MoreAboutMusic return to the Fat Badger Pub on Portobello Road/Goldborne Road End, for the annual Notting Hill Carnival Jam 2009. Part 2 !!! They take over the intimate surroundings of The Fat Badger Pub (Bang in the middle of carnival route!!) and provide two rooms of music and a exciting line up of DJs & Vocalists.

Phil Asher & Shea Soul (restless soul)

Benji B (deviation/1xtra)

Simbad (dejavufm) & Donn T (still music/philly US)

Jose Carretas (restless soul)

Aphrodisiax (soul heaven)

Altered Natives (fresh minute music/moreaboutmusic)

Souled (fresh minute music)

Kev Beadle (solar radio)

Tom Lynch (Development)

Nick Rees (Adela St)

Nick V (Mona/Paris)

Dave Hardy (jus’house)

Dan J (moreaboutmusic)

Mona in June is going to be a disco one, with a specialist from London coming to town. Having been brought up on a diet of soul, funk and disco, by his dad, himself a dj, he has worked for Strut, Irma and Nuphonic. His nights in London are now legendary, attracting a mix of nudists, transvestites, girls from next door and respected disco enthusiasts and record collectors. He plays all over the place, always vinyl and majoritarily disco, and some good old house music for good measure too. What more can I say ?

I’ll let you guess the rest … if you do find out then let me know and you’ll get a free ticket to the night (other answers may do too, get me smiling and it should do the job), write to me here : nick.vh@gmail.com

Also many thanks to Greg Oreck, one half of Thugfucker, for flying over from Rome to do the business at last month’s party, which was quite a funny affair, check out the pics here on facebook (by guess who ?). Great music also from the Thank you crew who kicked off the night in true 80s disco funk fashion … merci Salima & Aurélien.

mona - Saturday 20th June 2009 at La Java - Tickets 10 €. – doors at 23:30. A disco special with Nickv and his very secret guest from London. Facebook event

Tribute to Free Your Funk 

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I started doing nights with Free Your Funk in 2005, when we did a collaboration between the Waxgroove and Guys&Dolls parties we were both promoting. At that time Denis, the man behind the FYF set up, was doing nights in intimate Parisian venues like Boule Noire, Nouveau Casino, La Scène, with a programme of diverse artists such as Greg Wilson, Grand Wizard Theodore, Crazy B and Spinna playing styles of music mainly based around funk and its off shoots : disco, afro, house, hip hop … reviving a few old school hip hop pionneers along the way (and quite a few funny moments too).

Since then he’s gone on to fill out some of the biggest places in Paris (Bataclan, Bellevilloise …) with always the same level of quality in the choice of his artists. This is something I appreciate as many promoters often resort to the more obvious names when they have a big room to fill out frequently leaving the rest aside. With the quality of music in mind I did this hip hop based mix for Denis.

I’m looking forward to our next party together on 31st May when Best Friends meet Free Your Funk at Nouveau Casino / Le Charbon with Gilles Peterson and a whole crew of different djs.

tracklist :

DJ Krush ‘AM 300 Tag’
Border Crossing ‘No go area’
Madlib ‘Steppin into tomorrow’
Sleepy Brown ‘Ride on’
Digital Underground ‘Freaks of the industry’
Lootpack ‘Lost art’
Digable Planets ‘Pacifics’
Fu Schnickens ‘Ring the alarm’
Border Crossing ‘Searching for Mr Manuva’
Massive Attack ft Mos Def ‘I against I’
Visioneers ‘Rollin’ for the ride’
Wildstyle Limosine rap
James Pants ‘Good things’
DJ Krush ‘Keeping the motion’
Pharcyde / Visioneers ‘Runnin’
YBU ‘Soul magic’
Mantronix ‘Control the dice’
Smash Hunter ‘Huh’
Jaylib ‘bonus beats’
Mt Airy Groove ‘Pieces of a dream (instr)’
Sharon Green, Debbie D, Lisa Counts ‘US girls’
Dubble D & Rakim ‘I know you got soul (greg wilson rmx)’
Q-Tip ft Amanda Di ‘Manwomanboogie’
Charles Earland ‘Coming to you live’

May’s edition is coming soon. We’ve got djs from Berlin and New York coming over to guest with me. Again a lot of disco and maybe some hipster rock to warm up the room. After that I’ll be playing with a friend from New York now based in Rome, an inspired producer and excellent dj. We’ve got loads of new stuff : records bought, tracks from the studio and there may even be a small live show … see more about that soon. A special warm up treat is expected so come early !

Also many thanks to Pete Herbert and his musical talents at last month’s Mona. Tracks of the night were : 2000 and one ‘spanish fly’, Charles Earland ‘Coming to you live’, Light of the world ‘Time’, Par-t one ‘I’m so crazy’ … and a few more, I’ll get the mix up on here soon.