Saturday 30 June 2012

MD'S DIARY, JUNE '12



June began with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee 'celebrations' in the UK. As anyone who checks my Facebook and Twitter posts will know, I don't exactly go in for such shenanigans - but that's all for another day and blog!  The extended weekend brought six consecutive nights of assignments; Bank 'Holidays' are anything but for DJs!

Sunday 3rd involved a bonecrushing six-hour party set at Grand Union in Wandsworth, SW London. Although house DJs frequently boast about marathon eight or ten-hour sets, (fuelled by who knows what?), six is as long as I can handle. The Wandsworth spot becomes a real sweatbox as the bodies start to fill it up, (as they always do.) An added challenge comes from the DJ bench being on wheels. As pissed-up punters grab the corners to steady themselves, it sends the CDJs and mixer rolling like a ship on high seas. Regardless, the spot was as full-on and lively as ever. Earlier on, I had a quick social link with Jevgenis, otherwise known as DJ Green, a good friend of mine from Latvia who moved to Croydon in England a couple of years ago. 

The following day, after being rudely awoken by my daughters on far too little sleep, I hauled my tired ass up to Birmingham Airport to fly to Northern Ireland. I was met at City of Derry airport by Gary, aka Needle Knievel, promoter of that night's shindig at The Playhouse in Portrush. On the way across the North Coast, Gary showed me the house he's just bought, which comes with a huge acreage of farmland. This seems to include two horses, who we spent a while chasing when Gary realised he'd left the gate on to the main road open. As we cornered them, one took a huge steaming dump on the path, and they both gambolled back into the field. It was a very bizarre start to the day!


Northern Irish gigs never fail to be full of good hospitality and outstanding atmosphere. Ours ended up being in the venue's downstairs Suckerfish Bar, and I went on after DJs Gary and Vern, dropping soul, funk, hip-hop and reggae. Bob Marley's 'Is This Love' and Janet Kay's 'Silly Games' got huge singalongs, and The Blackbyrds' 'Rock Creek Park' resulted in a spontaneous bout of breakdancing. I finished with a UK garage selection, at which point two part-time MCs grabbed the mic, spitting it to an electrifying closing. Good people and great tunes. I look forward to getting back.

Gary's Mum runs a guest house close to the venue. After a reasonable amount of sleep, Gary transported me back, this time to Belfast City Airport. A few hours later, I was installed back at the OX105FM studio in Blackbird Leys, Oxford. It's from here that I deliver my regular The Sound Of Now show on Saturday evenings, but in this case, it was for a second instalment of the alternative Fish Out Of Water show. I'd invited DJs Dave from Desta Nation, Rowena from the Breakfast Show, and Gary Constant of the Constant Jammin' Reggae Show, to pick five tracks each that are meaningful to them, but which no-one would ever expect them to be into. I also picked a few of my own. The results made for a very eclectic and left-field selection, which open-minded musos may well find of interest. You can grab the playlist and listen back from here:



I'm normally on-point, but on Saturday 16th I had a very blonde moment. I arrived back at the studio to deliver my The Sound Of Now show ... only to discover I'd left my box with all the music I'd painstakingly assembled through the week, sitting on my stairs at home. Doh!  There was no time to go back, so the only thing was to use the CDs I had with me for that night's Bristol gig, to assemble an 11th-hour The Sound Of Then revival session!  It turned out to be a bit of a happy accident, as I was quite pleased with the resulting show, which I put together with all the spontaneity of a live set. Amel Larrieux and Jill Scott rubbed shoulders with Grandmaster Flash, EPMD, Smith & Mighty and Jamiroquai! You can listen to the results here:



Not to self: Engage brain before leaving home.


I hit the tourist trail on Monday 18th with a first-time visit to the Serbian capital Belgrade. On checking the forecasts, I was alarmed to see that the city was roasting in 33-degree heat, hotter than the Meditteranean. Sure enough, it was brain-melting conditions as I stepped off the plane, but I managed a bit of sightseeing before retreating to the air-conditioned comfort of my hotel. I was back at the airport the following morning to fly to Rome. This tuned out to be the cheapest routing home, and the seven hours between flights allowed for an excursion into the city for more Illuminati/ Babylonian Brotherhood symbology spotting. It's incredible what you notice when you know what you're looking for! 



