10 years in the game playaz!

Well holy jesus. A decade has passed, and what a time we’ve had thanks to this terrible, awful website.

If you’d have told us ten years ago the craic that one little music website could generate we probably would have started about fifty of them…as it was, it was just the one, because living in the sticks of dundalk myself and skeletor could find fuck all other way to find out what jungle fixes were available around the country.

The whole thing started off as a subfolder on my work placements webserver, after myself and skeletor went to see Solaris aka Spree play live in dundalk, i did a shit interview with them, stuck up a few charts and some bullshit about shopping in dublin.

Then we thought, here, why dont we get ourselves one of those fancy dot com things. So we did. Then made a really rubbish looking orange website, which somehow some other people found…and got in touch, or we somehow got in touch with them, i dunno, anyway…the ball was rolling….and roll it did!

Anyway, rather than continuing this rather pointless history lesson i’ll outline some of my personal highlights that have resulted in one way or another from this place.

First and foremost You lot. Without question this site has connected me with a bunch of absolute legends. Every gig i’ve been to over the years, every spot i’ve played in, every promoter i’ve had dealings with, every DJ i’ve met, every punter i’ve had the craic with, and every user on this site (bar one absolute fucking nutbag…but thats another story) has been a bona fide A1 legend. From meeting all the old bassbin heads way back when, to hooking up with the solid crew in belfast, to meeting new punters at new adventures at the likes of onesevenfour over the years, it’s been an absolute pleasure all the way…everyone comes from different backgrounds, places and walks of life, but the whole drum and bass vibe really has brought together a fantastic bunch of heads. For that, to you lot and to this stupid site, i am forever indebted!!

Homelands. Getting in for free. Four of us…back when people weren’t really sure if the internet was any use or not, and before blogs existed, probably thanks to having an actual domain name lended some sort of credibility to us requesting “press” access to the festival. What an amazing festival that was….the drum and bass room was unreal.

DJ’ing I don’t think i would have gotten half the gigs i did if it wasn’t for this place putting me in touch with a bunch of sound mo’fo’s around the country…gotta big up all the people over the years who’ve had me along to play at various spots around this brilliant little island. Two many of ye to mention.

Jungle Republics How amazing were these events? I dont really need to go into it in detail.

Promoting Jesus, sometimes i still wonder what sort of a madman was i to get into running a night, but then when you look back at it you wouldn’t change it. From me first efforts in dundalk which resulted in zero gigs and getting fined for littering, to the second street gigs at the front page…right through to what im at now, it’s been some craic, from some serious successes (1Xtra gigs being one of em), to some absolute failures (A-Sides wigwig?), wouldnt have even gone anywhere near it without this place on the go.

Got plenty of others, which will come to me through the hazy fog of time!

Anyway, to celebrate this milestone its party o’clock. 3rd of April at the Twisted Pepper.

It’s gonna be serious. Anthems ahoy from some of the people who have been instrumental in shaping irish drum and bass over the years, we wish we could have everyone play, but there aint enough hours in the night!

It’s kicking of early at 10pm, and i believe there is a bit of a pub crawl going on during the day to get the wheel’s oiled…We’ve got reduced admission for idnb members too!

Lineup includes: Beckett, Skeletor, Naphta, Code, Bonz, RickyForce, Source, Jet Li, Ernie…

So please, please, please, do your best to get there from doors open and help raise the roof…

See you there.

Beckett.