The Adventures of the 'So Trollied Crew' - part 1

"And so this is Christmas.............................."

(Text originally typed by Ghost Writer - Sid Takka.)

"And so this is Christmas, and what have we done?".....................erm....."a little too much" is the usual answer to that one!

God ......Christmas 2001 already! It only seems like yesterday that we stopped partying from last year!

Oh, it was only yesterday!

Bugger!

For the last 4 or 5 years we have had a knees up with all of our friends on Christmas night. Oh and what a night it's proved to be!

It's not like any of us don't have family , you understand. It's more like our friends are our family and if it's expected of us to do the "the family meal" bit during the day, then surely, it's expected of us to spend time with our extended family in the evening.......Isn't it? he he

To make a story even longer!...........Christmas 2001 was upon us before we knew it and unfortunately, having got out of our previous 4 or 5 family gatherings, we had no choice but to submit and go down the traditional route. (between you and me, the fact that we were due to play at the radio station on Boxing Day, and knew that we were going to party anyway, may have had something to do with our submission!)

The general consensus was that it wasn't that painful after all!

Pokey and I got home at about 8ish in the evening (after being let off with good behaviour), put Chaz to bed, and immediately phoned round to see who else had escaped the ghost of Christmas cheer!

Little, Jay, Steve and Dicky were the only ones about at the time even though Little was "full up and tirrreeeeeeed so I don't want a messy one , ALRIGHT?!"

YEAH YEAH YEAH......RIGHT.

There is precisely 7 days from Christmas until New Year.

There are also 7 days from Christmas until............DICKY'S BIRTHDAY!...YIPEEEEEEE.

It is up to all of us to make sure that everyone has a memorable time on their birthday (or not as the case may be!)

So the 6 of us basically got completely intoxicated and mixed until our fingers fell off! This may not seem like a lot but it was just another 2 fingered salute to conformity and we liked it , so there!

Hopefully , by now you will have got the gist of things so from hereon in the following events will be in diary form.

Boxing Day; still up! Sent Chaz to doting G.parents for 6 day

hols (lucky thing!). Met up with Wax, Carpet, Dicky, Darrel, Nat, Loo Loo, Steve, Little, Jay and Stumpy at Wax's house.

Went to LLAD studio for bout 6ish p.m. Went on air at 8.00pm! Played a blinder.......again! hehe. Got v. messy, had a right giggle Played until 2.00am. and left total carnage behind us! Greeeeeaaaaaat.

Returned to Wax's gaff and trotted along till lunchtime-ish on 27th.

27.12.01; ooh er missus

28.12.01; same old same old

29.12.01; Weh Hey! 2 days to go till lift off. In that case........let's do it again! yipee

30.12.01; still up and more additions to the birthday ritual rolling in. Lots of talk bout getting sleep/food/clean etc but no one interested in going 1st!

31.12.01; Trish has asked us to do a house party at her place. F**^*@ huge house, F**^*@ huge sound system and lots of F**^*@ like minded, up for it people! Treeeeeeemendousssss.

01.01.02 ; OW! me 'ead 'urts!

Went from Trish's this morning with Pokey and Loo Loo back home to collapse in heap dribbling! Must remember not to look in mirror or turn lights on! Everyone else returned to their respective stones for a bit of r & r before 2mara night when it's back up to the station again!

I must point out that Wax, Carpet, Sidetrakka(me), Pokey, Dicky, Loo Loo, Little, Jay, Steve, Stumpy, Darrel and Nat have all been up and together (in body not mind) since Boxing Day. If that's not dedication, i'm a bloody dutch man!

02.01.02; Loo Loo and I go round to Dickys house. After blowing horns through letter box, shouting v. loudly and plenty of banging on door, Darrel lets us in! He looks like a rabbit in front of headlights! Dicky on sofa comatose! Loo Loo and i jump on him, blowing our horns as we go. Manage to wake him enough to jack the corners of his mouth open, and give him his breakfast! 20mins later, Loo Loo, me and Dicky on way back to mine to repeat Kitchen Club ritual on Pokey. This then continues for rest of day (what's left) until everyone's up and ready to go. Wicked night on radio. I love the atmosphere that having 5 people on decks brings! Happy new Year folks.

