19/02/2020
From ALFOS:
As I was contacted by a reporter of a music magazine in Croatia who is writing IN MEMORIAL article, with the question "how have you come to an idea to bring Mr. Weatherall to Croatia for the first time ever and how will you remember him" i translated my anwer for here:
My wife and I had a desire to host Andrew Weatherall the most because we were not happy with not beeing able to listen to him live and dance. Although we already had a dance career behind us, and were promoters over 5 years at the time, I listened to him live around the UK but she didnt, only at home when cleaning up. After Safehouse lost the house and moved to the neighboring Culture Club, with the same concept of bringing DJs for the first time in Croatia, and after many promoters told us that he simply couldn't be booked for Croatia, we were extremely motivated to contact him. And we contacted him on the Rotters Golf Club page, literally only with "Hi, we are Fabo & Diana, we love to dance to your music, and organize club events, small town, small club, few people, top sound and educated crew you can play to whatever you want" ...
A few days later, the agent (Caroline) answered that Andrew was interested and wanted to know the details, which were not something - the booking fee was limited, a low cost flight had to be taken, the city (Krizevci) had no hotel, etc. But Andrew agreed. In the end, he did not sleep even in the reserved accommodation (apartment in the family house) because "I dont want to wake up people in the middle of the night", so he slept in our double bed and my wife and I on the sofa in the living room.
Unfortunately, the party was supposed to be February 22, 2007, but Andrew lost his best friend the night before, and of course canceled. He immediately gave another date, May 6, 2007, but I have to admit the "hype" got a little lost. We didn't go through financially best, we had to sell some of our equipment so that we didn't owe it to anyone.
I will always remeber that party except for the fact that Weatherall spent the night in my bed, for the extraordinary music, for the gathering and fellowship of the whole Croatian scene (Zagreb, Sisak, Kutina, Osijek, Marof, Koprivnica, Split, Čakovec, etc.), for radio host Sergio who in FunTime radio show at 101 was more then surprised that Weatherall was coming to Krizevci and not to Zagreb and asked the organizers to come upfornt. The party went so good that we realized that we couldn't organize a better party, so why organize it. Better to go out when you want, come back when you want, go where you want and not take promotional concerns. We have been practicing it ever since.
I will remember him as a DJ for unexpectedness, unpredictability, sorority, eclecticism, impassibility. His mixes are contemporary, the mix from 2004 or 1993 sounds still good and in 2020, none of that music has bored me. In '93. he has played both house and techno and punk and rock and the same in '05. and in '19. Experts will write books about the contribution to music from the production side, some have already been written.
I will also remember him as a great underground player on the scene, who once was in Ibiza and never returned, but agreed to come to a city of 10k people without a hotel. Who was "in it for the love, not for the money."
As a person I will remember him as a humble gentleman from the UK who says "thank you" 1000 times in a conversation, each time with a different intonation. And as a friend too, we congratulated him on his birthdays, my wife carried a nutcake to Syrup club for him, and he didn't let anyone open it, he wanted to carry it home. For the first time, I sent him a message asking for the questlist for a croatian festival in 2010 (Petrcani), two months earlier, with no reply, and then the message "see you tomorrow guys, you are on the guestlist" the night before. And then it continued, we saw each other at the seaside festivals, last time at Dimensions last year. We were getting ready for the Garden brewery on 1st May, but, s**t, it still didnt sink into...
Anyway, AW legacy is huge!!! RIP!!!
Im thankfull I had a chance to know you.
One of the greatest for many, the greatest one for us!
