Niskerone Tour Diary :: Entry 2 [Dont Party Exclusive]

Tour Diary Entry 2

Monday 19 July

Two days after the madness that was Monegros Festival, Monique and I found ourselves hanging out in the town of Fraga, about 15 minutes from the festival site. We woke up at around 11am in a room in Juan’s apartment and I proceeded to the lounge to find about 15 or Spaniards still having the time of their lives. It never stops! All of us went down to Juan’s grandparents’ “Huerta” nearby and spent the rest of the day chilling at the pool in the sunshine.

The initial plan was to head to St Sebastian from here, but all of that changed at the last minute and we headed back to Barcelona later this day to continue chilling out.

Tuesday 20 July – Wednesday 21 July

I guess you could say that these two days were probably my most sober days on this trip and it was much needed.

Monique and I rented some bicycles and rode around the inner city and beachfront, visiting some interesting sites. If you ever visit this city, go check out Gaudi’s Cathedral at Sagrada La Familia, to say it’s awesome is a complete understatement. Some of the sites we visited include Arc De Triomf and the freaking Zoo (I know, lame for a South African – but we were too tired to bike uphill for 3 Kms to the real gem, Parc Guell). After the biking missions, it was time for some much deserved beach, Sangria and Tapas.

Barcelona is in the Catalunya province in Spain where for the most part, people speak Catalan (quite different). My lady and I ended up at a restaurant trying to order food in Spanish only to discover that it’s in Catalan and we had no idea what was going on (a Lost In Translation moment) and on top of that it was the last place open in Granollers so we had to tough it out. Needless to say, we did not get what we wanted at freaking all…

Thursday 22 July – Saturday 24 July

We headed back to the airport to catch a flight to Madrid. When I checked in, I was asked by the guy at the counter for my visa (they are serious about illegal immigrants here) and it was checked a further two times (at security and boarding gate). So make sure you have the right documents and under no circumstances let them know you are here to do shows if you only have a tourist visa.

Once we checked in at the hotel, Monique and I linked up with the promoter of Twist, Jorge aka MC Mood (One of the safest guys i know). We went to a tiny tapas place in the backstreets and it wasn’t long before the shots started flowing forth. Here we go again.

The show that night was pretty rad and aside from me on the lineup, a small British label called Shufunk had their “takeover” on the night. Due to too many DJs (ahem) being booked, set times were cut a little shorter (which, personally i’m not a fan of – I prefer having enough time to take people on a proper journey), but I still managed to have loads of fun with the Madrid crowd. No matter what you play, their always up for it!

[VIDEO: Niskerone at Twist, Madrid]

After my set, Monique and I hung around long enough to get in a couple of drinks and chats. Jorge had to leave the party early, because his apartment (in a historic building that used to house the current Spanish princess) had started flooding and he needed to clean up! Our hotel was 50m away from the club, so we decided to sneak out before things started getting really out of hand. We spent the Friday as tourists, getting lost in translation (again!), doing some shopping, getting hit on by prostitutes, visiting the Royal Palace and chilling in the immense Parc Retiro trying to smoke joints without getting bust by the patrolling policia. On the way back to the hotel I just so happened to randomly bump into an It Came From The Jungle regular… On the other side of the planet!

On Saturday it was time to catch a flight back home (Barcelona that is) and the rest of the day/night was super chilled.

Sunday 25 July

Here we go again…

Another Sunday and we found ourselves back at Row 14 in time for breakfast shots. This time we joined by Nastie Ed and his lady Marquita as well as the entire team Spain, everyone was well rested and ready to get dirty.

One of the coolest features of this club (aside from the waterfall outside) is their retractable roof overlooking the main room, which opened every so often to let in some proper sunlight and cool revellers down a built in sprinkler system. The crowd this week, was way more intense than my last outing here and to say we had fun is a serious understatement. By 2pm we had left and were en route to the after-after party at El Cheringuito near Sitges beach. We left there at about 8pm and headed back to Granollers to pack and get ready for my show on this night and the Amsterdam mission in the morning.

By 22h30 we were packed and on a train back to the city centre to meet up with Nastie and get some dinner. We left our suit cases at their hotel and I only carried my records with me as we headed straight from dinner to the club KGB. My set was 3-4am (which in Spain is the best time to play) and i played a lot harder than I usually do, but the club was up for it. In the beginning I had some troubles with the gear, which sucks cos it throws your concentration off, but somehow it all got sorted 20 mins in. After my set, during the changeover their was some more technical issues and I had to stay a little bit longer to keep the music going while it was being sorted. All of this would be fine under normal circumstances, but not when you have to be at the airport in 40 minutes!

We made it in time to check in and get some food before boarding our flight, but fatigue was high on the agenda at this point. Consider that we just did 3 parties in 24 hours with no sleep and are now en route to another country!

Monday 26 July

We arrived in Amsterdam pretty tired, but the excitement of being in Holland kept us going. There is a clear difference between the north and south of Europe, aside from weather it’s everything from culture to architecture to everything. Outside the airport we were met by drum & bass uber artist, Nymfo and stayed at his apartment with him and his lady, Suzanne. Needless to say that we pretty much passed out until it was time to head to my gig that evening.

