After taking time off for my son’s Birthday and then the fiasco of the flight restrictions causing another weekend without gigs, I am looking forward to a very big month of May indeed. Probably the strongest run of gigs I have ever had in one month takes me to a selection of my favourite gis,
Sunday mornings are so much nicer when you don’t have a 10 hour journey ahead of you ! Greetings from not-so-sunny-at-the-moment Spain. It gives me ENORMOUS pleasure to share the new promotional video with you for the upcoming single on Sounds of the Booth. You will have heard me interview the lovely Nica Brooke almost
Here’s a short interview that took place ahead of my great gig the other week in Zagreb. (It might be better to pause it until it loads fully)
The good news is.. the video broadcast went well last night and worked as I expected. The bad news is.. in all the preparation for the show I forgot to click the button that records the show in audio also. So for this week, the show is only available to listen/view again on line.
It turned out I was missing something VERY obvious last week on the Vocal Booth, as I attempted to come to you in glorious sound & vision. So I am going to give it another shot tonight. If I am honest, I know it works now, so don’t really need to test it again, but
Four months into 2010 and I finally get to recording my first studio mix… and I loved every second of it. Maybe it’s because I hadn’t done a mix for some time, but I thoroughly enjoyed doing this and am very pleased with the result (I even put a note on Facebook about how much
As promised, I am making the information available to those subscribed to the RSS feed before anyone else. We literally have about 10 rooms left in the main hotel for anyone wishing to stay “on site”, please get your reservation in NOW !! Here are the details you need…
A great show, marred by a tragic case of “listen to the track properly before you play it”. Another exclusive play of the forthcoming track from myself and Nica Brooke. Enjoy. Play the show again via the player below or click here to download and play at your convenience. DJs/Producers/Labels – Be sure to subscribe
Saturday in London saw the launch of Deep Cover @ Dex in Brixton. The night started off with a few friends and steady drinks at their house, before moving to the party which was already in full swing by the time we arrived. Powdersoul was playing some real cool grooves, followed by Phlash, myself and
So here it is.. the first play of my next “BIG” vocal project featuring the wonderful sounds of Nica Brooke. I had some teething issues with my studio this week after a paint, spring clean and rearrange. Turntables in faulty channels on the mixer, using a different microphone input and not getting the volumes right,
I am finally so very, very happy to be able to share the brand new track I have had under lock and key for the last few months. It is a big vocal project that needed a very special mixdown.. well today it got just that in the D10 studios, Murcia. UPDATE – Hear the
Back from a whistle stop tour of Aia for Soul Heaven, as mentioned last week. Stopping off in Seoul and Hong Kong, I had a great time with some cool people. I could write a big report, but I will let the videos tell you all the interesting stuff… enjoy
For the 6th release on Sounds of the Booth, we give you a taste of the UK underground. Screama Simplicity and Vocals BM are well known on the UK music circuit, hailing from Birmingham. I was sent a demo of the original mix by Stuart Morton of Monkey Beats who thought I might be able
Just a quick update on what’s going down. Last weekend I had a great time in Swindon for Nite Life @ Envy. Rocking thru till 4am with all the crew and joined by the amazing Ash on percussion and trumpet, it was a great trip back to the UK and I look forward to a
This week we go back to the wonderful celebrations of Saturday 20th in Switzerland. Kicking off with a couple of new bits, featuring the brand new release on Sounds of the Booth.. and then getting straight into the mix.
Just back from a three day break in Switzerland with all the guys behind the great on-line magazine and music site, groovenite.com. Started off on Thursday morning,
I posted a blog last year about making your life easier with RSS feeds. After an interesting chat with Renato @ Groovenite.com, we decided that this needs to be explained again and again to people, as there is so much information available today that not everything gets digested immediately.
Live and direct from Lenzburg, Switzerland as we celebrate 10 years of Groovenite.com Good times with good people, this is what house music is all about. I will try to go through the mix and get a tracklist together at some point. Vocal Booth live from Switzerland, 18.2.10 by andyward
Another selection of fine music alongside pure chat room drama. Listen to the anticipation grow as I announce information about this year’s Weekender, only for the chat room to buckle and break under the strain of sheer numbers.
