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