is Annie singing live with Timo on decks and beatbox. Great stuff. Gus Gus (rhymes with cous cous) from Iceland were also playing. They are crazy guys and girls. They demanded everyone left the dressing room while they got ready to go on stage but announced that 'Scotland can stay'. So I did. They had a bottle of this Icelandic potato and cumin spirit called Brennivin with them and poured me a big glass. Forget Buckfast, this stuff is off the hook! The effect is a bit like mezcal x 100. For 20 minutes I was away with the fairies. Then Gus Gus went off to perform so I helped myself to another glass. Someone should open a Brennivin bar in Glasgow. It would rock.

By now it was 2.30 am and an hour until I went on but the venue was rapidly emptying. I went through to the hip hop room and heard a bit of DJ Cash Money. He was scratching his heart out to about twenty people. Meanwhile Gus Gus were putting in an incredibly entertaining performance as the room continued to rapidly empty. How very odd - from a couple of thousand people to a handful in an hour. The only thing I could think of was that between the hours of 2am and 5am it got slightly dark and maybe that was the best time for these darkness deprived Norwegians to sleep? When I went on at 3.30, there were about 40 people left and I soon saw most of them off. By 5am the only people left dancing were Telle records head honcho, the lovely Mikal, two of the girls from Gus Gus and a couple of very drunk locals. Timo was lounging by the decks. Sods law that I played what I thought was my best set of recent weeks to almost no one. Oh well.

Then it was back to the hotel for another mammoth two hours sleep session, up at 8.30, three flights and twelve hours back to Glasgow, an hour at home and then off to Optimo. Roll on next weekend!

Monday May 16th 2005



I am always getting asked about 'back in the day'. 'Back in the day' I guess refers to the days when I did Pure in Edinburgh which ran for exactly ten years from 1990 to 2000. Pure was Scotland's first bona fide techno club and for the first six or seven years it was possibly the best club of its type on the planet. I know that sounds arrogant as hell but honestly, it was. Ask anyone who went or any of the guests who played there. It was to use the parlance of the time 'mental'. Partly this was because at the start most people who came had never heard loud electronic dance music before and boy, was it loud. In the early days before we started to fear for people's well being, Pure was also probably the loudest club on the planet. The monitors for the djs were more powerful and louder than most other clubs entire sound systems. Just thinking about how ridiculously loud it was is actually making me laugh as I type this. Along with the volume, Pure also had the most incredible lighting that pretty much became the blueprint for 'rave lighting'. In a split second the club would go from a sensory overload of every colour imaginable firing at you from every direction to complete darkness punctuated by banks of 'terror strobes' that were so intense that it was literally impossible to move from the spot where you were dancing until they went off again. Then there was the smoke. Sometimes Lighting Monkey (our Optimo lighting operator) leaves the smoke machine on a little too long and the Sub Club looks pretty foggy. Well, multiply that exponentially with multiple smoke machines on full blast for minutes on end until the fog is so thick that you can't see anything at all. if you held up your hand to your face you wouldn't be able to see it. We went through litres and litres of the stuff every week. Finally there were the drugs. The start of Pure pretty much coincided with the arrival of ecstacy in Scotland. So, all these factors combined - the fact that this music sounded like nothing most people had ever heard before, the volume, the intensity of the lights, the smoke and the drugs and people's minds were literally being blown.

The only way to describe what the atmosphere in there was like is 'Beyond'. It was scary. Every time a new record was mixed in the screams were so loud that despite the ear shredding volume, the screams would drown out the music. People would be climbing onto and even into the pa system. There were times when the whole dancefloor would become one massive group hug. A certain Detroit legend who djed there one time was so freaked out by how mad the atmosphere was that he decided he couldn't play any more and I had to take over. It was truly revolutionary.

This 'revolution' changed a lot of people's lives (some for the better, some for the worse). The crowd was very mixed with people of every age, race, sexuality and social class and a lot of people formed incredibly strong friendships with people they would never normally have encountered in life. A lot of attitudes were changed, prejudices overcome and life paths altered. it enabled a lot of people to see life in a different light and a lot of people 'dropped out' as they would have said in the 60's. Many times someone would come up and tell me that coming to Pure had inspired them to quit their job that they hated and try and do something different with their life. At the same time, a lot of people dropped out in a negative sense. The level of drug consumption was off the scale and taking 'E' became a way of life for a lot of people. Marriages collapsed, university degrees were forgotten about, jobs were lost and sadly a few minds were lost, some forever. Mine was almost one of them.

