One stoopid thing about the whole Californian clubbing experience is that you are not allowed to smoke inside the club....you have to go out into the car park!!!

Even more stoopid than that is the fact that you are not allowed to take open containers of alcohol (ie. your beer) outside into the street!

Therefor you have to leave your beer inside whilst you go out for a smoke!!! Ludicrous!

By the time that 11 o'clock came around the club was nicely filling up and I'd met some coo-el people who were really interested to hear that I'd come from the UK to play at the event.

There were actually two guys who had come all the way from Dallas (about 800 miles!) to come to the night 'cause they'd heard that a UK DJ was playing!! MAD, that's like driving from Reading to Aberdeen for a night out!

It was really nice to see that the breaks scene in the US isn't too far behind that of the UK. Though they were just far enough so that the tunes that I took with me were all unheard of to them...thankfully they really got into the style.

The strangest, and most flattering, thing to happen during my set was when the crowd started chanting "Haze, Haze, Haze" over and over again in the middle of my set!! It was really weird...but nice too. ;p

The three and pass routine that B-Side and myself employed worked really well. The blend of my progressive stuff and his darker stuff was very much like Jurassik and mine's sessions at Cryonix back home!

Let me say a few words about my host - DJ B-Side.

What a quality fella! He, and his friends, really made me feel at home during my stay and I hope to offer the same service to them should they venture over the pond in this direction.

As a DJ B-Side has been playing the same length of time as myself and seems to have been into the same kinds of music as myself too.

He's currently the US breaks scene's rising star with gigs alongside Adam Freeland, Uberzone and Simply Jeff in the near future.

Style wise he's very competent and mixes fluidly whatever the style (I've got his new demo at home and it's a quality mix of breaks and tech house!).

After B-Side and I finished our set it was the turn of the drum 'n' bass crew to shake the place. And I do mean SHAKE the place! The people that provided the soundsystem for the night - PROFOUND SOUND SYSTEMS - did a seriously good job of looseing all of my teeth! Really good rig...nice and bassy. Try as we could we were completely unable to make the system sound distorted...f**k knows what sort of compression equipment they were running. Whatever it was it was good. Very good!

First d'nber up was FURY - all the way from Denver, Colorado. Another nice guy and also another good DJ.

He played a real nice mix of hard n fast jungle (lots of cause for concern and bad company stuff!! - lovely) which whipped the already enthusiastic crowd into even more of a frenzy. Helped along by the orders being issued by MC Buckshot.

Last up was ALLEYCAT from San Francisco. A pretty good female DJ who dropped some of my all time favourite tracks - albeit new remixes of 'em!

I will never tire of hearing Terrorist of Champion Sound - mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!

All in all a brilliant night. And to top it all off I was offered several other gigs whilst I was in the US. Unfortunately due to prior engagements I was only able to do one of them - on Saturday 8th at the amusingly entitled COSMIC BOWL in San Diego. A much more intimate, bar like event, which isn't surprising as it took place in the bar of a bowling alley!!!!

So, all that's left for me to do is to say thanx to Ben (B-SIDE), Guage, Pete (MC BUCKSHOT), Mantis and his girlfriend, Alleycat, Fury, Jolt, all of Ben's mates whose names I have shamelessly forgotten (sorry!) and to all the people that attended the gigs.

I WILL BE BACK!!! YES INDEEDY!!

For more info check these Web sites:

• DJ Haze
• Cryonix
• Dragon Lounge