Jono (from Above & Beyond) invited us to Jordan, to film on one of the most exciting gigs in their agenda:Distant Heat

On Monday we took a plane to Vienna, ate echte wienerschnitzel in downtown, then headed back to the airport to catch our plane to Amman. It was early in the night when we got to our hotel, so after a quick dinner we went to sleep.

Next day before we started shooting, we went to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities to get permissions to film wherever needed to. Those permissions never been asked though. Ever.
We got our press passes for Distant Heat, the rest of the afternoon was spent in Jerash, a Roman city in such a good condition, that even those with limited amount of sensibility for history would raise their eyebrows.



On Wednesday, we went to the Dead Sea to spend an afternoon there before we go to Aqaba. I was dumb enough to taste the famously salty water just to see how salty actually it is. Well, VERY.
I love the fact, you can only float in there...



We used our underwater camera for some shots during the afternoon.
I had a thermometer on the table, after a while this is what I saw on it:



The road to Aqaba was filled with heavily guarded checkpoints and a restaurant equipped with a suspiciously looking kitchen, so we didn't feel like eating in there.
We got to Aqaba pretty late, but it was still better than for Jono, Tony & Dave Seaman, who had to sit 4 hours in a car after the 6 hours of flight from London. They arrived around 4 in the morning, but at 2 pm we've had lunch at the beach bar...
Of course we did some filming, and the underwater camera had some good use in the sea too.
It was a great afternoon filled with beach and sunshine.



It was dark by the time we got to Distant Heat, but it still felt a very special place to held a party at. Local dj BeeBee had a great warm up set, then Dave took over at midnight. The crowd was very mixed, alot of tourists, most of them - like us - flew over especially for this party.
The free food was a great addition, especially in the morning, where it provided some extra energy for those in need.
At 3:00 a perfect Above & Beyond dj set started, Jono & Tony rocked the crowd hard, and the hits just kept flowing. The crowd were singing along most of them. As sunrise came, it was obvious why is Wadi Rum one hell of a unique place to party.
The sun comes up real fast, and the colours you see are just unbelievable.
Jono was right when he said it is something we should see...

Sunrise @ Distant Heat Festival

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In the morning we headed back to the hotel, sleep.

Next day our cameraman had some stomach problems. By the end of they day he felt so bad, we had to call a doctor to see him.
Food poisoning is a nasty thing, but a few injections and various other medicines had their effect, so he got much better.

In the morning he got two more injections, so we were able to go to Petra, that provided one of the most iconic locations in the Indiana Jones Trilogy, the temple of the Last Crusader.
Of course there is a gift shop.



It is a huge area, which seems a lot longer in the afternoon heat. If we get a carriage, it is extremely bumpy.
But it is definitely a jaw dropping experience to walk through.



...which only multiplies at the end:

Entering Petra

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After all the amusement, we filmed while Pisti (the cameraman) could do, then headed back to Amman, to go to the airport at 8:00 am. Then Vienna, where instead of waiting a few hours for our Budapest plane a friend of mine picked us up, so we got to Budapest earlier than with a plane.

Ever since I try to rest, as on Firday we go to Ibiza!

Tags: jordan, laptop dj, distant heat

It took me some time to recover from last weekend...

We've started on Thursday, on a new Hungarian festival, Balaton Sound about 120 kms from Budapest, at lake Balaton. On the first night Darren Emerson & Eric Prydz were playing in the same stage Roger Sanchez, Ferry Corsten and myself shared next evening . But before that we came back to Budapest to see Hybrid live who brought John "Quivver" Graham as guest vocalist.




Right after them we went back to the festival where Ferry was really rocking, so I could start playing at 4:30

Ferry Corsten @ Balaton Sound Festival, Hungary

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As soon as I've finished, we went back to the Airport, to catch the Amsterdam plane, so I had about 2 hours sleep before we arrived just to drop our stuff in the hotel then head to Dance Valley.



