Back to Berlin - to play a set in a Berlin best night club

It wasn’t long before I was back to the B - Berlin.

Heading out again for a January gig at the amazing Watergate nightclub. This is the best club in Berlin. Ich liebe es.

The Berlin wall. Iconic

This time it was a bit of a dream come true gig as I was playing at one of Berlins best - the very club we had visited previously, Watergate Berlin here we come. I flew out with my bestie Matt. We flew Manchester (UK) to Berlin on 2nd January, which is the day after Matt’s Birthday, so it was a good excuse for a celebration. It was an early morning start, Matt picked me up and we headed into Manchester via the “back way”. Matt’s driving is interesting to say the least, especially when he has a flight to catch and in the icy early morning, this certainly woke me up. Car ditched in Manchester we jumped on the train and hit the airport. I had my records in my hand luggage so had to make it look like my bag was well within the allowed “small bag” remit, even though it was packed with vinyl and weighed about half a ton. We landed in Berlin, jumped on the S-Bahn and headed into the city, which is a quick 25 minute hop, then over to the East side gallery area.

So much to see and so much (recent) history

It’s a cool area bordering the Spree and in the heart of the Friedrichshain/Kreuzberg area. It’s home to the longest remaining area of the actual Berlin wall and showcases the graffiti styler murals over a 1316 metre long stretch of wall, painted mostly on what was the East side of the wall. We stayed in the Meininger hotel, which is looks over the wall and the Spree, so it’s a great location.

The hotel is cool, it’s super modern, rooms are the size that you would expect from a city centre hotel, so not huge, but really all you need. Bathrooms are really nicely done, with a mirror that makes you look nice… Which is important , lt’s not be scared to admit that ;o)

Selecting some magic to drop at The Best Club in the World - OK Berlin.

We dropped our bags and set off on a wander. The streets were still littered with Champagne bottles and fireworks from the New Years eve impromptu street parties, we were after hunting out some nice brunch. We walked past a dark, smoky doorway, which had a nice beat banging out, now bear in mind that this was the 2nd of January, Matt was shocked that a club would be open again the day after New Years Day and that early in the morning, he was even more shocked when I explained that it was actually still open from New Years eve… Welcome to Berlin. We spent the day wandering around Kreuzberg, a few beers and some Mexican food later we were starting to feel sleepy. I was DJ ing that night, so as it started to snow we decided to head back and get a disco nap. I love an afternoon snooze and it’s defo one of my top tips for travelling, especially on a city break where you want to maximise daylight and night time hours. A quick power-nap does wonders.

Feeling refreshed it was time to head out, I was starting to feel giddy now. No matter how many times I’ve DJ’d, I still get a bit nervous, it’s a good nervous and I think it’s healthy.

People are paying good money to see you, so you should be respectful of that, which when you think of it like that, yeah… It get’s the stomach churning a little. I always want to do the best that I can, so as long as I’ve prepped, packed the right records, practiced and got myself in the zone, it’s all good. We grabbed a quick burger at a place that’s a bit of a Berlin institution. Burger Meister has 3 different locations in the city, but the original and most vibe-y is the Schlesisches Tor one. It’s based in an old public toilet, in the middle of a busy roundabout, under an even busier U-Bahn line, it’s dark, crowded and noisy. It shouldn’t work, but it really does. It’s just so Berlin. We grabbed a beer then headed to the club.

Burgermeister.... So Berlin

It’s always a strange feeling when you are involved with running club nights. You get to see a side of a club that not many people do. Before anyone arrives, when there’s no music on, no crowds and the bar staff setting up, it can feel a little surreal. This was emphasised by the Watergate décor, it’s kind of like when you watch an old 70’s scifi movie and they predict what the future would look like, but never did. Kind of eighties vibes, with fluorescent lights and angular leather sofas. It looks modern, but dated, but so, so cool.

The water floor, Watergate. Such an amazing place to play house music

Now if you have ever ventured out in the UK,or most places for that matter after the fuss of New Years Eve has died down, you’ll know that it’s like a ghost town. Clubs in the UK tend to shut down for the whole of January as anything after midnight on the 31st is just pretty pointless, it’s dead, tumbleweed town, everyones skint and hibernating….. But this is Berlin, they do things differently. From the minute the doors opened a steady Stream of eager punters flooded down the stairs. A good mix of stylish locals, cool kids and serious music peeps, some dressed up and fresh… Others still clearly on it from the end of the previous year…. Strong going that.

I still get chufties seeing my name on posters + flyers.

The night was warming up nicely and the crowd was already really enjoying themselves. They take their fun seriously in Berlin and because of this, phones are banned on the dance floor. It really does make such a difference, people are there to dance, no one is stood around texting, scrolling or taking selfies and the atmosphere really benefits. It’s like clubbing used to be, so much so that there’s a technique needed to get through the constantly moving, dancing bodies in the club and a piece of advice I always give to newbies that are trying to navigate their way through a packed dance floor is “Don’t walk…. Bob”, you’ve got to bounce your way through the crowd and move with the dance floor. Trust me, it works.