OX105FM staged its first outside broadcast on Saturday 23rd, coming from a Peugeot dealership in Oxford. I was involved, broadcasting my Sound Of Now show for the last two hours up to 8pm. Fortunately, the rig was under a marquee, as the heavens opened almost at the precise point I played my first tune. The rest of the day had gone great, however, with an open-air barbecue surviving the elements. Straight afterwards, I had a dash to London where I was due to play in The Light Bar at the swanky St. Martin's Lane Hotel in Covent Garden. I hadn't anticipated that this is probably the most difficult sector in the whole of the city to navigate and find a parking space - rickshaws, lunatic one-way 'systems' and eternal red lights don't help - and by the time I had I was infuriatingly late for my start time. Upon arrival, I realised this was the hotel where I'd met Wu Tang Clan pioneer RZA four years earlier, and he'd given me a much-valued, but ridiculously oversized Wu Wear bouncer jacket, which fits me more like a sleeping bag!


Prior to this year I'd only been to Tenerife once, on a family holiday way back in 1988. 24 years on, I boarded a flight from Birmingham on Monday 25th, ready to spin that night at Tramps nightclub in Playa De Las Americas. The club has a bar known as Notorious, which deals with R&B/ urban music every night of the week, very much like Soul City in Ibiza. Resident there is Glaswegian DJ Snoopy, now something of a Tenerife legend having notched up 18 years of playing on the island, (and a bit of a dead-ringer for Tim Westwood!)


It was muggy and humid as I emerged from Tenerife South airport, and venue manager Ollie explained that a dust storm had blown in from the Sahara, causing respiratory and sinus problems in many people. It had certainly caused a mist to descend over the landscape. At Notorious, I dropped tuneage from 2 right through to 6am, at which point I was surprised to find it still pitch-black outside. I arrived back at my hotel in time to grab breakfast, before passing out for a measly four hours sleep, and catching a Thomas Cook flight home hours later.

... and that was June.












Friday 29 June 2012

MD AT YATES', BICESTER TONIGHT


My second gig of the year in Oxfordshire tonight! Dropping the tuneage at Yates on the mean, harsh streets of Bicester.



Tuesday 26 June 2012

MD INTERVIEWED BY J FRESH TV



Props to my homie J Fresh, the South Coast's hardest-working DJ, who recorded this interview with me at OX105FM a few weeks ago. Garbage music, dumb-ass requests, DJ fashions, and a whole bunch of other subjects get dealt with!

Sunday 24 June 2012

CLASSIC AUDIO: DJ SWING LIVE IN AUSTRIA IN JUNE 2000


Here's another classic live recording, this one of the dearly missed DJ Swing, recorded at a venue in Vienna in June 2000. Swing's set was as much stand-up comedy and chatting to the audience as it was busting tunes, and it's hard to imagine any other DJ being able to carry this off. For many, the best that ever did it.



MD'S 30TH BIRTHDAY BASH AUDIO - A BLAST FROM THE PAST!



Ah, happy memories!  I just dug out this recording of my 30th birthday bash in Oxford, with The Chocolate Boys (Tony Nanton and Danny 'MSD' Whittaker) and Stretch Taylor spinning some heavy tunes. I'd not long met Parveen, the girl that would go on to be my wife and mother of my kids. Great days!


Friday 22 June 2012

BILL HICKS: IT'S JUST A RIDE



I never tire of hearing the words of the genius that was Bill Hicks. Resonates every time:

*

The world is like a ride at an amusement park. It goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly coloured and it's very loud and it's fun ... for a while.

Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they begin to question: Is this real, or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say, "Hey - don't worry, don't be afraid, ever, because, this is just a ride..."

And we ... kill those people!

We always kill those good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok. Jesus - murdered; Martin Luther King - murdered; Malcolm X - murdered; Gandhi - murdered; John Lennon - murdered; Reagan... wounded.

But it doesn't matter because: It's just a ride. And we can change it anytime we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money. A choice, right now, between fear and love.

The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love, instead, see all of us as one. Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money that we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace.

*

This Bill Hicks quote was, I suspect, auto-biographical!

“Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves. Heres Tom with the Weather.” 



Thursday 21 June 2012

GOOD VIBRATIONS PODCAST: IMANI HEKIMA




For volume four in the Good Vibrations series, Mark Devlin chats to Imani Hekima, an independent singer/ songwriter/ musician hailing from Bradford in the North of England. With a background in reggae, dub and soul sounds, he now produces conscious mind music, very much rooted in the spirit of these times. His tracks include 'Just Beneath The Skin', addressing the projected microchipping agenda, and 'The Robots Rebellion', concerning humanity's global awakening.

