Benji B's Broadsides

It’s hard to believe that at the time of writing, it’s that moment you realise summer (what summer?) is officially coming to a close, marked in all Londoners' calendars by the last weekend in August and the arrival of another annual Notting Hill Carnival. 

I went to my first Carnival when i was seven years old with my dad and since then, through teenage days right through to the present, it has always marked the ‘middle’ of the year for me (even though it’s 8 months in), in much the same way the Christmas marks the end of it.  

Alongside the backdrop of Carnival foundation sounds of reggae, dancehall, soca and calypso, Carnival has always reflected the most important native music of London, be it jungle in '94, garage in '98 or funky in '09.  For years I used to go raving at Carnival in the day, and spend the evening from 7 until 9 pm wondering which of the afterparties to go to.  Every year would be a let down, whether it be too stush, too wack or too 'un-carnival' to possibly work on London's biggest party weekend of the year and provide a worthwhile finale to what was always a good day out.

So for the last few years I have thrown a Carnival party in London that has aimed to fix all of those issues and provide the capital with a friendly session that truly represents different eras of Carnival -  and therefore by default - London raving.  Last year Zinc played a ‘Back to ‘95’ jungle set that was so perfect in its execution that grown men and women were crying - in a good way! Noodles, aka Groove Chronicles, also played an old school garage set that tore the roof off. Both sets were recorded and can be heard on my Soundcloud page or via deviationmusic.net/blog.

This year I decided that it was time to do not one, but two parties, Sunday and Monday.  So we came up with Deviation EAST and Deviation WEST.  Deviation East will be taking place at CAMP in Old Street, featuring Kode 9 playing a rare jungle set, the legendary Wookie playing garage and good friends Waajeed and Dego playing Carnival sets. 

On the Monday we invade Carnival itself, just off Harrow road, and invite back the legendary DJ Zinc to do a ‘Back to ‘96’ Jungle set, the legendary EZ to do a ‘UK garage classics’ set, Lil Silva playing funky House, Semtex playing hip-hop, Ronnie Herel playing classic rare groove and soul, Phil Asher playing classic house and more... it’s gonna be a bit epic.

I hope you have had a great Bank Holiday weekend and I will see you next issue, by which time the leaves may already be changing.