I don’t know if any of you know this, but from 2001 to 2011, I constituted one quarter of the atoms in the white-hot comet of cool that was RocknRollSoul.

We started out life in a Belgian bar called the Dove Regent in Islington, timing our tentative outings on the decks with friends’ birthdays to make our little club night look popular.

After that we moved to the Albany, Great Portland Street, which we were particularly keen on due to it being the venue for the Heavenly Sunday Social. We could say we were using the same DJ corner as the Chemical Brothers and Paul Weller, because, well, it was sort-of true.

The night became a success, thanks to unabashed hype from NME, where I was working, and London PRs’ habit of bringing their bands down to show them something that felt a bit speakeasy (the Albany only held 100 and was open till 2am). Members of Kings of Leon, the Libertines and the Soledad Brothers popped in; Noel Gallagher and Martin Freeman wore our badge (of him, more later). At the peak of this first wave there were 100 in the bar, another 100 queuing to get in, and » Continue Reading.