Briggsy

A Signum classics set will be good - as will a Tall Paul set. Seb Fontaine could go either way. If the 1997-2000 Seb Fontaine turns up, his set should be good too. You just know that Jules is going to wreck that night though. Its Gatecrasher though - so I wouldn't be too surprised if two of those DJs don't turn up. The line-up has already been revised from the original line-up.

Cheers Tim! Done Thanks Aza! Enjoy :-)

I used to love record shopping. 3 Shades was a cracking little shop. They were always around £2 a record cheaper than anywhere else, and they had a lot of tunes on minor/obscure/import labels that nobody else had. I used to use Massive in Birmingham too - although that shop was poor in comparison to the Oxford shop. The Birmingham shop only really had the new releases, and the crap records that they couldn't shift from the Oxford shop. They used to have exclusive promo rights to all ID&T releases, and the guy in the Oxford store (Russell) always used to put the ones aside that he knew i'd like if they only got 2 or 3 copies in. HTFR were dire. Overpriced, staff with attitude, appalling infamous very dodgy so-called "white labesl" that were blatant radio rips. Most of them were mono or had faded our radio jingles. Shocking. The only good thing about the place was the security guy (Baz?) - he was a legend! Always up for a laugh. Dance Music Finder was quite decent. A little like HTFR in some ways - only the staff were far more helpful. Juno was the dogs danglies though when it came to record stores. You could only order online - but they stocked practically everything, they were well priced, and their service was outstanding. I used to order records as late as 6pm some nights - and still had them arrive in the post the following day. DotVinyl was good for the Mondo test presses/promos, and Chemical/3Beat and Global Groove were also very good. MP3 "shopping" is a chore now. Far too many labels out there - most of which offer shit that is awful and would never have seen the light of day in the vinyl days. It takes an age ploughing through all the shit before you get to the one gem. Not for me - and one side of DJ'ing I don't miss in the slightest.

Hi guys, Been going through my PC and come across some of my really old mixes from years ago - back to when my taste in music was more Jules-orientated, so I thought i'd share some here: I'll slowly add mixes to this thread over time. Here's the first - my very first recorded mix, which goes back to 2003. Recorded on my first decks, which were Soundlab direct drives, and a Pioneer DJM600 mixer. Apologies for the poor sound quality - my PC back then had a poor sound card which left made recordings sound a bit "hissy". Link: http://test.coventrypcrepairs.com/RetroMixes/Briggsy-July2003.mp3 http://test.coventrypcrepairs.com/RetroMixes/Briggsy-July2003.mp3 Tracklisting: Radical Noiz feat Adeva - In & Out Simple Minds - Spaceface (Tomcraft Remix) Tomcraft - Loneliness (Import Version) Hi-Gate - Gonna Work It Out Yomanda - On The Level Perpetual Motion - We're All Here Together (Andy Manston Instrumental Mix) Yomanda - You're Free (Hi-Gate Mix) [Whyyyyy? Awful tune] Scott Mac - Damager 02 4 Strings - Let It Rain Dark Monks - Insane (Steve Murano Remix) DJ Snowman - And Then They Start To Fall (DuMonde Remix) Warrior - If You Want Me (Instrumental Mix) Michael Woods - Solex

I doubt i'll be taking part this year i'm afraid (I didn't either last year). I used to start off well - then i'd lose interest half way through and forget to make subs or swap my team around when it needed to be swapped around. I doubt i'll be paying much interest to the Premiership this year anyway now that we've dropped a league, so i'll be a bit out of touch as to who's playing well, and who are the donkeys.

Its not as simple asking him not to do them anyway. Jules stated in his online diary a while back that his contractual rider had been amended to include an extra deck specifically for those shit jingles. As its part of his contractual rider, then there wouldn't be any way around it. If you book him, you'd either have to agree to his contract - or not get him at all. That said, you would have thought that Jules would use some common sense - and use those jingles where they fit in. Passion does not fit in (and he did actually play them at Passion).