I am by nature quite a shy person and I don't really like being the centre of attention. Both myself and Brainstorm (Andy) who was my dj partner at Pure tried really hard to be egoless, to not bask in the adulation of the near religous fervour that was happening before our eyes. At the end of the night when the lights came up, we would literally duck beneath the decks to avoid appearing to be the stars of the show. We weren't the stars. The audience were (something I still hold by to this day). There was also an enormous sense of responsibility. People would endlessly (half jokingly) say how coming to Pure had caused them to get kicked out of university, messed up their life or some other misfortune and how it was my fault. I would laugh this off but really it affected me quite a lot as I felt this sense of responsibility and began to question the validity of what i was doing. The club truly became a way of life for a lot of people to the point where several people had the Pure logo tattooed on their bodys! The club was about a zillion times more popular than we had ever envisaged with people traveling from all over (a bus load would come from Glasgow every week). I had never intended to do this for a living but I was so caught up in the euphoria that it took over my life completely and utterly and I really didn't know how to handle it. I was pretty straight edge in the early days and would have my head fried by the babblings of people on a chemically enhanced plane that i couldn't really relate to. Later on I would drink just to make it easier to handle.

In the end I think it really changed me as a person but despite the fact that I found the whole experience quite surreal and initially difficult to deal with, I discovered that I REALLY, REALLY loved sharing the music I loved with other people. Playing music you love and seeing people reacting to it is an amazing experience. It is better than any drug imaginable and something I can't imagine ever tiring of. In fact I probably enjoy doing it more right now than I ever have. Ultimately, ten years of doing Pure gave me a sense of confidence I'd never had before and was the best training I could possibly have had to go on to continue doing this with my life.

So, that was what 'back in the day' was like. It was incredible, life changing and well, just 'Beyond'. The next thing people always ask is 'was it better?' The answer would have to be no. I genuinely believe Optimo is now one of the best clubs on the planet because we have one of the best crowds on the planet and a great night at Optimo is an incredible thing to behold. But, I'm kind of relieved that that total, total madness of the early 90's has subsided somewhat. I will cherish those days forever but I'm not a nostalgic person and don't buy into the whole 'it was better back in the day' thing. It wasn't better. It was just different and I'm glad that I have the memories and managed not to lose my mind, even if the same thing can't be said for my hearing.

Saturday March 12th 2005

Utrecht Tivoli. Some gigs are great, some are bad, some are just memorable for their sheer craziness. This was one of the latter. The Tivoli is a an old theatre in the heart of Utrecht. It's pretty big, pungent with the smell of skunk and by the time I go on there are several hundred people there. The crowd had the distinction of being some of the most beautiful people I have ever seen mixed in with some of the ugliest. In fact the crowd was pretty much divided in every possible way. Some were completely wasted while some looked completely straight. Some seemed really into what I was playing while some looked bemused, confused even. I couldn't really get a handle on them so was playing even more all over the place than usual. The only thing that seemed to unite the crowd was an old Amsterdam rave record by Fierce Ruling Diva. After that, people kept handing me drinks. I'd have been pretty toasted but as soon as a drink was passed to me, someone else would steal it. About 45 minutes from the end the music suddenly stopped. I looked round and this total freak has climbed onto the platform with the decks on it and grabbed the record, holding it still on the turntable. He has this totally inane grin on his face and I lose it and push him. Because he's so wasted he goes flying off the platform and lands on his butt. He then gets up and charges at me screaming something in Dutch but gets restrained by some of the audience and is then ejected from the building.

The rest of the gig is pretty uneventful but at the end the security tell me I must tell them when I am going to leave as they must escort me to the car. Apparently wasted Dutch guy swore on the way out that he was going to come back and stab me when I left the building. So it goes that three security guys escort me into the car for the drive back to Amsterdam. I think wasted Dutch guy was probably long passed out by now, but it was nice to know that my welfare was being looked out for.

Monday November 15th 2004

Tuesday October 26th 2004

Today John Peel passed away. So many people who I never knew who have inspired me have died over the years, but I can only really think of two occasions where I have actually cried about it. I cried the day Donald Dewar's hearse drove slowly through the west end of Glasgow and the streets were thronged with people paying their last respects and I also cried today.

