It must have been a little of a surprise to regulars as even Straight No Chaser didn’t mention anything in their current issue, but this would be the last Monday night gig for over a decade at Bar Rumba with Gillesy P at the helm, just as he was at the very start.

After his Lovebox performance the day before, Norman Jay MBE was present as he was another who felt the musical and emotional significance of being at the last THIS as were Benji B (1Xtra) and Ross Allen (Casual) and The Baker Brothers’ Chris Pedley. I spotted Aaron Jerome and Mark Robertson (Spiritual South) on the guest list. I hope they made it as it got really busy.

The first person I met was Kenny who’d come from Northampton. He had worked on Sunday to get the cash together for a cheap hotel for the Monday night and Tuesday off. It was getting to have a touch of the last All-nighter at Wigan Pier about it. Kenny told me he just had to come and had got into Gilles via the trance scene of Sasha!

Nigel Prankster of 3Hedz, co-promoters of the Ian Carr’s Nucleus gig at Cargo who had played Big Chill on the Saturday, was there. He said, “I used to come all the time in the early days. James Lavelle/Mo’Wax 8-9 years ago along with UFO were favourites. The first hour was the jazz dance session and then there was the Talkin’ Loud days and Goldie’s Metalheadz/D’n’B/Roni Size.”

Nik Weston’s cohort, Koh Uemura was there. He told me, “So many good memories of some really good DJs like Rainer Trüby, Jazzanova and Gilles’ all-nighter sessions.” I pushed him to name a best track, “Ahhh so many, I just can’t say.”

Friend of Fly, Simon S of Break Reform was there. He was another that didn’t want to commit to a favourite track, but I pushed him and he said, “I suppose it’s got to be ‘Hold It Down’ (4Hero) as I first heard here”. He also told me that the long awaited Break Reform Worldwide session has now been booked for September.

I asked the cloakroom girl what it’s been like lately, “It’s been a quiet night for 8-9 months but last month it was quiet anyway ‘cos of the bombs.” A sign of the times, but it’s no coincidence that the move of Gilles’ Radio 1 show from Wednesday to Sunday a year ago had the knock on effect that he had to give up on this Monday night residency. One of the problems of being a hard-working late night radio DJ.

To support this view, Jules de Lattre of Best Kept Secret said, “Tonight’s the busiest I’ve seen it in a long time, it’s been slowly dying,” but on a more positive note, “The best night for me was when Nicola Conte DJ’d and the best tune has to be Shaun Escoffrey/DJ Spinna, ‘Days Like This’.” The Best Kept Secret boss man Nick Matthews was also there. He owned up that he had a really cool Mum that let him out from their house in Harrow when he was 15 to visit THIS. He said, “when I was 17, I got my first car and then I’d come 2-3 times a month to THIS”. No problem for a biggest tune, ‘Black Gold Of The Sun’ and he went on to say that he knew he’d made the transition from paying customer to promoter when got booked by the Kyoto Jazz Massive to DJ at THIS and he got to meet everyone. It was great for me to meet Nick and we’ll be hearing more of his own Djing soon as he’s represented on an new 5CD set called ‘Slice of Paradise’ (much more of that to come soon on Fly).

You can see from these small examples that the vibe of the night was reflective and emotional but everyone was happy to be there. By the time I got my head down I’d been going for 24 hours so the notes got a bit blurry and beer stained towards the end. So bearing in mind this was back on 25th July, the following has been pulled together with a little help from Gilles’ fans on the Worldwide Message board.

Major explosions on the dance floor for Bugz In The Attic and Jazztronik (Samurai) and by approx midnight, Gilles dropped the previously mentioned ‘Hold It Down’ and Seiji’s broken classic, ‘Loose Lips’. And Fela Kuti’s, ‘Water No Get Enemy’, (listed by Gilles P in as one of his top 3 albums along with Stereolab and Plantlife recently in Mixmag), Tom Brown’s ‘Come For The Ride’ (recently played on Worldwide) and the sadly departed Luther Vandross with his breakthrough track ‘Never Too Much’ were all well received.

