Clodagh’s Second Big Adventure in Tunisia

(read about the first one here...)

If you think the world of Djing is again very glam, with Dj’s getting to travel to really exotic & exciting places, that is true but it’s also very exhausting, you won’t believe what I had to go through to get to my second gig in Tunisia last Thursday… Talk about planes, trains & automobiles!!

The plan was to catch a 9.30am flight from Heathrow to Milan, then catch a connecting flight to Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, then get driven 2 hours to the city of Sousse to my gig! Easy… NOT!

Got up at 6am, jumped on the tube and arrived at Heathrow by 8am to check in. Huge queue… finally got to check in desk, “Oh sorry your name isn’t on the flight & the flight is now full, you’ve actually being booked on a flight for Saturday at 6am!???” …”but I have a gig in Tunisia tonight, Thursday night!”
“Sorry looks like someone booked you on it, cancelled you, then tried to book you on it again but the flight was full!”

I was like, what the hell??? All the other flights to Tunisia was full that day so I went home, back on the tube! I was home about 1 hour when Livia from unitedj.com phoned me and said “Alitalia” the plane company had actually overbooked the 9.30am flight, 7 people had been left behind that morning & the promoter had a seat for me on the 4.30pm flight instead…

So off I went again, this time in a taxi, back to Heathrow… get there about 2pm, queued up to change my ticket. I explain my situation & say I want to catch the 4.30pm flight & their reply was…”Sorry the flight is full!!” I’m like what???? Then the Alitalia Agent said ok, we’ll put you on, so they obliviously kicked someone else off??? How awful is this company? Anyway after another few ticket problems I finally made my way to the depature lounge only to be told the flight has been delayed 2 hours due to fog in Milan… I start laughing…

So at 6.30pm we finally have take off & luckily my connecting flight was also delayed, met with Livia & didn’t get stranded in Milan!! Arrived in Tunisia about midnight, got picked up & drove the 2 hours to Sousse to my gig! Managed to catch 1 hour sleep in the car.

So 19.5 hours later I finally arrived at 2am!!! got changed, ate some food, downed a redbull & started playing at 3am!! The Saloon bar was packed, really lots of people for a Thursday night! I was very surprised, but the promoter said that word got out about my last set here 2weeks ago & lots of people came to see me! Wicked!

Everytime I play I really try to give 110%, I really do want to play my best & make people dance their socks off & listen to the best music & basically have loads of fun. But tonight I was exhausted after all that travelling, my energy was really low, people were enjoying but I was disappointed as I knew I could have done better. It was really fustrating for me but you can only push your body so far. The thing is, these people didn’t know I’d just travelled 19.5 hours to get to the gig & by the time I finished my 3 hour set a 6am I had been awake for 23 hours!! Aaaahhh!

Don’t get me wrong I still played well & people enjoyed but they didn’t see the real Clodagh in full action, so I was sad when I finished playing. Damn!
Anyway back to the hotel, slept 1 hour, left the Hotel at 9am & arrived home in my studio at 9pm… 12hours later! Bloody hell, what a trip! Then I was supposed to play 2 gigs in London that night, luckily my second gig was cancelled as I was so exhausted by then I probally would have fell asleep at the decks!

So in total I had travelled 19.5 hours to Tunisia & 12 hours home so that’s a grand total of 31.5 hours travelling with very little sleep & lots of stress!

That’s the thing about when you go to see a Dj play, you don’t know what the Dj has been through to get to the gig, so say when a Dj doesn’t show up for a gig you just think, “ah they didn’t bother to show up” …but maybe they were left stranded somewhere? Maybe they had tried everything in their power to get to the gig but couldn’t, or maybe a Dj doesn’t play well & you think “God he’s rubbish” but maybe they’ve had 3 gigs in a row & travelling for 3 days…

I now have huge respect for these big professional Djs who can rock parties all the time & the amount of travelling they have to do day after day, but I guess it’s like anything, you get used to it.

So will I play Tunisia again? Yep of course, in 2 weeks I think!
But please don’t make me fly with Alitalia!!