Photos from Miami and other delights...

Well, looks like I left it 2 months since my last blog. Shameful. I'm sorry internets. As I said before, I guess I do more mini-blogging with stuff like twitter, and whenever I get hold of photo sets from my gigs they get posted straight away to my facebook pages, myspace and flickr - but you guys probably already know that, and if you don't, and need more John B stalking bizniz in your life - then there are lots of ways to go about it... Just no stalking in the real world please - that would be a bit creepy.

Been a busy couple of months as usual - most recently I can let you know that the latest episode of my podcast is up now click here to go download it and generally I've spent most of my time recently on aeroplanes to gigs, or at gigs, or in hotels - playing a little bit of Call of Duty inbetween. Oh, and hunting mice in my garage.

Had a good night on Monday in London - my friend Mark Moore hooked it up to show a couple of really rare music documentaries in a cool old pub in East London, one called "Punk & the Pistols" which, as the name suggests was about the birth of Punk and the British scene, and a lot about the sex pistols etc - the director came down and gave a talk before we watched it too. Inspiring indeed. After that they showed another one, about the New Romantic movement this time, called "Poseurs"- reminded me I have a long way to go in terms of interesting fashion. Must try harder Mr. B. Also discovered a few 80s bands I've somehow overlooked during the process so good all round really...



Realised I had a few gaps in my Punk CD collection too, so plugged in a few with today's amazon delivery!



Had a few good gigs last week, although I ended up at Heathrow Airport 4 days running! Played Vienna on Wednesday, then Electro/Techno gigs in Ulm and Friedrichshafen in Germany on Fridady and Saturday. All of them seriously good, mega hot rammed rave-ups indeed. We recorded my set in Ulm so I'm in the process of getting hold of the recording and will publish it as a podcast as soon as possible!

I also have recordings from my guest appearance on Bailey's show on BBC 1Xtra a couple of weeks back ready to go soon, so those should make for some nice bonus podcast episodes too!



Ok, I need to go get on with stuff - will post lots more photos later - meanwhile here's one from Miami - taken at the beatport pool party after I'd been uncharacteristically up all night after P DIDDYS MANSION POOL AFTERPARTY.



Ah, and here's my mousecatcher girlfriend Hayley.



****EDIT***** Just realised I promised more pictures from Miami (back in March for the WMC)- here we go...

Hayley & Ingrid on the beach:


My cousin Greg and his mate Stu at the best sushi spot in Miami: SUSHI ROCK!


I SMELL DOUSCHE! Sometimes the parties in Miami aren't chock full of Babes in Bikinis... :-(


The obligatory John B socktan photo:


World of Drum & Bass:


With my friends Ingmar & Casey at the Dip In! Pool party

Jean (B) Luc Picard does not approve of your Chatroulette

So last night I had to do some serious tune hunting and sort out all my non-dnb music to get loaded into my new Serato set up ready for the US Tour & Miami WMC sets - figured I might as well drink some wine, dress up in my Star Trek outfit, with a Picard Shrine, and go on Chatroulette.com at the same time.

I met a monster, a computer, but best of all sleighed a ninja. And a huge pile of killer techno.

Photos from Matter on Friday & details of my glorious but failed quest to Dresden!

Greetings blogosphere folks. Quick update of the weekend's activities just gone! Friday was ace - did the Hospitality Q&A&E seminar/demo thing at the British Music Experience in the o2 early on - although a bit late starting as Danny Byrd's vocalist locked their car keys in the boot!

I talked/mumbled my way through a quick demo of the Logic Project file of the last track I'd been working on in the studio - my remix/rework of Tritonal's epic trance track 'Suede', the original of which has just come out on Gareth Emery's Garuda label. I couldn't beleive I managed to get it to run on my MacBook (minus the nice TC Powercore reverb plug ins and a few others I didn't have installed on it) considering it has about 35 audio instruments running and over 40 other audio channels etc. One for the geeks to appreciate there anyway! Had fun answering questions from the audience too - there should be a video posted soon, so I'll get it up here when I find it.

Played Hospitality at Matter after a great dinner & catchup with everyone, including a very old friend of mine from University who now works in the City, but is still a big electronic music fan, and actually helped me move into DJing when we were at Uni by setting up the Uni Radio Station "Purple FM" when I was up in Durham. Nu:Tone was there too - and at Uni the same time as me so was great to get the old gang together. Oh and congrats to Mr. & Mrs. Nu:Tone on their THIRD baby! Building a mighty clan!

Was great to finally play at Matter - was really impressed at the organisation and set up - and oh my god the crowd! I'd been a bit miffed to get such a late set (4-5am) but man, it was HEAVING in there right till the bitter end, so respect to everyone that came out and were going so nuts!

