Well that was one hell of a year folks....

So as 2009 draws to a close I thought what better time to maybe take a look back at the past 12 months and try to fathom out just what the hell happened. It's been a pretty crazy year all round with it's fair share of ups and downs but overall it's been a good one. Here at the Soul Buggin' camp we've seen a new birth, redundancies a plenty, the planning of our new kebab shop and a whole plethora of ridiculously good parties down at the Moog bar.

It seems a long time ago now when Red Rack 'em and Matt Shelton opened up the year with our first party of 2009 in January but since then it's all been a bit of a blur to be honest. This was the first year where we decided it was about time to up our lazy ass game and start inviting special guests to our humble soul soiree. In February we put on the first Fun Your Ear Midlands party after the London branch seemed to be stumbling around in the wilderness. It was a gamble but we'd witnessed some firing parties the year before up in Leeds and thought to ourselves hell let's do this in the Midlands. It was a resounding success and saw people travel from a far to come and DJ. When the bouncer starts dancing and a woman begins to take off all her clothes you know it's been worth it. We continued the momentum and hosted one more before the year was out which resulted in equal messiness and hilarity and hopefully we can make it a yearly session at the very least.

As the year progressed we welcomed some superb local DJs in the form of Fran Green, Andre Bosnor and The Love Unlimited Soundsystem to the decks as well as hosting an all day easter party with the likes of Alex Traska, Osbourne, Daddio and Nick Shaw but come the summer we decided to get all big for our boots and look to booking some DJs from outside the city that we'd long admired. Where to start we thought? We're only a small night with a right old wonky tap in the gents but we threw caution to the wind and asked Domu to come and spin and were delighted when he agreed (even more so now learning it was to be one of his last gigs although we're confident we didn't destory his career, only brain cells through copious amounts of booze). Where to next? Well with the imminent release of the DUCK album project by some of the leading electronic producers in the area we thought we'd open the doors to a Derby invasion and have a Nottingham album launch party. We drank, they Djed and I fell over lots.

For September Mark mentioned the prospect of getting the legend that is Colin Curtis (and I don't use that word lightly) to play and come the autumn the wheels were in motion for the mother of all guests to headline our birthday party. We witnessed an incredible turn out that blew us all away and proved to us that there are people in this city that don't think 'soul' is a dirty word.

Come the winter our balls were as big as watermelons and we thought we could put on Larry Levan. With the small problem of him being deceased since 1992 not detering us we opted for a selector whom I'd been in awe of for many years - Benji B from BBC 1xtra. It felt like a gamble of Las Vegas-style proportions as this was Moog we were talking about here - a small out of town late night sauce den with a capacity of just over a hundred - but we threw caution to the wind and did it. And what a night it turned out to be indeed! One of the best DJ sets I've ever seen in Moog and a truly magical atmosphere with basslines so heavy by the end of the night the toilet door in the gents was off it's hinges (seriously!).

So as we round up what really has been a fantastic year for us we bow out of 2009 with a christmas party at Moog on Friday 18th December. Bringing in the yuletide soul flavour will be disco queen Lucy Locket from the super Manchester night 'The Magnificent Dance'. With a free buffet put on by those jolly types at Moog we'd love you to come and raise a glass of soul sherry with us before we all bugger off for christmas.

On behalf of Wrighty, Mark and myself I'd just like to say a HUGE thank you to not only all our guests but also to those that came and danced, drank, jived and joked around with us. You are the party and the reason why we do it.

Merry christmas, eat drink and be merry and we look forward to seeing you in 2010

x

Beane

Benji B takeover @ Moog 27.11.09

Rough and tumble...

It's been a strange old week here in the Noodle HQ with feelings of great excitement and dispair in equal measure to go with this crazy weather with been having lately. Let's get the sad news out of the way first shall we? At the weekend, along with the rest of the world, I learned that one of my favourite producers was retiring from the scene. You won't really need many clues as to who as the news soon spread like wildfire across various messageboard forums, the bonkers world of twatter and that crazy networking site faceache within minutes but for the benefit for those that have just come out of a coma this week it was of course Domu. It's no secret I've been a long admirer of his productions and musical talents (I even did a 2 hour tribute mix to him earlier this year) and my collection would certainly be a lot less colourful without his records but to read his intentions of finally calling time on his career filled me with sadness. His letter of farewell posted up on his blog page made for emotional reading and I for one will definitely miss his work. Will it be the last we hear of him? Maybe but I hope not. As cheesy and clichéd as it sounds, I'm a strong believer that genuine creative people can never simply cease to be, despite the outside forces that we all sometimes struggle against. A break away sounds like exactly what Dom needs right now and I wish him the very best with his future endeavours.

Here in Nottingham we were very fortunate to have Domu come and play at our Soul Buggin' night in the summer and he blew it up proper – yet again cementing his place well and truly in my personal top 5 favourite DJ chart of selectors I love to hear. To be honest, looking back over the year it's been a pretty big one for us down at the Moog bar and we're certainly not done yet as Friday 27th November sees another of my 'Big 5' grace the decks. Benji B certainly doesn't need hyping to the readers of this blog (that would be like trying to explain to Greg Wallace what chocolate tastes like) as his musical CV speaks for itself. I've long been an avid listen of his radioshows and have witnessed 3 of his fantastic DJ club sets which have left me speechless everytime and it is a total honour that he is coming to our small but perfectly formed night here in Nottingham. Of course that doesn't mean I'm not nervous. Having a selector you admire so much play for you brings with it a whole pirate ship of butterflies but with some serious levels of excitement thrown into that crazy mix in my belly this is one night we think could be quite special. We're keeping the door price to a reasonable credit-crunching £4 (shout to the dole crew out there) and we hope you can join us for what will be a rare performance from Benji B in Nottingham.