In recent years John Peel had become part of the fabric of British life - the 'Home Truths' programme on Radio 4 and lots of voice overs for adverts (which is undoubtedly what actually paid his rent). But of course it is his Radio 1 show that had the greatest impact on so many. It could be infuriating. I remember once getting incredibly worked up over his love for happy hardcore, but that was half the point really. John Peel would always champion the unlovable and after playing what I might consider the worst record I'd ever heard, he would follow it up with something jaw droppingly amazing. I always get asked in interviews who my favourite dj is and I always answer John Peel, simply because he is one of the few djs who seemed to genuinely love so many disparate types of music. He is one of the reasons I despise the word 'eclectic'. John Peel wasn't trying to be eclectic. He was just doing what a dj is supposed to do - introducing people to lots of great and challenging music.

I was very fortunate to once have a wonderful encounter with the man. He was presenting a series of events at The Union Chapel in London and as he was a big fan, he had Solex playing. Because I was signed to Matador - the same label as Solex, they wangled it so that I played records before and after the band. After everyone left and as I was packing up, Mr. Peel wandered over to thank me for playing Captain Beefheart and Screaming Jay Hawkins! Within a minute or two, everyone who was left in the building had congregated around him and he started telling the most hilarious stories I have ever heard about driving Captain Beefheart around the UK in the late '60s, including one where in the middle of the night Mr Beefheart demanded he stop the car so he could go and listen to a tree. I think I was still smiling a month later. I was also incredibly privileged to have a half hour dj mix aired on his show. But, the biggest thrill wasn't having the mix played or him commenting about how much he liked it. The biggest thrill was when he went to play the next record and accidentally started to play my mix again. Being the recipient of a genuine on air John Peel blunder has been one of the greatest thrills of my life. The man was legendary for playing wrong tracks, records at the wrong speed or using the euphemism 'This one fades in gently' when he hadn't cued a record up properly. After 40 odd years on air, he would still regularly make momentous cock ups. Cock ups are good. Human beings are meant to cock up.

John Peel - I salute you. You were one of a kind and there will never be another like you. You never lost your passion for music. Without you, so much music that we take for granted would have remained in obscurity. Without you, punk and post punk might never have happened. Without you, so much music might never have happened. Without you, countless thousands of bands would never have been inspired to make a record or had that record aired. You brought joy to our ears. God bless you Mr Peel.

Wednesday May 26th 2004

I have been posting far too many entries here recently so I am going to stop for a while now. Before I go, I'd just like to take this opportunity to publicly apologise for assaulting Graeme at Optimo on Sunday. I have a really bad habit. If a record jumps several times while I am in the middle of a mix, I have to punish it for letting me down. This usually involves frisbeeing it out of the dj booth. I have lost several irreplaceable records this way over the years (although sometimes they are like a boomerang as someone will hand it back in obviously thinking I have somehow thrown it by mistake). Unfortunately I am terrible at throwing 12" singles and rather than soaring over the crowd, this record hit Graeme right on the nose leaving a big gouge! To say I am mortified is an understatement but I think I have learned my lesson. Mind you, next time my laptop crashes mid set, if you've got any sense, I'd advise heading for the bar. Sharpish.

Tuesday May 18th 2004

We are always getting unusual requests at Optimo. In fact, if we stopped getting them I would start to worry. Most people always seem to start with 'I know you don't take requests but....'. I always point out that we do take requests but wonder why they are asking to begin with if they think we don't. I live in hope of the day that someone comes up and says 'I know you don't take requests but could you play some freak out psychedelia?'. Methinks I will have a long wait. In the very early days of Optimo, someone came and asked me for something by (i think) The Pop Group and I was so gutted I didn't have any with me that I jumped in a taxi home to get some. I swear this is true!

Anyway, this Sunday was no exception with 'I Fell In Love With A Starship Trooper' being one of the more memorable. The requester went to great lengths to tell me all the wonderful things one could do with this record. When I said that breaking it in two was about the best thing I could think to do with it, she looked less than amused. Scarily enough I once owned the darned thing.

