Swan E
I’ve been travelling hot on the heels of the one and
only Swan E.
Lets set the scene. It’s a Saturday night, Saturday the 29th of May
to be exact. It’s pissing down with rain. I’m standing around
outside a pub in my home town of Hoddesdon. The time turns 11pm and
like clockwork Swan E turns up on the dot as arranged with his crew
and his usual hired car. On goes a Swan E tape on the car stereo and
off we go on our magical mystery tour through the tulips.
First stop is Southend in Essex. We’ve got an hour and a half to get
there as it’s 11pm and he’s on at 12.30am. We head towards the
wonderful M25, we approach a roundabout and oh shit the car skids.
No were not going to die are we? Lucky enough we didn’t, just a
slight skid, what a way to start the night. Never mind.
Were now cruising around the M25 at 75mph or are we skating, who
knows with all this rain on the road! I don’t think Swan E knows
either! It looks like he’s fallen asleep at the wheel. “Wake up Swan
E” I shouted, “What” he replied, no he wasn’t asleep but just
resting his eyes?!? So I thought I’d better keep him awake so I
asked “What else have you got on this weekend apart from tonight?”.
He replied “Seeing as it’s a bank holiday weekend I’m quite busy.
Thursday night I found myself in the studio and I was stuck there
right through until it was time to head off to my first event of the
weekend (Friday night) up in Lowestoft.
Next I had to head into London and I finally went off home for a few
hours sleep. Then today I’ve been back in the studio and that’s why
I’m so tired. Tomorrow I’m in the studio again then off to Bagley
Film Studios for AWOL, then over the Rocket then home. All in all I
will probably end up with about 6 hours sleep over the weekend”.
What a busy man. So on we went on our journey towards the golden
sewage beaches of Southend.
It’s 12 midnight now as we come into the lovely Southend. If you’ve
ever been to Southend you know that cars race around on the
promenade all day, just going around and around. Well guess what?
They’re still doing it now and it’s midnight. I wonder if they ever
get dizzy or run out of petrol. Well we got caught up in this Wayne,
Tracey and fluffy dice parade trying to find the club, so we all
ducked just in case anybody recognised us. Eventually we found the
club – Monroes. The nights called the Ark and it’s a kicking little
underground club with the capacity to hold about 400 ravers. 12.30am
rolls on and the MC announces Swan E on the decks and off he goes
with some kicking tunes. They were so kicking I almost forgot to
take the photos. The crowd were having it to full effect, but like
all good things they come to an end.
Off we all trundle to the car, check the map, stuff some food and
away we go to our next destination – Oscars in Clacton. Out of
Southend and back towards the mysterious M25. We are all quite
happily driving along when some one says “Are we going the right
way”?, “Yes of course we are, aren’t we”? replies someone else.
“Shit, we’re not. We’re going round the M25 the wrong way”. Well now
you come to think of it, if you want to go to Clacton (which is
North of Southend) and your in Essex, you don’t want to go through
the Dartford Tunnel (which is heading South) unless you want to take
a detour via France. So off we came at the next junction, turn
around and back all the way heading North. By now the rain has
stopped for quite a while, but as we got closer to Clacton there was
a lot of bright flashes in the sky. Is it someone with a torch? Is
it the lasers at Oscars? No, it’s lightning and thunder and loads
more rain, just what we wanted. So it’s back on with the Wellington
boots.
It’s 3.30am. We’ve just arrived at Oscars and it’s still pissing
down. In we walk to this great club built on stilts (it’s on a pier)
and it’s totally rocking.
The atmospheres electric, the lasers are good and the venue’s
excellent. Well Swan E isn’t on until 5am the final set, so I left
him to mingle with the crowd. Before long it was 5am, Swan E is due
to do his set now. Stuart Banks comes off the decks and Swan E
brings the ravers right up from the start. Again he’s playing some
kickin tunes and he’s getting well into his set. 6am soon came
around and Swan E’s work was done for another night. The crowd
totally loved him with shouts for more, but some of us had to go
home to bed so the promoter said no more.
Well Swan E collected his wages and all back to the car we went for
the journey home. Swan E was relieved of driving as a member of his
crew Jimmy drove back as the sun came up (no rain), so I asked Swan
E “Anything else you would like to mention about tonight”? “I would
like to say a big shout to my crew tonight – Jimmy The Roadie, Steve
my faithful butler and a shout to the countess, all promoters, DJ’s
and especially Ellis Dee”. Well that’s it as we head up the M1 home
bound with Swan E starting to fall asleep in the back seat.
It’s a good life being a DJ I think, but if you are thinking of
becoming a DJ get a chauffer. Respect to Swan E and his crew for
putting up with me all night and if the guy in Southend is reading
this whose car I was mistakenly trying to get in, I’m sorry but I
thought it was Swan E’s car. No wonder the key didn’t fit!!!
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