En route to the club (The Winston, situated in the heart of the red-light district) we stopped off at one of Nymfo’s friends’ coffee shops. I don’t normally get high before shows, but when in Amsterdam…

Upon entering the club, we were greeted by Amsterdam’s equivalent to Papa Smurf, a small and friendly old man who acted as the bouncer believe it or not. Inside, the club is about the size of Fiction (including the balcony) and had an intense energy. UK’s Stanza of Hospitality fame was behind the turntables and played a wicked warm up set for the legendary Nicky Blackmarket (who incidentally hurt his back that night and had troubles getting to the booth). Nicky’s time came and he completely smashed it, for a guy that’s been doing this for 20+ years he still had it going on. An extremely down to earth guy and avid football fan, one of the things he said to me was “Thank fucking hell i didn’t end up booking my ticket South Africa to watch England, I would’ve lost about ten grand!”

It’s quite daunting playing after a legend like Nicky, but i has to step my game up. Thankfully there was no technical issues and I had a blast playing the closing set of the night.

[VIDEO: Niskerone at Cheeky Monday]

Tuesday 27 July – Wednesday 28 July

Amsterdam is a wicked city and aside from spending loads of time in coffee shops sampling some of the goods on offer, we made full use of the time to get in some shopping (of course), taste Dutch food and visit a sex museum (fun when you do it with your girlfriend).

On Tuesday, I ended up at my first sex show with my girlfriend alongside. It’s kinda like Mavericks’ but more educational. An “I didn’t know you could do that with your…” vibe, interesting. There was a a whole lot of warm up, crowd participation strip shows (which I did not participate in, mind you) and the finale was a couple doing it on stage. The finale is a bit of a downer though, especially when you realize you have better moves haha!

Wednesday was a bit easier on the brain. We spent most of the day hanging out with Nymfo, trying to a find a specific location where Monique’s mom once stood 20 years ago and visiting one of my favorite places in the world, a record store.

Thursday 29 July

We left for Antwerp, Belgium at noon via train and arrived about 2 hours later where we were met by promoter, DJ and owner of Radar Records, Murdock. After checking in at the hotel, we took a little stroll to the centre to get some lunch and see what Belgium has to offer in terms of architecture, food and such. After being in Spain for so long where everything opens and closes late, it was weird to see shops closing at 5pm.

After some dinner mission at night, we were picked up and driven to the Paradise Club where i had a show with Doctor P and Murdock. Upon arrival at the front door, I was greeted by a guy sitting on the floor outside with a beer in his hand, Netsky. Local DJ, Bonafide, was playing at the time we arrived and there was energy, lots of it. The venue was small and without air-conditioning. It was a big box of sweaty, drunk, dancing bodies. Fun.

Doctor P was up next with a smasher of a set, which surprised me because he started playing Drum & Bass in the middle of it.

[VIDEO: Doctor P at Paradise Club]

I played the 3-4h30 set and kept it quite musical for the most part. By the time my set was done, my 2Bop T-shirt was soaked in sweat, you could see it clearly haha! Murdock was on after me and closed the night off. Monique and I took a cab back to the hotel and started packing again as we had to catch an airport shuttle from outside the club at 6am.

An hour later we found ourselves at Brussels airport all checked in and realizing that we still have some special cookies with us from Amsterdam. You could smell the weed in them and when we saw the sniffer dogs about, Monique came up with the idea to eat them outside. So there we were, standing about 5m from a police officer eating our cookies and got on the plane pretty stoned.

Friday 30 July

Back in Barcelona, this day we taken really easy as it was my girlfriend’s last day in Europe with me.

Saturday 31 July

My last show in Europe. Xavi and I left Granollers at around 10pm and after a brief stop to collect “baggage” we arrived at Florida 135 in the town of Fraga at around midnight. The doors opened up soon after and Narkotik D’Lux’s Marc Guardiola played the opening set in the main room, which only started filling up at around 2am. Their sense of time still gets me haha.

The line up for the night featured the likes of Frank Kvitta, Narkotik D’Lux, Taxman, Benny Page, Fran The Breakstorm, myself and a host of other artists across 4 areas. The main room featured Hard Techno, the 2nd room had Drum & Bass, the 3rd featured Schranz and Nu Skool Jungle and the massive outside area had it’s share of “Pachanga” hits being aired to scores of beautiful locals. I have to note that this venue is in fact the oldest nightclub in Spain and opened it’s doors in 1942! Crazy shit!

My set time was at 6am, which meant I had loads of time to enjoy the festivities with Taxman and Benny Page who were in the building by now. Trying to remain sober became quite challenging, but I made it! Everyone I met this night was super down to earth, friendly people and FRANK KVITTA DESTROYED IT!!! I’m not exactly the hugest fan of hard techno, but J****S did he let loose!

[VIDEO: Frank Kvitta at Florida 135]

Sometimes fate throws spanners in the works and here it happened again, overbooking meant some of the set were cut shorter for the sake of time constraints. Benny Page and myself suffered the most from this, but that aside the energy inside was nothing short of electric. It was worth making the mission out to Fraga for that, word! The club closed at around 8am and because Xavi and a whole lot of other people had been drinking quite a bit, everyone was afraid to drive out of the town immediately (There were police waiting on the exit road). We all ended up hanging at a cafe until 10am when we decided to risk the exit! By this stage I was wasted and ready to pass out in the car.

Sunday 1 August – Thursday 5 August

The rest of my trip was spent hanging with my friends and enjoying what I had left of the Barcelona sun.

When I arrived back in Cape Town, customs tried to nail me for my records, laptop, camera and Serato… This would’ve costed me a few thousand rand, but some polite sweet talking got me out of it. To be honest, all of those items was purchased on foreign borders… The lesson here is to declare your shit when leaving SA, if you forget or are sneaking stuff in, then LIE!

Niskerone