Since I quit DJ'ing, the pain in my left ear has pretty much gone. I think i've had it two or three times this year - whereas before, it was almost constant. Still no signs of tinnitis. I still struggle to hear people in places where there's background noise though. It doesn't really bother me though - and I don't miss DJ'ing either.

There's a time and a place for those jingles - they probably work fine in a small commercial bar, or Luminar Leisure-esque venue, in the middle on Workington on a Saturday night where the crowd are not very clued up and just want to listen to commercial music whilst drinking their £1 shot offers. The likes of Passion, Godskitchen, Gatecrasher and the Ministry of Sound, where 95% of the crowd are very clued-up and want to hear "proper" dance music and mixing, where the crowd are specifically going for the DJs and music on offer, rather than to drink as much alcohol as they can for as little as they can spend, is not the right place.

They don't need to, but they do. Sadly, a few extra places to these guys means a few extra hundred/thousand pounds added to their already way over the top DJ fees - so paying temporary staff for a few weeks to vote for them numerous times is worthwhile for them. Christopher Lawrence and DJ Dan were both ranked outside the top 100 for years - and then all of a sudden, one year, they both went up to something like number 8 in the world and DJ Mag investigated - and found out they were both involved with cheating and were disqualified from the poll. DJ Mag have also anmounced again that they are also set to "name and shame" again soon (I think its today actually) - so it will be interesting to see what names appear. Sadly, this poll has an impact on DJ fees these days - and while thats the case, DJs or their agencies will be looking at ways to abuse the system so that they can get their earnings increased. Each year, there are DJs way down the poll that should be much higher, and a couple of names inside the top 20 that make you think "how on earth did they get there". It doesn't need much working out as to who's doing things legit, and who's doing things a bit dodgy - particularly when you see three DJs at, for example, number 20, 21 and 22 all from the same agency with the same manager. I can't name names because I don't want to be sued, but when I used to run an old website and did a few DJ interviews, I was sent a press pack from one agency in the form of a ZIP file. Inside it, were numerous photos and biog/discogs of each of their artists. They'd also (by mistake I would imagine) added a file which shouldn't have been there - and that was a file that was supposed to be an internal memo stating that this particular agency were about to employ a number of temporary staff for a couple of months simply to spend time online voting for their two biggest artists. I was half expecting those two DJs to be "named and shamed" in DJ Mag for suspect voting - but they never were. From what I can remember, I think one entered the poll at number 26, and the other at 33 - so this kind of thing does happen - and I would imagine it wasn't just that particular agency that were at it either.

I said on another forum the other day that the only way all of this will stop is by making it postal vote only - by using a form printed inside a copy of DJ Mag. Each form could have its own unique number, allowing DJ Mag to retain some control over votes. Each number would be linked in to deliveries - so they'd know exactly where each magazine has been bought from. If they recieve two votes from a magazine purchased from a small newsagents in Lincolnshire, chances are, the votes are going to be legit. If they get 200 votes, all out of magazines purchased in Amsterdam, from a shop around the corner from the headquarters of a DJ Agency, then it won't need much working out whats gone on there. For as long as voting is done online, there will always be methods of cheating the system.

