Josh Wink gets cosy in Belgium

Drive from Eindhoven to Ghent with the ominous windmills

Sunday, February 15th

When given the choice, and a short journey is near at hand, I will most always choose train transportation as my first preference, followed by automobiles, and lastly airplanes.

I am blessed on this tour to have all direct flights except for the two trans-Atlantic flights. As most of my fellow colleagues know, travel is difficult.

Usually most trips for me are with two flights and horrible connection times, sometimes taking a whole day in between gigs; and that’s only when the flights are on time.

I don’t want to get into cancelled flights or delay scenarios, but for me the work of my job isn’t performing. I love performing for people. When I’m playing, I am happy and in the moment, this is what I love and live for. However, the ‘work’ part of the job is the travel and having to deal with all the hardships of travel (most were mentioned on my Feb 13th post).

Well, simple pleasures arrive once again when I realize that my day begins with a simple one hour and 45 minute drive from Einhoven, Holland, to Ghent, Belgium. NO AIRPORTS!

I’m picked up by Jan, one of three brothers who own Decadance in Ghent, in his French diesel van and we start our journey.

Our talks are mostly heated political banter. But, we switch to the economy and then energy awareness as we pass by a Texaco gas station, overshadowed by the monumental and towering windmills. It’s still a breathtaking sight to see these magnificent modern and majestic structures. I just wish the world would take notice and learn to harvest the natural resources like wind, sun, and water more efficiently.

You know, several years ago I was thinking about moving to Rotterdam, Holland, as I really enjoy the vibe of the city and have good friends there (it was mainly destroyed in WWII from bombings and now the architecture is very modern, green, and balances with the traditional Dutch architecture). In reality, I realized that I could not live with my days filled by gray skies, and a mostly damp climate. So, it never happened.

The small home like disco feeling of Decadance, Ghent

The drive was easy, as expected. We arrived at the club to do a sound check at 5:30pm, as it was an earlier than usual night (mind it was a Sunday). I had to oblige on the offer for the gig as it was the 12 years of Decadance party, and the last time I was there it was the magical ‘10 years of’ party.

I really enjoy playing in Belgium, and really enjoy this venue - the crowd, staff, resident DJs and owners are really wonderful people! The club is small and reminds me of someone’s house that has been transformed into a laid back disco.

It’s an intimate setting and the DJ is right there with the crowd. Musically it’s a pleasure as you can take the crowd anywhere.

Tonight, people were requesting acid house and tunes from my album ‘When A Banana Was Just A Banana’ LP.

A true banana fan representin’!

The club had a great local restaurant providing finger food snacks for the first hour of the club in association with the LP’s thematic subject matter - all the food presented were sweet treats made from bananas!

Musically from the night I had great response from ‘Stay Out All Night’ and ‘Everybody To The Sun’, along with these diverse tracks:

1) Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley ‘Jack your Body’ (Hardfloor Rmx)
2) Fransisco Allendes & Felipe Vengagas ‘Maribo’
3) Future Beat Alliance ‘Dark Passenger’
4) Till Von Sein ‘Ovas’ (Catz N Dogs Rmx)
5) Morphosis ‘Cetrik’
6) Justin Maxwell ‘The Windey Man’
7) Gregor Thresher ‘95 days’
8) Dimitri Max ‘Lazy Afternoon’ (Original)

And classics like:

1) Armando ‘151’
2) Laurent Garnier ‘Crispy Bacon’
3) DJ Pierre ‘Box Energy’
4) Wink ‘Higher State of Consciousness’

I was happily surprised with the vibe and feeling of the club, as it was a rainy and dastardly cold night, and after a superb spicy Thai dinner with local Jens Holmes (DJ, producer and journalist), I felt like curling up in a ball under the blankets of my bed, which I hadn’t seen yet as I hadn’t checked in.

Now DJs usually have second homes, as we live in airports/airplanes and hotels. Not exactly ideal second homes, but it does make a difference when we can stay at a nice hotel. Fortunately, we do sometimes get pampered and get to stay at incredible accommodations.

To break up the monotony every now and then, it’s nice to have a change. When playing in Ghent, I usually stay at a really small and cute bed & breakfast (where a lot of artists actually stay) called Design and Breakfast, where all the rooms have different themes, Playstations and other amenities to make you feel right ‘at home’. 

Home feeling at the Chambres Bed & Breakfast, Ghent

Staying there feels like staying at a distant relative’s house, where you are comfortable and feel at home but you might not have met them before. This time, I stayed at a B&B called Chambers D’o D’eau. After dinner we went and met the owner, and she gave me a key and demonstrated how to use the lock on the front door and escorted me to my room, along with a short tour of the house. I got a Moroccan themed room, which is an all blue room nestled on the second floor of the house.

They were prepared for my arrival and had vegan options for breakfast, which made me feel even more relaxed, which is always appreciated. 

A funny and unexpected happening took place when I was shown to my room. Now, I know anyone who gets this far in reading my blogs may secretly desire some heated tale about bedroom scenarios, and unfortunately for us all, I don’t have one (haha).

But she returned to my room with a package of records, which was the furthest thing I imagined. Well, as it turns out, her daughter is the girlfriend of Mo, from The Glimmers, who found out that I was staying at the B&B and left me a package of his new productions and tracks from their Diskamo label. A nice surprise and I look forward to listening to them!

At the gig, I played until 2AM, hung out, shook my booty on the dancefloor, and at 3:15AM took a taxi back to the B&B where I quietly unlocked the door, and navigated with the stealth of a moose to my Moroccan boudoir. Happy to be warm and under the covers at last!

I’m extremely content knowing that the first four gig dates of the tour went perfectly. Now I will be rewarded with three days off in Paris with friends, before the Rex club gig on Thursday.

I turn off my phone, put my earplugs and eye mask on and eagerly anticipate seven hours of solid, sensory deprived sleep.