TEN YEARS OF SOUL HEAVEN COMPILED & MIXED BY LOUIE VEGA GET TOGETHER OUT NOW Available here from iTunes Available here from HMV
My first show of the year and boy, did I miss it ! Clearly you guys did too, with over 50 people in the chat room for most of the show, it was a great welcome back. Hot new music within and a few teasers for forthcoming parties you can catch me at in the
As February kicks off, it is time for me to get back into the swing of things after the month away ‘down under’. The diary is already filling up nicely with a few more UK gigs than in recent times, as well as trips in the pipeline to Germany, Switzerland, Croatia, Serbia & Dubai, to
30 days later, I am about to make the long journey home after an amazing month ‘Down Under’. As you will have read, things started off a little hectic for me. The unforgiving flights were coupled with changes to my tour which left me with some logistical problems that I could have done without.. needless
Sending only the biggest and best wishes for the next 12 months, may it bring you all you truly deserve in life. I am currently in Australia for the whole of January, so the radio shows & podcasts will resume in February.
My final blog of 2009 sees me post my end of year show as a podcast. Rather than read a full length review, please take a moment to either download the show, which includes three hours of some of my favourite tracks of the last twelve months, or listen on line.
Release number 4 for Sounds of the Booth sees us turn up the heat. Junior White ft Noelle – Wake Up
More fun and madness inside the chat, more importantly 3 hours of quality house music, both old and new. A few tracks feel the wrath of the ever judgmental family and we look forward to the big reunion in Birmingham next week
Don’t worry.. I don’t know how to pronounce it either ! Our friend Wikipedia says “Apocrypha comes from the Greek word ἀπόκρυφα, which means those having been hidden away.”
3 hours of hot new music to chase away the winter blues, including a step ‘Into the vault’ unearthing some quality UKG tracks from days of old. The final part of the show also saw me go back into the racks and find a track I’ve been searching for recently. Happy Days.
A very nice, groovy affair. 122bpm of deep. Subscribe to the podcast, download or listen on line here 01 MARIO CAMINITA SOUL ON FIRE 02 FLORI SING IT OUT 03 ZEPHEREIM BROWN DANCE OF MANDINKA 04 MASTERBUILDERS NEVER NEVER 05 ETHYL & FLORI CONEY ISLAND BOPPERS 06 DJ STAN-LEY & GARPHIE S IF YOU WANT
On this week’s show we are joined in the chat room by one of the world’s finest DJs and producers, Mr Grant Nelson, who gives us a world exclusive play of a new track literally hot off the press. One of the tracks gets an absolute pounding from the crew who take an immediate dislike
Well, despite giving this plenty of time for people to get involved, there was a very poor turnout of answers. Much respect to the few that did make the effort, results of which are below as promised.
If you caught last Thursday’s show, you will have heard me mention how happy I was to have re-arranged things at home so I finally had both my turntables in operation. So happy, in fact, that after playing 3 hours of brand new music on The Vocal Booth I decided to do some impromptu mixing
How funny !!! I update todays blog with a cracking hangover. A normal 3 hour show turned into a 6 hour marathon. Here you find a recording of the normal show, and once I have checked just HOW drunk I was on air, I might get around to adding the second, 3 hour section where
Just a little something I thought I would share with you as I prepare to go on air for today’s Vocal Booth live. Over the last few weeks we have been having issues with one of the air conditioning units in the house, for some reason it sporadically started beeping in the early hours of
Promoting the latest release for the Sounds of the Booth, I have thrown together a few short questions, directed at the man of the moment Karl Byer aka K. Motion As well as these Q & A’s, you can find my current chart courtesy of Traxsource.
Specifically put together for a work-out session, 2 hours of pumping beats and uplifting vocals. You have the option of listening on line, or subscribe to the podcast to be able to download and receive automatically every time I load a new one (requires itunes – click here to subscribe)
Listen to the whole show on the player at the foot of the page. More fun and adventures with the Vocal Booth Family, this week we actually managed to crash the server of the chat room, which left many people feeling lost and confused for a short period of time,
On this week’s show I started off with every intention of being professional and trying to keep it as “generic” as possible (not so personal and accessible to all) – but the constant jokes in the chat room and my inability to speak properly soon put pay to that. Oh well, all the new stations
This week on the show, the technical difficulties of the past few weeks seem to have cleared, meaning the crew were able to share a few jokes with me live and give some rather cutting critiques on one or two of the tracks. I also made public full details about the forthcoming reunion for the
Finally back home after a grueling 10 day mini tour, taking in Dubai, Shanghai, Jakarta & Surabaya. I fully intended to keep a journal as I went along each day, but that went out the window on day one.