1st Weekend in Feb.

Lucky for us, there's just enough time for the usual New Year Resolutions to wear off before Wax's birthday!

Don't know if you've ever tried, but it's much harder to influence people in the 4 weeks after new year than at any other time!

So there's approx 5 days of instigating before it's time to party once more. Not long but we managed it.

Pokey and I had got to know a d.j (not the only one) called "Tequila C". He is heavily involved with a club called "PLANET ANGEL", in London. For a while we had been saying that we'd go see him play and have a night out but just hadn't got round to it. It's on the 2nd Friday of every month in case you wanna go.

What better excuse to go than Wax's birthday?

Holders of the party ball for this particular jaunt are : The Wax Equestrian , Pokey, Dicky, Little, Sidetrakka, Loo Loo, Steve, Carpet, Jay, Darrel, Nat, Alfresco Rhythm and Storyteller Mick.

After the usual bout of procrastination (wax on decks at home), we got on our merry way to Vauxhall, London. Destination Planet Angel.

Imperial Gardens, to be precise (though not their present venue). Loo Loo and I have been there before when Pokey has d.j'd, so we vaguely knew our way about.

We'd all done the usual enhancing, mess inducers before we went in so we could get stuck in to a good old moon stomp as soon as our coats were dealt with!

~~~~~

Again, I don't know if you've ever noticed, but when human beings travel in a pack (as we often do), certain ones show different behavioural instincts in comparison to others. Here is a rough guide for your records.................

Sidetrakka, Loo Loo, Jay, Darrel and Al = Mobile dancers

ie. usually found walk/dance/talking both ways round a venue and back again!Can also be found having deep meaningless conversations in venue toilets. #

~~~~~

Pokey, Wax, S.t. Mick = Static Fantastic

i.e........can be found usually within 15-20yrds from original set down point.

*N.B* set down point most favoured by Static Fantastics is directly in front of or to the side of a 10k rig!* Is also prone to the odd bout of silly dance moves!

~~~~~

Little, Dicky, Nat = Jiggling Jokers

Similar to Static Fantastic in location but much more inclined to play amongst themselves. Can be found dowsing each other in water or playing practical jokes on one another whilst getting into the groove at the same time!

