The Adventures of the 'So Trollied Crew' - part 3

"Coming Home.............................."

(Text originally typed by Wax equestriaN.)

Coming Home .......?

It was about five in the afternoon on Tues 21st May, as I was (once again) sat in front in front of the pc topping up my microsoft tan ,.

I was in the process of starting to set up my own website and thinking about what the front page should

look like, when my mobile phone rang.

Wasn't a number i recognised, so answered the phone in the manner that you do, when you're not sure who it might be.

The Conversation went something along the lines of......

Caller - "Hello, is that Mark "

Wax - "Err. yes"

Caller - "Do you remember entering a competition in DJ mag to win a set at Homelands"

Caller - "Yeah, well you've gone and won the competition and you're going to be playing at Homelands

on June 1st 2002 in the Space arena"

It was at this point my jaw hit the desk !

I also just realised that the winning CD in question was made using 50% of my own tracks mixed via Pokey's slightly knackered yet trusty CDJ-500. My brain and stomach both started somersaulting

Caller - "and the winning cd was chosen by Mr Mean fiddler himself, Darren Hughes"

My jaw retracted to it's usual position just in time for my head to explode. As it did Caro jumping around the room !

Somehow I tried to gather up my grey cells from the corners of the room and believe I managed to utter

a response

Wax - "....err....you've just about made my year....thanks...I'm a little bit stumped for words right now..."

I can't quite remember how the conversation went after that but managed to get across my e-mail address and stuff ok.

The next few hours/days were a happy blur as we spread the news among the rest of the Kitchen Club and my family and friends

I managed to wangle the day off work when I was due to play at Homelands.

The next few days were spent in a haze of setting up my website and burning up demo cds, interspaced with the recent news I had received coming to slap me round the head every few hours....it was a bit like being in shock.

Somehow I managed to sort out ordering tickets for the rest of the Kitchen Club to get to Homelands (not cheap.....)

Fortunately there was only a short matter of 10 days or so before I was due to play, any more and the tension would have killed either myself or another member of the Kitchen Club.

I spent a few moments during these days thinking about what to play in my warm-up set at Homelands.

Suddenly, it was the Friday night prior to Homelands. Naturally I had a few problems getting to sleep and before I knew it we were sat in the car on the way to Homelands

Met up at Pokey's and nicked his headphones from him, slightly worried as the M3 was chock-a-block with traffic. We went up an A road, and made it to the Homelands site by about 11p.m.

Myself and Caro drove in through the 'Artists' entrance and park up the side of a hill.

The Sun was burning fiercely with no clouds in sight.

Gazing at the Homelands site from outside, you get a picture of just how big this event is.

Imagine four massive fields with a big bowl shaped dip in the middle of them.

Now imagine in this dip around 8 MASSIVE marquees, with plenty of the usual food stalls and other

traders and you begin to get the picture.

I met the guys from 'We Love Music - POD' and was taken by a guy named Ben through to behind the stage, (yes, stage) in the Space Arena.

The stage was about 3 ft high, about 15 ft wide and about 50 long with four decks, 3 cd players and just about the biggest mixing desk and speakers I've ever seen.

There were people rushing round all over performing sound checks , testing out the decks was a guy with a shaved head, playing good old solid house.

This was Darren Hughes and Ben introduced me. Naturally i took the opportunity to dump a load more demo cds on him, and then he had to rush off to do other 'Festi' business.

I then spent the next hour fiddling with the mixer and decks, trying to suss out how it all worked, and then wandered out through the football pitch sized Space arena as the started to let the punters in.

Met up briefly with the rest of the Kitchen Club and then trundled back over to the stage to get my fingers warmed up.

I then started my set at about 12.30 as people were drifting in through the main gates and doing the necessary 'reccy' that's required when you enter a massive festi.

My set consisted of a few of my own tunes , and some that i've made with Pokey, though I can't recall the exact order.

I remember playing 'Brainscan' (off Lunatic Utensils vol 1.) , 'Bumper' a plump DJ's Fat Breakbeat remix and then, bravely (or stupidly..I'm not sure which..) I dropped an old 7" disco tune into the mix ( Dance Yourself Dizzy by Liquid Gold ) followed by 'Your Loving dj' mash-up off the Lunatic Utensils 1. ep.

I also played my remix of Kariya and dropped in the Pokey and the Wax equestriaN remix of "God Save the Queen" - rather cheeky and ideal for the date, as it was also the Queen's Golden Jubilee weekend.

Can't quite remember how I finished my set though I seem to remember mixing in my old faves 'Playing With Knives' by Bizarre Inc. and the old Micky Finn classic 'Some Justice'. (U know it, the one with 'we'll live as one family' sample) at some point.

I didn't have to dismount the decks until about 1.30pm as the next dj, Jan Carbon, got stuck in traffic on the way.

Spent the rest of the doing what u do at Festis, though by 5.30 my legs were absolutely knackered.

Managed to get my second wind for the Plump DJ's set who absolutely rocked.

Stayed around for a bit of Royksopp's live set (very,very good) then set off on a Plump DJ's hunt

Determined to meet them , as I seriously love the music they produce, I kept my eyes peeled in the Guest Arena after their set, but by now was finding it hard to tell colours apart, never mind peoples faces and resigned from the task in hand to go and get even more mashed

Then as we were sat chilling outside whilst the sun was setting, I saw 'the Plumps' wandering past.

Jumped of my arse quite quickly and legged it over to introduce myself and managed to give them a copy of my mix demo.

Then before i knew it we were watching the Bassment Jaxx play live, made our way into the middle of the crowd, and suddenly the opening bars to 'Where's Your Head At' rang out.

This for me was probably the peak of the whole day.... And as the BJ's finished their set my legs reminded me that they were by now very....very tired.

As we had a Kitchen Club party to play at the following day we all decided to do a mass lightweight out, and left Homelands at about 1.30 in the morning, to travel home.

I was fairly messed up by now, but also gloriously happy. Long may the good times roll....

Only problem for me now is that besides my vinyl and DJ'ing addictions, I've now a nasty habit developing of wanting to play on loud systems to large, up-for-it crowds

Who knows, this could well be the year it all goes "monster monster" for the Kitchen Club, and not before time too I say.........................

That's about it for now, hope my fuzzy ramblings weren't too boring