Quality signs backstage at Matter:





My view from the stage at Matter:





Projoesnaps from tillate.com kindly sent me over his photos from Matter - you can see the whole gallery on my facebook here, but here's a few of my favourites:









Saturday wasn't so great, I ended up missing my gig in Dresden because of flight disruptions. :-(

Got a cab from the hotel in London to Paddington station (£35 - almost an hour) then the Heathrow Express to Heathrow T1 (another £20) checked in OK, but my flight to Munich ended up being delayed almost 2 hours, meaning I had to leg it across Munich Airport to make my connection in time, which turned out to also be delayed (waiting for crew to come in on a delayed flight from Cologne), so hung around another 1.5 hrs, then once we boarded, the bus to take us to the plane was late, so by the time we'd all got on the plane the pilot announced that as it was 11pm, we'd be arriving in Dresden when the airport was closed to flights, so we all had to get off the plane, onto the bus, get to the Lufthansa Service centre to get rebooked, hotel's sorted etc.

Sounds worse when you write it down than it was really, I just take these things as they come and do my best to storm it through the airport fast and efficient ninja stylee and at least get as near to the front of the lines as possible & deal with things calmly and efficiently. Was just a bit random to have been travelling all day to essentially just spend the night in the Munich airport hotel and gobble some nice room service and actually get a good night's sleep on a Saturday for a change! So apart from the hanging around, which wasn't too bad as I have business lounge access, it turned out OK for me really! hah! Anyway, we're rescheduling the gig, and I filmed this video below so all the fans know what was going on - I think they might have even projected it in the club in my absence ;-)



Here's a few of my iPhone photos as the day progressed - if you follow me on twitter you'd have seen them LIIVVVEEE. Woo!

Brunch at Heathrow:



With Mistabishi's inspiring face at the BMI lounge at Heathrow, waiting for first delayed plane (and drinking free wine!)



Storming it through Munich Airport with the determination of the terminator baddie in terminator 2. Except with a roller suitcase carry on & Adam Ant jacket.



Another airport, another lounge. Recording my (unused) VIP intro for the Dresden gig:



Snowplough Ballet at Munich Airport - on the bus to the plane:



Guys behind me at the Lufthansa Service centre freaking out about the cancellation in loud German:





Finally, at the stroke of midnight, my 12819281th Hotel Club sandwich room service & laptop movie. Never gets old ;-)



Nice Tunnel in Munich Airport:



Finally back home to Miami packing & sunglass selection session!:

Mr. B your blog is dead! Bring it Back to Life!

Shame shame shame. Used to update this blog a lot more frequently - but I guess I let all the other stuff, like living life, get in the way! Hah! Don't worry it was only temporary!

I guess twitter has been one of the main reasons why I haven't updated the blog much too - now its more simple to do quick, instant mini-blog things from wherever I am in the world it seems less important to do big brain-dumps here - and a lot of the photos I would post here I've already done as tweetpics. So, yeah I'm plugging my twitter already... its here: twitter.com/johnbbeta

Right now, today I'm just pushing out the new podcast, episode 75 which just went live last night, and I think is one of the best so far! You can download all my previous podcasts at www.johnbpodcast.com and on iTunes here - if you subscribe in iTunes it automatically downloads the new episodes as soon as they are published. Woo!

Had too many gigs recently to mention all individually but I've been impressed at how well everything is going - I played Bournemouth in the UK for the first time in my career last week - at the Opera House, nice big venue and a really good, long running night - came on after some ruffff dubstep courtesy of mr Rusko, and was followed by Friction - good times, and still rammed till LATE. Thought I'd got a puncture on the way down so could have been a disaster but turned out to be a false alarm - wasn't much fun pulled over on the side of the motorway in the dark/rain trying to check if I had a flat tyre using my iphone as a torch! (Just got a new BMW and the puncture indicator light had come on - turned out to be becuase they hadn't reset it after replacing a tyre last week!).

The weekend before was one of the most intense I've had in a while - flew to Prague on the Friday and played a huge rave to about 4000 people (photos here) then back to London next day to play a Formation Records event at the Den, then flew to Moscow on Sunday, then was driven 5-6 hours to Yaroslavl (in -15 degrees, blizzards and all sorts!) did a gig there, few hours sleep, then the same long drive back to Moscow the next day, in the snow, and a gig in Moscow on the Monday night! Made it back late Tuesday and yes, was pretty whackkkked. But the gigs were great and you could tell it meant a lot to the people that had turned out to the club - especially in Yaroslavl which just felit like it was in the middle of nowhere!!

Anyway, enough blabbering on, I need to get on with stuff... I guess I'll post up a load of the random photos I've taken with my iphone over the last few months so you can see what I've been doing in a more entertaining way ;-)

I always think the escalators in Zurich airport are pretty handsome.


My usual Friday/Saturday night room service/last minute Laptop bizniz combo meal.


The wonders of Moscow DME Airport's immigration area when you arrive at the wrong time. I ninja'd it through following some pilots - would have been there hours otherwise!


