Saturday 28th June 2008

Del Salereo had arranged a stage for Solar Radio at the Carnival de Cuba event in South London, and had asked me to come down and play a set.

I left just before 10am, picked Stuart (My bro) up on the way then bombed down the M40 towards London.

Rather than driving through London to Southwark, I decided to ditch the car in West London and catch the tube. So we parked just round the corner from Latimer Road tube station, caught the tube to Baker Street, then changed to the Jubilee line to Canada Water. The weather was great, but that meant the tube was hot!

We got to Canada Water station, then it was a short walk to Southwark Park. We met Del at the Solar Radio stage, James Anthony from Solar Radio was dj'ing, playing a relatively laid back 80's soul set. I was due on at 3pm, so went for a walk round the site and to get some food. It was early, but the Carnival was already quite busy. Bought a couple of CD's and said hello to Luis at the Mr Bongo stall, before heading back to the stage for the start of my set.

It wasn't too busy at this stage, and the people that were there, were getting into the soul that was being played, so it was slightly daunting to follow. I started with Mi Salsa from the DJ Duste CD, then Lebron Brothers Salsa y Control - good tracks to bridge the musical styles. As my set progressed, the crowd in front of the stage got bigger and bigger, spilling out round the sides, with quite a few couples dancing. It was a great sight to see so many 'non-salsa' people really getting into it. Particular highlights from my set were Tabaco y su Sexteto's 'Ponte en Ritmo' and Sizzla's re-dit of La Playa Sextet - those two really rocked!! (You can view my complete playlist here )

At the end of my set, I handed over to Ginger Tony, again from Solar Radio, who progressed into Latin Jazz and Boogie, and did a good job of keeping the crowds attention.

Hung out for a short while before heading off (we were due to have a stall at the Colliery Club in Coventry), so didn't get to see the rest of the event, but heard everything went really well. Dj Cruz (aka Robert White) even played a set. Left Stu at the Carnival (he ended up travelling home on Sunday morning with a heavy hangover!), then caught the tube to the car and headed back up the M40. Popped home, quickly got changed, then drove over to the Colliery Club, arriving at about 8:30pm. Mel was already there, as the Carpe Diem Student Group were due to perform later in the evening.

Set up the stall, watched the classes, chatted to a few people.. All the usual stuff. The performance was on just after midnight and the team did an outstanding job and received loads of positive feedback - nice one girls!! We left around 1am - I was absolutely shattered!!