This week on the show I aired the final three hours of the Sunday Lockdown, live from Ronda 8 in Spain. It was an amazing evening and as the night builds you can hear just how much of a good time people are having, as well as how hard the whole weekend affected my voice,
I have been making reference to something exciting happening with regards to the show and Traxsource over the last few weeks, finally I am glad to be able to make it official. Teaming up with one of the world’s finest on-line digital stores, The Vocal Booth playlists will now come ready loaded with direct links
Having totally forgot about the streaming problems I had last week, I started the show yesterday in high spirits, only to have the floor pulled from under me as the problems returned.
I am happy to be able to finally make available the highly anticipated recordings of the weekend’s fun and frolics, recently in Spain. Once you have digested all of these, I will be hosting my own sets and the Saturday afternoon “Triple S Session” on my SoundCloud player, as well as the very emotional closing
Official photographs of the weekend provided by Triin Kokk and edited together by yours truly. The first track is an idea I had for the weekend and is something I will be developing over the forthcoming months.
WEEKENDER REVIEW 2009 CONCEPTION Most people already know the history of the Vocal Booth, anyone not entirely familiar can get the background here (if you are not on facebook I suggest you open an account simply to view the amazing photos taken by all).
Last night’s show was marred by some internet problems, so most of this will be heard for the first time by many of you. It was weird, more or less talking to myself with no feedback from you guys as you couldn’t hear me.. but it was great to be reunited with the family and
Keep your eyes on my facebook page for all the photos and video uploads from this weekend’s truly historic ’10 Years of the Vocal Booth’. I have to resist the urge to write a full report for it now as I need to step back for a few days and wind down. Watch this space…..
The last few days has seen some of the worst rainfall in Spain in decades. It truly has been a sight to behold. Just goes to show that the infrastructure here is still some way behind, despite all the efforts of the government to modernize the country in all aspects of every day living.
Special thanks to Jared aka LiquidSky for this excellent write up, with one of the world’s undoubted authorities on music, URB Magazine. No matter how long I have been doing this, recognition is always appreciated. Follow this link to the full article
Starts off with some serious dance floor business, finishing with the deep. I tried to keep a lid on the excitement building for next week’s party and live broadcast.. how do you think I did ?
Due to the imminent 10th year celebrations, and a rather hectic overseas tour schedule, The Vocal Booth Club Sessions podcasts will be put on hold until further notice. In the meantime, I will be loading the earlier episodes for anyone who missed them initially. I hope to start them back up again as soon as
This week, I started the show off rather stressed after a day of dealing with idiots. Half way through I remembered how agitated I had been earlier, and it seemed a world apart.. the power of the music !
I consider myself to be fairly competent when it comes to computer and internet related stuff, yet there is still so much I don’t understand. I know there are a hell of a lot of people who are way behind in the race to keep up, so this information is bound to be useful for
In preparation for the forthcoming celebrations in Spain, I have had some very special T-shirts designed by Berny Bantum, one of the UK’s finest new talents in the fashion industry. Most notable of their recent accolades is being awarded… ‘UK Young fashion Entrepreneur‘ at London Fashion Awards 09.
Saturday 12th September.. the Vocal Booth returned to the 2nd city for a night to remember. Kicking things off was Ashley West, playing some real vocal gems and setting the mood nicely. Next up was Paul Henry who was rockin out the percussive joints so much he bust his heaphones.
You know the deal by now, 3 hours of sheer brilliance of the musical variety. I am finding it harder and harder to contain my excitement at the impending Party in Spain in October, you can hear it bubbling over all night. This show is awash with innuendo, just came out that way !
Next up on Sounds of the Booth is this little beauty.. I came up with the rough outline to this track over 18 months ago, and sent it to a great songwriter called Dewey Cioffi. I was introduced to Dewey thru the lovely
Another mix I really enjoyed doing.. flows nice, mixing tight enough.. let me know how you feel it. Guys, please subscribe to make sure you receive this automatically every week (both to my blog and to the podcast)
STOP PRESS !! It gives me great pleasure to announce that this Saturday, 12th Sept, I will be joined by one of Birmingham’s true legends. There was a time that, if you asked ANY deep house head around the world who was the main man for soulful house in Birmingham, this man’s name would be
Kicked the show off with some nice deep grooves and also played some amazing nuggets out of the vinyl vault. The chat room gets funnier by the week, highlights last night were…
Let me tell you a story… Music has always been a special part of my life, my Dad loved music and my earliest memories are listening to Motown classics, Trojan anthems and Soul gems from George Benson and the likes. Going out in Birmingham, we were exposed first of all to 80’s classic soul, slowly
I am very happy to be able to announce an imminent date @ the wonderful Pacha in London. Friday 18th September sees me playing for We Love Pacha.
