Inside Out @ the Arches, Glasgow 30th August 2003.

Every now and again as a DJ you play a club that really makes you take a step back and reflect on how lucky you are to do the job that you do. On Saturday night I had one of those moments.

I arrived at Glasgow airport at 6pm and was driven by Simon Foy (Inside out Promoter and DJ) to the hotel. Tina and I were really tired and decided to get a nap before the gig. I arrived at the Arches at around 1am and made my way into the main arch where I was playing a 1.30 to 3am slot following Tall Paul. Imagine my amazement when I walked into the amazing main room to see a couple of thousand clubbers going mad to my track-Day One- which by all accounts is being hammered by Tall Paul. He apologised for playing my track before I went on but since he played the original mix I could always play the A+B mix later on.

The club really is a fantastic place to play. The main room is full of raw energy and its size is awesome. By the time it was my turn to go on I was already drenched with sweat as the temperature kept on rising. At 1.30 Paul graciously stepped aside and let me take over. I opened up with the intro from the Viframa track- Cristalle and quickly mixed in a new Thomas Datt tune called Your Magic. This lushed out intro really worked with the Inside out faithful and I was up and running. What I did notice was the fact that the crowd were very receptive to all the new material that I played.

In contrast to my trance sound, the smaller front arch was hosting the more techy, harder sounds of Fergie. It’s not often that a club can so successfully host two differing styles. But after Saturday night I am of the opinion that nothing is beyond the reach of the Inside out gang as the atmosphere and crowd in Fergie’s room were also fantastic.

As the chants of the crowd were drowning out the records I decided that this was something special…. 1½ hours was not enough. The tune of the night was Ronski’s excellent rework of the classic Binary Finary track. But tracks like Insigma- Avalon, and Agnelli and Nelson- Nothing, also went down a storm. I decided before hand that I would finish with and excellent bootleg of the Underworld track- born slippy. As you can imagine the reaction was great. Not normally something I would play but very apt.

I was told by the organisers to duck down at the end or the crowd would never leave. However, they were having no such luck with Fergie in the other room as he continued regardless. It was nice to see Paul and Fergie again. We all made our way back to the hotel together. However, I was mindful of the last time Fergie kidnapped Tina and myself for a quick drink at the hotel which turned into an all-nighter, so it was time to say goodnight as we tried to get a couple of hours sleep before our 9am flight back to London.

Inside out is truly terrific and if you could bottle and sell the atmosphere on Saturday night you would be a millionaire. I’d like to thank Simon and Duncan and the Inside out crowd for one of the best gigs of the year. I hope to see you all in the near future….