Bo Skeletor!

We met with Bo Skeletor from the Data:Bass this week, a collective of about 20 Drum & Bass producers and DJs based in Auckland. We're signing tracks from some of their collective for our digital dance label.

This week I've been really getting into The Haunted Out-Takes by Sola Rosa. I've been listening to it while chilling out at night and it's lush. It's quite Trip Hoppy, with that film noir feel that reminds me a lot of Bristol. I was given a copy by Roanna, the Saben bag lady at NZ Fashion Week. I was lucky enough to score a white Saben NZFW Shopper in my press pack, and I'd love this one in black and pink.

Blazin' Kiwi Chick

MC Tali - is on her way to the top of the international Drum & Bass scene. She's orginally a Taranaki girl who started MCing in New Zealand, moved to Mebourne, before ending up in Bristol where's she's now working with Roni Size and the Full Cycle Collective. The girl herself has all the right moves, and her current track Blazin' [which you can buy at the Full Cycle shop] has got a nice phat groove.

Tali is touring the UK right now so go and see her if you get the chance - she rocks!

Call Centre Confidential
I love blogs. They provide brief windows into other people's worlds. One of my favourites is Call Centre Confidential about life in an anonymous call centre in the UK. It makes me laugh out loud as well as sending shivers up my spine.

I temped at places just like The Office back in the UK and they are truly terrifying. Souless places set on trading estates where the only thing to do at lunchtime was eat at your desk or drink at the Novotel bar. Some were fun, like the place where everyone played marbles at luchtime, but at most of them you could feel your brain turning to mush.

We had a great meeting this week with Cath and Rich from Manic.co.nz who are going to print our t shirts and hoodies. Cath was wearing a pink pussy (cat) covered in naughty words. Rich was bearing the slogan 'Rock and Roll Hooker for Jesus.'

I met them at New Zealand Fashion week. I'd just been busted in the Powder roon by Charlotte Dawson, while I was looking for behind her ear for scars. In a round of Spot the Scalpel - I'd bet on Botox & implants, but she is very beautiful seems very nice. I spotted a cool looking couple across the room, so rocked on over and introduced myself.

I've met some amazing people that way. As well as being a screenprinter, Rich is in a band called Running House, which sound like early Led Zepellin. He's got a great voice and Chelfyn is dying to find time for a rock remix.

Thors Hammer

We went to Thors Hammer for Justin's birthday last night, an Open Decks night run by Apollo from Hardhouse, every Thursday night at Cube. There's some cool pictures up at Hardhouse, especially the last three of Taz and Justin Sane. Would you buy a used car from these men?

Open decks nights are great for giving bedroom DJs a chance to play out in public for the first time. They also get guest DJs in and for Justin's birthday they had Chelfyn, Zana Mills, Taz and of course Justin Sane, playing the midnight slot into his 22nd year. There was some nice mixing, and no major trainwrecks, but I have noticed young Auckland DJs only seem to play hard and fast. I suppose it takes young lads a while to learn to pace themselves, doesn't it girls?

I was having a lovely time until someone played the Give it to me Baby track.It's a hard house track with a vocal of a chick screaming 'Give it to me Bayyybbbeaaaaaaa'. It always sets my teeth on edge, and my shoulders shoot up round my ears. I don't know why it provokes such a violent reaction - it just does. But then I'll never be 20 again and judging from the exhuberant bouncing for a Thursday night that was the average age in there. I used to start the weekend on a Thursday night - now it's become the night before the weekend.

The Lothlorien Elves

Well I don't feel too bad for a 3 gig weekend though I had a siesta today. The private party on Friday was at the Lothlorien vineyard at Puhoi, on 100 acres about half an hour from Auckland’s north shore. It's an exquisite spot with it's own swimming pond, where iridescent dragonflys hover over lily pads. The last time I saw dragonflys in the wild was as a child back in the UK.

We set the decks up in one of the cabins, a good move as some of the local lads started hassling Baxter, Chelfyn and Olly to play Metallica. For a while the deck was a seething mass of baggy trousers and testosterone, but we shut the window and stayed safely inside. It was like being a strange zoo exhibit with the animals on both sides of the fence, but with good tunes, great company and a fridge full of bubbly, we had a fantastic time.