Also in this era, Gilles’ whipped out ‘Southern Freez’ (constantly looking for that jazz-funk revival?). GP is one of those old skool DJs that can use a mike. Whilst his proclamations might not be that erudite, you know he means it from the heart when he says things such as, “it’s all about Monday nights in London town,” before playing the Light of The World’s, ‘London Town’ [still giging and possibly still time to get down Jazz Cafe -19th/20th August].

And can you believe, the Steve Miller Band’s ‘Fly like an Eagle’? I must admit I thought I must have dreamt this one but it was confirmed by Mr. Beats on the Peterson message board.

He also played his latest, hottest Jon Lucien, ‘Search For The Inner Self’ which he’d played on the radio the night before during the ‘Brownswood Basement’ session. Lucien sings, “young boy in a world without love”; check out the strings as it’s quasi Northern Soul-Jazz. And there was a version of ‘Light My Fire’ and the Lonnie Liston Smith jazz-funk classic, ‘Expansions’.

By 1.00am we were in the Latin selection, which led into a furious Jazz Dance section, and the Shiftless Shufflers loved it as they dominated the dance floor near the stairs.

As Gilles was spinning some Nicola Conte remix, he says, “It’s the very last. Thank you to everyone for coming tonight.”

It was about this time, I overheard two blokes as one said to the other, “shall we go?” and they did. More fool them as there was Kev Beadle to come and Raw Deal was in the DJ booth. Notes are particularly shot away by now but there had to be some James Brown to get down to (‘Mind Power’ and more James Brown respect is going to be reported on Fly soon) and at some stage of the game the old classic David Benoit ‘Life’s A Samba’ and modern classics ‘Evil Vibrations’ and Afro Arts’ ‘Green Gold’ by Spiritual South.

Raw Deal played for about an hour and a half up to 3.20am. Sanjiv Ahluwalia says he played “a ten minute percussive number which mixed Afro-beat, tablas and hardcore jazz drumming, the crowd stopped and applauded and it finished his set,” (via on the message board). I caught Raw Deal later on and he told me Nik Weston has the knowledge on this one as he thought it was a 1970s reissue. Much later, he was good enough to let me know it was a track by Frank Hernandez. Hectic is presuming it’s a track called ‘Barloventeno Blues’ so keep your eyes open for it.

So to the very end. One more time ‘California Soul’ (Marlena Shaw), ‘Black Gold of the Sun’ and at 3.24am Kevin Beadle put on Stevie Wonder’s ‘Always’ as Gilles was saying, “when Dingwalls closed, Partick Forge played the last tune…” I didn’t catch the rest of it as the DJ box was emptying. DJ Debra got on the dance floor (and got lots of amorous looks) whilst Bea and Janine Neye got lots of thanks for organising them all and everyone seemed happy do dance ‘till the last note.

While the phrase multi-cultural has being re-assessed in the press lately, if it needed a good example of what it is meant to be, THIS in London would be it. Gilles brought the fans together for this one last time to listen and dance and the crowd were happy to say give thanks to everyone who has helped THIS over the years and especially GP himself. And no better than via his own Talkin’ Loud label and the classic Les Fleur by 4Hero, which by coincidence, is one of a whole load of Talkin’ Loud 12” reissues that have turned up in major record stores that day (especially Oxford St. HMV).

I had a great time and so did everyone else I saw. It all got a bit emotional as the glass door of the club closed on an era but with optimism that another will open soon.

P.S. Talking of doors opening, last night’s Metro Life, page 3 “I’m writing a book on the art of sushi” says, DJ Gilles Peterson!

Links:
Bar Rumba [part of the Trocadero complex at Piccadilly Circus, 36 Shaftesbury Avenue]. www.barrumba.co.uk
The Big Chill Bar, Dray Walk off Brick Lane, London E1 6QL. Nearest tube Liverpool St. Open: midday-midnight. July included Nigel Prankster, Nik Weston, Koh Uemura and Nick Luscombe. www.bigchill.net
Jazz Cafe www.jazzcafe.co.uk