Derby All-nighter July 8th 2006
It had been a few months since other commitments had kept the Rollergroove team from visiting Rollerworld, so it was with some excitement that we arrived to find a queue from the front doors, all the way up the stairs. If you have never been to Rollerworld, it has the peculiar distinction of having the rink upstairs in the building. Queue? What Queue? Matt (RW manager) had us breeze through with (heavy) box of vinyl and CDs to lug upstairs. I tell you, I’m not used to carrying records anymore; my shoulders ached the day after. I made a quick trip to the DJ console to greet Dennie (one of the regular DJs) and to put my records down.
A few hellos, skates on, hit the floor. Rollerworld has a lovely, large floor and although it has two pillars in the middle, they do not impede on skating enjoyment. As usual, the Denster was dropping some chiz-oons with some heavy beats. I turn on my roller-radar to scope the place and who do I see? Nottingham Norris! I haven’t seen this guy in Y-E-A-R-S. At least 10. A top skater and lovely guy, it was wonderful to catch up after all these years.
For the first couple of hours, the Rollergroovers were doin’ their dang. Freshfunkysal was getting her groove on alongside JoJo, while Mickey was playing with his new phone and we were all catching up with some notable faces. Her most royal Highness the Hotsteppin’ Granny and the G-unit were in full effect with some members of the RD massive, along with a contingent from the Skate City crew. The Rollersdays crew were there alongside representatives of Roller City WGC, Derby (of course) and a few others from far and wide. From the (very) old skool, many were surprised, nay, shocked to see Derby-Dave Haslam and his other half Tash, along with ‘cockney’ Paul. These two guys were the epitome of the 80s skate boom in the UK. Paul can still shake an aged leg in anger on wheels, although Dave is content to have retired his skates. Mores the pity.
Rollerworld love their games (as did Notts Rollers when it was open), but the Rollergroovers take this time for a chin-wag with the other skaters. Well, 12.30 rolls around pretty quick when you are having fun and it was time for my set on the decks. In line with most other places these days, Rolleworld favours CDs over Vinyl for convenience. Not so the Taskmaster. Now, previously that day a text conversation with the House-of-Baines had made sure that both decks would be working, as my previous set at RW entailed borrowing a deck from next door. The House-of-Baines had spoken to management and they promised him it would be ok. No blame on Andy, he did his part and boy, did he feel guilty. Not your fault mate!
Well….. I start my set with one deck. One. For the first 20 minutes I’m blagging it with a CD as the left deck doesn’t work. They get one from next door. The mixer is secured with anti-tamper screws. Keep blagging while they get a suitable screwdriver. Eventually, we’re up and running and the vibe is there. Last time out I was purely about the roller-anthems and swingbeat tunes for jamming to. This time, I went deep and took it pure Roller Express style. When was the last time you skated to Teddy Pendergrass or a bit of Gospel-funk? You can’t compress a decade of styles into two hours, but I must say, I think I did ok. I’ve yet to play at a rink where the decks are truly set-up as well as they were at RollerCity (London). Still, the RW set-up is better than some and it was fun.
The Rollergroove-cam was out and about on the night, but only for a limited time, due to being behind the decks. Fun was had by all, but the Rollergroovers had to leave around half three due to one of our members not feeling too well. I’ve been told that the rest of the night was excellent as well. All-in-all another good night’s skating was had.
Roll on the next one.