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I have been involved with Desert Storm since
1994 when we made our way with a food aid convoy
to the almost besieged town of Tuzla in war
torn Bosnia.
We were meant to make a new year eve party,
but after a 9 day trip skirting around the frontline
and driving down valley roads at 2am with all
our lights off to avoid sniper-fire, we arrived
to find our venue had been mortered the day
before.
It was New Years eve and we had to do something,
so we piled all the speakers onto the back of
a lorry and set off around the town Pied Piper
style.
At one point the cops came up, we started to
turn the music down expecting to be arrested,
But in probably the only time in the history
of Music, the cops said
"Turn the music up...but please turn off
the lights....You will get pinpointed and mortered"...
so i did as he said... drank some of his Slivovich
and watched him as he started dancing alongside
the soldiers.They were shooting their AK47's
in the air and drinking right next to the 3
old grannys doing their knitting with their
heads in a bass bin....Unbelievable but true...and
the single most crazy night of my life.
Since that trip we did another 3 excursions
into the violent and vicious war zone..and we
entered Sarajevo just one week after the final
cease-fire, the 1st artists to enter the city
from outside in 5 years.
We quickly found the musical sub culture that
had been one of the most important and also
dangerous aspect of living under a siege. We
set up a gig at " The Obola" a club
made infamous for the 300 yard sprint you had
to make to get in the door and not get shot
by the snipers.
Many young people would make their way here
during the conflict and stay for days due to
the danger outside.
The same could be said for Radio Zid, an underground
pirate station that we played on.
It was run by a couple of scared lookin 20 something...although
they looked about 40. They let us play for about
5 hours and all the time advertised the upcoming
gig at Obola.
We then took our tekno out into the streets,
in the same manner as Tuzla a year previously
except there were sniper signs on nearly every
corner.
I still got a picture somewhere of me Dj'in
in the back of the opensided truck cruising
up and down Sarajevo main strip with a phat
rig and a kevlar helmet.
When we actually did the party in Obola, well
i dont believe it is possible to witness people
dancing and harder!
They were frantic, to dance, drink, laugh, cry,
hug, each other, but most of all to be free.
It was 1 week after the Dayton Peace accord
and after 5 years of siege and inhumane suffering,
finally they got the 1st glimpse of a future....and
fuck me were they happy about it!
We returned 1 more time to Sarajevo with Spiral
Tribe 6 months later.What a journey.
I really got to touch the Tekno travelling community
and had some of the most enlightening few years,
partly to do with what i had seen whilst in
Bosnia, but also the combination of music within
a nomadic lifestyle. If ya think im makin all
this up by the way...
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