We always get asked for Felix The Housecat too, so I have taken it on myself to ensure that I always have some of his old Strictly Rhythm or Aphrohead records with me. Of course, this isn't what is being requested but I'm such a pedant that I can't resist. However, the award for the best request of recent times came on Sunday when I was asked - 'Do you have an iPod adapter?'. I so wish I had had one with me but alas it wasn't to be. Maybe I should have called a taxi?

Monday May 17th 2004

It's hard to express just how much Throbbing Gristle have meant to me in my life. I came to the party late, after the mission was terminated in around '84 or '85 but despite being late, I was instantly smitten. What they had to say, how they presented it, how they made one question and challenge things and most importantly, how they sounded had a profound impact on me.

From the ashes of Throbbing Gristle, rose some bands that I also fell deeply in love with - Coil, Chris and Cosey and to a lesser extent Psychic TV. I've never really had a favourite band - I find this an impossible notion, but if I did, Coil and C&C would certainly be contenders for the title.

When I heard TG were reforming, I had very mixed feelings. I was partly elated at the prospect that I might finally get to see them but also terrified that they would blow the mystique in the process. As it transpired, the weekend they were presenting at Camber Sands had them headlining on the Sunday night and as missing Optimo is anaethema to me, the decision of whether to see them or not was made for me. In the end, the weekend was postponed until next year but last night (Sunday), they played a one off show in London to an invited audience (mainly ticket holders of the postponed weekend). An internet aquaintance of mine - Matt Clarke attended and his description of the performance has me questioning my wisdom about being so dogmatic about missing Optimo. Beyond that, he also let me hear TGNOW, a cd of new material they made available on the night. It is astonishing, truly astonishing. It is the most relevant music I have heard all year and while still inherently TG, is also inherently NOW. It has excited me as much (if not more) than the day I first took '20 Jazz Funk Greats' out of its' sleeve and plopped it on my record player. Here's Matt's exquistiely written review of the concert (give me a music fan writing over a music journalist writing every time!). It has made the decision very easy for me as to where I will be next year when TG give their final performance. -

Ok, gear first. Chris and Sleazy had Powerbooks, Cosey an i-book. Sleazy was also using what looked like a small red Korg, dont know the models name. Chris had a novation remote 25 audio and that made me very happy - like a big stupid kid - because I have just bought one. He did have a rack of beautiful, intricate and unaffordable looking hardware to go along with it though. He also had a drum machine on the side and I didn't recognise either that or the software he was running. Cosey mostly played slide guitar on her lap, she played trumpet on one song and did something on her I-book on another but didn't sing at all, so no Hot on the Heels. Gen played Bass and violin on one song each and sang on the rest. She was wearing a plastic red mini with matching jacket, stockings and a padded basque to show off her tits. With all the scarification, tats, metal teeth and implants she looked like a highway prostitute from the seventh circle of hell. perfect.

I think I shivered at least once every couple of minutes but the last tune they played pretty much made me..... well I get a bit shy talking about that sort of thing. I'm pretty sure it must have been How Do You Deal. It banged like a bastard reaching a crescendo somewhere above anywhere I've been before with live electronic music, that pure rush of electronic sexual energy up the spine is what I crave most in my dreams. and then that was it. no encore. no fucking way. good afternoon London. an hour and forty minutes of industrial bliss.

Thanks Matt! I am very, very jealous.

The Miami Music Conference

I wasn't here for the conference but the party I was playing at coincided with the whole conference shebang. Miami has beautiful beaches and the sea is amazing but really, it's like a hotter, silicone enhanced Blackpool. The word vaccuous springs to mind. The more I think about the griping and moaning that goes on about what we have in Glasgow, the more I realise that we are actually thee best, most down to earth, most grounded and unpretentious city on the planet. Really, stop moaning! You have no idea what it is like out there . Now, if only we had the weather.....

So, this week I discovered that I am a racist. Or if not an actual racist then far more guilty of racial stereotyping than i have ever imagined I might be. As someone who considers themselves very left wing and believes every human being to be equal, this came as a bit of a shock.

Now I am really starting to think they might be terrorists and start formulating a plan in my mind as to what super heroic actions I can take to foil any plot they might have. I start looking around to see how many suitably hard looking guys there are that might help to take them on, and even for a split second think about telling one of the air hostesses about my suspicions. I have my house keys in my pocket and am debating how effective they might be as some sort of weapon.

