MONDAY
It was an early start, leaving at 5:30 am, after Simon (Taylor) had been dropped off at our house. Got to Heathrow in good time, parked, caught the bus to the terminal and checked in.
Had (overpriced) breakfast at the airport, waited around then boarded our plane!!
Landed at Newark Airport at about 1:30pm local time, did the long immigration queue, then caught the coach to Manhattan.
We'd arranged to stay in an apartment in Soho, so got there and had to have a few drinks in the nearby Cafe Noir while we waited for our contact to meet us with the keys. It was eight flights of stairs up to the 4th floor, which was a killer on our first day, but got easier as the week went on.
For our first night in NY, we decided to make a return visit to Salsa Con Mambo at Session 73, where Grupo Latin Vibe were playing. We got there quite late and just caught their second set. A few other UK people were in the house including Moe Flex, and Vicki, Julia and Claire from the Midlands.
Salsa-Central got a shoutout from our friend DJ Babaloo, who runs this night.
We decided to get the subway home, but it took so long that we gave up half way and jumped in a cab.
TUESDAY
Woke up early as a result of construction work on a hotel opposite, and the lack of curtains in the apartment (!!). Mel and I headed up to B&H to get Mel her a zoom lens, while Simon did a little exploration of the local area. After B&H, we browsed a few more shops and I got myself a new After Effects book, then headed up to El Barrio for some CD shopping from El Barrio Music.
It was great to see Frankie and Rey again after so long - Lou doesn't work there anymore since moving to Philly. Bought a few CD's then headed into the Bronx, so Mel could get her hair cut (No danger of missing a flight, so we were fine). Caught the wrong subway, so had to walk a few blocks through the South Bronx to get to the other line (getting a Coconut Ice on the way), then headed up to Gun Hill Road where Mel's cousin Lauren met us from the train.
While Mel was getting her hair done, Lauren and I headed up the road to get some food. It wasn't the greatest area in the Bronx, so I was getting a few stares, but the food was worth it!! Barbecue Chicken, Fried Chicken, Snapper, Rice & Peas!! Nice!!
That night I was due to DJ at one of the official Congress launch parties, at Sabor Salsa Tuesdays at Iguana (240 W54th St), run by Marlon Int'l and friends. Got there about an hour before my set, so went to get a drink from the bar... I didn't have my Id with me so ended up getting a bit of verbal from the woman behind the bar who was trying to get us chucked out.
We managed to sort it out with the manager of the venue, and I soon started my set. I was DJ'ing alongsode Antonio 'La Conga' (who runs the La Vieja Guardia Socials in NY) and a DJ from paris. My set went down really well and I was getting great feedback for days following!! Not a bad debut!!
WEDNESDAY
Mel discovered a little scratch on her new lens... cue panic and worry! So, the three of us headed over to B&H determined to get it replaced. Queued up in the returns line and eventually got served by a guy who'd been quite abrupt with previous customers. I pulled out the lens and told him 'the lens we bought yesterday has a scratch on it' in a manner which suggested I wasn't to be trifled with! 'So why don't you wipe it off' was his reply, pulling out a microfibre cloth and briskly removing the mark. He chuckled, I felt a little silly, so we went for breakfast across the road.
We walked from there up to Times Square in wonderful weather, then across to the Hilton as Simon wanted to see the congress venue. We went inside and up to the main area, but that wasn't enough for Simon, he wanted to go into the ballroom himself, where we were promptly stopped by staff who were setting up for an event to be held there the night before the congress... a 2,500 capacity room was being used to host dinner for 29 people, they told us!!
Leaving there, we headed into Central Park, walked round there for a bit then headed back towards the apartment.
On t he dinner itinerary tonight was a visit to 'Lombardi's' in little Italy, NY's first Pizzeria. Had dinner, then on the way back spotted 'Rice To Riches' a rice pudding shop with the funniest window signs ever!!! Stopped in Yellow Rat Bastard on the way back to the apt for a few new T-shirts then home.
Tonight was the official 'Meet and Greet' pre-congress party with free buffet and bar. Nice! We got there right at the start to make the most of it, and Simon took part in Baila Society's class .
A lot of the artists were in attendance and Jimmy Bosch also turned up, so I ended up having a brief chat with him. I also got a lot of great feedback while there about my set at Iguana the previous night, which is always nice!!
