Alex Harries's diary

So tomorrow night is the Grad Ball. Adrian and myself have about 26 hours to pick out some tuneage to entertain the crowds with after the Scratch Perverts play their set, 'cos apparently we're playing *after* the Perverts in CO2, and Pure:FM have the pleasure of doing the warm-up.

But, there's a problem - I'm being a bit of a worrier: frankly, this is scary - there could be 200 people in CO2. What if I don't play tunes people like? What if I suddenly can't mix (i.e. "mix worse than usual")? What happens if my laptop crashes during my set? What if my first tune blows so badly, I'm forcibly removed from the premises via a trap-door?

Ahh well, at least it can't make me pregnant, and I reckon it'll turn out fine - after all, most people are graduating, so I won't have to hide any shame from them next year (and years to come...) from making an ass of myself.

So, while I'm feeling the fear about how tomorrow night's going to turn out, I really hope that, if you're going to the ball, you have a great time. And if you're not, have fun whatever else you're doing :o) /al - pixel munki by day, popular music abuser by night... Maybe.

(Excuse the rare ramble not connected to the site, but I have new toys and am telling everybody who doesn't run away first... ;o) ).

Having received Final Scratch 2 yesterday (and nearly giving myself a black eye trying to unwrap it at the speed of light) - God bless student loans ;o) - I'm going to be trying it out in anger at FRFs in the Union's Lux tonight (well, unless DJ K Ray and chums get all upset at the extra cables in the DJ booth or it gets beered...).

So, an advance apology to anyone who might be in Lux around the start of the night and who catches me making a pig's ear of having a mix.

This of course assumes I can make the thing work and that the real DJs let me have a play...!

UPDATE 10.30pm: well, I'm standing in the DJ booth in Lux; only had a little mix so far but blimey, this thing's rather good. "But then, it damn well ought to be for the amount I paid for it" says the Northern part of my genes... ;o)

UPDATE 2: 12.30am: I've just played a few more tunes in Lux and dear God I can't believe I haven't bought this toy before now - having 5,000+ records at the end of a search (and a drag-and-drop), to play on vinyl... Blimey, it's all rather fun! If that's not geeky enough for you, here's what I played: The Beginnerz "Reckless Girl", Benjamin Thieves "Texas", Dave McCullen "B***h", and Switch "A bit patchy". Then I got chucked off the decks to make way for some more Kev Ray ;o)

Interestingly, Fabric are the only London club listed by Stanton as having FS2 installed - it's a shame really 'cos it's such a cool toy, but I guess most DJs would rather spend their hard-earned chasing down elusive white labels rather than put their faith in technology. Understandable, but if you're thinking about getting FS2 (and you can afford it), I'd definitely recommend you go for it. The software's very very easy to use and runs very fast - and is very stable - on my 1.8Ghz lappy. 9.5/10 (half a mark knocked off 'cos it costs £500-ish beer tokens).

I wonder if I can get the program to send out the "what's playing now" info so we can get it on the Lux big screen...?