Anyhow, we take off and I fall fast asleep. We land, get off the plane and only then do I realise that I have gone insane. I'm sure there was a very good reason why they weren't sitting together and anyway, if they had been European, this would never even have crossed my mind. The guy next to Jonnie was probably just nervous about flying yet somehow I had concocted this bizarre fantasy as to his motives.

I have to admit that I was pretty disgusted by my thought processes but also wonder how much of this was a subliminal result of the incredible media panic post September 11th. I fly all the time and thinking about it, I realised that the risk of a flight being hijacked is always lurking in the back of my mind. For example, rather than putting my phone in my jacket pocket in the overhead storage, I make a point of keeping it on my person. Why? I guess in case I need to make a farewell call to my loved ones.

This is patently nuts and incredibly out of character for me, yet here are these festering thoughts resulting in me changing my behaviour. What sort of society have we created where rational people start having such irrational fears?

Is this the 21st century version of 'reds under the beds' or do I just need therapy?

Update - Sunday 29th at 20.11 - I really thought no one would ever read this page but what do you know, a few hours later, I get an email from Allan Erskine who makes more sense out of this than my obviously addled mind is capable of. Here's his thoughts -

Relax big stuff...every day I imagine hundreds of scenarios, sadly none of which make me polygamous. Evveryone checks out the 'terrorists' at airports, even other 'terrorists'. If you're a racist, then I'm a black man.

It's reds under the beds alright but thankfully it only applies on airplanes and at airports (you'd not have thought the same at a ferry-port).My guess is that subconsciously we're all still secretly wowed by aviation & therefore as a society give way too much weighting to anything to do with planes.Prior to sep 11, people's fav plane passtime would be to calculate what to do when the plane crashes on water, even though, like with the terrorists, this never happens...playing spot the terrorist ought to be celebrated, as really all it illustrates is how goofy we all get when it comes to flying; and after all, being goofy is what makes us human!

I'm not saying it's all roses (name a dangerous race) and the media are definitely screwing us all, but what you experienced definitely sounds more like "a plane thing" to me....

Well, last night at Tribeca Grand with myself Erol Alkan and Robbie Headman was a blast and the dancefloor went off (as they say). I did somehow manage to blow the power in the room not once but twice, which for some reason i found immensely funny and thankfully no one seemed to mind too much. It's good to know that New Yorkers can be up for letting their hair down and having a good old time.

Belated new years greetings. I am currently in New York City having a blast. Great people, great town etc. I am here primarily to dj and have to thank the lovely Josh Houtkin and Tim Sweeney (who has a fab radio show you can check out here) for getting me over.

Somewhere on this bloated webshite, it says there is a 98.7% chance that we will rock yr dancefloor. I have a feeling that this is a blatant lie as recently I seem to be clearing dancefloors everywhere I go (except in Glasgow where I obviously have y'all brainwashed). Here's a photo of the dancefloor at APT, 5 minutes after I finished playing on Tuesday night -

So, if you need your club cleared fast, you know where to come!

Tomorrow night I am going to go all out to rock the dancefloor at The Tribeca Grand. I will probably resort to super slut dj tactics. Stay tuned for a photo of the dancefloor after I finish.......

If you are reading this and you are a promoter from some exotic location and are now terrified to book us, can I just say, be brave and take the risk - what's the worst that could happen........?

Christmas has come early! Today should be an absolutely mega day - not only is it Optimo's 6th birthday but before the club, I will get to see Merzbow, AMM and The Boredoms at Instal just around the corner in The Arches. Days don't get much better than this!

We have been trying to license the very wonderful 'Born For A Purpose' by Dr. Alimantado for our forthcoming 'Kill The DJ' compilation. The good Doctor sent a long reply as to why we couldn't use it which made me have to have a wee lie down. Food for thought!

