EuroTrip 09 in pictures - Part 7 - Paris

Je ne dis rien

 C'est la vie!

EuroTrip 09 in pictures - Part 6 - 24 hours in Amsterdam

Tweeting from Amsterdam.... no wonder i returned home to a MASSIVE phone bill! Follow my tweets here

Lemme see.. how would a describe Amsterdam in a few words? 

Clean

Friendly

Busy (Motor vehicle, Bicycle, Tram & Human traffic)

Hectic

Compact yet not 

Interesting Architecture

Canals

Tree-lined

Cobbled streets & alley ways

Tolerant

This is the oldest church in the centre of the city... and it faces the 'Ladies of the night' windows which we were advised NOT to photograph. A stone's throw away is a creche that some of these working women use for their children, while they see clients. If that's not acceptance and tolerance, I don't know what is...

THe (IN)famous Bulldog Cafe chain
I loved the architecture there. You'll find that the city centre's buildings are all pretty narrow and I learned the reason for that being that in past times, taxation was calculated based on the width of the building in which people resided ie. the wider the building the wealthier the owner!
By night

EuroTrip 09 in pictures - Part 5 - O2 Wireless Music Festival

For me, the highlight of the O2 Wireless festival which was held in Hyde Park  was Sneaky Sound System. Their electro pop dance tunes really come to life when performed on stage with Miss Connie's faultless vocals resonating the catchy signature SSS melodies. 

I HEART SSS

Our essential supplies for the day... 

sarong (cant run away from being malaysian...who needs an itchy hot travel rug when u can have a lovely soft beach sarong from Lumut!)

Backpack holding wetwipes, hand sanitiser, tissues, sunnies, suncream, spare tee, hoodie, lipbalm, laserpen, sweets, chewing gum & some other less healthy supplies
What a perfect day
Giant Jenga!
The alternative 3 Stooges
The crowd going bonkers for homegrown Dizzee Rascal performing BONKERS
A special moment... spot the 2 arches of a rainbow... MAKE A WISH

Sunset... and the mood changes

Basement Jaxx closing set...

EuroTrip 09 in pictures - Part 4 - LOVEBOX Victoria Park Day 2

I'm desperately trynna catch up with my backlog of blog posts... so my eurotrip will continue with pix and one liners!

Day 2 @ LoveBox was taken p pretty much by DJ sets. Diplo rawked the RIZLA Van (the main sponsors for that designated 'enchanted forest' area

The Rizla-DiploVan

check out Diplo's crowd in the enchanted forest... there was a perpetual long line to get into this area throughout his entire set

Joachim was decidedly grumpy looking for the majority of his set... despite which, i enjoyed his playlist tremendously

Simian Mobile Disco (SMD) played trax from their new album 'Temporary Pleasure' - it was nothing short of PUMPING. Highlights of the set were the pyrotechnics which we all 'oooh-ed & aah-ed 'at and welcomed cos we were starting to get rather cold once the sun went down.

ONE ...

TWO ...

WOW ... AAH ... OOH ...

Because it's Monday, AND WHY NOT!

Download my latest podcast here to get you through the week....

Look out for more blog updates this week including some make-up chat and cool colours and products from Rimmel

Happy Monday everyone!

EuroTrip 09 in pictures - Part 3 - LOVEBOX Victoria Park Day 1

Set in Victoria Park in the depths of East London, LoveBox is one of the few music festivals in London. It's been going for about 4 years and this was my first time. Consisting of 5 major areas / stages, a VIP section and other eating, drinking, alternative arts and even a huge treehouse, it's no wonder the festival is held over a weekend. Frank Musik!!! Yup - I got to see one of my favourite new artists to be born out of the UK, singer-songwriter FrankMusik. Major 80s electro pop throwback productions around simple, catchy and melodic tunes. Check him out here

He jumped around stage with loads of energy and showed off his skills on the 'ivories' too. One of my favourite tracks of his is 'When You're Around (Boyz Noise Remix)' where he cleverly writes an entire new song over the sample riff from 'Golden Brown' by the Stranglers.


