It's All Love...

This should be my anthem.

The O'Jays - I Love Music

The Man, The Myth, John The Legend...

This Saturday just gone I went to see John Legend and The Roots at the Hammersmith Apollo.

What a brilliant night it was too.

It all kicked off with one of my favourite newly-established singers of this year, Katy B.

Katy has just been signed to Columbia, deservedly so as well - she's been putting in work for a long while now and proved her worth with a nice little warm up for John Legend and the gang. It's often said, to the point of being a cliche, that hearing a song done with a live band is typically so much better than the recorded, studio version - as I found with Katy's performace.



Hearing As I and Katy On A Mission etc... done with a band was really entertaining, and I couldn't help smiling at Katy's little jig that I always see her doing when she's on stage. The girl's got style... proper London style.

Anyway, Katy went down a treat - so the crowd was well and truly ready by the time John Legend and The Roots stepped out on stage.

Mannn, so much good music. Their album, Wake Up!, is highly rated and it's easy to see why ...putting John and The Roots together is a perfect combination; like strawberries and cream, cheese and pickle, bangers and mash... you get the idea.



John's voice is seriously good, as any fan will tell you, and he didn't drop a note throughout - while MC Black Thought, ?uestlove and the rest of the Roots' live band were second to none.

Our very own Estelle made a surprise appearance midway through, and the audience loved it - they were enthusiastic peeps dancing all the way through, while other members of the crowd (which I have to say was really diverse - old, young, black, white, whatever...) were clearly moved by the great music being played out before them.

A great night enjoyed by all I think.



As a bonus, here's one of my favourite Roots tunes - the video is an all-time classic and was seriously difficult to find. I can't believe the captions have been edited out on the official Roots VEVO account on YouTube! UNBELIEVABLE. Why would you do that?!

The Roots - What They Do

Lost In Techno...

Been listening to a hell of a lot of techno stuff recently, thanks to Seth Troxler - a guy I first discovered in Ibiza. Since having one of the best techno experiences of my life during his set at Space, I've been trying to track down as many of his mixes as I can...

And because of that I've found these gems.

Art Department - Without You (Extended 12 Mix)



Guy Gerber - Sea of Sand (Original)



Mathew Jonson - Marionette

Devlin And Weller...

This week I witnessed another big moment for grime music first-hand when I saw east London MC Devlin appear on stage with the Modfather himself Paul Weller.

I was lucky enough to be the only journalist invited down to the event to hang out backstage with Devs, Dogzilla, Lewi White, DJ Big Beatz and Devs' manager Mikee ... plus PR dude Seb.

I was knackered after a long day at work, but it was well worth the trip down to Brighton.

Devlin has stuck with the whole grime thing regardless of how much mainstream attention it's been getting and now he's making big moves. Performing with Paul Weller is huge, especially coming from a scene like grime, which still doesn't have a huge amount of mainstream support.

Add to this that the grime acts who do get signed or crossover usually dilute their sound for one reason or another. So it's good to see that Devlin, who hasn't comprimised his style, is doing so well.

It was good to be there with his crew for such a career defining moment.

I also saw the forthcoming video for Let It Go, produced by and featuring Labrinth. WOW... It is sick.

Anyway - you can read my story on The Sun website.

And here's the song - Fast Car Slow Traffic

Busy Bee...

So I've hardly updated this blog in quite a while now - and the reason is, I'm so utterly and completely busy I haven't had the time.

Today I decided I should dedicate at least a few minutes to updating it though.

Here are a few videos I've filmed on my adventures over the past month...

Magnetic Man intro - Heaven, London



Alec Empire from Atari Teenage Riot - Moho, Manchester



Sander Kleinenberg - Melkweg, Amsterdam



Redman and Method Man close their show - Forum, London



Kode9 - Warehouse Project, Manchester



David Rodigan plays dubstep - Fabric, London



Seth Troxler/Guy Gerber intro - Space, Ibiza

Free Music...

Shy FX is giving away MJ Cole's mix of his massive new tune Raver for FREE!

What a touch.

All you have to do is go to this link http://official.fm/track/170327

And chuck in the Password: sfx

Simple.

Love the fact that Breakage named his mix 'The Pattern Moschino Remix'. Heavy... mid-90s references will get you everywhere as far as I'm concerned.

Here's a little Shy tune.

Shy FX - Funksta