True to some extent - but even with some of the more recent tunes with long intros, Jules edited them so much to make them much shorter - so therefore, he was choosing not to do long mixes by editing the intros down in length. The best example of that was Mark Norman - Brasillia from around 5-6 years ago. Fantastic tune, with lots of energy and a really long intro - giving the opportunity to pull off a really long, energetic mix - but Jules edited a rather large chunk out of it - and completely destroyed the intro. In fact, the part where Jules mixed it in sounded really odd. Unfortunately, Jules just let his standards slip as the years went on. Most of his bad mixes weren't through bad beatmatching - 95% of them were down to mixing tunes that just didn't compliment each other, and they clashed terribly because there were out of key or just didn't suit each other. His mixes became random and ill-thought out. This had been pointed out by numeous people to Jules (some of whom post on here) by email - to which Jules would always respond with "the crowd were really up for it" - and dismissed it outright. The same applied to his online diary. He'd state that a club was "rocking" and the "crowd were loving it" - even though i'd been at a few events that he'd referred to with those comments - and Jules had actually killed the dancefloor. I'm not sure what happened - whether Jules had become genuinely oblivious to where things were going wrong and didn't see it himself, or whether he was choosing to ignore it all knowing that he could still fill clubs regardless of how good or bad he played simply because he was a household name that people would go out to see because they knew who he was. Ultimately, whatever the reason, he lost most of his original fans, lost his slot on Radio 1, and I predict he'll finish outside the DJ Mag Top 100 for the first time in his career when the results are announced in a month or so's time. Its sad to see - but Jules hasn't been at his peak for around 10 years - and, in my opinion, the final nail in the coffin was 4 years ago when he went from "occasionally good, occasionally bad" but still worth going to see - to "shocking" and a DJ to stay clear of. His poor mixing, attempts at "scratching", poor tunes and "somebody screeeeeeeeeeeeam" voiceovers in respectable clubs such as Godskitchen and Passion just made it unbearable to listen to, and if i'm honest, very cringey! He was once a DJ that would be the highlight of my night. Over the past few years, he's become the DJ that has ruined my night.

Great tune! Had this on a clear blue vinyl! \o/

haha I think mine have been made fairly public over the years, hence their predictability. As The Rush Comes and Sky Falls down are absolutely awful. Cheesy pop-trance. Never understood why they were so big. I quite liked Red,Blue, Purple - it was simple and catchy. Then I heard Jules play it - with his attempted trademark "scratching", and he got the CDJ loop stuck on the outro for about a minute and a half - and since then, i've been left mentally scarred by it.

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:eek: What a rip off! They're only about 20 miles apart. Half an hour journey or so? Its quite nice around those parts though. Quite close to Matlock and the Peak District which are really nice and scenic if you're into that kind of thing. I did a temporary van driving job for 3 months last winter which involved covering a 120 mile radius of Coventry - and I always enjoyed driving around that area (apart from Matlock - the van only just fits up the road in some areas around there - throw in snow and its scary stuff! lol). The scenery is fantastic and the people are generally quite nice and friendly too. Thankfully, I seemed to get that area quite a lot. I used to hate covering the south-west of Coventry (Gloucestershire, etc). Urgh! Oh, if you're into your Trance music still, there's still plenty going on around that sort of area too (unlike the rest of England, where Trance is generally non-existant these days) - Passion in Coalville, Digital Society in Leeds, the occasional Gatecrasher night in Nottingham - plus a few smaller nights too. I dare say you've done your research already though before taking the decision to move here, so apologies if i'm telling you things that you already know. haha

Yeah, the North/South divide plays quite a big part. Generally, the south of England tends to be a lot more expensive than the north - particularly Devon, Sussex, Surrey and Kent. Devon because its quite nice and generally, its notorious for its wealthy residents anyway - and I suspect Kent, Sussex and Surrey due to its close and easy connections with London. Coventry tends to be more expensive than other parts of the Midlands (even though its a shit hole!) simply down to accessibility to London too. Two major motorways allow you to get there in an an hour and a half or so, and a direct train route that takes one hour exactly. The north tends to be fairly reasonable (an old mate worked for FHM magazine and she had a tiny flat on the borders of Surrey - and then sold that and bought a big house in Leeds for the same price). Generally though, the pay in those areas represents the cost of living in those areas. Pay up north generally tends to be lower than down south.

