A few weeks ago Gilles Peterson played at The Savoy and even though at the time I almost didn’t bother going as I couldn’t convince anyone else that it would be worth checking out, I eventually decided that it was too good an opportunity to pass up. Peterson is renowned for taking a more holistic and eclectic view to dance music and usually plays a mixture of jazz music, Brazilian beats, Hip Hop and anything else off the beaten track that he can get his hands on, so I was really looking forward to an interesting and different experience.

Even though Stevie G reported mix accounts of the night on his blog, one of the girls working in Prime Time even told me that she left early because she was expecting something completely different, I have to admit that I was very happy with the set Gilles played and I’m still struggling to understand what some people felt was missing. The first hour was full of predominately Brazilian tracks, which would have been fabulous to dance to but given that I was there on my own, I found myself perched against the railing simply enjoying the music. Annoyingly, The Savoy was not very full that night, they didn’t even bother opening up the mezzanine section, and the dance floor was not at all crowded. No, that wasn’t in itself annoying, what was annoying is that it was one of the first nights I had been at The Savoy without a partner in crime and there was loads of room to dance, fecking typical!

Eventually, Peterson changed to a set dominated by Hip Hop and as all attempts by text to cajole a few people to drop in had failed miserably, I could no longer take any more, the music was just too damn good and a bout of dancing was inevitable. So I took to floor and began to strut my stuff like a langer! No, not like a drunken idiot acting the bollox and pissing off all of the women, that was some other geezer, more like a “feck the lot of you I don’t care if I’m on my own, I’m gonna dance anyway” kind of langer. And while I’m on that subject (rant alert), maybe it’s just me but there’s seems to be some kind of unspoken stigma attached to anyone that dares to dance on their own, kind of like “oh my God, will ya look at that guy dancing on his own over there, what a freak!” Look, will you all kindly get a fucking hold of yourselves! I like the music and I like dancing. It just so happened that none of my friends were available to go on the night in question. The real fucking problem here is that most of you are so insecure that your own pitiful lack of self-esteem just encourages you to knock anyone and anything that strays from the safety of the accepted norm. So, in future why don’t you all just kindly fuck off and die! On the other hand, there is a slight chance that I’m merely being a touch paranoid.

Nevertheless, much dancing followed and I really enjoyed myself (yay for me :-). Towards the end of the night, Peterson tore the place apart with a stomping version of “Bakiri Ban” by Havana Funk (which I’m listening to as I write this) and, to my sheer delight, unexpectedly finished the night with a nice bouncy drum and bass track. Ah, pure bliss! On a lighter note, I noticed that Stevie G spent most of the night on the dance floor instead of backstage. As Stevie has been kind enough to leave a few comments on my blog in the past, I was tempted to go up and introduce myself but given that I had spent most of the night dancing like an absolute looney not too far from where he was standing and given that I was sweating like a pig, I decided better of it. Anyway, I suspect he’s well tired of langers coming up to him spouting shite when he’s out trying to relax and enjoy himself so it might not have been the smartest idea anyway. So that’s that, I’ll close by just saying to Bat Girl, Snow Girl, Rat Girl, Doc and DJ and anyone else that cares, it’s a pity you couldn’t go, I reckon you would have all enjoyed yourselves!

Labels: DJs, House

# Forged from the fiery depths by Pure Cork Boy.