We left in the early hours, had a brief chat with El Malo and Osmar Perrones outside, the got the subway home (all the way this time)
THURSDAY
In an effort to actually do some sightseeing, we decided to go to the American Museum Of Natural History, grabbing breakfast on the way. This is the museum that's featured in the 'Night At The Museum' films, and you're greeted by two large dinosaurs upon entering the main foyer. The whole place is enormous, and more than you can see in just one trip, but we saw quite a bit, including 'Dum Dum' from the film. We then went to Chinatown for dinner before going back to the apartment.
Today was registration for the Congress, so after going through all the getting ready shenanigans (inevitable when I was sharing with these two!!), we caught the Subway to the Hilton and got our wristbands. Then, we all fancied a bite to eat so made a nearby diner stay open an extra half hour so we could eat.
Back to the Congress. I was due to DJ at the congress, but didn't know when, and couldn't find Ray who was in charge of the DJ scheduling, so went to film Cubanoson , who were on stage at the time. At the end of the song, Mel tapped me on the shoulder;
Mel: "I just soke with Ray, you're on in this room (the main room), after the band"
Me: "When do the band finish"
Mel: "In 45 minutes"
Normally, that would've been fine, except that my CD's were in the apartment.... a 20 minute cab ride away!! Cue a manic couple of cab rides staight out of a film, and I got back to the congress with 10 minutes to spare. Nice!! I went on at midnight, once the band had finished, and was on for over an hour. Very nervous to begin with, but I loved every minute of it... a real buzz!! Feedback was great too, with a number of people coming over!!
TO BE CONTINUED...
Salsa Splash Weekend – Mel C’s Blog
Steve and I had never been to a Salsa Splash weekend before, although from the various pictures and video clips you see on Facebook, we could tell that people had a lot of fun when they were there!
We were supposed to be moving house that weekend but it didn’t work out (don’t ask, it’s a sore subject!) so we thought ‘right then, lets go’!
Friday
We travelled down on the Friday lunchtime and made pretty good time, it took about 2.5 hours, getting there for about 3pm. Registration was very smooth, we had ours keys and a glass of Pims (thanks Jean) within minutes of arriving at reception!
We went to our chalet, unpacked and then headed off to Sainsbury’s, needed to get supplies, bumping into Julian aka The Duke whilst arguing over the seafood sticks I wanted to buy! I won, of course, and we headed back to the chalet, armed with Jack Daniels and an array of goodies from Sainsbury’s.
Dinner was at 7:30pm sharp, we’d been allocated seats earlier and were the first to arrive at our table. A few minutes later, we were joined by Miguel and Mayan and we met Pedro Gea and Neli from Asi Se Baila, Spain. We had a great time over dinner, Miguel and Mayana were charming as always and Pedro was a very friendly guy, we spent most of dinner talking about music, nothing new there!
There were no shows on the Friday night, which worked well I thought, Rohan introduced the night (best MC out there guys) and led a warm up, which the majority of the crowd joined in.
We nipped back to the chalet for a drink and to watch the BB eviction (sad I know) then we headed back out about an hour later. There was a good mix of music that night, provided by DJ Cruz and Cornelius. I danced quite a lot that night, drank a fair bit too!
Saturday
We got up for breakfast and then had a wander around the site, and then Steve wanted to do Miguel and Mayana’s improver’s class. He came back full of praise for the guys, they definitely have a fan there!
At lunchtime, we popped across to the café on site and Robert asked Steve to play some music in there while people were eating. He went down a storm, particularly with Tony from Mambata, who dragged me up, despite my protests of ‘I’m wearing sandals!’ and made me dance! As I am typing this, Steve has now been booked for Mambatas launch night of their new monthly collaboration with Red Hot Red Salsa, nice one Steve!
I had promised myself that I would do the Street Jazz class with Hakeem from Impact Dance that afternoon, so after lunch I went across to the Games Room where the class was being held. The room was full and Hakeem wasted no time getting us to do an energetic warm up before launching into the choreography he had planned for the class. It was amazing! I haven’t worked that hard or enjoyed a class so much, for such a long time and it was a feeling shared by all! Hakeem is holding a weekender in October this year, keep your eyes on Salsa Central for more info.