"Greetins Give thanks for your reply and the words from the compiler. However, i am sorry to say, that the decession, not to liscense our products, for compilations, is final and non-changable, until ourselves or the recording industry, can work out a proper way, for such liscense to be protected, against mis-use from unscrupulus major and independent companies, across the industry as a whole. I have hereunder, sent to you, not a few words, but bit parts, of chapters, from my book. I must first say, let i&i give thanks and praises, to JAH RASTAFARI, for his inspiration and his saving grace, for it was this grace, that spare my life, it was through this grace, I was inspired to write and sing this song, BORN FOR A PURPOSE, this song, i share with the world. however, the song is music, and, music makes money, and, money breathes corruption, heatred, jelousey and real evil, among the people of the world. Have you ever stop to think, that, Jamaican artists, musicans and producers, produces music that makes billions of pounds worldwide each year, and, not even one hundreth, of one percent, of that amount, reaches back to the people of Jamaica, the people, are now more worser off, than they were before the musical inspiration and tap, was revealed and open to them. This would be an outrage, if it had happen to the people of Britain, America, France, Geramny, Australia etc etc, but under the guise where the rich get richer, still, and the poor get poorer, still, then outrage, do not come into the equagion, when it has to do with Jamaican music, or anything that belongs to or own by an African wheather they are at home or abroad, it's just exploit, and, more exploit by our european brothers and sisters, and a lot of good and sweet words, to back it up. We the artist, musicans and producers, now find ourselves in a position, where, we are not even capable of outrage. I explain these things to you, because, likewise you, i myself, would like my music to be heard, i would like my music to sell millions, so as to help my family and, my sisters and breathrens, who have been suffering with me as a child, and, who is still today suffering as old men and women. Everywhere they go, they see Dr.Alimantado music, and reggae music as a whole, and the music is talking about the life we all once share, that was full of pain, sorrow, suffering and death, from which Jah Rastafari pluck even my life (which was the reason for, this individual song Born For A Purpose) and they realised, that money must be making, for my music and reggae music, to be played, in pack clubs bars and music halls night after night for years. They then see Iman and ask, Doc. "gie me su-mn nuh", i give something very small, or say, sorry i dont have it, they look at me as a lier, or, as though i dont want to help, or as though i forgot where i'm comming from. This of course, you and i know is not the case, the people who are in the know, understand that, with the exception of Bob Marley, UB40 and a small handful of artist, reggae artist, dont make money, to share around for all the people who are in need. Bob Marley and those handful of other Artists, make money, lots of it, but due to European and American strategy, of putting guns and ammo, in the hands of hungry children and adults in Jamaica, this money, stay in the rich, financially powerful and developed nations of the world, and never get to the poor, suffering and underdeveloped nations, to help them, in their struggle for survival. This i fine totaly disturbing. Our music is saying one thing, but the practices and attitude, of the people who trade in it, is saying a completely different thing, that is con - trary in itself, this i find hard to swallow, incourage or uphold. Take for example these situations, that i and others have had to dealt with, people who were employed to major and independent companys, like yourselves, contacted myself and others,and ask for the rights, to use our recordings on compilations, they got the license, the period of the license expired, master tapes and all parts were ask for and returned, the original compiler, either left the company, or was sacked. New compiler replace the previous one, later new compiler want's to put compilation out, collects records that was manufactured during previous licensed period, dubbed to tape, and rereleased, without license, consent or knowledge of producer, artist or musican. As I said I myself have had and shared in these experiences by both major and independent companies. After one occasion like this, then two, three, four and more, what would you have done? Yes, we thought of that too, but, not enough money, to employ the laywer or barrister, to go to court, because, blood sucking company, have our monies and can employ the biggest and best lawyers in town. Yes, we had the same feeling too, to go to the company, and, beat everyone there  to a pulp, but, blood suckers have security, and, you guest it, you can never catch the real blood sucker, because, cleave and smart, is their first and second name. BUT, Yes, we thought of that too, burn down the company, we still would'nt catch blood suckers, it's the innocent people that would get hurt, and loose their life or their livelyhood to feed their families, also, we would become wanted, or, end up in prison, for long stretches or life, because poilce, Judge and Jury is blood suckers friend and family, and when they are the ones who are killing it's ok because its lawful for them to do so, but an intirely different case when it's them who is dieing, in the mean time, we would be leaving our children and woman at the mercies of BLOOD SUCKERS. So what can we do? no licence is a start, please see my previous email. As for myself and the european values, I was born poor, I live poor and i will die poor, together with my sisters and brothers, who have seen my plight, and, understand that i understand their pain, struggle and sufferation, and they know that, if signing licenses, would have helped me, to help them, that i would not think twice to do, to help them. But, who would i really be helping, when i sign? not them, not i or yourselves, sadly, it's the same people, who have more money, more than, they could ever spend, in two hundred life time, to have more money, to slave and suffer, the people, of all the nations, of this world. I have no desire to join the so called elite in the rat race of becoming financially rich with european values, i was born rich in JAH RASTAFARI values. Bob Marley and other of my brothers and sisters tried, to acquire earthly posessions, they did get some, but, they died and leave it, and, it became a hangman's noos around their family's and friend's neck and is still strangeling them as we speak. Thank you for your inquiry, and may, Jah Rastafari bless and guide you and your company, so that, other sisters and breathrens in reggae music, who is not as worldly uncaring, as i am, may find it pleasing, to give you the liscense you need, to make your planned compilations, a reality and major success, I pray that, it does and may it lead to, reggae artists, musicans and producers, getting better financial rewards and protection, for their works, like their pop, rock and hip hop counter parts."

