The event? Peppermint’s 3rd Anniversary (same day as Mix FM Lebanon’s)
Date? Feb 23, 2007
Venue? Barajeel Ballroom, The Fairmont Hotel Dubai- otherwise known on Fridays as Peppermint Club
The day started with setting up equipment around 7:00pm, then fetching Ferry from his suite @ 7:30 for the MTV Salaam interview- what a cool fella! He talked about his experience in the Middle East being one of his favorite destinations thanks to the warm hospitality he’s always received and the “good food”.
Also discussed one of his favorite gigs that was out in Wadi Rum in Jordan- Distant Heat in 2004!
Then the Beirut party after the war in 2006 (November 17, 2006) and how he made his way down to Mix FM’s studios in Beirut to record a vocal “To Lebanon” that he edited into “Rock Your Body” while at his hotel (apparently he did the vocals himself on the original track as well!) and how he felt he should do something special for the Lebanese crowd after all they went through that year- check out the interview in the coming weeks on MTV Salaam (Showtime MTV Middle East)
We also did a “surprise” live link to Mix FM for the 11th b-day special radio show- as always he had good things to say about Lebanon again!
After the interview we double-checked the sound system and layout for the CDJs and the mixer (I think I have a new passion for the DJM-800, just gotta get used to the filter knob first).
Dinner, discussed lots of issues from Miami to travel…etc to my surprise I’m getting a call from one of the managers that said “yella waynak? It’s 10pm we need to open!!” I ate my sushi as fast as I could and went down to start the warm-up set- Ambient, Minimal, Electro, Tribal and a little funk as the 2,200 people queued up for about 15 min to get in…
Ferry was ready to get on @12:30am but before we all sang a “happy birthday” to Peppermint as Ferry ignited the candles and sparks…
Welcoming Ferry Corsten to the booth:
This time ‘round his set was predominantly trance- I think a few other people are better at trainspotting the tracks than me, thankfully Ferry allowed me to record his whole set- so long as I didn’t share it online or anything (sorry!) I’ll e-mail him and check if he doesn’t mind I encode a very low bit-rate version of the 500 MB file (I bought a EDIROL R-09 a few days ago with Afroboogie and it’s AWESOME!)
More pictures
JR- head promoter and partner@Peppermint
Charl Chaka- editor in chief of INFUSION Dubai’s bi-weekly night-guide
I was forced to drink!
The night ended @3am with a tribute to the REAL man that made the Adagio for Strings remix back in 2000
Afroboogie & Myself loving out Roland R-09s!
Another tribute to Charl!
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmvKe4IlvXE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0vgp737bbw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u243w23aPfI
) ain’t it the third time u witness Ferry in less then 6 month?
) are top guys!