I then convinced Lorna and Andrea to do an Aqua Fit class with me, whilst Steve was roped into playing football. OMG what a laugh that class was! The instructor wasn’t very good but we had him in stitches with our (well my) interpretations of the moves we were supposed to be doing! This went on for about 40 minutes until we collapsed into the steam room to unwind.
After all that exercise, I was famished and as we were by the sea, I convinced Steve to drive us to a seafood restaurant (it was 5 minutes from the camp, we could’ve walked lol!) called Marina Jaks. The food was fabulous and after a walk on the beach, we went to a local amusement arcade and messed about on the machines before heading back to get changed for the night.
We gave dinner a miss, for obvious reasons, and then headed out to the venue. It was a black tie night and the majority of the guests had made a real effort, we felt a bit under dressed! There were five shows that night, from Asi Se Baila , U-Tribe, Mambata , Marchant and Davina and Almas Latinas . Hakeem led a Michael Jackson tribute , Steve managed to get them all on camera, you can see them on the site ☺
Sunday
We had planned to leave the next day but were bombarded by ‘no ways’ from several people who assured us Sunday was the best night. As we had already booked the Monday off (for moving, not!) we decided to stay. It was a good decision, it was another themed night, this time Hero’s and Villains and there were various costume ideas floating about! We decided not to take part (we weren’t prepared) instead we took great pleasure in watching people arrive in their costumes!
My favourite had to be The 3 Little Pigs (or in this case, about 20!) and the Big Bad Wolf, The MP’s Expenses Scandal and the T.W.A.T.S (Traffic Wardens Against Terrific Salsa)!!
The Mambo City Crew arrived to police sirens as they marched in in police uniform, reprimanding several criminal looking types along the way! Even I got hand cuffed at one point, by a dodgy looking pimp/police officer with blonde hair (you reading this Mr Al Sheikh?) still not sure what for though!
There were shows by Salsology, U-Tribe and Miguel and Mayana that night. Later on there was a dance off between the Hero’s and the Villains to a reggaeton track led by U-Tribe and Pedro whilst Jean and Yanet Fuentes decided on the winners of the fancy dress.
We partied on through the night until about 3am, tried to go back to the chalet and got dragged back into the RnB room by Robert White who bought us drinks and made us stay until 4am!
I had a fantastic weekend, special mention has to go to Tony Cook (Shelley’s Dad) he made our weekend extra special, keeping us entertained with anecdotes and body rolls!
I can’t wait until the next one, I would definitely recommend this weekend to everyone as it has something for everyone, it certainly took my mind off of not moving!
Mel & Emil had been booked to teach at the Liverpool Salsa Festival, so we decided to head up to Salsology on the Friday night and stay over.
So, Mel, Emil and I left just after 7pm and made our way up the M6.
Traffic was good and we got to the Etap in Manchester, allowing plenty of time to get ready before we made the short drive over to Prestwich.
Got to the Longfield Suite, home of Salsology, and set our CD stall up just before the end of the classes.
The night was good, and Emil didn't get much of a break from dancing all night! Salsology performed their new show at around midnight, which is definitely one of my favourites now! We stayed until the end of the night, dropped by the 24 hour Tesco, and went back to the hotel feeling completely shattered!!
Struggled to wake up on the Saturday, missed breakfast, then eventually drove over to liverpool in time for Mel and Emil's midday class teaching styling for leaders & followers. Following that, they taught a Bachata class as cover, after which the late night seemed to be catching up with them a little. No time for rest, though, as an hour later they had to cover another class, this time Cha Cha. All the classes were busy, but the partioning of the hall caused a slight problem when it came to playing the music for each class - cue attempted battles of volume, with an increasingly stressed Mike Parr keeping everything in check.
Once the final class was finished, we collected orders and headed to Ragga's, a West indian takeaway about 5 minutes drive from the venue.
Got back to the venue and started on the food. Angel Ortiz and his colleague weren't around to get theirs so we ate that too (sorry, but it was good!)
We didn't have a hotel room, so hadn't planned on staying for the evening party but changed our mind and had to pop round to Guys hotel and borrow the bathroom so we could all get changed.
The evening ball was busy, and a lot of people there had made a good effort to dress up for the occasion. The shows were delayed a little, but eventually went ahead to a very busy room! Dancing resumed just after 11pm, and we hung out for a while. Sizzla and Simon Taylor had turned up for the evening and were doing the DD (you'll have to ask them about that!), and we eventually left shortly after midnight.