Buses are (partly down to the rising costs of fuel - and partly because most of the smaller bus companies have bene bought out by big National Express/Stagecoach type companies that have hiked prices up since taking over). Taxis are a joke too. People often complain about the trains too - but to be fair, if you buy in advance, they're actually a bargain. A return to London from Coventry is a tenner return if I get it a month in advance. If I was daft enough to buy it the day, then it costs £90+ return. When I used to go to Edinburgh a lot, I used to pay £25 return if I bought in advance. On the day, it was over £100. I wouldn't even be able to go one way in the car for £25. So if you're over here and need to use trains, and you know in advance when you're going somewhere, buy as soon as possible for a bargain. If you turn up at the station on the day of travel to buy your ticket, you'll be stung. There are ways of 'cheating' the system to get cheaper travel too without breaking any rules/laws. For example, if i'm travelling from Coventry to Crewe, it actually works out cheaper to buy a return to Chester (which is further than Crewe, its the same train, and it stops at Crewe before Chester) - simply because Crewe is classed as a main interchange - whereas Chester isn't classed as a main station. Also, if i'm travelling from Coventry to London, and I need to use the London Underground, then i buy a return to Clapham Junction. Its the same price as a return to London Euston - but it includes a zone 1 and 2 underground ticket at no extra charge so that you can get a connecting train to Clapham Junction. All very boring, but it can save a few quid. The joys of knowing someone who works on the railways

Sod that! Petrol or diesel? Diesel is about that here, but petrol is about £1.28 here (from supermarkets anyway - £1.33ish from the Texacos or BPs - but I don't encourage them anyway). The day petrol goes over £1.40 per litre will be the day I stop driving and flog my car. I was very close last year - but decided to keep it. I used to do about 20,000 miles a year - then that reduced to about 12,000 a year, but over the last 12 months, for various reasons, i've done less than 2000 miles - so its no great loss any more. Petrol is one massive rip-off.

We've got the nickname "Rip Off Britain" - that says it all really. I'm not sure how the Canadian vs England taxes compare - but compared to the USA, we're very expensive. My best mate moved to America two years ago (about 10 miles out of Detroit) - and he said he'd never come back because he gets far more for his money out there. I don't know all the ins-and-outs in details - but I know that he pays something like 53p per litre of petrol - whereas over here, we're paying at the moment, on average, £1.28p per litre. When his dad moved to America 8 years ago, he sold his bog standard 2-bedroomed, terraced house - no garage, no nothing, for £120,000 (it was valued at £180,000 but he sold it to his brother at a discounted priced). For the same price in America, he bought a four bedroomed house with 2 garages, his nearest neighbour is one mile away, and he has a never-ending back garden (literally, he has cows wandering in some days from the surrounding fields). My mate went over there to coach football (he's a qualified football coach and lifeguard) - and in this country, he'd earn a bog standard £8.10 per hour. In America, because they're screaming out for British football coaches, he earns just under £80 per hour. He does 6 hours work a week and goes to Uni for the rest of the time. Over here, he'd have had to work full time to earn less money - and that would have taken his Uni chances away due to not having the time. There are good points to this country (such as the NHS, the benefits system should you be unfortunate enough to need it, etc) - but generally, these have been abused over the years, and ultimately, we're paying for it now. I hate the UK - If I actually had the balls to do it, i'd leave tomorrow. Only family and friends keep me here. I know two people that have left the country to live abroad over the past few years (one to Australia, one to the USA) - and both have said that they'd never ever come back.

