I had one of the best new years eves, ever, on Bondi Beach in Sydney, with 20,000 others, dancing to the amazing mixes of
Fat Boy Slim. He has played in Brighton to crowds over 200,000. And then... came New York City. Cosmopolitan mecca full of sophisticates - and no one has heard of him. He's a DJ who produces his own music, he has a great best of album - with the fabulous title of
Why Try Harder. He's cool and quirky and all things good. He charged face value tix of $120 for nye and suddenly he's charging $50 and not selling out...
He came out to Manhattan (he's English and UK based) to play in.. Terminal 5 - where we saw Tom Jones. It holds about 3,000 people. It must have been one of his smallest venues in years. I dragged two friends with us (dancing! house music! Excellent!) and literally counted down the days...
Firstly, I love Terminal 5. The roof terrace was opened and it's all so civilized. Just dirty enough to be rock and roll, but totally safe and with clean toilets (important to us over 35 crowd) It is a 3 story venue, with a huge dance floor and cantilevered balconies overlooking. There are places to sit, space to dance, 3 enormous bars, to buy the expensive but not ludicrously so drinks.
Then the master came out. There was that beat that enters your heart and take it over, the flashing lights and video clips that pull you in, the music, it gives you this trance like effect, no drugs needed.
The crowd was warm from the get go, and 10 minutes into the set were were jumping up and down. We danced till our feet hurt and then, all of sudden, it was 2 hours later and the whole thing just closed down - just before midnight, so working people could go home and get up the next day. I love New York! Sydney crowds don't even arrive before midnight and won't so much as rock their hips before 1 am. To find excellent music, a great venue, to start dancing at 10 and be in bed by 1 am... all too good to be true. I wish he was playing every week. I'd be there. I promise...
(this was a late write up, we went on June 24th. So wish he was playing again...)
