Peter Hook DJ set @ Laverys Bar, Belfast

Yeah. Lavery's

Yes, but that aint where the pics are. he said they keep em in a library downstairs, presuambly you can buy yerself a copy (it's a big thing in nightclubs in real cities apparently).

Me sis said she'd check in next time she's up that way ( kinda hopin she releases son v2.0 first though, don;t want her waters breaking when she's on a mission for me.

Hooky seemed to be totally blissed out while i was still about. His antic behind the decks were amusing as fuck, and not at all like a cocksucker DJ would be if they were actin up. Did you notice BTW how much of his mixing he did visually using either beat cue lights or automatch on the cd players (do I care if he used an automixer? no, I was not under the impression I was going to see coldcut or dj shadow, far as I was concerned, it was a big house party and this guy I knew had loads of good tunes would be there). Nerdy bit....he had the same mixer as we use for decks (ours is partied out tho).

A hell of a lot of bands and the like from "the brown isle", say that we're the mentalist audiences around (and I'm not talking about on stage when they say "it's great to be back in" and read the name from their hand.). I think it's because we are left out so often. Not every band comes here. And if sectarian violence isn't your bag, there's not a terrible amount to do in Belfast most evenings. You look at the "What's on" pages in London or Manchester. on any given night you may have a choice of a dozen or more theatre shows, 20 club nights, half a dozen bands you've heard of and inumerable smaller gigs. In Belfast you have the only decent theatre in the city perpetually filled up with panto's starrin May McFettridge and that fucking kiddie toucher off the news (the one that does school around the corner....Ulster parents are so pathetic they let their kids be humiliated by a tv crew and a pramgroper just to get themselves on telly). There's maybe one or two known bands a week. The rest of your choices are spide clubs, a gay club (still there?) poser clubs and noncey handbag music clubs, all of which open only at weekends, and most pubs have the standard issue N.I 4 or 5 piece rock band that's been in every pub since the early 80's ( they make them in bathces up at the old Delorean plant), utterly without any character of their own. I used to think only Bangor was tragic, but Rich has been up in Belfast for like 3 years and hardly bothers going out any more, cept round festival time when we both run round like blue arsed flies. In fairness things are moving forward in leaps and bounds.....nice of them, now that I'm outta the loop for the forseeable :(

So when anyone important comes to Belfast, we are instantly eternally grateful and utterly up for it, even if they suck. Many bands will open a tour in Ireland for that reason, they get a chance to shake down in front of an audience who are frankly easy pleased ( the southern lot get more entertainment and live in something slightly more removed from a 3rd world country(as long as you're in gobbin distance of Dublin or Cork :) ), but they are also genetically predisposed to partying like wildmen). mind you, we don;t mince words with bands what suck, and Gawd 'elp 'em if they start getting gobby. Chris very kindly reminded me of Dave Mustane's truly inspired "Victory to the IRA" ( which offended everyone, probaly including even the staunchest republican, cos who the hell is this prick to speak)...short gig that one, sadly the band as far as I know were not succesfully lynched. The facilities we offer a touring band however are probably a bit shite, most of them look really fucked off by the time they hit the stage (obviously this only applies to real bands, not those who live in a record company bubble), good job we cheer em up ain it. I doubt there's anywhere on the island where you could hire equipment to the spec you could get from the likes of Britania Row ( I mean, c'mon have you SEEN the kit Harry Baird hires? I've had amp racks delivered that look like a truck's hit em...with the whole fucking crossover matrix wired wrong, handy since I'd never seen one before at the time, so had to work it all out on the fly, at least if it's actually toast he'll bring you another for no cost), SO, you gotta bring your speakers (if you've got a few quid, you can fly your backline, but unless you own an airline you can forget airfreighting a bigrig), and that means trucks on ferries, long term PA hire and a whole pile of shite. New Order have had a checquered past here as you know. Kilkenny was great, then some unhappy dublin gigs and a barely contained riot in Belfast (from the sound of the tape), then another Dublin disaster, then Oxegen, which was bloody good. Maybe Hooky will be impressed at our riotous nature and talk the rest of em into the Ulster Hall after all. And here's an idea......don't do a fucking dublin show, it's about time those lucky shites had to do the Enterprise instead of us.