Agreed. Clegg is a waste of space. He's just sitting there letting it all happen and doesn't seem to be opposing anything at all (which perhaps highlights that ALL politicians, regardless of their party, are all as bad as each other and don't actually give a shit about the country - they're just their to line their own pockets). Labour were awful. The Conservatives are awful - and the Lib Dems are also proving that they too are awful. Therefore, we can safely say that this country is rapidly going down the shitter - and not one of those parties are going to sort it out because they haven't the faintest idea where to start. As for the "Tory Tax avoiders" (that aren't actually all Tories - they're all at it regardless of party!) - they aren't really to blame. If there is a system in place to legally avoid paying as much tax, then, lets face it, we'd all use it if we could. Nobody likes paying excessive taxes - so why pay more when you could pay less. The blame lies with the politicians that COULD change the system so that this tax-avoiding loophole is removed - but they won't, because they're using it themselves. When was the last time you heard of a poor politician? They're all minted with properties galore, etc. Until they experience "real life" (struggling to pay their gas bills, spent weeks or months down the job centre, or facing losing their home because they've been made redundant and cant find a job no matter how hard they try, etc), then they'll never have a clue on how to run the country and understand how it all works for Joe Public.

I've suffered with depression for years on-and-off. I've no idea why - there's nothing in particular that is irritating me deep down. Some days I feel fine, some days I feel like putting my fist through a wall. I don't actually think the "experts" know about it and its causes either properly. They like to play the old "eat healthy" and "keep fit" wildcard whenever I mention it to "the experts" - but once upon a time, I was a healthy eater, I was mega fit at just 11 stone in weight, used to bike ride 20 miles per day, and I either played football or cricket every night. I felt depressed. Now I eat crap, i'm unfit, overweight, and rarely do anything to keep fit. I'm still depressed. I've had medication for it in the past and generally found it to be rather useless - so I don't bother now. I just accept it and get on with it. These days, I just avoid going out or coming onto internet forums if i'm feeling particularly down because I find myself coming across as very aggressive over trivial things that I read. I'm handling it better than I used to now so I don't let it beat me. I've paid off any old debts that I used to have, i've had a couple of operations to cure ongoings health problems caused by my old job, and i've just started to work for myself - so I think that will start to perk me up a bit over the next few months now those little niggles are behind me. DJ'ing was a massive help for me at one point though. Its amazing how having a mix at home for a few hours, or even in the clubs at weekends, made me feel so much better mentally. At one point, DJ'ing kept me going. I absolutely loved it and it was one area where I could "escape". Once those headphones were on, it shut me off from "the outside world". Unfortunately, I got a bit fed up with the scene two-or-three years ago which then saw me taking that negatively out DJ'ing too and I lost the love for it (which probably contributed 50% towards me deciding to hang up the headphones a year ago). Even now though, at home, there's only two things which really perk me up when i'm having a shitter - and thats digging out some old tunes and playing them loud for a while, or going karting (i'm quite an aggressive, passionate kart driver - so that allows me to take my aggression out on the track rather than myself and other people). I think the important part of depression is understanding it yourself, accepting it, learning what makes you feel better - and doing what makes you feel better as often as you can. From past experience, the "experts" don't have a clue. Eating 3 apples a day or climbing Everest once a week isn't going to make you feel better. Try "Zopiclone" - its a really effective sleeping tablet, that helps you fall asleep quickly. Its not aggressive, its not addictive and it doesn't make you feel groggy or make you feel like you've done ten rounds with Mike Tyson when you wake up. Before my ops, I was in a lot of pain and tried numerous sleeping tablets - most of which were very aggressive, made me feel shit, or knocked me out for a really deep 12+ hours sleep - and then left me still needing like I need more sleep when I woke up. Then my doctor put me onto Zopiclone as a last resort - and they work really well. You feel like you've slept naturally - and there's no after effects. It doesn't put you into a really deep, aggressive, sleep like some of the other tablets and they're not addictive.