Bank Holiday Sunday in August 2009, a legendary event took place in Birmingham, a reunion of Marco Polo’s bar. My love for Marco Polo’s is well documented and I owe much of my success to the place for giving me a platform to share my music with the Birmingham crowds.
Another show that I absolutely loved from the word “Go”. Some real uplifting tracks within, including a couple of Vocal Booth classics.
As I prepare to upload an amazing selection of Warehouse Days classics after the weekend, I invite anyone not yet subscribed to join me on Podomatic. If you needed any further enticement to join,
I decided to take a weekend off from mixing up a podcast, but rather than lose the momentum recent shows have gathered, I thought I would take a brief step backwards and share the first ever episode of The Vocal Booth Club Sessions.
The Heavyweights are a new production outfit, comprising of myself and Julian Bendall. Our first project featured the assistance of Phil Asher on the remix for my latest track on Soul Heaven Records, “Streets of the Sun”.
Another great show, the first half has a lot of energy and we finished off with some serious, chilled out vibes. It’s been a crazy week, as you’ll hear from the show, so I think I’ll give the Vocal Booth Club Sessions a miss for this week and enjoy some family time.
After a couple of weeks ‘rest’ (as much as anyone can rest trying to keep two hyperactive kids occupied) in the sun, I am pumped and ready for some serious action back in the UK. Kicking off on Bank Holiday Saturday in London, for a soulful affair called “Karma in the Courtyard”
When I first started going out many years ago, there used to be queues to get into the club before the doors opened. Can u believe it, people in a venue for when it opened !? Unfortunately, with the advent of late night bars, clubs are filling up later and later today, meaning the whole
I’m pretty sure you are more than aware of my spurts of activity on Facebook, usually brought on by moments of inspiration or sheer boredom… well it seems like I’ve overstepped the mark somewhere. Every time I tried to make a comment
VOCAL BOOTH LIVE – 13.8.09 Bah Samba – Live in the Summer, Andy Ward Sunshine Vocal mix Haldo – Night City Journey, Andy Ward Vocal Mix Mango Street Connection – Mango Groove’s (Main Mix)
In 2006 I was asked to present a special show for 1Xtra, called “The Basement“. Here I was asked to share some of the most important tracks that helped shape my career in the music industry. It was a thankless task, trying to choose from a huge musical library and convey, in two hours, those
I was so very honoured recently to be asked to remix one of the UK’s finest outfits..
I recently unearthed this footage, throwing back to Miami Winter Music Conference 06 A snapshot of two great parties, ‘Let the Singers be Heard‘ and a great day & night time affair with ‘Masters at Work’ Some serious who’s who in this video.. I love watching this, it makes me smile. Highlights for me include
On Fri 31st July and Saturday 1st August, I made another trip to one of my favourite countries, Estonia I have some real good friends that I have made over the last 11 or so years of visiting, and it is a beautiful place to visit. Club Prive plays host to some huge International artists,
Andy Ward presents Rainy Payne – Unspoken. Including Park Street and Andy Ward Mixes ‘Unspoken’ is the debut release on Sounds of the Booth Records, a partnership between Reelgroove and Andy Ward. Andy Ward should need no introduction, part of the duo Soul Central, Soul Heaven Resident and founder of The Vocal Booth presents Rainy
Promo on Sale here Sounds Of The Booth launches with its very own Andy Ward delivering this killer underground cut! ‘Unspoken’ is the debut release on Sounds of the Booth Records, a partnership between Reelgroove and Andy Ward. Andy Ward should need no introduction, part of the duo Soul Central, Soul Heaven Resident and founder
A lot of people that check out my radio show and podcasts may be surprised by this recent episode. For my latest Vocal Booth Club Sessions mix I crank it, stepping up the energy and giving you a taste of the flavour I am also known for around the globe. More often than not, these
I have just returned from an “in and out” tour of Indonesia, playing at the 1st Anniversary celebrations for Mansion in Bandung. After a rather late night in Pacha – Ibiza, I set out on my gruelling journey. In the taxi I was fully aware on what lay ahead, but until you actually complete the
It gives me great pleasure to unveil my new website, the definitive location for all things music related. Feel free to check back regular for my blog updates and music links. Many thanks go to Benjamin Wiederkehr, Artillery.ch for doing such an amazing job, I strongly recommend anyone to work with this gentleman. Reach out
July 2009 sees the collaboration and coming together of two leading house music identities; Reelgroove and The Vocal Booth, launching the exciting new soulful house label, “The Sounds Of The Booth”. The Vocal Booth, founded and fronted by Andy Ward (Soul Central / Soul Heaven) celebrates its 10th birthday after being launched back in the
