I am writing this from Lima Peru, which has become my adopted second home over the last few years. I travel 17 hours to get here from London, but as soon as I step out from the airport, feel the warm evening breeze and hear the chatter and bustle of this most unique South American city, I know I have reached my ‘home from home’.
As well as having large extended family here, I love the vibrancy, optimism, centuries of fascinating culture and the most delicious contemporary food - ‘Nuevo Andean Cuisine.’ Nobu, eat your heart out! Leaving London, which has just had the coldest and longest winter for 30 years, wasn’t hard this time.
I have also just returned from another of my favourite countries, as I DJ’d in a small town about one and a half hours from Naples in deepest Southern Italy. Quite a strange place to kick of the new season you may think? As I quickly learned, The Red Passion Club in Compambasso was one of the most exciting nights I have experienced in my time moonlighting as a DJ. As Jake and I drove up in the snow-capped mountains around Naples, we both wondered ‘where on earth are we going?’ Our newly made friend and companion Fabrizio assured us all was going to be ‘cool,’ despite the fact the club had been closed the evening before due to extremely bad weather conditions in the coldest of Southern Italian towns.
When we finally arrived at a time that was well beyond my usual bedtime, we looked out to a sea of people that were ready and waiting for our set. Many were part of the ‘Hardcore Italian Duran Army’ that had travelled from all over the country, there were lots of young kids out for a good time on a Saturday Night and maybe some that were out looking for the cat and just stumbled into the club at 2AM…but all these people seemed to combine to create the most uplifting and scintillating atmosphere that reminded me of the main room at Pacha in Ibiza’s main season. We received the most gracious reception making this is a night we will never forget and a reminder of why I love Italy so much. Jake and I will definitely be back!
Somebody asked me the other day how I planned my DJ sets, and I have decided that I try to organise it like Fabio Capello manages the England team. We have certain ‘star players’ that we build the set around and these most reliable performers will only be replaced if a new stronger player comes along. Our current centre forward has been playing there for some time now so will probably get rotated some time soon along with the supporting players. The interesting thing is that before we know it, the set has morphed into a whole new team without us even realising! You could say the same thing about a Duran Duran show, but fortunately I like to think that we have some legendary players in the squad akin to Zidane Zidane, Pele and Bobby Moore that will never lose their place - but I have to say that we have some great new talent warming up on the bench that will be ready for action soon!!!!
Til next time …adios!
Rt x
