Wedding playlist

I am Djing a friends wedding next weekend and have been rifling through my record collection to work out some sort of set. It always dismays me that most people seem to think that wedding sets have to be full of with crap pop – Angels, You make me want to shout, Walking on sunshine, ABBA that sort of stuff. Even though you’ve got to try and cater for a huge age group, the tunes can still be great. I am going to start with loads of soul and disco classics then move through into a bit of crowd pleasing 80’s stuff like Young MC and De la Soul then finish with some old skool house. Here’s my top 20 wedding tunes list (in no particular order).

Stretch – why did you do it? (female vocal)
Lionel Ritchie – All night Long
Doobie brothers – Long train running
Gwen McCrae – All this love that i’m givin’
Earth, wind and fire – Lets groove
Jackie Wilson – Higher and higher
Grace Jones – Pull up to the bumper
Anita Ward – Ring my Bell
Stevie Wonder – Signed, sealed, delivered
Ray Munnings – Funky Nassau
Sister Sledge – Thinking of you
Chery Lynn – To be real
Chic – Good Times
Diana Ross – Upside down
Lipps Inc – Funkytown
De la Soul – Rollerskating Jam named Saturday
Young MC – Know How
FBI project – Back to my Roots
CC Peniston – Finally
Alison Limerick – Where love lives

Where do you have your company party?

Every year we take our whole company to a music festival. It was originally my idea and admittedly as much a selfish as a practical one. When you get to 50+ people, where can you go for a Summer party? Normally, you end up spending a fortune trying to lay on entertainment but with a festival all the entertainment is laid on for you and people can enjoy it in any way they like. Bestival is a perfect fit for glue. Lots of silly dressing up – this year’s theme was ‘20,000 freaks under the sea’ and loads of good electronic music. Despite the hardcore rain and mud this year we all still had a great time. I particularly love the smaller stages. The brands that get their sponsorship right really get it right. Take a bow Rizla for their superb recreation of a Space-style terrace and XBOX 360 for their living room vibe. Barry Ashworth from the Dub Pistols played an amazing set that went through everything from disco re-edits to electro house.

Data Olympics

From NY Times.  Nice way of showing medal tallies at the Olympics since it began. Medal tally and a countries economic or political strength often to go arm in arm, like Germany being so dominant in 1936.

Beijing Olympic opening ceremony

Wow.

I don’t think any of us will ever see something like that again in our lifetime. As a show, it was mind blowing on so many levels. Where do you start? The choreography, the lighting, the sculptures, the length (nearly 4hours), the bugger the expense attitude (it cost between £20-30million according to the papers). How on earth they co-ordinated the whole thing is beyond me. Perhaps it is only possible in a dictatorship. China has a long history of huge choreographed communist rallies and I guess with a population that is used to being marshalled in this kind of way, it’s doable. But can you imagine trying to pull the same thing off in the UK? I would love to know what the British Olympic committee thought. I think we should do the polar opposite of this most grandiose of statements for the opening ceremony in 2012. Perhaps a few cockney one man bands, chaz and dave and some fairy lights.

Probably still go over budget though…..

Splash mobbing

How Summer ‘08 is this? ‘Dipping’ involves people using pictures from Google Earth to identify homes that have large outdoor pools. Once a venue is found, they then use social networking sites including Facebook and Bebo to meet for impromptu swims and pool parties. Brilliant.

We’re all doomed etc…

I read the Evening Standard on the way home last night and it was the most depressing way to spend forty five minutes. I have never read more downbeat headlines in my life – house price crash, jobs losses, RECESSION LOOMING. The worst thing about the whole ‘Credit Crunch’ (some journalist must be loving the fact they made that one up) is that the papers seem to be positively reveling in delivering us the barrage of bad news. If you were not panicking before THEN DO IT NOW BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS S**T. No wonder polls suggest lack of consumer confidence. With this type of screaming negativity shoved in your face every day, it’s a self fulfilling prophecy.

I think it is probably about time someone started a new news brand that only dealt in ‘Good News’.
It would aggregate global news feeds and cover only the positive things going on in the world every day (of which there are lots). Good News could have it’s own website, paper column, Monday morning email and podcast to take to work with you so that you didn’t arrive wanting to slit your wrists.

Sky+ reveals all

Your Sky + planner reveals a lot about your domestic situation. This is mine. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. For years, this weekend would normally have been spent getting merry at Glastonbury but how times have changed. The list of bad TV and kids shows pretty much sums up life as a new dad with a wife who’s got a thing for reality programmes. That said, I have to confess to watching ‘I’d do anything’ (what else are you going to do on a Saturday when you’ve got to babysit?), I can’t avoid ‘Britain’s next top model’ because it is always on in our house and In the Night garden is meant to send Sam to sleep. Check your Sky+ out now and see what life stage you’re at.

Vinyl addiction

More addictive than crack and just as bad for your bank balance, Vinyl addiction is virtually impossible to get out of your system. I’ve been hooked on vinyl for nearly 18 years now. For ages my Saturday ritual was all about getting into Soho bang on midday and wondering between Black Market, Reckless, Vinyl junkies and more recently Phonica spending hours and hours flicking through shelves and shelves of vinyl. I loved it. The sense of anticipation of what might be in, the slightly too hot shops, the banter with the blokes behind the counter, the lines of head nodding bedroom DJs on the test decks. Brilliant. That was the days when we ran a sound system and played out quite a bit. Things have moved on – wife, kid, responsibility etc. We packed in the sound system a couple of years ago, guitar music came back, the internet and stupid rents are threatening a lot of the shops but every now and again, I get that urge to buy vinyl again. Ironically, I do it online now. Juno is by far and away my favourite site. I must have given them obscene amounts of cash over the last 5 or so years. I can’t help myself. Last night I spanked at least £100 on some great disco re-edits and lush deep house. Nobody in any club will hear it but my mates will get a few CDs and I’ll get that buzz of dropping them onto my knackered old 1200’s and remembering the old times : )