Set off around 9am on Saturday morning, got the train to Edinburgh where there was a massive anti-war demonstration going on. Could hardly move in the place, UK people carrying Iraqi flags etc??? Insane. Got on the train from Edinburgh down to Preston, then from Preston to Liverpool. Trying to get a bus to the airport from Liverpool was a nightmare as there were literally hundreds going in/out of the main depot, wandered around aimlessly for a while before jumping in a taxi to the airport. Got to the airport pretty early, Scott & Jane arrived around an hour later, checked in and headed to departure gate. Flight was ok, went pretty quickly due to Scott’s travel scrabble which managed to last the length of the flight, and I came last, bah! Touched down in Barcelona, wasn’t very warm – around 2 degrees I think. Grabbed something to eat then we went to a pub called ‘Ars’, hehe. It was here we met up with Dennis (DJ Panic), Markos 13 & Jeroen (DJ Neophyte). Markos & Jeroen were off to Scorpia, Jeroen was playing a 5am set there. Scott, Jane & myself jumped in a taxi and followed Markos, he has to be the craziest driver I have ever seen. Not sure where he was taking us but we ended up at some mad restaurant, we had to decline the invitation for dinner as time was dragging on and we had to go to our hotel and get ready before heading to Pont Aeri for around 1am. Jeroen and Markos headed to Scorpia, said our goodbyes and jumped in a taxi to our hotel. Pont Aeri is quite a trek from Barcelona, probably took around 45 minutes in the taxi. We arrived at the hotel and everyone went to their rooms to get ready – turned out everyone was watching the same TV channel, Spanish football was the only thing we could relate to. By now it was around 1am and Dennis was trying to call Marc Skudero but could get no answer from his phone, this wasn’t a very good sign as we were due to get picked up from the hotel and taken to Pont Aeri. We decided to head down to reception, bar was closed but the guy opened it up and got us all drinks anyway, top bloke. We were sitting at the bar having a drink when Dennis’ phone rang, it was Skudero. Around 5 minutes later Skudero’s Dad came and picked us up, he looks just like an older version of Marc – he couldn’t speak any English so we had a laugh trying to communicate with him. Arrived at Pont Aeri, the event was called ‘Eurodjs’. On the line up were DJ’s Botch & Brian (France), Panic (Holland), Scott Brown (Scotland) as well as the residents Skudero, Xavi Metralla & Dany BPM. We bypassed the queue to enter the club. Once inside there was a stall selling Pont Aeri merchandise, the music was pounding from downstairs and I knew I was about to be blown away. Took the steps downstairs and the place was absolutely rammed, the sound system was the best I’ve ever heard. DJ’s Botch & Brian were hammering out hard-edged (no cheese) Makina, mixing BCN style all the way on 3 decks. I remember them playing tunes like ‘We Are A Nation’, ‘Hard Nation – Twister’, ‘Styles & Breeze – You’re Shining’ and Scott Brown – Neck breaker. We crossed the dance floor towards the DJ booth and all the crowd recognised Scott and were asking for his autograph. Went behind the decks where we met Skudero & Xavi, instantly they bought us a round of drinks, nice! Dany BPM was up next, he played a great blend of Makina & Hardcore, mixing stuff like ‘Chase’ and ‘Bombing Eardrums’. We were getting pretty drunk already due to Skudero and his free drinks and shots of whisky etc. Santi then came up and introduced himself to us, he had been posting on Scott’s discussion board prior to the event. He took me out to his car to drink some straight vodka and listen to parts of the new X-Que 2003 compilation, which is very, very good. Was really drunk now and headed back in as Scott Brown was due to start, seen some Spanish pillhead freaking out outside, found this hilarious. Dashed back in and up to the DJ booth as Skudero was introducing Scott to the decks, the place erupted and Scott hammered straight into some brand new material off CD. The crowd loved the new stuff as well as already massive hits in Spain like Neck Breaker & Synthetic Dreams. Scott then proceeded into some of his party gabber like ‘Ice Kold’ and ‘Ghosts’. Scott then made way for Xavi, he mixed Makina & Hardcore brilliantly as usual, dropping some top tracks like ‘Bombing Eardrums’ and a Makina version of Flying Free that I had never heard before. The Escudero brothers are a lot smaller than they look in photos, top blokes though – they told me all about Pont Aeri, it’s history and the Spanish rave scene in general. Marc speaks much better English than Xavi does though. Next up on the decks was Dennis (Bergkamp) Panic, he played an absolute blinder of a set. Dutch all the way, dropping some of his own stuff like ‘Up Yours’ which he produced with Paul Elstak. When he dropped the massive Pont Aeri anthem ‘Bastard Asshole’ the roof almost lifted right off the place, quite a sight, everyone chanting along. We were all really drunk by this time and mixing with the Spanish crowd, they all wanted their photos taken with Scott, one girl even asked me to sign her Pont Aeri fan, mad! Skudero was on the decks for the final hour, he mixed up Makina & Hardcore in his usual style, he also played the version of Flying Free that was new to me. Skudero worked the crowd for the final hour and ended the night with the Flying Free Romantic version. We stuck around for a bit after it had finished, had a scan through the Pont Aeri record boxes including Marc’s revival box, lots of real classic old stuff in there – imagine the money he’d make in the North East, heh. Left the club around 5.40am, the shop was closed so we couldn’t get any freebie merchandise, bah! Xavi gave us a lift back to the hotel, he also gave me one of his records which I proceeded to leave at hotel reception before leaving. The reception guy gave the record to Scott though later on so I’ll be able to get it. Flight home wasn’t bad, had to wait around Bristol airport though for 5 hours before flying back to Glasgow. Got home at around 10.30pm Sunday night, what a weekend.
