Dj Rashida & Legendary Damon pointed out...I have a BOW obsession

I didn't realise until they mentioned that in loads of our holiday pictures and on tour I was wearing excessive amounts of Bows! Now I've checked myself and I realise all my favourite Feragammo Shoes have Bows, most of my hair bands and clips and today I picked up red leather gloves that I wanted so bad- then quickly did a double take and saw a really pretty bow on the front :)
I need Bow rehab and I don't even care
dj nikki beatnik 'easily the best female dj in the uk' www.health-article-blogs.com Tweet me! @health-article-blogs

Arthur's Day, Dublin, Sept 2010

Last week Rashida Kelis and I along with all the crew touched down in Dublin as Kelis was performing. We did a couple of gigs, one of which Rashida's deck broke mid set..we soldiered on and then had a wickedly funny night out- partly thanks to the Guinness and my Cognac's :)
dj nikki beatnik 'easily the best female dj in the uk' www.health-article-blogs.com Tweet me! @health-article-blogs

New Jake & Gigi Headphones!

Over a year ago I got my original Jake & Gigi Headphones through a friend of mine Rozan who I spin for at her Bougi events in Bahrain. Jake& Gigi use crystals and beads to embellish anything you want. From their bespoke jewellery to mobile phones and laptops, so it was a no- brainer for me to get my favourite brand of shells pimped out by Jake & Gigi's head honcho and creative genius Michelle Roberts. She did an astounding job and I have been stopped every single time I have DJ'd asking where I got them. Since I got mine done I have seen various other copies, but none with the attention to detail and chic look of Michelle's.

Here are my original pair.

Now she has outdone herself and sent me back my Adidas headphones I sent to get 'dressed up'. Check these babies out! Limited edition Adidas Headphones- before and after the Jake & Gigi treatment.

My Adidas headphones before
My Adidas headphones after the Jake&Gigi treatment...

This is so sad, McQueen's Memorial Service, London Sept 2010

I feel sad that all these friends who attended Alexander McQueen's Memorial Service in London yesterday has such amazing things to say about him and yet Lee McQueen who had suffered with depression and anxiety for years obviously still felt so alone and unable to cope.

Lucy In Disguise Shop Launch, London- featuring Liz Mendez Amazing Accessories

I went to support one of my oldest friends Liz Mendez shop launch last week for her new vintage store Lucy In Disguise in Covent Garden at the start of London Fashion Week. The shop is the brainchild of sisters Lilly and Sarah Allen and Liz is responsible for all the accessories in the shop and has put allot of time and effort into sourcing pieces from across the World.

Me & Liz at the party

The shop itself is very cute and the layout is great, as they have section for different decades, 40's, 50's 60's etc which makes it easy to find stuff- the 80's section for me was the best (no brainer) with some fabulous jackets.
They have found some beautiful pieces from Lacroix to Chanel from LA, San Fran, Paris from Liz, Lilly & Sarah's trips all over the globe. The prices do reflect the quality and the high end labels & also the simple fact that everyone is now into vintage, ergo you will have to have quite deep pockets to shop at Lucy In Disguise, however they also do cute little 'lucy' bags and T- shirts with their illustrated logo on.

The launch party last Wednesday at the shop was fulled with the friends and family of Liz, Lilly and Sarah including musicians, fashionistas and magazine peeps alongside some random tabloid chicks. It was a fun way to showcase the clothes with free champagne, music from DJ Seb Chew and goodie bags. The place was rammed to the rafters and the obligatory Paparazzi lay in wait for some Danielly Lloyd/ Lilly/ Meg Mathews action ;)
Liz's accessories really were the highlight of the shop for me, so I have posted some pics of them below. She will be hiring some of the more spectacular pieces including headwear out for shoots. Email lizmendez1@me.com for more info







Liz's jewels
Peacock Cuff as seen in Grazia

Stanley Hagler Necklace
Lacroix Cuff



60's Belt

Jomaz Necklace

Lacroix Earings

Givenchy Pendant

My Favourite piece along with a heavy link Chanel necklace

LFW Highlights- Viv Westwood, Mathew Williamson, Antonio Beradi

Felder & Felder S/S 2011 Show LFW & The Sustainable Show, Sept 2010- Show Highlights

Hannah Marshall & Jena Theo Shows S/S 2011- Highlights LFW Sept, 2010

LFW HIGHLIGHTS FROM PPQ

Its London Fashion Week! 1st day Felder & Felder, Theo & PPQ

My Serato Switch Over

My switch over from using Pioneer CDJ's to Serato Scratch Live took ages. I went onto CD decks about 5yrs ago and got pretty proficient on them and developed quite an affection for CDJ1000's- which I never expected after having DJ'd with vinyl on Technics 1210's for so many yrs.
I held out and held out but eventually the nice people at Rane gifted me a Serato SL3 and I decided to start swapping over to using it with my neglected Mac. (I'm a PC lover)
My friend DJ Nimblefingerz who is a true Serato geek came over to sort out my Mac and set up/show me the basics, which was really helpful, but which I totally forgot on my first gig.
The DJ part of it was pretty straight forward but its all the other little quirks which take a while to get to grips with, such as the crating and BPMing and all the different modes you can use.
My first gig with it was 'interesting' to say the least! The Serato was skipping modes a lot which I later found out from Rashida can be fluff on the needle if you use it with Vinyl or the CD tracks running out if you use it with CDJ's. DJ SD who spins for JLS told me he rewired his Serato box so that its 10 times faster and more simple to plug in at clubs and also offered up lots of other handy tips. So I have gleaned lots of information from some great DJ mates. I have also clocked that 80% of DJ's only use Serato to 50% of its capacity. There are so many interesting things you can do with it especially with tracks you have produced and stems, it has amazing potential for live DJ sets, which I'm looking at now.
My second gig with serato was the 75th Anniversary of the De La Warr Pavillion which I had to find 75 records from 1935-2010- it took sooo much work and research. The scratch live programme was actually perfect for this as I could order the records in date order in a crate devoted especially to this one gig. With CD's or Vinyl this would have been an even more mamouth task. It was a lot of work, but on the day of the gig it was so much easier having all the records for my set organised and ready to go. The only thing was I found myself having to use the CDJ decks with Serato on absolute mode, which acts absolutely like Vinyl, which felt weird after yrs of using CDJ's as the feel, pitch and response rates were completely different. I think using either 1210's or CDJ's will be best on Relative Mode but I have not figured out all the in's and out's of that as yet! I have done a couple of fashion gigs since then, both with Statis with our Beatnik Soundsystem, so I have had someone there with me to figure things out when they have gone wrong! I have to spin at a big event on Wednesday but I have asked for 4 x CD decks so I can use a mixture of Serato on two of them and fall back on CD's if I have any problems!!!
All in all it is an excellent programme and I'm sure when I get a chance to practise and become proficient on it, I will love it and it will re-ignite my love for my craft.
I have yet to try using Serato live on stage for Kelis' tour, but Rashida and Kofi both assured me I'll be fine and grow to love it more with each gig.

dj nikki beatnik 'easily the best female dj in the uk' www.health-article-blogs.com Tweet me! @health-article-blogs

Holiday Time IBIZA!!!!!

Had the wickedest holiday in Ibiza with the La Troya Crew :) Amazing villa, big pool, good food, great company and so many jokes!