MAD For It, Dancehall Shanghai Shakers

22/4/2013

Also celebrating April birthdays, (left to right), Annie, Alice and Annie.

Friday, for many, is the day to start unwinding in anticipation for the following two days off. And the Friday just gone also happened to be my birthday, so as you can imagine I was in an exceptionally celebratory mood that day. It was still a work day, but I made sure that one of my final classes of the day (a weekly ‘English Corner’ for around 30 students) would somehow incorporate a ‘marking of the occasion’.

I made it blatantly obvious by writing on the board “Birthdays” and there followed an hour’s theme which included bringing out a pre-bought chocolate birthday cake and inviting other April babies on to the stage with me.

As much as they were students, a number of them had also become good friends (the plus side of teaching adults). 9pm and I wrapped up my final class for the week.

At home, I dumped my teaching gear. Lezil was all glammed up and ready to go. Our night was to be at the recently refurbished Geisha club. Reggie, a close friend and a prominent DJ on the Shanghai scene, had organised a charity night. Clubbers came out in force (I was told over 700 people) spread over two floors. MAD logos were everywhere ensuring that we knew the whole purpose of the evening was about “Making A Difference”.

With friend and MAD founder, Reggie aka DJ Verse@tille!

At Geisha club with our early drinks offer (left to right) me, Nina, Jayden and Jening.

It’s a non-profit organisation set up by Reggie (also known as DJ Verse@tille) and through his team’s tireless efforts, they have helped a number of charities both in China and back in his native South Africa.

Lezil and I being the early birds, we managed to take advantage of the clubs generous offer of 8 drinks for RMB 100 ($15). Some friends had already arrived and as the place was still warming up (and the music not too loud), it gave us a chance to catch up without losing our voices in the process. Slowly but surely over the next hour, the rest of our friends trickled in by which time the first floor, where we were stationed, had upped the tempo with some banging Hip Hop club beats.

Lezil and I don’t usually do the whole club thing. We opt more for live music venues with a good band. But once in a while it’s fun to get buck wild (all above board!). The top third floor had started to fill up around midnight where DJ Envoy (another friend, Brent) was spicing things further with all the latest and greatest from the islands.

The Caribbean and African massive had come out in force and the atmosphere was pumping. From Bashment to Reggae to Soca and even some UK Funky House – the dancefloor was packed as people booty-shaked to familiar beats. These were my ‘Dancehall Shanghai Shakers’. I was in my total element here.

The party crowd going MAD for Caribbean beats in Shanghai!

From what had originally been planned as a quick drink and a hello (i.e. only staying for an hour or two)…the time just flew past with each big tune hyping the crowd more and more. You gotta love Shanghai’s unique international community – something not always portrayed to the outside world. The clock hand went past 2am and I knew it was time to wrap things up, even though I could have gone on until the closing time of 4am. We had an early 7am start to the second part of my birthday weekend activity and already I knew that it was going to be a struggle to wake up for it. But, I didn’t care! The birthday adrenalin would keeping me going…