(check the photos here)

Clodagh’s Big Adventure in Tunisia December 2005

When Livia from unitedj.com in Paris called me to ask if I’d like to play in Tunisia I jumped at the chance… Cool! We would go to Tunisia Friday 2nd Dec & return Sunday 4th Dec with my gig on the Sat night. I’d never been to anywhere in Africa before so Yep I was definitely up for it & didn’t know what to expect! If you think the Dj world is glamorous & problem free just read what a weekend Livia & I had…

The adventure all started Thursday night when Livia called me at 6.30pm saying the flights had been changed & my flight would leave Heathrow at 6am!! & come back on Monday 5th Dec at 6am!! But I was due to play at George 4 in Brixton Thursday night 3-4am, so I had to call Ludgero the promoter & change my set from 1-2am then catch a taxi at 2.30am to bring me to Heathrow Airport to catch my flight at 6am!! I flew London to Milan where I met with Livia & caught a connecting flight to Tunis the capital of Tunisia. From there crazy Nadia, the promoters workmate picked us up & drove us 2 hours to Sousse City. Yes we had made it at last.

The hotel we stayed in had this very nice “Western Themed” Saloon Restaurant, which looked like the set of a country & western cowboy movie. So we ate there, met the promoter Haroun & then decided to explore Sousse.

We headed straight for the beach, it was December, the sun was shining & we were on the beach! Both of us were laughing until this local “cowboy” ripped us off, then another “cowboy” followed us up the beach & got very abusive when I told him to go away, so both of us ran back to the hotel & locked ourselves in our rooms! Oh dear, we had never experienced anything like that before but I guess there’s good & bad people everywhere.

That night we ate at the Saloon, had the best chocolate desert ever & checked out the nice big “Maracana” nightclub where I was to play the next night. It reminded me of a big cinema, lots of lights, big dj booth & good sound. Ya, I was looking forward to playing Saturday night.

Sat morning me & Livia braved the Medina, which is a market, bought some souvenirs & got hassled by more men. Tunisia is nice but I def wouldn’t advice single girls to travel here alone.

Anyway, back to the music, it was sat night & having dinner when the promoter told me there was a problem with me playing at the club. There was a new law in Tunisia that foreign Dj’s need a special paper to play in nightclubs, which he didn’t have & the police were going to come to check the nightclub that night & I could only play 45mins! I was like “oh no, I came all the way to Tunisia just to play 45mins?!”

So we went to the nightclub which was filling up & the Dj before was playing nice Retro Music, 80’s style mixed with house, so I was getting ready to play when the promoter apologised & said he can’t risk me playing at all as the police might close down his nightclub! I was like… “So I can’t even play 1 record??” He told me that I could play at the bar in the Hotel instead & not to worry. I felt so bad, what about all the people who had come to here me play, some people had travelled 2 hours from Tunis the capital to hear me play!

We went to the hotel bar, which was pretty empty, & I started playing at 2.45am, but more & more people started coming & soon the place was packed with lots of young party people. I started playing more funky house & kept building into some wicked electronic house beats & finally 5 hours later had built up to some slow but pumping Techno!! It was fantastic!!

I asked the young resident Dj was this new music to these people & he said yes & that they were loving it! I was SO HAPPY! To make people dance & enjoy music they’ve not heard much of before is such a great feeling… really it is. I was so happy, the sound & equipment was great, the people were great & when I finished playing at 8am I couldn’t believe I had played 5hours & 15mins!!!

It went so quick & I didn’t stop dancing all the time. I wasn’t one bit tired! I could have kept on playing even though there were only about 15 people at the end but everyone was having so much fun! The moment that really stuck in my mind was at about 7.30am when I was playing a techno remix of Donna Summers “I Feel Love” & people starting running around waving lit sparklers in the air, so happy & the promoter said look they are saying thank you to you! WOW! I was really touched.

When I finally did stop playing Haroun the promoter said we want you to play every Thursday night!! I started laughing… he said you think I’m joking?

So the next day Sunday we met for a meeting & Livia said people were so happy with my set last night & Haroun wasn’t joking about me playing every week, but I think maybe twice a month would work better. Haroun said he’d never saw people behave like that last night & that I drove people crazy with the music!! FANTASTIC! I was very very happy, I can’t describe it.

But then we discovered our plane tickets were for 1pm Monday not 6am, which I wanted & needed to take, so after a few phone calls the flight was ok. But when we got to the airport our names weren’t on the flight!! But in the end we got it sorted and travelled home first class!

Before we left Sousse at 3am, Haroun gave me & Livia a Sisha each which is a beautiful big glass & silver delicate but very heavy smoking pipe that’s very typical in Tunisia. I carried it the whole way in the car, then on the flight back to Milan, then around 2.5 hours around Milan airport, then on the plane back to Heathrow, London, then on the tube into London City, then about 10 seconds from my house I dropped & broke it!
I was so disappointed I nearly cried! That’s just typical of me.

So what a crazy weekend adventure Livia & I had in Tunisia! Lots of problems but all worth it, the people at the party were great, I’m so sorry to the people who came to the “Maracana” to hear me play & didn’t know about the party at the bar. There was nothing I could do but I’m really looking forward to coming back again to play! Very soon!!!
I’ll just be more ready for the “cowboys” next time… hehehe.

(Read about my second wild ride to Tunisia here...)