As well as covering the inspirations for his music, this freestyle chat also touches on current events, the factors at work in manipulating music trends, and aspects of the global conspiracy (for want of a better phrase.) In short, all the good stuff you could never hope to hear on mainstream TV or radio!

BLUNTED TO REALITY



BLUNTED TO REALITY

The light bulb's on and something's starting to happen
It's tough to comprehend when your belief system shatters
The world's not like we thought it was. Reality's not what it seems
What we've been conditioned to perceive. It's like a dream
But the world is waking up. People are actually starting to notice
And understand that everyone alive's a part of this whole process
Politicians don't run the world, bankers do 
The situation's obvious but we never think it through
The BBC, CNN all the daily papers
Just propaganda tools for the real decision-makers
The presidents, prime ministers and chancellors are puppets
And Obama's no different, people. Some say the biggest muppet
They keep up the illusion that we're free and play their role
Spouting what they're told to say as the teleprompter rolls
The New World Order tiptoes on, bankers enslave and rape us 
But it's Jordan's tits and Rooney 's fee that makes the front page of the papers

(Ever noticed how everything about society is structured in favour of the corporations, and never the individual? People say 'that's just the way it is.' But when 99 per cent of the human race are being controlled and enslaved by the one per cent, it's time for that 99 per cent to change 'the way it is'. Tax. Just think about that. We all meekly pay it because 'thats just the way it is.' But tax is nothing short of legalised robbery. How the hell did we ever fall for that?) 

The biggest scam inflicted on humanity is money
It rules our lives, but it doesn't even exist. It's kinda funny
You'd have to laugh, it's kinda tragic. Figures appear on a screen by magic
And your bank gives you a loan. As you become another drone
But there's no money in their coffers, so it's illusory what they offer
Imaginary credit. Nice work if you can get it  
And so the debt goes down the line, with more and more applied 
And when the rent gets late, because of what the banks create
They just create more credit. And the public never get it
You're not supposed to win. You're only supposed to lose
And doze and snooze. And doze and snooze

(If all the money lining the pockets of the soulless devils pulling the strings of this world stage day in day out were re-distributed fairly throughout the world, and if governments issued money directly rather than being slaves to these same cartels of private bankers masquerading behind the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England, poverty, starvation and squalour could be completely eradicated. 
Still, don't worry about it. The X Factor's on and, OMG, what is Cheryl wearing??!)

The elephant's in the room and it's shocking what your mind edits
What's been right in front of our eyes our whole lives, but we still don't get it
It's not like the subtle reminders aren't everywhere you look
You got to hand it to the masons, man, they've got their game on lock
Why the depictions of the occult aimed at kids in films from Disney?
Why's a Babylonian goddess featured on the Statue of "Liberty"?
Far too many all-seeing-eyes in the videos of Rihanna
Jay's a puppet too, an Illuminati tool like Lady GaGa
When rastas talk of Babylon, you've got to question what they mean
Because it's more significant than a locked-down mind can glean
The land between two rivers is what we call Iraq today
And it's from here that the plan for world control began to play
But the evidence and artifacts are being destroyed forever
While the cover story tells you that it's all a War on Terror
The Church of Babylon upped its roots and set up shop in Rome
Renamed itself the Catholic Church and drove its doctrines home
Christianity and Islam followed, manipulated mentalities
To keep the masses frightened, meek and blunted to reality 
The most effective way to control the masses? Feed them fear of Hell
And that we're all just sheep. And edit whatever else you tell
But if the truth's too inconvenient and guys like me are nutters
Hey, just keep the blinkers on and batten down the shutters

(Does anyone ever stop for a second to question the insanity of war?  Let's break it down - you don't agree with me and I don't agree with you, so let's kill each other. That'll make everything OK again! The wholesale slaughter of human life - whether in the armed forces or not - is tolerated on a daily basis because 'war is peace.' Funny thing though. Notice how it's never the sons of presidents and government ministers who go out to get their limbs blown off on the frontline. Wonder why?)

