Second month of 2008 and my second visit to a super club in London. If you recall, I went to Fabric back in late March (on the night we switched to British Summer Time, so we lost an hour of clubbing!). However, I have to report that Turnmills is a much better venue. It has more character and generally a better vibe. I suppose I better give the background. Back in mid September, Eddie, Paul and Pav played at the central London venue but I did not go. It was the week I had been to the Mobo awards and I was pretty much partied out. However, looking back I regret not going because everyone else that went (everybody apart from me!) had a great time. Charlie had made a last minute decision to drive (around 8pm on the night) and given a few people a lift. He could easily have swung by to pick me up. Never mind, I was eager to make up for this mistake and go at the next available opportunity. Particularly as the club closes at Easter to become offices. So effectively this was my first and last trip to Turnmills. The story begins as most of them do, with an Event posted on Facebook and then a thread (or rather group message) being sent around asking who was going and how they were getting down there. I was hoping to bag a lift from either Kev or Charlie but in the end I opted to drive myself. I only made the decision to go on Wednesday evening and booked my name onto the guest list with Paul on the night. We were going, it was just a case of persuading Pav to come out. Charlie and myself tried in a 3-way MSN conversation but Pav was completely silent. We later learned he had been in the garage at the time, polishing the M3. In the end, he decided to come, even though he had been there done it and got the t-shirt. I knew it would not have been the same experience without him there. There is no point having nice things if you cannot share them with your friends. Tonight was a great opportunity to have a great and perhaps cosy (for those in the back) journey into London. Obviously in an ideal world I would have taken the 307 but my sisters were off to Nottingham for a birthday. So they were out the door straight after their swimming lesson at 7.30pm. I didn’t mind going in my car, but originally it was just giving Charlie and Annie a lift. Fine no problems. I still had space in the car for another and we would ride comfortably but then Pav requested a lift on MSN and I was happy for him and Emily to come along but explained that I was already taking Charlie and Annie. No problems then, so it was just a case of making sure Pav was going to come. By Friday afternoon (after I came out my training session) the probability had risen to 83.5%. It was looking very positive. I like having to rush around at home before going out, it is a bit of a buzz. Ironically I could have got home around 4pm, as my boss said I could go home early but as much as I wanted to take up the offer, I could not. My Dad was giving me a lift and would not be there until 5.15pm to collect me. I had the option to call but opted against it and get some bits and pieces cleared up before the end of the work. However as usual, the productivity on a Friday afternoon is relatively low in any case. On the way home I check the tyre pressures on the A3, they were low as it had been a few weeks since I had checked them last I think. Then my Dad asked if I could give my sisters a lift down the road to their swimming lesson and then check the tyre pressures on the 307. It was a good thing I did this, the pressures were very low. No wonder it has been drinking petrol in the last few days. Around 7pm, I jumped into the shower, got ready and then had some food, watched Eastenders and then grabbed my things and headed out the door. First stop Woodley, followed by Emmer Green, then the A329(M) -> M4 East bound to London Village. The journey was a great laugh. Emily was in the passenger seat and in-charge of the audio. I only had my Ministry Of Sounds Anthems (1998 – 2008) album, but it was hard to find a song we all wanted to listen to. Em is like me, an album skipper and after the few seconds it takes for the Alpine unit to display the song and artist, she would hit the next button. There were quite a few crazy moments, the first was as we got to the main roundabout before getting onto the A329(M). A silver Vauxhall Meriva had been crawling ahead of me but got out of the way to go onto the A4 so I put my foot down and swung around the roundabout a high speed, just as we had decided to listen to Faithless – God Is A DJ. There were shouts at the back from Charlie, “Go Terry!”. We were on our way, it was around 9.30pm and our ETA (from TomTom) was around an hour or so. However, a call of nature stop at Hyde Park for Charlie and a few wrong turns meant it was more around 11pm that we parked up behind the club and walked down to The Castle to meet the rest of the gang. The other highlight of the drive had been driving past the Natural History Museum (Mr. Tull acting as the tour guide) and giving way to a beautiful silver Ferrari 599 GTB. You always see the best cars in London! We never got into the pub. We were in the long queue for the cash point and then thought it was best to head up and queue at Turnmills. It had taken nearly forty-five minutes to get in last time. We got into the guest queue and once we reached the man at the end of the gate, told him which list we were on and were handed playing cards with Portugal on the back. I was given the 2 of Clubs. We then went through, were padded down by security and got to the till, we had to hand over our playing card and money to get our ticket and our hand was stamped. We were in.

