Clair and I just had a brilliant night at our friend’s 40th. It was held in the upstairs function room (The Old Burnt Barns) at Lynch’s Bar on London Road, Glasgow – just next to the Barras market. I didn’t know the venue before but it’s great – cool interior and loads of space.
It was a tonic to see so many familiar faces. I worked with Andy at Bright Signals a few years back and lots of the crew were in attendance including Pete, Woody, Oli B and Andrew M.
Among my music buddies present were Jamie T, the Radio Magnetic stalwarts Dougal P, Vic and Davie, and lots of the Stirling crew – Robert, Jamie, Julie, Ciaran, Matt. Always great to catch up.
We also got to spend time with Martin E and Izzie. I even made new friends, including Wendy T. While I was complimenting her on not leaving the dancefloor we realised we could count not only Andy but also Gav S from Edinburgh among our mutual friends.
I also really enjoyed the chance to DJ again, especially alongside folks like Craigy Moog and Ragnar. I played two sets. One at the start where I played records like Komiko, Dayton, A Certain Ratio’s Constant Curve and Krush’s House Arrest. There was one pretty comical moment. Asked around 8pm by Andy’s sister to play Stevie Wonder’s Happy Birthday while they brought out the birthday cake, I had to tell them I couldn’t… because all the DJs had been warned explicitly by Andy not to play it! She gave me a weary look that said “Yep, that sounds like Andy” and we found another way.
In my second set, a back-to-back with Ragnar, I played Mr K’s edit of Thelma Houston, Southern Freeez (much to Robert’s delight), Sylvester and closed with one of my all-time favourite house records, Mike Delgado’s Jazz Works.
At the end we shared a cab with Ragnar and Solveig for a brief nightcap at Andy’s place, but even still managed to get home at a reasonable time (despite Martin and Izzie’s best attempts to steal our taxi). I’d managed to exercise a few senseible tactics, like starting with non-alcoholic drinks, and that served me well on the night and the next day.
Cracking night, and Andy seemed to really enjoy it. Here’s to your health and happiness, chief.