Tonight I Had A Lot Of Fun ~ That’s All

“Tonight I had a lot of fun ~ that’s all ~ Goodnight!” that was my FaceBook status update early on Saturday morning and boy did I mean it!

I had just got home from a 50th party for local DJ from back in the day Shaun. Shaun was one of the DJ’s who came to the fore in the generation after me, he was resident at a few places including Martines in Eastleigh where he did I guess around six months of the year while he spent the other six months in Corfu. Anyway, I was delighted when Shaun invited me to play at his significant birthday party.

My brief from Shaun was to play what we played back then, now THIS was a real thrill for me. In fact one of my resolutions for this year was to do a night like this. I often get asked to play 70’s, 80’s or 90’s but usually that means pop and not the club music that I played for years in bars and discos. I haven’t really played a night like this since Steve Q and I did the Reunion at Oceana back in 2009 and that night I left all the hard work to Steve! This was going to be plenty of the stuff we played on our GOLD radio show.

It was also more than a bit daunting as many of our old DJ cronies were also invited so I made sure I pre-selected plenty of big tunes and spent some time practising my mixing in the week before the party. That may surprise some but much of the music I was going to be playing was from the 70’s and early 80’s, before the arrival of the drum machine, so the tempos varied with the speed of the drummer, and practise is always time well spent.

Here’s how the evening went …

8:00pm
Jackson 5 – I Want You Back (Dimitri from Paris Supa Funk Brakes Mix)
S.O.S. Band – Just Be Good To Me
Skipworth & Turner – Thinking About Your Love [Original 12″ Version]
Maze Feat. Frankie Beverly – Twilight [12″ Version]
Terri Wells – You Make It Heaven
George Benson – 20/20
Alexander O’Neal – Fake 89 (House Mix)
Crusaders – Street Life
Stevie Wonder – Do I Do
Chaka Khan – I’m Every Woman
Crown Heights Affair – You Gave Me Love
Joe Smooth – Promised Land
Shalamar – I Can Make You Feel Good
The Whispers – And The Beat Goes On
Change – The Glow Of Love
Chanelle – One Man (Original Mix)
Julia & Company – Breakin’ Down ( Sugar Samba ) [Original 12″ Version]

It was great to play alongside ** Andrew Browning as George Michael ** again, it’s been a long time! Andrew did a brilliant show full of George and Wham’s greatest hits. For the encore Shaun joined Andrew for “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me” taking the Elton John part – but if you know Shaun you’ll understand when I say it was more like George duetting with George!

Patrice Rushen – Forget Me Nots (had to after Andrew’s George Michael set)
Junior – Mama Used to Say
Cameo – Candy

Then it was time for eighties tribute four piece ** 80’s Revolution ** with a set full of the biggest hits from that amazing decade. Among the highlights for me were a great version of Huey Lewis’ “The Power Of Love” and Tears For Fears “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”. The birthday boy joined them for a couple of Spandau Ballet tracks ~ “Through The Barricades” and “Gold”.

Gil Scott-Heron – The Bottle (Original 12 “Mix)
Hamilton Bohannon – Let’s Start The Dance
Heavy D & The Boyz – Now That We Found Love
Raze – Break 4 Luv
S’Express – Theme From S’Express
The Fatback Band – I Found Lovin’
Fat Larry’s Band – Act Like You Know [Original 12″ Version]
Soul II Soul Feat. Caron Wheeler – Back To Life
Montell Jordan – This Is How We Do It
Cheryl Lynn – Encore
Donald Byrd – Dominoes (Original 12” Mix)
James Brown – Get Up (I Feel Like Being A Sex Machine)
James Brown – I Got You (I Feel Good)
Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock – It Takes Two
Incognito feat. Jocelyn Brown – Always There
McFadden & Whitehead – Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now
The Source Feat. Candi Staton – You Got The Love
Nomad Feat. MC Mikee Freedom – I Wanna Give You Devotion
Ce Ce Peniston – Finally
Robin S – Show Me Love
Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk & Jessie Saunders – Love Can’t Turn Around
Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley – Jack Your Body
Frankie Beverly Feat. Maze – I Wanna Thank You

1am Carriages

Regrets … I could have played on for hours, I still had plenty of tunes I wanted to play!

I’ve had my dream booking, I wonder if I’ll get any more of these … I really hope so.

Thank you Shaun and all your friends and family, “tonight I had a lot of fun ~ that’s all”