While touring the U.S. this month, BBC Radio One’s Mary Anne Hobbs supplied us with a fully detailed rundown of her trip. This is the third installment of her tour blog. Check back later this week for the last of her videocasts.
Sept 21
– My tour diet now consists principally of Tylenol and Diet Coke.
– I love LA. So many kindred spirits gravitate towards the city to charge at their dreams. They know that time is precious and life is short, and in this city, on this fertile ground, there’s every chance that their wildest ambitions can be realized.
– Hit a crazy pool party in Hollywood. They are showing synchronized swimming movies from the 1940s on a big screen and The Gaslamp Killer is rollin’ out the more humid aspects of his vast record collection.
– I had the great pleasure of meeting the LA Unifed crew and iconic photographer Theo Jemison, but sadly I was so broken from the road that I could barely form a sentence.
Sept 22nd
– Hit Amoeba Records in LA to film a “What’s In My Bag” feature.
– Among my picks I choose Dave Lee Roth. When he first released his solo LP, Eat ‘Em and Smile another member of his entourage that I knew very well said to me that every morning, the first thing that Dave would do was see his accountant. This guy would show up at Dave’s house—full suit on, briefcase in hand—and he would visit Dave in his bedroom before he emerged for the day. For years, everybody thought this guy was his accountant. But later it came out that David was struggling with thinning hair… and this guy was actually his hairdresser! He’d come over first thing every morning and weave in some fresh extensions so that Dave could come out with his hand grenade blond bomb of hair and nobody would ever know any different. The lesson from Dave here is, whatever you’re lacking, first thing in the morning have a guy with a suitcase come over, and bring him in as your accountant.
– I ride with Boreta and Ooah to Chapman University in Orange County to give a MasterClass to Steve Nalepa’s Advanced Music Technology students with Adam Freeland and journalist Matt Diehl.
– They’re a great class and include in their ranks many talented young electronic producers that I’ve already played on the BBC Radio1 show. I tell them my stories about running away to London at the age of 18 and living on a bus in a carpark for a year with a hard rock band called Heretic… my first step on the causeway.
– No Kip (as @TODDLAT would say)—that means I can’t sleep
Sept 23rd
– Preparing for my greatest night on earth at Low End Theory in LA.
– Me and Sara (my agent) run around Melrose and get our hair fixed up at Rudy’s in Silverlake. (A complete waste of time, as temperatures are running well in excess of 100 degrees inside the venue Airliner)
– It’s announced that Nosaj Thing (he is Legoman) and Flying Lotus are the surprise special guests tonight and Twitter EXPLODES!!
– Daddy Kev and GLK organize a lovely rooftop dinner, but I’m so excited I can only manage one teaspoon spoonful of coconut rice.
– The club is absolutely mobbed. The air is shot through with magic, tension, and anticipation. I see my homegirl Vaccine and her man Intex Systems for a total of eight minutes (even though they have driven five hours be here). The Glitch Mob, Niki Randa, Jneiro Jarel, Tokimonsta, half the Chapman University class, Ras G, Teebs, Take, Daedelus are all up in the place… and MIA came to check it too!
– The mighty Sam XL who does the sound is about to have a baby boy. Skream and Benga have been trying to persuade him to call the child Skrenga… haha!! BUT he’s actually settled on Croydon (the home town of dubstep in the UK!)
– The residents Daddy Kev, D-Styles, GLK, and Nobody play music I’ve never heard in my life before… and Nosaj and Lotus are simply mind-blowing.
– The heat and the energy is so intense on stage that all of us are soaked to the skin by the end of the sets and wringing out our clothes.
– This club is one of the most inspirational places on the planet for me right now… I post on Twitter: when i get to heaven… i hope it will be exactly like Low End Theory in LA
Sept 24th
– @ooah posts on Twitter: Low End Theory last nite was monumental! @MaryAnneHobbs @FlyingLotus @NosajThing & our fav LET residents… What more can u ask for. I <3 LA!
