2002 had a few good albums come out - and my year was split in two really so one set was my sound track to traveling and the other was my sound track to living in Byron. Whilst I traveled I bought mostly compilations however one purchase which was really random for me was Alicia Key's Songs in A Minor. A great album. Another great album of course was #1 by Fischerspooner.
My favourite album however was one I had the pleasure of launching at the club in Byron and a really great album that flowed like a compilation. It really played nicely...
I had spent a lot of time and effort in getting Sasha's first performance promoted and ready, and he was really great to work with. I forget his old tour manager at the time but we stayed in touch for a year or so afterwards... a good bloke. Sasha flew in and the weather was crap - raining cold - pretty unusual for December in Northern NSW. He was travelling with his American girlfriend and we put them up in Victoria's Boutique at Wategos which would have been better if it hadn't rained the whole time he was with us. I had just finished telling him and his missus that they didn't have much to worry about in terms of sharks, spiders or whatever as I guess they thought Byron Bay was just the middle of nowhere! Literally thirty seconds after telling him he was right to go for a swim without being eaten or whatever (we were driving from the hotel to dinner) I ran over a friggin python bigger than I had ever seen that spanned the whole width of the road and must have been thicker than my leg. At the time I owned a Honda Civic... however there was no way I was turning around to see if it was OK... I think it was fine and slithered off anyway... on that winding and dark road between Wategos and Byron there wasn't really anywhere to turn anyways.
After dinner we hit the club and of course it was a sell out show. Sasha was a god to every clubber back then... everyone owned his Global Underground: Ibiza CD although to be honest I preferred his Global Underground: San Francisco. Having said that "airdrawndagger" was my fav. album of 2002... and it was a great night out with a bunch of friends & clubbers from Sydney coming up to see him in a club that really only held 300 people... that show sold out quick.
It also marked my last night in Byron as I headed back to Sydney to start work with my current boss and friend for over 5 years, Nick Adcock.
The other part I loved about this album was the fact that my really great old friends Ben Korbel and Paddy Nash (a.k.a. Sounds) did the Sydney party for it... and they did a great job. They ended up moving the party as they sold that many tickets and pulling in over 5,000 people. I was so stoked for them... this was also really their first step in becoming the amazing festival promoters they are today - most famous for "We Love... Sounds" which really is a collaboration between them and my early mentors Mark & Sarah Broadbent... more about them to come in my posts about earlier years.
No clip from this one as most on You Tube suck from this album and to be honest to really appreciate this album you have to listen to it start to finish.
Now I have finished 2002... I will go back to 1999 next and then work back to 2008... when I have time as it's X-Games in LA next weekend.
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