We headed back to Auckland after breakfast for the UPfm beach party at Mission Bay. It was great to see kids of all ages raving on the sand. I grabbed the surprise guest Zana Mills, (a kiwi DJ now based in London) for an interview. She's a lovely girl just setting out on her international DJing career and I think she'll go a long way (read the interview here). Kyle & Lolli very kindly covered our radio show so that we could get some zzzzzz’s before Chelfyn’s last set at Kiss on Karangahape Road. The perfect way to spend a weekend - lots of fun, lots of sun and plenty of Feijoa bubbly.

Kiss for Valentines

We’ve a busy weekend ahead. Chelfyn is playing at a private party, followed by the UPfm beach party, radio show and then a gig at Kiss. An appropriate place to spend Valentines Day.

But for those of you that don't want to celebrate yet another excuse to flog a greetings card day why not send an Anti-Valentine.

The Lion, the Witch and the Power Rangers
I met Tom Selleck’s stand in today. Gavin normally pours concrete, but his boss has given him a month off to hang out on a film set. The actor who played Magnum PI, is currently filming Ike: Thunder in June in Auckland, and is missing his famous moustache. The extra agencies are working overtime right now especially looking for cute Kiwi kids. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe is being filmed around the Waitakeres, and the Power Rangers are also in town. Gavin was recently hired as an extra, and was saved by kids in catsuits after being chased by a man in a rubber suit.

While I was at Bobbie’s I also caught up with two of the Whanau, Greg whose DJ name is IDK - short for I Don’t Know, and Mad Mark who has just got back from deer hunting in the bush for 5 days. New Zealand must be one of the few places on the world where you can buy copies of pig hunting magazines, which usually have a hairy man on the cover wearing a check shirt and a dead boar. Hunting is a popular pastime especially in the South Island and when we moved to Maramarua, the neighbours said not to worry if we heard gunshots at night. It would probably just be locals out shooting possums. They are such a threat to the delicate ecosystem here that their fur comes with a WWF seal of approval.

Apparently the most popular pig hunting title is NZ Pig Hunter. In the NZ Magazine shop the most popular hobby titles are: 1. NZ Pig Hunter, 2. NZ Creative Stitch & Craft , 3. NZ Woodturner NZ, 4. NZ Model Railway Journal, 5. Rod & Rifle,6. NZ Guns & Hunting, 7. Sandra.

What sort of hobby 'Sandra' is - I have no idea.

Gay Pride of the South
Beer ads in New Zealand confuse me especially the Lion Red and Tui ones. It's almost like they're saying - 'buy our beer if you're a dickhead'. Or am I reading them all wrong?

There’s a series of ads for a South Island beer called Speights. Each features two archetypal 'Southern Men' with their long waxed jackets, rancher hats and thousand yard stares. In the first the younger shows a photo of a pretty young blonde. Her father is rich, with a boat and a private box at Eden Park.

Unfortunately she can’t be The One as she doesn’t drink Speights. In the next ad they spend the night together at the local Speights factory after ‘accidentally’ being locked in on a beer tour. In the current ad the young Southern Man gets chatted up by a curvy blonde who offers him two tickets to the annual Deer Stalkers Ball [the highlight of the social calendar]. Southern Man accepts, takes both tickets, and then gives the second to his grizzled old mate. They even have a billboard with the younger asking what he thinks about the Blues [an Auckland rugby team] to which his mate replies - 'I'm a country and western man myself'. They should just come out and change their slogan to ‘Speights – Gay Pride of the South since 1876’.

Raw Supastar DJs

Chelfyn was interviewed by Nik Barrett on her Raw Supastar DJs show today.


Listen to the show as an .MP3 (13 MB)or read the transcript.

It was strange to be listening to Chelfyn on the radio, when I'm usually in the studios by his side. Nik's a really cool chick from Christchurch, who's been interviewing New Zealand DJs to help raise their profile. She also hosts the 'Toast' breakfast show every morning with Snitch on UpFM. Her boyfriend is Nick Collins from Criminal Records and they are a really cool couple, doing what they can to promote the New Zealand dance scene.