"Hi there! I know a lot of you guys have been eagerly awaited the public release of TECHNIKAL PROMO MIX 5 - and I'm happy to report that it is now available for you all to download free of charge! The link is at the bottom of this report!"

Now before I just jump into proceedings and throw you a download link, I thought some of you might like to see what I got up to on my tour in Australia (where I was touring the mix and giving away advance copies for free!). I went all over the country in the space of six weeks and had an absolutely fantastic time.

LEAVING THE UK

After many sleepless nights of dreading the 24 hour flight to Sydney from Heathrow, we were on our way! Joining me on the trip was my Aussie-grown girlfriend Amy (who's family we would also be staying with), my Mum (so she could meet the far flung relatives) and my Aussie housemate/producer in crime James (JTS).

Me, my Mum and Amy at the gate at Heathrow

Me and James JTS at the gate
(although strangely looks like an audition for the X-Factor!)

And with that we were off! The first leg of the trip (London to Singapore) was the longer of the two legs, ending up at 12 hours. We spent the majority of the flight watching films and I got stuck into Zelda on my Nintendo DS ... excellent stuff! Must say that Singapore Airlines provided some of the best food I've ever had on a plane before. Definately recommend them. We got to Singapore a little dizzy and feeling a bit groggy, and I couldn't wait to get out and have a ciggy!


Well needed!

After grabbing some ciggarettes and alcohol from Singapore's exceptionally priced duty free shops, we got onto the final leg of the place (Singapore to Syndey) which was a rather reasonable 8 hours. We slept the whole way, and on arriving into Sydney headed straight to bed!

FIRST GIG IN AUSTRALIA - RISE NIGHT CLUB IN PERTH

No sooner had we touched down into sunny Australia, I was already jumping onto another plane to head over to Perth (4 hours west of Sydney) for my first gig at Rise nightclub. I met up with some good friends over there, Damian (who runs Heat UK, South West Four etc) and also a couple of friends of mine who used to live in London, Michelle & Gush.

At dinner with Michelle, Gush & Damian

After some dinner, we headed over to the club. It was quite amusing as I'd left my passport in my hotel room and the bouncers were asking me for ID and didn't believe I was playing there. Good job this poster was up outside!

Rise posters

In the club @ Rise

Rise was a pretty cool club, I played a 2 hour set with a mixture of hard trance and then the last hour hardcore. The kids up there loved the faster beats, I later found out Breeze had played there the week before so it started to make sense!

BACK TO SYDNEY

After flying back to Sydney, I had a couple of hours to shower and rest up before being picked up by the driver for the next gig... the legendary Manic event in Sydney. They are huge scale raves with a massive mix up of hardcore and hard dance. On arrival we checked out some of the hardcore boys like Squad-E, Al Storm and Weaver, then I headed to the Masif room and played a 2 hour set of upfront new hard trance and Masif classics. It was great to see Steve Hill again!

Me and Amy on our way to Manic


Playing at Manic. Tracks are: Paul Maddox - Reach Out (Technikal Remix)
& Darren Styles - Save Me (Technikal Remix)

AUSTRALIA SIGHTS

After the manic nature of the first weekend in Australia, it was nice to have a couple of weeks to then chill out and see some of the sights. We went to the Reptile Park in Gosford, saw the Three Sisters up in the blue mountains and done some of the beaches. We had a wicked couple of weeks!

Charlie the parrot who took a shining to throwing up on my jacket
and humping my neck. My kind of bird!

Me and my Mum in front of the Three Sisters, Blue Mountains

Getting friendly with the Aboriginals

Me and Amy at Manly Beach, Sydney


Me and Amy at Bondi Beach, Sydney having some breakfast

Getting down with a Kangaroo

Up close and personal with a Kangaroo. Awesome animals!

Everyone loves their mother really ;)

Me and Dan 'Masif Tool' at Taronga Zoo

Me and Amy in front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge

Me and Amy in front of the Sydney Opera House

BACK TO THE MUSIC

After seeing loads of interesting things and filling up our camera's memory card with shots, it was time to start getting back into the music. Me and JTS had a back 2 back set on Sydney's radio station Hardcore Overload, so we headed down there for an hour.

Back 2 Back in the literal sense!

We headed out to a hard dance night in Sydney called 'Energy' to see some friends who we hadn't seen for a while. I met up with FL!P who I hadn't seen for a year (the same FL!P who I wrote 'System Overload' with).

FL!P & me at Energy