– You should see my bruises… next level purpleness!! I have no idea how I acquired them at all… shall I TwitPic the purple for Joker?
– Hung out with Fly Lo for breakfast and he treats me to a preview of some of the beats that will make his new album for Warp… Oh.My.Days. imagine a soundtrack to the genesis of some new galaxy a billion light years away… absolutely astounding music.
– Hooked up with GLK for dinner at his favourite Cuban spot. He’s raving about a new electronic trigger pad he’s found that he wants to get wired into his forearm!!
– Mini toothbrushes hotly recommended @boreta for all touring DJs http://yfrog.com/3dwujj
Sept 25th
– Sit on the tarmac for 90 minutes at LAX… the plane is broken… they’re now looking for another to take us to Denver.
– The woman next to me says: “My psychic told me not to travel today. I pay a fortune for her and she’s always right, but if I’m honest a lot of the time, I just don’t buy it…” a mildly confounding statement.
– @ferwerdaTRON posts on Twitter: @I_Skream @maryannehobbs Tonight is going to be LARGE! Driving over 700 miles to come see you guys! Can’t wait!
– big-up all the New Mexico crew reaching Denver for the show tonight too.. I salute the road warriors!! 🙂
– Nicole and the Bass Invasion crew are lovely people and they’ve built a thriving scene in Denver… and it’s so great to hook up with Skream (who headlines here tonight). We’ve both been on the road so much in 2009, we’ve barely seen each other at all.
– The first time I saw Skream play in 2005 there was only four people in the room… yet it remains one of the greatest sets I’ve ever seen in my life. Now he’s got a gold record for the La Roux remix and he’s about to go into the studio with Pharell, yet he never changes. He’s such a gentleman: funny, wild, witty, prolific, and buzzing about life…
– 900 rowdy dubstep lovers up in the place in Denver… and we blew the joint to bits.
– 4:30 a.m. in the cab back to the hotel and Skream and I reminisce about my Radio1 show Dubstep Warz in 2006 and also the impact he made on my stage at Sonar in 2007… the real tipping point for dubstep internationally. He says the video footage of the night up at youtube.com/maryannehobbstv still gives him chills.
– Dannydubstep wrote on Twitter:@i_skream and @maryannehobbs completely blew my mind. I can’t even find any other words to say. Everyone who missed this is a disgrace.
Sept 26th
– Caspa comes into Denver… Skream departs for LA… I leave for Seattle to play at Decibel Festival, where Benga and N-Type were last night, and I hook up with Mala at the airport, who’s come in from Vegas and has just been playing with Pinch. So many of the UK dubstep massive on the road right now in the USA… it’s nuts… we run tings!
– It’s the last night of the tour in Seattle at Decibel Festival… I feel wasted on love for America… bombed & f*cked and blissfully happy.
– Daedelus plays before me and he is absolutely next level… one of the most unique live performers on the planet right now. I also have the pleasure of meeting his wife, Laura, who has the voice of an angel.
– Seattle is LIVE… an incredible swansong for me. It’s always such a privilege to share a stage with Mala. I’m a child of the DMZ generation and it’s his music and his ethos that inspired me so much when I first discovered dubstep in 2005.
– Finish up the night sprawled on my hotel bed in the fluffy bathrobes eating pizza with my girl Sara Surefire at 3:30 a.m… breaking down the last three weeks and dreaming up new missions for 2010.
– The tour has been overwhelming: a devastating blend of elation, exhaustion, and chaos… a punishing and primal physical and mental test… everyone should try it once in this life.
– Much love, a million thanks, and maximum respect to all the promoters who took a chance on me… to the Surefire crew who put this together for me: Sara, Miro, Ryan, Alex, and Victor… to XLR8R massive for hosting this diary… and most of all to everybody who came out, represented, and made the gigs in every city so special, so incendiary, and so brilliant..
– The tour has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. I have so much love for America. Hopefully this will be just the first step on a long and fascinating journey through your country yet to come.