My good friend Jonathan Llewellyn (publicist fro Marco V, Sander Van Doorn, Christopher Lawrence and others) invited us to the festival (you can never have enough of those). Marco & Chris had their own tent, both with exceptional line ups. Besides these 2 there were 12 other stages with at least 8-10 djs each, so there was a lot to see and film...

Ferris wheel on Dance Valley 2007

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We interviewed Paul Van Dyk backstage, while he was waiting for his turn at Main Stage after Ferry Corsten.
At DV we basically been filming until the very last minute, at 11 it was over, and we went back to the hotel where I fell alseep in no time.

Of course we had to wake up pretty early on Sunday to catch our plane back to Hungary, where we had a rendez-vous with the Beastie Boys. We went to the press conference in fake moustaches, they were thrilled...

Tags: dance valley, laptop dj, holland, balaton sound, ferry corsten

...I post the youtube videos I made on Sensation White:

Tags: sensation white, laptop dj

To be perfectly honest I've never thought (not in my wildest dreams) this TV show we're making will last for more than the 10 episodes I've signed for in the beginning.
Now here we are after the first full season's 30 episodes, filming the second season, so for a start I wanted something special, that's how we ended up at Sensation White, mother of all white parties, the biggest indoor dance event in the world.

On Thursday at noon our plane left to Amsterdam, so we've had half a day of filming and planning.
On Friday we went to Eindhoven, where Menno De Jong was waiting for us. we did alot of crazy stuff, some filming for the episode about him and his Intuition Summer Event next afternoon on the beach of Bloomingdale. Saturday morning spent with hunting for white clothing, since I was missing a few things from my outfit. At two in the afternoon, we arrived to Bloomingdale, and I must admit it's a great looking beach for sure.



The road towards there looks like it was from an Anton Corbijn video (ok, he's Dutch), and the party was so good it was hard for me to leave even though I knew what was waiting for me at the Amsterdam Arena.

Holy Hell!!!



I'm not surprised there's so many people who consider this party as the one to go to every single year, even if you're don't plan to go out at all whole year.

I'm not sure if the party's better without trance djs, but everyone was really prepared for the event, and it's a great sight to see tens of thousands of people dressed all white. I'd love to see how does Sensation Black looks like a week after. One big happy funeral?
But this year I won't be able to find out even though we'll be in Holland again and that's because of Dance Valley...

Tags: sensation white, menno de jong, intuition summer event, laptop dj, 2nd season

In the past couple of weeks - especially due to his recent world tour - we've been seeing Tiesto quite a lot. It's been enhanced when he arrived here to have two gigs on the same weekend, one with the tour, and one smaller gig for the hardcore fans the next day.
We were filming on both, but the second one had another task for me, being the warm-up dj for Tijs.

On Saturday, not long after his arrival to Budapest, Tiesto started his usual rounds of interviews, and I had a slightly different thing to do this time besides my show, Laptop Dj:

I was stunned to hear that a few days before Tijs agreed to participate in Hungary's premier hidden camera show to make a complete fool out of someone who was supposed to interview him. (Kinda like Punk'd on MTV, where celebrities got the cold shower.)
What was my role then? As some kind of coordinator, I had to tell him what to do to make the perfect wind-up: he had to be so offended by a certain question that after jumping up and storming out of the room (cursing in Dutch) he simply "canceled" the gig on that night. (The question was about his marriage which went down the drain just a week before the actual event, when his bride left him. Of course the story was made up by us)
Poor reporter had some VERY bad moments when Rogier, the tour manager rushed into the room shouting wildly about his responsibility about "what's gonna happen".

The hidden cam show never had an international star as a decoy, so it was a very memorable event for us, and Tijs assured us, it was his first too. We all had a great time.



On top of all this, I bumped into BT in the hotel lobby (he was participating in the tour too), of course I had to interview him as well. I've never thought I will talk about (Hungarian composer) Bela Bartok in my show once...