Si and I were playing back to back. Headliner Djebali, who is easily one of the best house DJ’s around was laying it down, there was another DJ on after him, then we were due to start at 6 in the morning. As it got close to the end of Djebali’s set we had a bit of a problem, the next DJ…. Who shall remain nameless for this story, hadn’t turned up…. It was getting close to his start time of 4 and despite numerous messages left on his answerphone there was no reply… It wasn’t looking good. So we had to go on 2 hours early.

We were secretly happy about this as we got an extra 2 hours to play. Long sets are a rarity nowadays, but it’s such a joy to be able to play for a longer set, as it really allows you to actually DJ, rather than go on for an hour, bang it out and walk off. You’ve got to actually take the crowd somewhere, moving through the gears, upping the pace, taking it back down a little and back up again and even getting the chance to try something a little different. So to get myself ready, I walked up to the bar and ordered a double espresso !!!! Clearly from the barmaids reaction, no one ever does this at 10 to 4 in a Berlin club. It wasn’t looking good for my little awakener, so I had to pull the DJ card, the manager had a word and I was soon sipping my coffee, whilst posting a quick update on the socials that I was going in and going on. Well you’ve got to haven’t you.

The early morning pick me up

Well the hours flew by, we had to start pretty full on, as it was peak time, so it was nice to really keep the dance floor moving. As the night wore on, we could take things down a little, get a bit more of a groove on. We played back to back, then one of the other DJ’s Giorgio Maulini jumped on with us for a few. He’s a class DJ, so it was a pleasure to all play together.

I found this on my phone. Captures the mood inside the club

As the light sunrise was shining in through the windows, we decided it was time to start busting out some classics. Once it gets to the time when you can look out through the glass windows and see the rush hour traffic and people heading to work, you’ve got to keep the dance floor going…. It’s survival mode for the techno soldiers. So we dropped a good few classic tunes. Heller and Farley – Ultra Flava and The Armand Helden remix of Nightlife all went down well. We were still going strong when at about 10am it was time to wind it down. A 6 hour set isn’t bad going is it. I wandered back, taking in the cool air and trying unsuccessfully to stop the ringing in my ears so I could sleep, grabbed a bit of food and then got into bed…. It felt good to get my shoes off…. After god know how many hours vertical my feet were screaming !

Drinking in the morning sun. Blinking off a heavy one. The walk of shame.

After a couple of hours kippage it was time to get up and out. The freezing Berlin air and a bit of hailstone slapping me in the face woke me up as we set out. That and 2 coffees, an all day breakfast and a cold pint. We spent the what was left of the day hanging out around the remnants of the wall. Taking in the murals and trying to stay warm and dry. Day soon turned to evening so we grabbed some food and found some bars. We liked Mano instagram.com/mano_berlin was great for a cozy, warming cocktail, I went for an old fashioned which was well made. I also really liked a bar called Hopfenreich http://hopfenreich.de for a cool craft beer hideout. That was more than enough so we got our heads down.

Bar feels.

The next day it was time to get up and be tourists. I couldn’t really come to Berlin twice and not see at least some of the sights once could I ! So we were up and at em. We headed to the local U-Bahn station. Berlin is pretty well connected the U-Bahn (underground) and S-Bahn (overground metro system) interconnect well and you can usually get pretty close to where you want to be with a bit of planning. Berlin is smaller, by roughly half than London which makes its transport system more compact, it’s also a bit easier to navigate as it was pretty much rebuilt after the war, so it’s all more modern, but I do find that there’s a bit of a lack of maps around, so download an app to help. I like the Metro Berlin one. Grab yourself a day ticket and go see the city.

We headed out to The Brandenberg gate first, it’s adjacent to the German parliament building, the Reichstag. It stands as a reminder of Germanys troubled history, but now has more echoes of a symbol of peace. On the walk up, there’s some really interesting information on plaques on the walls about the history of the area, so this is worth a read. It’s pretty busy around here and a lot of the restaurants and coffee shops are brand chains, so we grabbed a few photos and headed off.

The Brandenburg Gate

Next on the list was Checkpoint Charlie. One of the original points to cross the wall. It has very much become a symbol of the cold war era, especially as the scene of the famous stand off between American and Russian tanks. The original checkpoint hut remains in the road and the original signs too. Rather ironically the surrounding area is mega commercial, with high end shops…. So a capitalist dream then. Time was getting on now, so we stopped for a stein and a bite to eat at a traditional German beer hall… Oompah band and all.

Proper (checkpoint) Charlie

After this it was time to pick up our bags and head home. Thankful for the short flight, taxi home. After a seriously hectic few days, on very little sleep, getting home to Fletch and the kids felt really good. As did my own bed.