So my Summer residency at Thai Beach Club is over. 9 weeks gone, ‘just like that’.
I must say the universe works in mysterious ways.
I was contacted totally out of the blue by a DJ I’d met many years ago in Murcia. He asked me if I would be interested in playing some music on a weekly basis at a venue that’d been open for a few years already, I knew of the place but hadn’t been for at least 5 years before it had changed name and had a refit. I politely declined. Fortunately, he persisted and asked if we could meet.
I had ZERO desire to play music to the locals, as I know that (with the utmost respect) the people in this area for the most part don’t really ‘know’ much about music other than what they are fed on the radio (which is pretty dismal compared to my music taste), so I knew they definitely wouldn’t be interested in soulful house music.
Pedro Ubeda, resident DJ, met me with one of the owners of Thai Beach and explained that they wanted to try something different on a Thursday, me playing my music, how I wanted, for the time I chose. After much deliberation I agreed to do it through July and August between 5pm and 9pm. I got paid peanuts compared to my usual fee but was happy to get a little pocket-money.
I had every intention of playing sweet, soulful rhythms to anyone there chilling on the beach or enjoying some afternoon cocktails.
This is in total contrast to the Sunday afternoon/evenings they have there when the place is absolutely heaving with 1000+ in attendance, age group 25+ and dressed to impress but with music of a more commercial/harder nature. The resident DJs all know their music but would agree they go through the motions to give the crowd what they want.
I say the universe works in mysterious ways… if I hadn’t accepted this gig I would not have re-found the place and plans for VB’s Beach Party would have been seriously messed up seeing as the original venue I had lined up turned out to be a bunch of wankers.
So, I turned up week one, before the season had really started at the beginning of July (most people arrive to their beach homes mid/end July), not knowing what to expect.
Cut a long story short, the afternoons never panned out as I had envisioned them, attendance wise. For the whole duration of the summer hardly anyone was on the beach area and at any one time the garden/terrace area was never really that packed although through August most tables were occupied.
This didn’t stop me doing my thing and every week I played for four hours, going through my CD wallets and Hard drives sharing music I hadn’t played for a while and looking for tunes I knew were good but couldn’t recall how they sounded. That’s the beauty of having a good music collection… I knew anything I put my hands on was going to be great.
Nine sessions in total were recorded, 4 hours each. I started out with the intention of never repeating one track the whole summer. Apart from when I forgot my USB sticks and also when I had a group of friends there I needed to entertain, I played almost unique tracks weekly.
The result, if I do say so myself, is a collection of podcasts I am extremely proud of. I take it from dubs, into instrumentals into vocals, sweet soulful vocals into techier tracks, starting off sometimes at 100bpm and sometimes never going above 120bpm.
Being completely honest, apart from my friends that popped by to show support, the crowd couldn’t care less for my music, which may surprise you when you hear just how great it is. There were times where people looked up at me as if to say “What is this shit you’re playing ??” I carried on regardless. I knew the management were happy with my music and so carried on doing what was asked of me. As the weeks progress I tried less and less to impress anyone and just cracked on with putting together a great session for the podcasts.
Through the course of the summer I have reminded myself of some beautiful joints that are definitely in the running to get an airing at VB2015.
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