Sometimes you don't realise that you're hanging by a thread until that thread gets cut. I was driving around on a near empty fuel tank yesterday, with a near empty phone battery. I had to get from Cardiff to Bristol, which was fine so long as I made it to the petrol station in time. I arrived at Tesco with half an hour to spare, but they'd closed early. It was at that point, as my composure and sanity began to unravel, that I realised I had very much been running on empty as well. Glastonbury had broken me.
I thought just two days and no booze would mean a relatively easy ride, but I left for the festival without fully recovering from being sick, and pushed myself beyond capacity, so this week has been a major struggle. Luckily I've had a relatively quiet week and I've spent a good chunk of my evenings watching the new Netflix series Supacell. It was perfect post Glasto fodder. Not too taxing on the brain but good story telling, great characters and an entertaining blend of Misfits and Top Boy. Just what I needed.
I tried to go out and support Missy G at her album launch party in Porters but I was so tired that I didn't quite last the night. My working week was mostly spent at home, transcribing previous interviews. Though I did manage to get to Merthyr and chat to Lucas Versace, a rap producer whose collaborators tend to be in the USA, or any other countries than Wales. He is now on a mission to change that though.
I also had a great catch up with Newport rapper Rico Ra (fka Rico Suave) at the Love Live Light Healing Hub that he’s been running with his partner Tess in Pontcanna for the last 2 and a half years, since Covid scuppered his professional futsal career. They’ve got a beautiful space over there, I highly recommend checking it out and I’m glad he’s back on the music thing.
He’s one of the few Welsh artists to have been featured on SBTV in the past, and he always had his own style going on. His latest music definitely reflects the healing journey he’s been on these past few years. We’re planning a proper interview for the museum’s ‘oral history’ archive in a couple of weeks, so I’m looking forward to delving deeper into his career then.
I remembered to vote on Thursday thankfully, though I’ve decided not to talk too much about politics until I feel like I’ve fully got my head around our new government’s: policies; words; and actions. I’ve realised recently that I don’t really have much of a clue about…. well, anything really, and so I’ve figured that now is a good time to start learning. All I’m sure about so far, is that we are well rid of the Tories. Please do tell me if you know any good non-partisan, non click bait political analysis podcasts, websites or newsletters out there.
I finally got to speak to Romesh Ranganathan. Some of you may remember I’d been trying to get hold of him when he came to Cardiff recently. Well his producer got in touch and asked if I was willing to go on ‘Pitch My Passion’, a section of his BBC Radio 2 show where two people have 45 seconds to essentially sell their favourite things to the nation. I tried my hardest with Welsh hip hop but was ultimately beaten by The Archers (daytime radio, what can I say). I did manage to get a few listeners on side though, and I’ve definitely got Romesh interested finally, so watch this space.
The rest of my week was spent sorting out tunes for Big Tent festival in the Gower. I played last year and had a great time then so it was lovely to be invited back. I drove up with DJ Jaffa for the day and both of us agreed it was one of the most fun gigs we’d had in a while. The theme of ‘Medieval Disco’ was a great touch as well. I only wish I’d taken some Bardcore! What I actually ended up with was house and dnb mostly, though I managed to slip in some ACDC, speed garage and soca. I was mightily impressed that Jaffa got away with playing so much reggaeton, dembow and amapiano in his set, though he took it all over the place. He’s by far one of my favourite DJs and he’s really mastered the ‘stems’ function on Serato. I think I’ll chat about that more another time. Between seeing him and Scratch Master Slider using it, I’m definitely sold on its potential.
We also caught up with Swansea DJ legends DJ Demo and DJ Lomas up there, and Big Tent booker Glyn Radford, a great DJ who runs the Soul Portablo nights and had dance battled Jaffa a few times in the 80s when they were both breakers. Glyn will be playing down at Big Love in a couple of weeks. There’s still time to get tickets for that one by the way. Big Love is always my favourite set of the year by far. I’ll chat more about it next week.
There’s also Luv Dancing at the Fork N Tune in Cwmcarn this coming Saturday, which features a who’s who of badass local DJs. I’ll hopefully see you at one of them!
Finally. There’s been so many great albums out this year. I offered one of men up to God Is In The TV for their mid year round up. Check it out here.