We were also lucky enough that day to get an exclusive preview of his new single CONFUSION GIRL... his 'live' version RAWKED! You should check out Russ Chimes remix (you can have a listen by streaming/downloading my Podcast called 'September Songs' here . It's the 2nd track :)

I waited and waited for Frank to play VACANT HEART (the 1st ever Frank Music track I ever heard) but had to rush off to catch the person that all THESE people were hungry for....


The man was in town as N*E*R*D* not just for LoveBox but also to oversee the opening of his newly renovated Bathing Ape Store off Carnaby Street. Is there anything that this guy touches that does NOT work???


I must say I was quite taken aback with Pharrell's humility - he seemed almost shy on stage - speaking kindly of the British crowd and showing appreciation for being invited to be part of the LoveBox line-up - with N*E*R*D* being HipHop, was something new and different for the festival.... any excuse to shake that booty, shimmy those shoulders and nod heads


Being the flash git that i am i got myself a VIP pass and headed to said area to fill my tummy with some food and catch these 2 guys from Cambridge aka THE NEXTMEN. The first time I ever saw them was at WorldWide Festival in Singapore back in May. They ALWAYS ply awesome sets mixing current with cutting edge and retro and crossing all music genre boundaries... LovessssssssSiT!

As dusk fast approached it brought us nearer the time to catch the Headlining act for Day 1 - the NOTORIOUS, WILD BOYS living in this ORDINARY WORLD who often COME UNDONE watching GIRLS ON FILM and are always HUNGRY LIKE A WOLF...

This was the nearest I could get without getting completely SQUASHED

With an awesome light and laser show... none other than DURAN DURAN

And I must say ALL band members are looking pretty good still.... it aint easy being on stage performing ALL OUT for 90 minutes non-stop, especially at their vintage!

I'm a sucker for merchandising and just HAD to pick up a Duran Duran Tee with the classic 'Rio' imagery :

But made current by the back text (sorry, I still havent worked out how to flip an image!)

With the sun already set behind us, the deep blue sky engulfing us and the stars starting to peak, Simon Le Bon's voice echoed the words to a song that i relate to on so many levels and for so may reasons :

" Who do you need, who do you love, When you come undone "

EuroTrip 09 in pictures - Part 3 - LOVEBOX Victoria Park Day 2 coming NEXT >>>

EuroTrip 09 in pictures - Part 2 - LONDON MUSIC

One of the great things I miss of living in London is the wide variety and high frequency of music gigs available all year round. So I took the opportunity to catch as many gigs as i possibly could during this trip. Gigs don't just cover LIVE performances by artist and bands but going to watch DJs play too.


The Ed Banger 6 and a half birthday party at The Coronet in Elephant & Castle was definitely one of the highlights of the club gigs I went to. The line-up for the main room included the head honcho himself Busy P, DJ Mehdi, SebastiAn, Feadz, Krazy Baldhead, So_Me and brand new signing Breakbot. Two other rooms had DJ sets hosted by familiar acts such as Friendly Fires and Mystery Jets.

Inside the Coronet

Despite buying the tickets in advance we still had to line-up outside for a good 40 minutes. The crowd were the usual Ed Banger lot (I guess our nearest would be Lap-Sap or BarSonic look). Most were well wasted and some were generous too - we were not allowed to bring drinks in and those who were came prepared to line-up who still had left-over tinnies and bottles, very generously passed them on to people, including me!



The Ed Banger Crew

As expected the crowd were seriously UP FOR IT and sweating like Beeyatches in there... check this out :



Seeing as the night/morning at the Ed Banger party ended at 6am (and that was DESPITE turning down various invitations to private house parties) most of the next day was spent recouperating in bed because I had tix to see BabyFace play at the O2.

This is what the tube looks like at 6am and you're the FIRST soul on the platform...

BabyFace really is uber-talented... and the women were literally SWOONING. I noticed lots of metro-sexual men there and by the way... i was more or less the only asian person there!

Kenny 'BabyFace'Edmunds

I was a wreck at the Babyface gig by the way... so very wrecked....

Coming Next >>>> LOVEBOX in Victoria Park