(Posted November 2013) Here’s a little early xmas present for you. I turned 40 this year and in the summer we partied like it was my 21st. We hosted a daytime/night time enchanted woodland-themed party. Food and face painting in the daytime for those with kids, fireworks and raving into the night for those without. See the original invite here. Blessed with awesome weather, we were in the garden as well as indoors. The last of the revelers left around 9am. The place looked like a bomb site the following day and, as you can imagine, we weren’t very popular with the neighbours afterwards. Probably one Matt and my best parties, it was the perfect way to celebrate kicking 40. And we raised £2000 for Shelter, so a massive thank you to everyone who donated. Coop DJ’d in the garden after dark, leading up to the fireworks, then Niall picked up the reigns indoors. I played for a couple of hours at midnight before Matt took up through til dawn. I recorded my set, and that’s what you’ll find here. Being about 9 hours into the party I was a little worse for wear, so don’t any expect top draw mixing skills! (I wasn’t planning on posting it for this reason but it’s party season once again now so I’m throwing caution to the wind.) The first half hour features some deep house and nu disco grooves before launching into old skool Strangeways Manchester 90s classics. I didn’t set out to play a classics set that night. In fact, I’d been running around so much in the days leading up the the party that I hadn’t really had time to plan a set. In my mind I was going to play chunky funky house but it was so good to see so many old Manchester faces, the classics just kept coming. I owe a massive thanks to the many people who helped out on the day. Sophie and Brent and Precious who helped set everything up - especially Brent for managing the bar and delivering his Woodland Squirrel cocktail, Silly Millie for kids entertainment, Anna Bella, and later Jodie, for out of this world make up and face painting, Communique for donating mirrorballs and beer, Ted for the woodland sound effects in the bathroom, Savage Salads for the food, Coop and Niall for DJing, Mum and Dad for sorting the table decorations and garden lighting, Lynne for the pep talks... and of course Matt for being ‘party organiser’s widow’ for a few months and making everything look so awesome. Finally, the 150 or so folks who made the trip to the wilds of Brixtonia forest. I had a blast and looking at the photos, you did too. Hit ‘play’ and get ready for some memories of the summer. Enjoy! Links https://soundcloud.com/niallgilliland http://www.linkedin.com/pub/brent-harcombe/54/572/a08 http://www.savagesalads.co.uk https://www.facebook.com/Annabellamakeup http://www.sillymillietheclown.co.uk http://england.shelter.org.uk Use the iTunes ‘Chapters’ menu to jump between tracks in the mix.