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| When a man is tired of London ... | |
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How can we better start describing a trip to London than with the historical words of Dr. Johnson so nicely sampled on the London track from Herbert : "When a man is tired of London, he's tired of life" So, off to London to throw ourselves once again in some music hedonism. |
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First stage is nothing less than the legendary Ronnie Scott's Jazz club for nothing less than a concert by the legendary Roy Ayers. As far as the inside of the Ronnie Scott's Jazz club is concerned, we have to leave you in complete darkness as we were not allowed to take pictures inside. The Ronnie Scott's Jazz club is a classy traditional small british club. All places are numbered, much wood, orange lamplights on the tables and in the centre the stage where it all happens. Lights are dimmed and while a seated audience surrounded by just a small amount of standing people is enjoying drinks and food, Roy Ayers and his band are throwing a party in Ronnie Scott's Jazz club. |
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We are spoiled
with Roy's greatest hits from the seventies. From Running to Poo Poo La La, it's all there. Yes, it is predictable but Roy Ayers is a real
performer and lets all people get down one more time. He's talking to the audience, invites the audience to sing with and is not afraid to
joke around. Roy is the living proof that age is nothing but a number. What's his secret ? It might be young cute girls who seem to get most of his attention that keep Roy ever young at heart. |
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Next day is shopping day in the countless record stores of Soho. It's
"shop till you drop". From little specialized record stores to the big ones ... if you don't find what you're looking for here, stop
looking. Night time is party time again. We meet Dan from London who is a real eighties soulfunk afficiendo and works at BBC and we got in touch through the Freestylegrooves website. Dan explains : the problem in London is not what one is going to do but what one will have to skip. There is simply soo much to do every weekend in London that it is a "choosing is loosing" game. |
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So, Dan invites us to join him for a night at the Soulshack club. Soulshack is a small club not so far from Soho and being there feels like timetravelling. The deejays take us back 20 years. We are treated on nothing else than eighties funk. From the first record we heard when we entered Soulshack till the last one, simply nothing but eighties funk ! Incredible ! A very heterogenous crowd is getting down on all that funk like it's the last party night in their life. Surprise surprise, the deejay also talks to the crowd from time to time, a tradition that was given up here in Belgium more than 15 years ago in most trendy clubs. |
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Deep in
the night we manage to get back in the hotel and we won't tell the details about how one travels past 3 o'clock in London ... Yes,
we're tired , very tired but not at all tired of London ! ez |
All pictures are ©2001 Freestyle