Wow, what a week, seems I’m just coming down from it now. Full on all-hands-on-deck stuff from everyone involved in all this weeks Ninja events. Wednesday night I hopped on the bus with King Cannibal, Daedelus, Eskmo, Mox and other assorted Ninjas, bound for Brussels. Thursday saw the XX party at the Ancienne Belgique, otherwise known as the AB, easily one of the best venues in Europe both for sound and stage and backstage catering, which is phenomenal.

After a complete breakfast fail where Mox and I waited 30 minutes for a Croque Monsieur (!) I went record shopping with Daedelus, King Cannibal, Jon More and Kid Koala. Found some great flexi discs – a 5″, 7″ and a book with loads inside as pages – a Halloween Library record and a rather overpriced Jazz/Moog album featuring Herbie Hancock and Bernard Purdie I’d been after for a while. Back at the AB for soundcheck, various other Ninjas were arriving, The Bug, Andreya Triana, The Heavy, DK, as well as staff from the office and Big Dada as well. Jon More regaled Brendan Eskmo with the origins of ‘piss poor’ and ‘haven’t got a pot to piss in’ and Alfred Daedelus compared his cat paint phone app with our tour manager Suzi’s – rock n roll! A huge birthday cake was wheeled out for the evening meal, decorated with the XX logo.

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The gig was amazing, the show long sold out, the second club room rammed all night. The merch stall had three copies of the box set that all sold in less than 5 minutes. Kid Koala debuted his Yo Gabba Gabba Koala suit and a Happy Birthday routine, Dorian Concept wowed everyone with his playing, DK and I had a great set and The Bug had everyone running for ear plugs as he cranked up the volume. A great night which we later found out was webcast live much to our delight.