Don't forget - chuck 4 of you in a cab and keep the reciept and that lovely caring mother we know as Moog will refund your journey from town (upto £4 - we don't want people traveling from Glasgow with a £400 cab fare).

Have a great week and I'll look forward to seeing some of you on the 27th.

Love and hugs

Beane

So was your ear funned?

Let's start at the top shall we...

Firstly let me say a huge thank you to all those that came along to our Fun Your Ear Midlands party last friday @ the Moog bar here in Nottingham. Despite it being a party set in Robin Hood's home town, many travelled from a lot further afield - residents of Manchester, London, Northampton, Leicester, Derby and even the Southcoast were all in the house. In total, 15 djs took to the decks over the course of 7 and a half hours dropping everything from old school boogie, detroit hip hop, soul classics, deep house and - oh bugger it - there's no way I can list ever genre that made a drunken appearance. I do remember witnessing a jazz dance off at one point to some hi-speed Japanese Soil and Pimp type flavours and I'm still getting flashbacks of the impromptu MC set from Nottingham's very own Soulful Deviant aka Naz. On the subject of my own microphone antics, I feel I must apologise. It appears to be getting worse each month but in my defence your honour I have to admit the reason for this is I've been getting a little excited about seeing our monthly Soul Buggin' night begin to mushroom. As the absence of any kind of regular 'dancefloor' soul night here in Nottingham (bar the odd one off party here and there) becomes evermore apparent it gives myself, Wrighty and Mark even more determination and drive for it to continue and we're currently putting together some great line up's for 2010. Watch this space.

Of course, when we say 'soul', we're not trying to pretend we're an old motown night or dusty northern 45 dance, the genre is bigger than that for us and I'm sure you'll understand where we're coming from. Don't get us wrong, we bloody love our old school flavours as much as Mr Kippling loves his cherry bakewells but if you think we're going to deny the chance of the latest Warp release, Brownswood 12" or Carl Craig re-rub to be dropped because "it's new" then I'm afraid we're going to have to send you to bed with no dinner. It's as much about future soul flavours as it is the past. God that sounds wanky but you get the jist.

So on the subject of all things 'future' all eyes turn to our next party on Friday 27th November as we welcome our very special guest Benji B from BBC 1Xtra to Moog. To say we're excited is an understatement not seen since Willy Wonka first got the keys from the estate agent to his chocolate factory and turned round and said "Cheers". On my next blog in a couple of weeks I'll be giving you more details about that gargantuan party but until then keep it fruity and try your best to adapt to life without Masterchef on the box (for a little while at least).

x

Beane

Soul Buggin' gets all wordy...

So here we are! Welcome to the first Soul Buggin' blog. It was only a matter of time really I guess wasn't it? We've got lots to say and often spend many an hour grumbling to ourselves about important topics such as the price of sausage rolls, what age you should really stop looking at first year students and why the hell someone has re-edited yet another bloody Jacko record. As fellow Soul Buggers Wrighty and Mark are busy old chaps these days I thought what better time to launch my literacy skills upon the unsuspecting world and start our first Soul Buggin' blog.

Of course, some could argue this is just another excuse to spam up the internet with shameless promotion for our monthly night down at the Moog bar here in Nottingham (which of course it is - please see below for details on our next night!) but thats not entirely true. We'll be using this page over the following months to write about all kinds of things that float our boats. Whether it be a detailed analysis of the forthcoming new Predator film, the state of affairs regarding Masterchef Greg Wallace's pulsating belly, great parties put on by our friends around the country or quite simply music that we feel needs shouting from the rooftops.

Please pop in from time to time to see what we're up to - they'll be something for everyone with new mixtapes galore, party information and general waffle to read while your counting down the minutes until the next episode of Emmerdale starts.

Love and hugs as always

Beane

After the storming success of the first FYE Midlands party back in February we thought, hell lets do one more before the years out and here it is.

So what is FYE? It began in the early noughties in london as a party for collective music heads to come together, play music and generally get right on it. Constantly changing venue (apart from a year long residency in conjunction with Birmingham's "Leftfoot at The Medicine Bar) it was very rarely in the same place twice. What separated it from other nights was the fact that anyone could play. It didn't matter if you were a veteran DJ with years of experience under your belt or someone who simply had a few CDs at home who was really passionate. This was backed up by a music policy of quite simply 'no music policy'. People were allowed to play whatever they wanted and with each DJ set lasting no more that 30 minutes the music throughout the night was constantly changing, keeping the party fresh and exciting.

Presented by the Soul Buggin' trio this promises to be something quite special. See you all on the 30th!

Fun Your Ear Midlands
Moog
Newdigate Street
Nottingham
FREE ENTRY

http://www.soulbuggin.co.uk

LINE-UP

8.30 Adam B
9.00 Olly
9.30 Rare Colour
10.00 Cardiac
10.30 Mike MadMongos
11.00 Almoravid
11.30 Pickod
12.00 Soulful Deviant
12.30 Soul Buggin (B2B 1 hour set)
1.30 M-Cutz
2.00 C-Top
2.30 Jimi Oh
3.00 Jazzchops
3.30 Bergs