It's exactly 85 years since the end of World War One - did you remember? It seems these days that remembering it, having a minute's silence or wearing a poppy is almost taboo in certain circles. I confess that this year, as in most previous years I didn't buy a poppy for the simple reason that my life doesn't really bring me into contact with anyone who is selling them. But, I never, ever forget. Perhaps this is because my grandfather fought in it or perhaps it is because my father was a historian and thus unlike most people my age I actually know a little about why it was fought.

It is also important that I remember because if it hadn't happened, I almost certainly wouldn't exist. My grandmother was a morse code operator for the British Army and was based in France from 1916 - 18. Apparently she had the distinction of being the fastest morse operator out there - perhaps because she was ambidextrous (in fact, not only was she ambidextrous but she had this very strange ability to write with her right hand while simultaneously being able to write the mirror image with her left hand. Not particularly useful but kind of cool!). Anyway, it was there that she met my grandfather and fell in love.

My grandfather couldn't bring himself to talk about his time there until very near the end of his life. He was born in 1894 and died in 1986 and it was only around '84 or '85 that he would talk to me about his experiences there. I don't know if it was connected but he only stopped suffering from shellshock around this time. Imagine that! Lying in bed every night for nearly 70 years and still hearing the sounds of the guns going off in his head! He never really said what he thought about the war - whether he thought it was a 'just' war. I guess for his generation, it's hard to question such things, but not going to fight was not really an option. He fought in the battle of the Somme and saw sights that no human being should ever see. A lot of it he just couldn't bring himself to remember but he did tell me a couple of stories that were truly horrific.

One night, there had been a particularly heavy bombardment by the German guns and his trench took a direct hit. A huge crater opened up and rapidly filled with water. His best friend had been standing right next to him and instantly disappeared in a puff of smoke. When the smoke cleared, my grandfather who was slightly injured could hear the crater filling up with water. He looked over and could see the arm of his friend so he grabbed it and held on to prevent him from slipping into the water. It was pitch black and my grandfather was unable to move. There was no response from his friend so he presumed he had been rendered unconcious. He held on to his arm for seven hours until daylight came and other soldiers arrived to see if there were any survivors. The soldiers took my grandfather away on a stretcher but before doing that, they pulled his friend out. Only when he saw what came out did he realise that he had spent the whole night holding on to the top half of his friend's body. The bottom half had been obliterated without trace.

He spent a few weeks in hospital before being sent back to the front lines. The tours of duty in the trenches could last for several months without respite. The conditions were beyond belief but I remember him saying that his abiding memory was the damp. His feet were wet the whole time and he would lose all feeling in them. After being back out there for several months, a package arrived for him with some fresh socks in it. So, for the first time in several months, he took his boots off. When he took off the socks he had been wearing, it wasn't only the socks that came off - most of the flesh on his feet came off too.

My grandfather had an unusual purple pimple on the side of his head. One day I finally plucked up the courage to ask him what it was. It turns out it was where a German bullet had penetrated his skull but very,very fortunately it had gone straight through without hitting his brain. Still, that was the end of his war.

I know that his experiences out there informed his life for the rest of his days and probably contributed to the fact that he could be quite a difficult man (although to me, he was as lovely a grandfather as I could ever imagine having had the pleasure to have spent time with).

So, maybe this is one reason why I can never forget. In a few years, there will almost certainly be nobody left still living who fought in World War One. It's so long ago that it hardly even seems real anymore and our mental images are informed by shaky black and white footage. But, I can never forget that for the men out there it was a technicolour hell on earth and even if they are all long gone, I will always remember how fortunate I am that I have never had to experience what they did.