~~~~~

Carpet = Thewholenineyards......A very rare sight to behold these days. The Wholenineyarder can be glimpsed either dancing in the main room, having deep meaningless chats in the chill out, shaking their booty in the bogs, jiggling with the jokers or PRing with the proprietors! A true jack of all trades upon whom the cap almost certainly fits, no matter what the size!

~~~~~

Steve = The Serial Puker..........Not much explanation need here. Can be found pretty much anywhere in a venue. Not always spotted by anybody, mainly due to the fact that the Serial Puker is usually bent double with their head down. This makes The Serial Puker a very difficult specimen to recognise, especially at going home time !

Sorry about the digression folks but that's me!

I cannot say enough about Planet Angel. Picture this and hopefully you will build up a mental picture..........and I mean MENTAL!!!!!

You walk in the front door and before your eyes stands a 3 - 4ft Connect 4 game! (blanket to park yer bum on included). Then your eyes and ears become drawn to the other end of the room (to the left) and scattered over the floor, chairs and tables are about 20 bongo players all having this mega jammin sesh in time to the music (a rare quality in some bongo enthusiasts, i know!).

After an initial wiggle of the hips, you decide to get your bearings and find the bogs and the cloak room etc. You leave the bongo room and make your way down a corridor, passed another room playing trance and then on to the bogs. STOP AT THIS POINT, LOOK TO THE RIGHT.....YES THERE! On the walls they've got these massive pieces of paper with marker pens hanging off them. Graffitti heaven for those of us that tend to get a bit vandally after a night on the razz. You daub your name / pictures / funny poems etc where ever you want and walk away feeling strangely liberated! mmmm nice.

Onwards and downwards you pass several fluffy people and possibly a couple of security guys (very friendly and chilled out)

,do the necessary cloakroom stuff (you know the sort) and head off to see if you can find your mates again.

Only, something catches your eye again but this time it's as you stroll passed the chill out room!

These people are seriously ahead of the game folks!

In the corner of the chill out room, sat 4 blokes round a table.

They seem to be completely oblivious to the outside world!

Glance number 2 confirmes what they were doing.

LEGO!

They're playing fucking Lego!

Surreal.

So now you get the picture. If there is anyone The Kitchen Club will bang on about for hours, It's Planet Angel, so do yourselves a favour and go see wot the scene is really about. And once you've seen us, you can brace yourselves for them! hehehehe

We watched and danced to Tequila playing a wickedly smooth cross between beats, breaks and trance. Perfect to satisfy even the most guilty trainspotters!

Then, he came off the decks and the bongo's kicked in. They played a whole set acapella stylee for about an hour.......unfuckinreal man!

It was here that we met red admiral himself.....Butterfly Pete.

We all have our own personal stories about how we met Butterfly Pete.

I saw Pete for the 1st time when the bongo players were doing their bongothon! He was just sitting there, behind a perfectly decent pair of decks, doing sweet f.a. except smoking a fag. To have that facility staring you in the face, you don't just sit around staring at it, do you?! EXACTLY! And so my 1st encounter with said fluttery person was when i marched up to the d.j booth and demanded that he fire them up!

Naturally he informed me that he was "smokin' a fag" and he would set the wheels of steel in motion when he was ready and not before!

I like that in a person, so i continued to barrack him till i lost interest and moved on.

Imagine my surprise when 1 week later, Wax arranged for Pete and me to play at the Radio together! Oh and , yes, he did remember. Oh well, you can't win em all eh.

Little and Dickie were in the vicinity of the d.j. booth at the same time as me and shortly after Pete started his set, Dickie told Little that Pete would definately be cool about letting her stick a tune on mid set...............Yeah right Dickie...hehehe

So, up she went (after a lot of egging on) bold as brass and only asked him if she could have a go!

I think Butterfly Pete was extremely restrained in his response!

Especially if i consider what answer Little would have given under the same circumstances! .............And that's the Jiggling Jokers for you!

Ahem.....OK...Wax equestriaN taking over for a moment now.......

Upon going to Planet Angel for the first time to celebrate another year of my vinyl addiction, we were initially greeted by a rather nice live bongo/congo set in the funky room.

There was a DJ stood behind motionless decks smoking a cigarette. after about 15 minutes of live percussion

he kicked straight off into a house and breaks set, not a million miles away from the style of mixing used by myself and Pokey.....the night was looking like it'd be a good'un

I knew that this jock would appreciate a certain piece of vinyl (Lunatic Utensils 1) and went over to give him my card and told him to call me about a free record.

anyway....to cut a long story short...a few nights later I was sat at home when Caro answered a call from someone asking for "the Wax Aquarium". After we had picked ourselves up off the floor we discovered that it was Butterfly Pete from Planet Angel, who just happened to live very locally to me.

We arranged a meet in a local pub and had a chat over a beer. I gave him a copy of Lunatic Utensils 1 , and after a couple of hours of chat invited him back to mine for a mix up. (like any good DJ, he just happened to have a bag of vinyl in the car !!)

We gave my decks a thorough work out and somehow knew it wouldn't be the last time we span together........

anyway, back to Sidetrakka and the main story....................

The week after Wax's birthday it's Steve's turn. He had made a speciel request to have a mega long go on the decks for the whole of Saturday night......................

Doesn't he know, we don't do fuckin requests! So that was it and Steve dipped out!...............

Only jokin' you fools.....D'you honestly think we'd pass up the chance of a knees up? I don't think so.

So, the deal was this.....We told everyone that Steve was going to be on the decks for as long as he could stand (up that is) and if at any time they thought they couldn't stand the sound or felt like kicking him off, then they shouldn't come over.

Needless to say, no-one gave a toss the house was well packed.

We needn't have bothered to warn anyone about Steve either, because after about 1/2 an hour he really could not stand anymore and bowed out pretty quickly! I think he enjoyed himself though!

And so onwards and downwards..........

.....and it's on that cliffhanger we stop for our first interlude.....this interlude will continue (maybe for many months) until Sidetrakka gets the next installation to Wax so he can put it on the net ............and she can't give me that "our PC's not working" excuse anymore ...........................so get typing !! :-)

Come back soon folks !!