Transaero Airlines' idea of safe stowage of cabin luggage. I emailed BMI customer services about this as it was a BMI ticket I was travelling on - they didn't seem to give a stuff. Luckily the bag didn't hit me in the head. Or the old lady it belonged to...


Russian attempts at gogo dancing in Samara


When I'm feeling flush this is the John B airport lunch


Visited my Grandma up in Newcastle in December. This is me on her couch with the cat "Billy" - named after my late Grandad




By St. Mary's Lighthouse in Whitley Bay - just up the road from my Grandma's - always gotta visit this when I'm up there - Love it!


Grandma had my old graduation photo up on the bookcase ;-) DODGY HAIR OMG


Tax Return bizniz


Trying to get home from Cambridge in the first night of the mega snow we got in December


With Aphrodite and our improvised window replacement for the 2 hr drive from Prague to Brno in Czech Republic - the cars rear window just fell down into the guts of the car. It was -8 or something. COLD BIZNIZ


Hayley on top of a big hill in Cornwall at Christmas


Leaky gutter + ice = STALACTITES!


Champagne & Top Gear on the flight to DC in January

Flyer for my gig in Turin on Dec 7 2009 & general blabber

The promoters just sent over a copy of the flyer for my gig over in Turin in a few weeks so thought I'd post it up here! Checkkitout!



Nice right? They also said they have a friend involved in the party with links to this winery WOOHARR! haha! I think I'll be bringing back some Pinot Grigio and Gavi oh yes!

All well otherwise over here on planet John B, the last few days have been dominated by me and my PS3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (I stayed up till 4am last night on it!!) but I promise to emerge and get back on the music! I keep my PS3 gaming ID private but sometimes I'm on the xbox 360, as 'johnbbeta' if you fancy a challenge...

Had a great night out last Sunday in London with Hayley & our new friends Wayne Elise & Dan who run www.charismaarts.com and were over in the UK doing some private coaching - and their friends Jeremy & Andrew, superinternationalbusinessmen - very civilised evening indeed, loads of sushi then v posh and expensive drinks (and ice cream) at the Sanderson Hotel and Hakkasaan (36th best restaurant in the world - used to be 8th!) where I had the most yummy glass of Premier Cru Chablis I've ever tasted in my whole life! Good stuff.

Podcast 72 is on the way too, I've been going through tracks and getting the shortlist together and its looking like a monster. Will aim to have it out on Monday - going for one every 2 weeks now!

I booked this weekend off ages ago (so I could play COD the week it came out!) so you can't catch me DJing anywhere - but next week I'm playing at the Metalheadz night at The Arches in London on Friday, then at Pirate Station in Samara in Russia on Saturday. As usual all my live dates are up on my website here.

In other news I've got the masters back for the new Beta Recordings releases. The Camo & Krooked EP, and the Xilent Single. Release date should be 6-7 weeks from now, depending on how long it takes for the vinyl promos to come... Will post a separate article about that with some clips for you later.

Ok, I'm off out for a run. In the turrential rain, but its gotta be done...

DJ Mag Poll - I made it into the Top 100 & got highest DnB DJ!!!

WOooharrrrrr!!!!

Should have posted this sooner but I've been in a cycle of celebrating & being hungover since last week! If you follow me on twitter or saw the news/mag already then you'll know but - WE DID IT!!! I got to number 92 in the DJ Mag Top 100 Poll, and was the highest DnB DJ in the whole thing!!

Went up to London on Wednesday for the awards ceremony at Ministry of Sound, was my first time at the venue actually - dunno how I've never been before! Went with the gorgeous Hayley Quinn got whisked inside and did a bunch of TV/Radio/Press interview stuff, then hung out in the VIP bit with Gareth Emery and his gang, Andy Moor, Matt Zo, the Anjunabeats folks, and probably lots of other famous trance DJs but I'm terrible at remembering who's who and what they look like! Managed to have a v quick chat with Armin Van Buuren who managed 3 years in a row at number 1 - he said he really liked DnB (but he thought we all still only played vinyl!) and I told him I really liked trance, and erm that's about it haha! He had a humungous entourage too, I counted about 8 or 9 serious looking businessmen types, but the coolest thing was his mum and dad were there with him! If I get in again next year I'm totally taking my parents too - but will have to get some earplugs for my mum, not too sure she's a fan of loud music - Radio 4 is more her bag ;-)

Anyway - I'm absolutely over the moon with the result, it's an amazing achievement to finally break into the DJ Mag Top 100, and an honour to be the highest Drum & Bass DJ! Thank you SO MUCH everyone that supported me in the poll - I promise I'll keep the podcasts coming, and keep giving it 200% on tour! Thanks!!!

You can see the full Top 100 list in this month's edition of DJ Mag, or on the DJ Mag website if you click here.

John did a quick interview with the fabulous skrufff.com guys the day after the announcement too - you can read the article here: http://skrufff.com/2009/10/trance-types-dominate-dj-mag’s-top-100-again/