The tour gig according to Tijs the next day was "the best in the tour so far". Hell yeah, it was...
The Palace party on that day was top notch, Tiesto's Hungarian fans surely know how to party.

Tags: tiesto, bt, budapest

This post had a little delay, since I was a bit swamped regarding my blogging.

We went to film 2 episodes in France, Paris first, then we went to see Nuits Sonores Festival, which is one of the biggest European electronic dance festivals.

Our plane started on Saturday morning at 7:00 (the night before was spent with Chris "Hybrid" Healings, so I didn't get too much sleep). As I've never been to Paris before, I was a little excited, preparing for the famous language problems (as I've heard they don't like to speak any other laguages than theirs).
I have to report, it's not entirely true, but only in Paris. Lyon is a different story...

However, Paris is stunning. Period. Go and check it out, if you can, well worth it. The queue az Eiffel was so big, we didn't bother standing in. Maybe next time.

In Lyon with one exception it was raining every single day, and was pretty cold. On top of everything it was hard to find anyone who could speak english, so communication was quite hard. If someone understood Albion's language, they simply refused to talk.

At the festival I had to realize the French people LOVE minimal techno...

Tags: france, nuits sonores, paris, lyon

I almost forgot to post this, even though I made this with my phone, just for this blog...

Tiesto's dj booth

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Last Thursday we went to Poland to film on the second gig of Tiesto's "Elements Of Life" World Tour. 12.000 people and a sold out event welcomed his longest, 7-hours long leg of the tour.



Wroclaw is a really nice town with a population about 600.000 people. To be perfectly honest, I didn't know much about Poland apart from the facts that they have very beautiful girls (just like us in Hungary) and an exciting party scene. I have to report, all I've heard was true...
Ludowa Hall (the venue) was built by Hitler's designer, and has a special feel for sure.



We've been filming for 2 days. I've sat on a real tank, carried a megaphone in search for a Polish Tiesto fan, to have a meet and greet with his/her idol. It wasn't an easy task to find someone who spoke English as well as we could explain what we want to do. At the end we found Christian, who was more than excited when he found out, we're not joking. He was so enthusiastic after the meeting, like a kid.

On Friday (23rd) was the opening day of Ultra Music Festival. Headlined by The Cure & Tiesto (one after the other of course) It was a great day, spent filming all the way through, so we were pretty exhausted when got back to the hotel in the morning.



Next day we didn't get much sleep, had to go back to the festival early in the afternoon, to see and interview Ferry Corsten. The weather was pretty bad, rain and sunshine switched constantly making the festival one big wet t-shirt contest.
To me the surprise of the day happened in the "Carl Cox & Friends" tent, seeing Fatboy Slim playing for the first time.



HOLY SHIT!!!!



I had to rethink my idea about a good party...
I always knew this guy is great, but what I experienced there was mental. i've never heard such a variety of styles blent together so naturally. The ass shaking factor was at an all time high during his set. Due to the heavy rain outside the tent was absolutely full, people were jumping in the water that was flowing in from the sides.

For me one of the most anticipated event on the festival was Hybrid's live concert. Unfortunately it was raining heavily, I was surprised they even tried to play. After 2 songs they had to stop to prevent electric shock or equipment damage, nature had his own victory on breakbeat.
We filmed a bit in their tour bus, then went to the official Ultra afterparty, where they played on that night. (Actually Chris played only, he was in the mood for playing alone)



Before the afterparty I got to see BT's Laptop Symphony, which was amazing, I really love his work.



Sunday evening we went to Josh Gabriel's place, to cook something for them. Dave was sick for a few days then so, he was sleeping in his own room. (We filmed him snoring) so the furry bread has been ate in the morning as a grab-sometihing-when-coming-back-from-clubbing.
Last day of our Miami trip was spent filming additional material, on Tuesday we headed back to Budapest thru New York and Brussels. I was so exhausted that practically slept the whole thing over on the planes.


One more thing: in Miami plastic surgery is so common, even the mannequins look like this

Sunny Miami...

There is defintely something in the air. The weather supposed to be much nicer, warmer (and less windy) than what we had...
Every time we went out to the beach to film, by the time we got there, the sun was gone. We've had some sunshine, but it wasn't the best.



We didn't get much sleep during the WMC week, at the end we've had 3 episodes worth of material.
It's pretty hard to see everything important during the 7 days of the Conference. Ultra is also something to see as it's one of the biggest dance festivals in America.

We've spent half a day with Judge Jules, following him to parties, making an interview on the way. The first one was an exclusive rooftop party of Sirius Radio (we spotted Danny Tenaglia there as well), but the real deal was the Wetgrooves party by the Shelborne Hotel's Pool.



Jules, Paul Oakenfold, Christopher Lawrence and Serge Devant played that afternoon till 9 in the evening. It was a BIG party, however a guy fell off a balcony, so the Meds took him to a hospital.



On Thursday evening we got invited to Ferry Corsten's party at Cameo (formerly Crobar). In the VIP section Tiesto, BT and Sharam (of Deep Dish fame) was partying hard...
For me this was the party of the week, the vibe was so great everyone stayed till the end, Ferry played more than he was scheduled, all the way through.
Outside the club we filmed on the street, the footage surely has some great moments...

As we lost half a day easily in London, it messed up our filming schedule too, we couldn't do anything on Saturday.
It was so freezing cold, as in January. On Sunday we met my friend Eric, he guided us around a bit in NYC, the night ended at LeSouk, New York's finest Sunday party.



Monday spent filming again. We also found Manhattan's best pizza place, Grimaldi's (even thought technically it's not in Manhattan) under the Brooklyn Bridge.



Tuesday morning we headed to Miami...

We were facing a serious challenge, almost two weeks of constant filming...

It started in Amsterdam.



Tiesto held a World Tour Kick Off party at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. The party was held in one of the new baggage halls, converted into a party arena.
Before the event we had an interview with him, while talking his phone revealed he likes to use his own tune (In the dark) as a ringtone



After the party (at seven in the morning) on our way to America turned out JFK was closed due to heavy snow, and most of the flights were canceled. Due to the early hour we had a replacement ticket for a plane 10 hours later than our original arrival time. The crew spent the day celebrating St. Patrick's Day at the Airport...

Just because my luggage got lost on the way back, I can't forget the unbelievable Monday Bar Spring Break Cruise.

I wouldn't overrate anything by saying it's one of the best parties in the world. Thanks to Staffan & Johnny for taking us on such a great journey!
24 hours, 1500 wild, Scandinavian party people and 600 km from Stockholm to Finland and back.

It is definitely a sight to see when arriving to the port. The Cruise is Big.



By 6 the departure side was jam packed with the party crowd, everyone seemed very excited about the next 24 hours.
Alot of people brought their own sound systems, to warm themselves up in the "cabin parties" (a Scandinavian speciality). Some of them were sharing us their location, so we could find them easier when we need to.



Yeah, the warm-up...
Since alcohol is pretty expensive in Sweden, as soon as the cruise starts, the tax free shop opens, providing the source material for the rest of the night.
Everyone's really friendly, here you can see the best security ever. They're nice, and very friendly, all those grizzlys acting badly in clubs are fairly unknown here. Of all I've talked to basically I was the only one who lost the "mondaybar virginity" on that day. Everyone seemed to be a returning guest, and ever since I feel the urge to go back for the next party.



The bigname djs (Gaz Emery, Blank & Jones, Marcel Woods, Bart Claessen, Barry Connel & Tatanka) were playing at the 2 main rooms, they solwly filled up as the cabin parties ended. The vibe was unbelievable in both. By the morning only small cafeteria had an afterparty for the remaining partygoers.

At 12 I had a meeting with the Captain, I've always wanted to meet one who handles such a big cruise. I examined everything, I even got a coat, just to look more appropriate on the pic...



Everyone on the ship knows, the last few hours of the trip holds the best party. They keep in mind all is over at 5 pm, so squeezing out the last energy drops is the keyword here.
After the very last song, everyone has to leave their cabins pretty soon, which results quite a big mess at the exit. But you don't see any problems here, everyone has a smile, a handshake, or a kiss to someone, and if any soundsystem has any power, it will sound.
This video was made at the main exit 25 minutes prior stopping...



The next party cruise starts on July the 2nd and will last for 40 hours...

Damnit...

I'm flying to Stockholm, Sweden today, to film on the legendary Monday Bar Party Cruise. Everyone I talked to about it, got really excited, and agreed it will make a great episode for the show.

Gareth Emery
Blank & Jones
Marcel Woods
Bart Claessen aka Barthezz

and many more...

The weekend has passed, on Sunday evening I landed on Budapest's Ferihegy Airport after a short flight back. (The self checking system at Schiphol rocks bigtime...)

Finally I was able to get a bike ride in Amsterdam, I have no idea why didn't I do it earlier, it's such a good fun.



Later on that day In Utrecht I met a group of young pilots, who took me to some local clubs.
In our hotel I met Dmitry Almazov from Russian duo Bobina, he was playing at TE too. Poor guy had his tooth removed a few days before, so he felt pretty bad on Friday...

On Saturday afternoon we met (and filmed) a group of Hungarian clubbers (from TranceTream FM's forum). They regularly go to party outside their home country to see their favourite djs. They happily shared their tricks on what and how to do, when going out like that. Of course we saw them later at TE, enjoying themselves during Menno De Jong's great opening set at Future Stage.

It was my third time on a Dutch Megaparty, and surely it was one of the best.
Of course we've had some problems with getting in at first: some waiting and several phone calls finally solved the problem so we could get our black wristbands. Their "pers" (press) sign was the passport for us to get in anywhere basically. We just had to show it, then we were right where free drinks and alot of my favourite artists were waiting for their turn... I was hanging out with Paul Moelands, Gaz Emery, Mark Norman and many others.



The party was big. I mean BIG! The main stage could hold up more than 20.000 people, but the small stages were full as well. The whole complex was so huge, I'm sure much more people could've fit in. I uploaded some photos from my phone to flickr, go and click if you're curious...

Sunday (after a good sleep) was spent at my friend Misja Helsloot's place. The company there was more than pleasing, if I can I spend some time with them every time I'm in Holland. Misja, Anika, Fons & co. made sure the last part of my Holland visit was just as perfect as the whole weekend.

Thanks to everyone involved, it was surely a time to remember...

We're hitting the road again. This weekend the Laptop Dj Tv Show visits Trance Energy in Utrecht, The Netherlands, one of the largest indoor dance events in the world! The line-up is more than superb, I have no idea how will we be able to see everything / everyone we want to.
Sweet problems...

Yeah, I know I forgot to post stuff during the past few weeks, I have no excuses.

I'll try to summarize it a bit:

The TV show took us to Passion, UK in January where we filmed at the Classics Party (held on every first friday of the year).
Guy Ornadel and Emporium-resident JFK played classic tracks only all night long, the party was unbelievable.



On the way to Coalville, we visited Lange in his Oxford house and discovered he's also a big Mario Kart fan. Played pool with Mike Koglin and Jono Grant at Fortress Studio's bar in London. I got beaten badly in both cases...





At the end of January we went to Thailand, to film in Bangkok and the legendary Full Moon Party in Koh Phangan.
I must say it was one of the best parties I've ever seen.


They sell drinks in buckets (small, large, whatever you want), and those cause a lot of damage among the tourists.
I didn't hear a single complaint anywhere though...