Once inside I could understand the appeal of the place. The decor was quite retro, there was bright lighting. We head down into the club and made our way to the back to the cloak room. There was a long queue. After handing in our jackets we headed to the bar before finding the room Paul would be playing at around 3am. Then we headed to the main room, it was slowly building up. I need to escape my dress sense for the evening, particularly if you head over to FlickR to look at the small FlickR set. Our friend Nige (London Nige, as he is more affectionately called as we already have another local friend called Nige) wears tank tops. So we thought one night out we would all turn up in tank tops just to rub him up the wrong way. Just as a choke I wore one last night but was aiming on leaving it in the car. However everyone else (mainly Annie) thought it looked quite good, so I kept it on. Just meant I got some rather funny looks in the club, particularly while queuing for cloak room but I did not care. Charlie then couldn’t help himself and had to try it on, so did Pav and even Annie! It kept me warm but as the place got rammed, it was getting quite hot. We spent most of the evening in The Crescendo room (2) waiting for Paul’s slot to start (which was 3am). The DJ before him was having to use some old skool tracks to resurrect his set. Paul had given Pav his camera and he took a few photos and video footage at the start of his set. We stayed for a while but then moved to the main room. Charlie and Annie were around the corner. It was really busy now with hardly any space to stand, let alone dance. A bouncer went by and bumped into Annie. Charlie went and tapped him on the shoulder and told him to watch it (I don’t think Charlie realised he was part of security). For a split second I thought he was about to be thrown out but he just wanted a word with the Admiral and walked down to the main corridor just outside. He he gave some lecture on standing in the way and that he was not able to get past. We decided, perhaps this was the right time to call it a night. It was around 3.30am. Pav, Charlie and Annie went to get the jackets as I said goodbye to Andy a few other friends. We then got into the car and headed on the long drive home (well for me, as there were two drop offs in Emmer Green and Woodley, respectively). I pulled up onto my drive at 5.30am. Wooo hooo! Another rock and roll weekend and it was only just getting started. I must talk about music. I was speaking to my best mate Dave on MSN the other day and he recommended an album to download. It was not just a casual recommendation. It was a fully fledged endorsement, “j holiday is the best r&b album i’ve heard in ages.” A direct quote from the MSN chat log. So I took the plunge and obtain the full album and I must say on first listen it is very good. I had seen the video for Bed but never really heard the song in full. J does have a fantastic voice and I highly recommend you buy the album too, if you are a fan of smooth r’n’b numbers. Another song I have played to death recently is Walk Away by Paula DeAnda. I cannot believe the song is nearly two years old but I suppose the record label has now started the plans for global domination after success locally in the States. She has a great voice and her songs are very good. I have got the videos for Doing Too Much and Walk Away on my Zen now. I think with both albums, I need to put them onto an MP3 CD and listen to them in the car for the next few weeks and find the gems on the albums away from the songs released as lead singles.

I cannot end my discussion about music without talking about the King! His first single since November 2003 is released on Monday. Sure it is a reworking of a previous hit but it is something and the start of the comeback. I pre-ordered Thriller 25 on 16th January and it should be delivered week commencing 11th February at work! I have never owned the original album or the 2001 remaster. Even though I have placed them on my Christmas list for many years, it is one album from solo years that is missing from my CD collection. I am most looking forward to the DVD of the Billie Jean performance from Motown 25. There are so many rumours going around at the moment, there is quite a buzz in the fan community. Although as my main source, the MJ News Online forum has closed it’s doors I am looking to find a new place to get all my MJ news and gossip. A residency at The O2? Performance at half time during the Super Bowl XLII tomorrow night and even a group performance of a classic track from Thriller at the Grammy’s (which is presented by his former mentor Quincy Jones). So much to look forward to, oh and did I mention a new album to drop in the late Summer / early Autumn?