B*tch, I'm Up on the Guest List with Swedish House Mafia

Those who know me from Twitter or have picked up on my posts about weekends or nights out will know that I quite like dance music, and I have a penchant for world class DJ sets. Over the last 2 years I've been lucky enough to snag guest list at Ministry of Sound for Basement Jaxx, Calvin Harris, Norman Doray, AN21 & Max Vangeli, Wayne & Woods and Michael Woods, I've also seen Faithless on an arena tour and Example at Brixton Academy. These are all things that make me very happy, and I would one hundred times rather have one amazing night out every few months than go to a random club or just out on the lash every week- not least because I tend not to drink very little by way of alcohol at events or out.

AN21 & Max Vangeli at Ministry of Sound, Size Matters (having just as good a time as we were)

When a friend asked if I fancied the One Last Tour with Swedish House Mafia, it was a no brainer. You might know SHM from chart records like Miami to Ibiza or most recently Don't You Worry Child, but I don't think those catchy-pop tracks are quite a fair representative of what they do. SHM comprises three DJ's, all of whom are successful in their own right- Steve Angello even has his on record label, and their tracks and productions can be found on DJ sets all over the world. And better still... they know how to put on a show!

The only catch... They're not playing any UK gigs on this tour. Oh, European jaunt required. Shame.

And so, as this goes live, I shall no doubt be recovering from jumping up and down for several hours, preferable with a MASSIVE cup of coffee and a pastry. In Amsterdam.

Having flown through Schipol a couple of times, I've been super excited tto see Amsterdam itself, and everyone I've spoken to thus far has been full of praise for an interesting and culturally vibrant city, that is tourist friendly (I can only read a little Dutch, and my spoken Dutch is limited to please and thank you...), has excellent public transport and is inherently clean. I'm also hoping to feed my Miffy obsession whilst away, and to have picked up some Christmas gifts that nobody else will have had access to!

I hope everyone is having a lovely mid-week, and I look forward to sharing this trip properly when I get home. I'm interested to know in the mean time, are their any other dance music/DJ/SHM fans following?

Dance music and the scene surrounding it can, it seems have a huge stigma attached to it, particular after the 90's and their drug fuelled raves. Often people look at me a bit funny when I'm wearing my dress, jacket and heels for work, and I express my love bass and lasers and ringing ears the next day. Heads up- not everyone into the scene is drug addicted/all day drunk/drop out/under 20, and there's nothing quite like the high of of a track cresting the bass and 2000 other people feeling it with you.