Yeah mate, Ward was originally a striker - but for some reason, McCarthy thought he'd make a good left-back (he isn't - he drifts out of position far too often and leaves us exposed at the back). Hunt's legs have gone. He's irritating to opponents, and his free kicks and corners are very accurate - but thats not enough now. He looks like a 36 year old that is close to retirement. He might have a role as an impact sub in the Championship next season - but ideally, i'd be looking to move him on. Hammill is an odd one - he's a decent player and looks useful - but for some reason, he just can't play for 90 minutes. He starts off OK, but then slowly fades out of games. I just don't think our style of play suits his. Again, I think he'd be better moved on because Kightly will be first choice down the right - and if he's not around due to injury, Forde can play there, and I actually think that Zubar could do a job in that position. He looks more like a right midfielder than a right-back to me. We've got plenty of options down the right. Its the left side we're lacking. I actually don't care who Solbakken gets rid of between now and the start of the season. The only ones i'd want to see stay are Kightly, Jarvis, Ebanks-Blake, Guedioura, Davis and Henry. The rest can go - and that includes Fletcher, O'Hara and Hennessey if the right price comes in for any of them because I feel that the money that we'd get for them would be more useful to rebuild the side than actually keeping them.

There are a million and one reasons why we went down last year. I believe that Morgan has the clubs best interests at heart - but his lack of experience at running a football team has really shown over the past couple of seasons. He (and Moxey) have been incredibly naive. Moxey is an absolute idiot. He's obviously good at one thing - accounts. Apart from that, its about time the guy kept his face out of the spotlight. He's got his fingers in too many pies at the club - and he shows his face in public far too much for my liking. McCarthy's Premiership signings were poor and he wasted a lot of money. His team selections were also poor. He had too many favourites. He played too many players out of position. His tactics were also dull and negative and he relied far too much on players out-running opponents rather than picking players with some ability. You're never going to win games with people like Dave Edwards in the side. Terry Connor was Mick MK2. More poor selections, more favourites, more players out of position - and first substitutions being made in the 82nd minute despite being 3-0 down. That wasn't his fault though - he was never up to the job in the first place. Sacking Mick was the right decision. Sacking him at the time that they did was not. He should have either gone in December (or before the transfer window closed anyway) - or at the end of the season. Not when it was too late for anyone to come in to change things around. The defence was shocking. The midfield was bypassed by our hoofball style of play - and the strikers weren't used properly. Ebanks-Blake wasn't used enough - and then looked short of confidence when he was used as a result. Doyle played time and time again despite hardly scoring (or he was shoved out on the wing despite us having natural wingers sat on the bench). Fletcher was relied upon far too much and it started to show at the end of the season when his form seemed to drop. Without Fletchers goals, we'd have been down in March in my opinion. We sent players out on loan at a critical point in the season when we needed them all - and Stephen Ward was clearly off form but was guaranteed a game because there was nobody left to compete for his place. But at least we signed a utility maker from the Scottish Mickey Mouse league that could play in lots of positions and come off the bench to make an impact. Oh wait........ At least last season is over with now. New manager, new assistant - and hopefully new players for a new re-build. Bring on next season. It certainly can't get any worse

I never want to see 4-5-1 in my life ever again. Saw that garbage far too many times last season. Its a dull, negative formation - and if your one and only striker is not having a good game, and your midfielders are not willing to chip in with some decent shots, its game over from the start. 3-5-2 for me. Get three solid central defenders. Ashley Cole down the left that can defend and also offer an attacking option going forward. Two midfielders to sit back - and also track back to help out in defence if needed, a decent attacking midfielder in the middle. Two strikers. Jobs a 'goodun. 5 attack minded players and 5 defence minded players should even things out a bit. England don't really have the right players to play that formation at the moment - but that would be my preferred formation in the future once we get players fit again and also bring in some youngsters that can make that formation work (and some time and patience from the public and media to allow it time to gel). England have been far too negative for years and play the most boring football imaginable - regardless of the manager (hence why I don't bother watching England these days).

Definately. One of my favouritea - simple but effective. I used to cane it around 2003 - and then it found its way back into my CD wallet for a few months last year just before I hung up the headphones. 2002 was also the year of Steve Murano. Everything he did that year was fantastic (albeit very similar in style - but that was what worked for him). He then vanished off the radar I think he started producing Tech-House under his real name