Andrew Dubber     

Valentines day seems to be my time to DJ. Must be the soppy jazz stuff. I seem to hardly ever play records out, but Valentines seems to be a sure bet.

This year, I ended up with two gigs: first at the Bulls Head in Moseley, then at the Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath. Both gigs were attended by a select (ie small) crowd and people said nice and encouraging things. Some of them even said ‘Are you here every Thursday?’ ‘Why not?’

Probably because it’s usually real DJs, but they don’t work on Valentines. I suspect that most of them are young, unmarried, and hoping to make the most of the romantic occasion. Our romantic occasion was a couple of days ago, when Bobbie and I had our 14th wedding anniversary.

But the response was good, though the crowd was small. In fact, it seems I have another gig at the end of March at the residence and recording studio of a man named Bob, who I’m told produced the first UB40 album, and has a ‘mint pad’, which I’m assuming is a great home, rather than a toothpaste-flavoured jotter. He says I was a ‘breath of fresh air’, and must play records at his soiree.

Sounds like it could be fun.

I spent the morning with my first year students, and we set up four new record labels, as we do at this time each semester. That was followed by a succession of meetings, all of which generated extremely exciting new adventures, the detail of most of which I can’t yet divulge, but they included the usual things I get excited about: music, the internet, doing cool things with interesting people, and the faint promise of money one day perhaps.

In the morning, I’m off to Holland for the Lopend Vuur pitch, which I’ll explain in more detail over the next few days (once I understand it better myself). My flight’s at 9.45am, and it’s 2am now (I’ve just come home from the DJ-ing gig), so I’ll go have a short nap before packing, I think.

Tagged: Music, Personal