August was an exceptionaly good month. I went to the ‘Dam, saw Beck and played a great little festival. Here’s a bit of a report. (OK, a bleary-eyed report)

Bowfinger at Esquires

The first week of August was a bit slow, but it was kickstarted with the mighty Bowfinger headlining Esquires in Bedford on the 11th August. This was a very drunken night wich ended downstairs from the Venue jumping around and falling over to a bit of Britpop. One very good thing about Esquires is that it sells RED STRIPE.

The next two days are a blur. I ended up on a bender around Bedford with Ed from Bowfinger. I got home and Big Vern was there wating in the wings. We were mashed for another couple o’ days. Then on the 15th myself, MC Ras Garvey and Mike Dread (Shroom-Head) went on our adventures in Amsterdam.

Erbalist abroad

We stepped off the train at central station, crossed the busy road dodging a few trams & bicycles and rolled straight into Rastababy coffee-shop.

Yup you’ve guessed it, we’re in the ‘Dam. It’s half past twelve in the afternoon in the ‘Dam and we’ve found our first coffee-shop of the day even before finding the hotel.

Now, if you’ve never been to Amsterdam before I advise you to do the same as me and the boys - get off the plane, get on the train, and when you arrive at Central Station go straight to the nearest coffee-shop.

We spent about 90 minutes there then left and wondered down Singel and found our lodgings for the next few days. We checked in without any problems went straight to our room to unload our stuff and chilled for a bit admiring our canal view through the colours of my new bong.

Following that we went trawling round some off the great coffee-shops of Amsterdam such as: The Grey Area, Bushdoctor, the Pink Floyd cafe and many more. All of these have exceptionally good wares and are worth a visit if you go.

Halfway through the day someone mentioned mushrooms, suddenly everything was very colourful indeed, and I don’t just mean the red glow coming from windows in the area.

The next day started with a bit of a blur so we had a smoke then went to Barneys for breakfast. This place does a great selection of breakfasts including a good fry up and great pancakes (the secret ingredient being guess what?). You can have a smoke for breakfast there, now this is hard to find in the Dam, so we billed up ordered our food, billed up again then our food came and after we billed up again, GREAT.

After breakfast I popped to one of my favorite record shops, Fat Beats - a great shop for hip-hop but it also sells a few funk 7″s, after parting with 100 euros for some top-notch vinyl I left to find an ATM machine. We pretty much just wondered aimlessly round the dam going from one coffee-shop to another stoned in the ‘Dam on a lovely sunny day. Fantastic! I recommend it to anyone.

Later that night we went to the Paradiso to see Beck - great show and a top venue (see my other post for more on that). Our last day in the ‘Dam was spent pretty much like the first two - wandering round the coffee-shops and sampling their goodies. This also included the fab drink Chocomel. It’s great cold with a blunt of Snow White or any other flavour.

The East End Valley Festival

On the bank holiday weekend I was dj-ing alongside BluntBeats resident DJ Hughes and Melting Pot’s very own Dr Gonzo at the East End Valley Festival in a deepest, darkest corner of Bedfordshire.

This is a great festival and a very well kept secret. There was a main stage with some of Bedfordshire’s greatest acts like Bowfinger, New Groove Formation, Teflon Child, The Occasion, Akiva, Tarantism & more (with myself, DJ Hughes and Dr Gonzo filling in between bands for the 2 days).

There was a dance tent supported by Garooba with the great DJ Swan-E bustin’ it up on the Sat night. There was also the Hamilton Cafe chillout area for the weekend with loads of dub, Pink Floyd & chillout tings going on.

A very successful event. Special thanks go out to: