Ministry of Sound Blog

So, as I explained yesterday, we we’re having dinner with Jazzy M in Shanghai, just before he was due to play at Attica at the weekend. We had such a nice time chatting with him about his history with Ministry of Sound and how he has been there since the beginning - 16 years ago! What a Ministry legend. We all had amazing food as Attica has a very cool restaurant too with the most fabulous views.

We decided to do interviews on the terrace. As all the lights of the city were spread out right in front of us, which looked fantastic, as you’ll see when we’ve edited the footage and got it up on the site.

Then it was time to party. We had a great night with fantastic music in awesome surroundings (one of the perks of this job!). Both Jazzy and Jon White (resident at Attica) played really well and got the party stonking.

Saturday came, and boy oh boy did we drink a lot of green tea. There’s something really cleansing about green tea after a late night and feeling slightly hazy. Loving that green tea. Love it so much I brought loads back to have at home. Not the tea bag stuff, the proper stuff. It rocks!

Someone had told us to try Hairy Crab. Yes that’s right HAIRY Crab. So off we went to try this speciality. All I can say is: chopsticks, crab, very little meat, and no experience in the ways of crab eating. It was hilarious. I think I got most of it down my front and ended smelling like a hairy crab for the rest of the night – lovely.

Oh and I forgot to tell you - there was not one knife and fork in sight anywhere on the trip. Of course not, but it was hard. I think I strained my hand, (but by the end I nearly had the Mr Miyagi talent of catching a fly with my chopsticks… er, well, almost.) It was quite embarrassing actually as Amada, our guide, was so feminine and natural with her chopsticks, while I was a mess! Typical. But at least it got the food in my mouth…… Just!

Onwards to the party back at Attica for another stonking night with loads of eager party people. Mark Wilkinson was tonight’s special guest (you can hear his show every Friday on Ministry of Sound Radio), alongside resident Jon. Mark was playing loads of stuff from his excellent Kidology Records label and was a great dude to hang out with too. As usual we were dancing like crazy people and loving the music.

So after two crazy nights in a row we headed back to the hotel for a TWO HOUR kip before attempting to get on the plane. And attempt is all I can say. Jet lag and late nights is not gonna help trying to catch a plane. So yes, you guessed it, we missed our flight.

It was a moment of Agghhhhhhhhhhh!! But we got over it. One more night in Shanghai was not going to kill us. It didn’t make too much of a difference and we got one more chance to eat more dumplings, wonton soup and noodles plus other strange things we had never eaten before.

It was an amazing trip and we had a brilliant time. I can highly recommend getting out there, eating great different food and partying at Attica for the perfect combination. Full video report of our exploits coming very soon. Did you see the Sloggi Best Bum comp video yet too?

V. xx

I’ve just got back from a whistle-stop trip to Shanghai, where Ministry of Sound TV had been invited to come and check out the club Attica and see how they party, Shanghai style! So in the name of bringing you all a taste of what goes on with Ministry of Sound Tours, throwing parties in exciting locations, I thought I better grab the opportunity!

We arrived with very numb bums after a really long flight, but still very excited about our trip to China. Neither me or cameraman Pedro had ever been there before or speak a word of Chinese, so we knew there was going to be a lot of sign language going on from the start.

Driving into the city we immediately realised that this was going to be a very different experience. Even though it was amazing, I was finding it really hard to keep my eyes open. It felt like I had cement on my eyelids, so we took a quick nap before going to check out the city by night.

We had no clue where to go, no clue where to eat or what to do, so we decided to just wing it. Eventually we stumbled upon a really cool area called Jin Tian Di. It’s a hot district in Shanghai full of really cool restaurants and shopping. All we could think about was food, so hot footed it round all the restaurants trying to find a traditional place away from Starbucks and the like.

We came across a place that had no tourists in it and thought we would give it a go. Inside lots of people were eating crabs. Our first taste of proper Chinese food did not fail to impress though - healthy, flavoured yummy things. Nearly fell asleep again in the wanton noodle soup so thought it best to hit the sack again and catch up on that jet lag.

Friday we got up and started to explore the city. We had a fantastic guide called Amanda from the Attica office, who took us to all the right places to get some great footage filmed. We’ll have it up on the site for you to see asap.

It felt like we covered practically the whole city. We visited one of the tallest buildings and went up to the 88th floor. The lift was so fast, it took lest time hotel lift journey, and we only have to go to the 26th floor in the hotel!

My favourite spot was this shopping area where all the shops were in this really old temple. I have never seen anything like it. Bought a shit load of White Rabbit sweets. If you have never eaten them try them out… delicious!

Amanda then took us to a spot on the side of the Yellow River overlooking the river and the Bund. It could not have been more perfect and it was so cool as all the lights in the city came on virtually at the same time at 7pm. One minute you look and it is pretty dark, then you blink for a sec and the whole place is lit up like the brightest place on earth. Beautiful sight.

Also along the river came all these boats with fluorescent light flashing and changing colour. It was the brightest city I have ever seen.

Then we were off to have supper with Ministry of Sound legend Jazzy M who was DJing at Attica for our tour night at the club. Very cool. What a wicked guy. If you haven’t heard him play, he does a great radio session on MoS Radio which you should check out on Tuesdays at 4pm (GMT)

I’ll tell you all about our night out with him at the club tomorrow, plus our experience of eating hairy crab(!) and a slight hitch with our journey home…

Ok, some assignments I get sent on are memorable for being a little unusual, and the other night was quite a unique one.

We went along to the ‘Best Bum in the UK Awards’, sponsored - naturally - by tasty underwear maker Sloggi.

As we arrived, there were loads of girls AND boys walking about in just their underwear, while Hed Kandi DJs provideed the sexy tunes. Making a MoSTV video like this is just too easy as there were eye-popping sights all around for Pedro to zoom in on!

I met Dr. David Holmes who is a ‘bum expert’ (which I’m not sure is the best thing to be know as in some parts of the world) and he told me how to achieve the perfect bum.

Basically it all comes down to a healthy lifestyle as you’ll find out when we post the video really soon.

I was going to get him to rate mine out of 10, but up against the best in the UK, I suddenly had second thoughts!

V. x

Hello from sunny Amsterdam! It’s the second day of the Amsterdam Dance Event, where the world’s best DJs and all electronic music people come to network… and party hard at some unbelieveable clubs. It just happens to be the most wicked city to do some ‘work’ so the event is getting more popular every single year.

People told me that there would be a lot of bicycles here but I didn’t realise there would be millions - it’s like there’s 2 per person.

We’ve been loving just wandering around and by night the city has the most amazing ‘mood lighting’ so everything is lit up to look great, with no harsh light to be seen.

Last night when we arrive we were invited to Josh Gabriel’s house where we found him plus production/DJ partner Dave Dresden hanging out, plus Guy Ornadel and Josh’s wife and baby daughter. Josh has a great pad and studied in Amsterdam so knows how to speak Dutch and is a great city guide. He told us where all the good coffee shops are too…

All of us (including his baby) went for supper at a gorgeous brasserie where everyone ordered the pepered steak which was unbelievable!

G&D then went off to prepare for their set at the Toolroom Knights party. They are also at the Ministry of Sound this Saturday, but what I didn’t know is that in between (ie tonight) they are playing in Russia!!

We tried to organise filming a Clubber’s Guide to San Francisco with them sometime soon too. Great guys.

Me and trusty cameraman Pedro then got lost wandering the canals. We never found the coffee shop they recommended but somehow ended up right next to the club they were playing at, thanks to the name being beamed into the sky!

Inside D Ramirez was on and I’m so loving his work at the moment. Mark Knight was also on top form and G&D played some gorgeous vocals. It’s weird to be back in clubs where everybody is smoking though.

Today we’re hanging out at the conference and meeting up with the DJdownload boys to film one of their hillarious Underground Exposure videos.

More updates soon, and you’ll be able to check the results of all our filming on MoS TV very soon…

V. xx

We had an amazing time with Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim last week making not one but two separate videos for MoS TV.

First up was at an Oxfam shop in East London where he was playing a gig for 200 people. Yes, that’s right, a gig in amongst the old clothes, books and most importantly heaps of records!

He wasn’t actually feeling too well, but was still as charismatic as ever and played really eclectic music with all the classics, but there was also a Sheryl Crow track thrown in at the end, which was very groovy. He even had a moment with a banana on stage. The banana became the theme of the evening, got passed around the crowd and back to Fatboy, who sang into it.

The place was packed so we could hardly move and boiling hot ‘n sweaty too, but everyone was in such good spirits. Having grabbed our first interview with Norman, we looked through the kids book section reminiscing about childhood books and checked out an Elton john suit for sale for £1000. Baby blue with diamantes. Lovely! (I really wanted to try it on, but the arms were too short by the looks of things.)

Not the sort of this you find in a charity shop every day, but then this was a special occasion as part of the excellent Oxjam series of events. The basement of the shop had been done up really well, yet as the gig ended the lights went on and we saw the mini club transform back into a charity shop.

The next day me and my trusty cameraman Pedro took the train down to Brighton and met up with Norman again at his amazing house right on the beach, with a gorgeous view of Brighton Pier. He was feeling a little better, but still not 100%.

We sat out and spoke to him about his new Greatest Hits Remixed album and all the other things he’s been up to for what turned out to be a great, really relaxed interview where we laughed a lot and talked for ages. It’s amazing when you look back at his life and how involved in the music scene he has been. It seems everything he touches turns to gold - amazing talent. Poor Pedro though, his arm must have been finished after all the camerawork!

I am not quite sure how we got onto the conversation of his bath, but we did and I asked if I could have a sneak peek into his massive bathroom and a tour around the house. So glad I did because wow - what a beautiful pad! It’s very family orientated with pics all over and I loved the bathroom by the way, I think it is about the size of my flat and it looks out onto the sea. If I had a bathroom like that I would live in the bath. A great bath!

There is also Norman’s Bar next to some deck that looks out on the sea. It really must be the coolest place to live and they must have some great times there. I met wife Zoe Ball and she is as gorgeous in person as she is on the TV screen. Even though Norm is a superstar DJ, he really has not let a single thing go to his head. Really lovely.

I had to buy a stick of rock for Pedro as he had never eaten it! He loved it, but thought it was probably the strangest thing he’d ever seen. We could not find one with his name on it. Actually, thinking of it, what is the point of rock? I suppose it really is a part of the English seaside culture?

• Date: Oct 17th 07
• Categories: MoS TV
• Comments: 0
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Author :admin