Anne's Diary - Superstar International DJ / Producer / Presenter

THE BIG SNOW FESTIVAL & PANDEMIC TOUR, CANADA

Sunday, 28th March 2010

The Big Snow Festival was amazing from start to finish and the words �off the hook� and �sick� have reluctantly made it onto my blog page. I arrived with the production team a couple of days before the punters landed to help set up - mercifully after a massive dump of snow making the slope conditions perfect, with temps of -1 and that deep blue sky that you only ever see on postcards - we had two days pure slopeside indulged shenanigans. My djing schedule was full on, first gig was warming up for the almighty AWOL stars Micky Finn & Darren Jay with MC Fearless on mic duties. Seeing as I�m older than the hills this didn�t present any immediate musical dilemma, and I took a punt and played some of the finest Dubstep and DnB I�ve been sent, courtesy of Infectious PR. Set went well, and the boys blew the socks off the clubbers, we partied hard but still made it for 9.30am breakfast and were back on the chair lift by 10am. There�s something magical about snow and music for me, always has been and I was a little star struck on a few occasions mingling with the magnitude of the talent - board/ski/producer wise...I played mainstage on the mountain next day and got to meet J Majik & Wickaman who thanked me for playing their dubstep devastator �Assassin� which is from forthcoming album Mosquito. That was a defining moment as a relative newcomer to that scene.

My partner in crime BK arrived with wife Corina, and that same night we played RIOT! @ SURF nightclub back to back for 2 and a half fun frantic filled hours, performing our Pandemic album and a few classics thrown in for good measure and MC Fearless stepped up on the mic as a special favour. When DJ Hype, fresh from his set @ El Cau down the road tapped me on the shoulder to say hi I nearly lost my cool. Scot Project took over the decks to finish as I said my goodbyes to Lee John, Ady and Tigger with only an hour to pack before being picked up for our airport run @ 5am...

It was a 3 hr journey to Barcelona & I bagged the back seat of the transfer bus, meaning I got to flake out but I still felt shocking at the airport. I wont bore you with usual dj bullsh**t about flights & airports but during my 2 hr taxi journey home from Gatwick I realised I had no keys to get in as the other half was still in Andorra. This is the 3rd time I�ve done this, and it�s always involved locksmiths or other costly, time consuming head melt operations but I struck lucky and when I rang my housekeeper, for once, she was at home and not gallivanting with her boyfriend. She left the key under a plant pot outside her gaff, and with my driver loitering in a blacked out van whilst I grappled around her undergrowth looking like a homeless desperado I wondered what the neighbourhood watch were plotting�

Safely home @ Chez Savage there was no time to put SKY on, I craved even a glimpse of 60 minute makeover - 7 days of nothing but BBC World or NBC can drive you nuts I tell you, but I had to turnaround a 24kg bag of washing in 5hrs. I got home at about 5pm � had to be at Heathrow @ 11am.
In these situations I make a list of what I have to do when I get up, so I did that the minute I got in whilst I could still think.

So no dramas, got to airport, got to Canada, flight was shite but again, mustn�t grumble, they lost my bag but I got it in the end etc etc. and on to the shows in Edmonton & Calgary.

Twilight, Edmonton was great and an amazing turn out considering they�ve had problems with gang stuff at the club I played 4am � 6am. We don�t know how lucky we are in the UK that hard dance doesn�t attract that sort of trouble. It�s a real shame because it could, eventually kill off the scene�. So guys an insight - I always try to stay on UK time when I go to Canada, esp. the west coast. If I go to bed at 5pm and get up at 11pm, it�s like getting up at 7am UK and djing, fresh as a daisy. However by the time I got to Calgary at 7pm I had a 1hr lie down on the bed and had to get ready for the massive sell out PANDEMIC TOUR gig @ Flames. I was so hyped up about the gig though I was bouncing round ready after the 1hrs kip. Buzzing from all that happened at the The Big Snow Festival but mainly gagging to perform a year�s worth of tunes in the form of the Pandemic album with BK.

I started with Bryan Kearney�s �The Streets, Blinded By The Lights� which tore off the roof and for the next 3 hrs back to back with BK we slammed out the Pandemic trax and other anthems and exclusives alike. Amazing genuine sell out show. We were both surprised how many of the tracks from the album people recognised. Thank you so much to everyone who made it such an amazing night�.

Tags: Riot!, holiday, Canada
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