Hi There. Just to let you know there are a few dates still available in December for your party. Please check here to see if I'm available..

Liking having a less hectic schedule in November. Went to the Theatre Royal Brighton last week with a friend and saw "An Inspector calls".

Great play but we were so high up in the "gods" that we couldn't see the top of the stage. Although I don't think we missed anything, I can't be sure due to the fact that we couldn't see it you see...A self perpetuating conundrum.

Just been checking out Wild Cherries back catalogue over the past few nights. They were famous for that song Play that funky music (white boy), but it would seem they have a few more worth playing on a particularly funky-assed evening. Did the same with Average white band the other week (famous for Pick up the pieces). It would appear that they too are perhaps, no definitely even more worth checking out. I'm always looking to increase my funk and (if there's any left that I don't know about and have) disco tracks. So if you know of any rare grooves, feel free to suggest and I'll give them a going over.

Just tried to launch a Google + page tonight and as happens sometimes could'nt get it up for love nor technical knowhow without the error massage coming up. Oh well, it's early days and if they want to compete with facebook it had better work. Do you know Facebook gets more hits than Google these days? No wonder Google want a piece of the action! 

Anyhoo, I want to catch that new Ricky Gervais - Lifes too short tonight and I just realised I've run out of prepared salad (gasp!) so I'd better get out of 'ere!

See you all soon,

Mike

Hi all. My god, it's so long since I wrote a blog, they've changed the layout here on the site software! Well looking forward to those cold winter nights as it's getting dark earlier and earlier. Isn't that day coming soon when they change the clock around again and throw everything into confusion? Can't be far off. My apologies for not writing in a while but it's been my busiest summer to date and I haven't really had any time. Moving flat didn't help, as there are about 50 different companies to email after changing address even after you've sorted the furnature out and hung all the pictures..

Reading Ben Elton's "Dead Famous" at the moment. I feel slightly ambivalent about it. The story centres around a group of weirdos and dullards in a "big brother" style show called "house arrest". It goes into how one of them is murdered and the mystery of how it was done with so many cameras in the house.

The production company is not called "Endemol" but "Peeping tom productions" which is a fair joke on the part of Ben. Only trouble so far with this book is that I hate shows like that and so reading about how bad and false they are is sort of old news to me. But to be fair the book was written quite a few years ago and I only bought it to read whilst waiting to play at Saturday nights gig. On the up side though, I am studying philosophy right now, so It stops me getting distracted I suppose and provides some relief when I don't feel like reading about the meaning of life etc. any more.

Just want to say hello to Mike and Arabella who I played for on Saturday and Little Izzie and family who I played for on Sunday. You all were lovely and thanks for looking after me. As I type this you can read Izzie's mum's (Sally's) review here (Opens in new window)

I'm just having to copy my entire catalogue of mp3's from one of my hard drives to another so I can change the first hard drive to a "fat" system format, so it will work with my new decks. I started at 5pm. it's nearly 8pm and it's still copying. Try copying eleven thousand songs from one drive to another and see how long it takes! Another "Frankenstiens lab" evening.

Well thats all for now, but please check out this brilliant sketch from legends Ronnie Corbett and Harry Enfield. A brilliant take on modern technology! Watch them trying to keep a straight face towards the end..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0o-afuVzTw

Hi. Just  a quicky this week as I'm off to another gig this Sunday afternoon. Just want to say thanks to James and Donna for looking after me last night. Great gig. They set the room up like a night club and I used the uplighters around the room to enhance the pink theme.

I started out by smacking my head on the door frame as I manhandled a bass bin in. I only realised I was bleeding after I went to wipe the sweat from my head. "Things can only get better" I thought. Which was one of Donna's song choices and went down a storm. (sorry, tedious links are for Dave only) The great thing about the night though is that there was no song list. Only three songs were asked for and one of them got canned due to a change of direction at the request of the host. All that was asked for were certain musical directions at various points in the night ie: start out with swing/big band/rat pack, after the singer guitarist had done his hour go into a motown/soul set, then disco 80's, then 90's piano house etc moving up to modern Mr. Saxo beat type funky house and finally some trance/house right at the end (one of which was a special remix by yours truly for Donna). This is so much better than a mile long song list, as you get to choose the classic tracks that sound great and work well on the floor. Any requests on the night just get fitted in with the plan and the BPM so no gaping holes in the dance floor. As I've said before. I will do a song list if you want, but having a long list is like having sex with your self. It may be reliable in your eyes, but it's never as good and there are rarely any nice surprises.

Anyway, Donna and James were over the moon at my set and told me so several times (Donna had to come up and kiss me to say how "amazing" I was - read latest feedback here) and this is the point! Request a few in advance of course if you like, but you're shooting yourself in the foot (and "locking me in a cage of no creativity") with a long song list!

Take care, have a great week and feel free to re-post this blog if you're another DJ or have some related site. (please credit me Mike Stryk: cloudandsun.com) Let's put that monster (song list) back in it's cage and go back to the days of real fun on the floor!!!