Party in Lille France...

Represent!

Mr Bongo buying trip... Part 2

Spots that are now probably closed!

The last trip we did for the shop was summer ’97 (fuck that's over 10 years ago!). We flew to Toronto Canada hit a few spots then drove over the boarder to Buffalo New York then to Lake Irie, Pittsburg, Philly and New York City. We would take every opportunity to stop off at off key small towns on route, it was redneck heaven - scary! We would find a spot and say to the owner ‘Hello were from London England and we are buying records for our Record Shop, and we are wondering if you have more any more stock for sale?’
9 times out of 10 the answer was ‘Your from England? cool, sure we have a basement full of old records’ RESULT! However 10 times out of 10 they would also say ‘We had some guys from Japan over here a few days ago - they got a whole lota stuff’ SHIT! It was very much cat and mouse but we still managed to find a crazy amount of wax!

Attic Records
(the basement of this shop is off the rocker and I'm 99.9% sure this is the spot featured in the documentary Scratch where DJ Shadow is talking about broken dreams? - relax! their only records)

In New York it was the 25th Rocksteady Anniversary and the ITF championships where Tony Vegas Won! man it was so wired but very cool at the same time to see your mate in New York winning the fucking ITF!. We also went to visit DJ Spinna at his crib in Brooklyn and I remember him play us random beats he was working on, they where off the rocker! all the Polyrhythm Addicts stuff way before it was released, We also went to the Rawkus offices and heard Mos Def’s ‘Universal Magnetic’ for the first time - man that track was the theme for the trip without a question.
After the partying and meets and greets it was time to hit L.A and it was all about the Pasadena Record fair, we would also try and meet up with dealers and collectors and D.J’s to trade records with. That’s when I met the famous Rob One (R.I.P) and Numark and T- Love. Numark played us the Jurassic 5 stuff from his home studio before it was even released! DOPE!.
Sadly we ran out of money (well we maxed out the credit cards) and we where stuck in a Hollywood motel, swimming pool and blazing L.A heat! Man it was seriously hot, it was hard work!.

Finding treats at Rob's house!

Ridiculous!

We ran out of time in L.A and we went back to New York, credit cards fully charged just in time for quick dig and then back to Canada and home. Can’t forget being in Toronto waiting hours and hours for this random guy to come home so that Huw could buy his DMX drum machine of him! (I think he saw the add in a local record store - the sale never happened). We flew back with Royal Air! And they where far from Royal I’ll tell ya…

Party in Paris @ nouveau casino 27/06/08

Friday 27th of June Featuring:
SELECTA K-ZA (Sunday Culture - Generations 88.2 fm)
DJ ROB LIFE & DJ KAM Aka BREAKIN BREAD Deejays (UK)
DJ AZIZ (Konkrite) / MC LITTLE FREDDY

Electro Rap & Old School Favours (mix)

Its been a hot minute... so here's another mix for you to enjoy. It was originally aired on XFM (London) about 2 years ago as part of their guest spot show on a Friday night...
If you would like the track listing just let me know and I'll send you a copy (if you ask nicely) NB: This mix was done with two turntables and a mixer and vinyl! no mp3 madness ya hear!!!!!!

Download Mix

Mr Bongo buying trip... Part 1

A1 Records ('96)

March 1996 me and Huw took a flight to New York with two credit cards and was let loose in America to buy stock for the shop. I was the driver and Huw was the map reader, Huw had already been on buying trips so he was up on the spots to hit!

The Famous Downstairs Record Shop New York

Man it was wicked, we rented a car at the airport and started driving around. We hit New York (A1, Downstars Records, Gimmee Gimmee, Fat Beats, Street Beat and others), New Jersey, Prince Town and Boston.

Gimmee, Gimmee NYC

Scorpio's New Jersey

In New Jersey there is a warehouse called Scorpio’s they reissue most of the old Funk and jazz and Soul LP’s you see in the store’s today. Basically it’s the size of a aircraft hanger and records are stacked on palets they must be 1000 records per palet and a folk lift truck is needed to move them down for you to dig through. It’s only open to traders and collectors and every record was between $1-$2! we where finding crazy cut out records, multipule sealed copies too!

Nas Freestyle on Wetswood... KILLER!

Mo Westood action right here... a wicked freestyle from Nas!.


Download Freestyle