OK, children Gather round and get your bedtime story
With Saddam Hussein as the big bad wolf while the US basks in glory
Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, Henri Paul was drunk
September 11th was planned from a cave and McVeigh was just some punk
President Bush got voted in all good and fair and square
He's really just a regular kind of guy like Tony Blair
Yeah, I know I've lost my mind. I've lost the fucking plot
That's OK. You don't have to listen. You can be happy with your lot
I just saw some stuff on MTV. Hot girls and champs on tap
Now, who needs harsh reality when you can fill your mind with that?
lol

You never get the truth in all the lies the media hands to us
But connect the dots, and it's clear that's nothing's random or by accident
Speed cameras, chips in pets, unfettered immigration
Electromagnetic soups from phones and micro radiation
Doctors paid by Big Pharma to dish out all those pills
If swine flu doesn't get you, damn sure the vaccine will
The zeitgeist's changing rapidly and the elites are getting primed
To dish out everything they got, 'cos they're running out of time
To keep us in a five-sense state, and oblivious to truth
Of who we really are and what we're on our way back to
The awakening is happening, the process is underway
And a higher level of all of us chose to be living here today
To be a part of bringing in the process of mutation
The system can't go on if we change the frequency of vibration
It's time to face the facts that we're actually the last generation
That stands a chance of stopping the move towards a global nation
George Orwell's 1984 is what's waiting for our families
Unless we refuse to co-operate with this agenda of insanity 
The few control the many only because we've let it happen
Remove the base from the pyramid and the whole damn structure's flattened

It's on

Wednesday 20 June 2012

MD AT NOTORIOUS BAR/ TRAMPS, TENERIFE



On Monday 25th June, I'll be guesting for the night and spinning across-the-board 'urban' in the Notorious Bar section of the mighty Tramps nightclub, in Playa De Las Americas, Tenerife. For more info. on the venue, check out http://www.trampstenerife.com/Notorious_BAR/About_Us/about_us.html 
or https://www.facebook.com/trampskingofclub

Monday 18 June 2012

MD'S CLUB/ RADIO DATES, JUNE/ JULY '12




Thursday 21st June
The Living Room, Tower Bridge, London
Friday 22nd June
The Living Room, Milton Keynes
Saturday 23rd June
The Sound Of Now, OX4FM, Oxford (6-8pm)
(Live from Bristol Street Motors, Iffley Rd., Oxford)
Saturday 23rd June
The Light Bar, St. Martin's Lane Hotel, London, WC2
Monday 25th June
Notorious/ Tramps, Playa Las Americas, TENERIFE



Wednesday 27th June
The Living Room, Tower Bridge, London
Friday 29th June
Yates', Bicester
Saturday 30th June
The Sound Of Now, OX4FM, Oxford (6-8pm)
Saturday 30th June
The Living Room, Bristol
Thursday 5th July
The Living Room, Tower Bridge, London
Friday 6th July
The Living Room, Milton Keynes
Saturday 7th July
The Sound Of Now, OX4FM, Oxford (6-8pm)
Saturday 7th July
The Living Room, Bristol
Wednesday 11th July
Soul City, San Antonio, IBIZA 
Thursday 12th July
Soul City, San Antonio, IBIZA  
Friday 13th July
The Living Room, Milton Keynes
Saturday 14th July
The Sound Of Now, OX4FM, Oxford (6-8pm)
Saturday 14th July
The Earl, The Second Bridge, Bath
Thursday 19th July
The Living Room, Tower Bridge, London
Friday 20th July
Yates', Bicester
Saturday 21st July
The Sound Of Now, OX4FM, Oxford (6-8pm)
Saturday 21st July
The Living Room, Bristol
Thursday 26th July
The Living Room, Tower Bridge, London
Friday 27th July
Yates', Bicester
Saturday 28th July
The Sound Of Now, OX4FM, Oxford (6-8pm)
Saturday 28th July
The Living Room, Bristol
Thursday 2nd August
The Living Room, Tower Bridge, London
Friday 3rd August
The Living Room, Milton Keynes
Saturday 4th August
The Sound Of Now, OX4FM, Oxford (6-8pm)
Thursday 9th August
The Living Room, Tower Bridge, London
Friday 10th August
The Living Room, Milton Keynes
Saturday 11th August
The Sound Of Now, OX4FM, Oxford (6-8pm)
Saturday 11th August
The Living Room, Bristol
Saturday 18th August
The Sound Of Now, OX4FM, Oxford (6-8pm)
Saturday 18th August
Back In The Day, Varsity, Gloucester
Friday 24th August
Yates', Bicester
Saturday 25th August
The Sound Of Now, OX4FM, Oxford (6-8pm)
Saturday 25th August
The Earl, The Second Bridge, Bath
Friday 31st August
The Living Room, Milton Keynes