I couldn't believe it, here was I sitting opposite a man who had put a price on my head and he was now asking me to help him out!

Let's Rewind 5 years to the moment that this all started.

It seemed like a bad idea from the beginning, the place was called the Dance Palace.  it was in the jungle, it was a concrete box with no atmosphere and an air conditioning system which chilled the air to 15 degrees; it was open every night filled with drunk taxi drivers and lady boy prostitutes.  It was not a place to be seen dead in and if you made a mistake you could easily be seen dead in there. I went once and vowed never again. This establishment was on a tiny island called Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand. The year was 1996. I was working as a dive master at the time and became friendly with the owners who asked for my help. They had expected it to be the best thing ever and had thought if they gave the tourist what they thought the tourists wanted then bingo they'd have the best club in Asia. Well who wants to go to a concrete freezing box in the jungle and listen to terrible music at ear splitting volume when you can go to the beach and dance there under the stars!

They came to me as I was to be found almost every night on the beach dancing/stumbling and was DJing at a few of the bars so they thought I'd have an idea what makes a good party. I agreed to take a look but not with much hope, after all it was a concrete box. The only thing going for it was the kick arse sound system and state of the art lighting rig. I gave them some suggestions like ripping the whole place down, opening it up and using the jungle setting to their advantage. Two weeks later they asked me back to see what they had done.

Well I was amazed they'd done everything I suggested and more. they'd ripped down two of the walls so opening the box, made the horrible car park into a beautiful garden with a fantastic outdoor bar and had created lots of decking and seating areas with hammocks and chill out zones. It was amazing. The sound system still rocked and the lightening rig was the best in Asia. Inside they'd decked the whole place out in wood and without the two wall in felt like you in the jungle but surrounded by technology. It was awesome. The only thing missing was the dancing loons.

I still had my doubts though as after all it was in the jungle and not on the beach and people come to an island to be on the beach. Against my better judgment somehow they persuaded me to organise the grand opening party and DJ. Well i thought what the hell I'll invite all my friends and get them all drunk for free and that would be the end of that. In fact the opening night was brilliant. The whole island turned out. A Lady boy cabaret was booked from Bangkok (trying to DJ with Lady boys trying to put their hand down your pants and flashing their tits at you is one of the strangest sets I've ever played) the drink and drugs were flowing and a great night was had by all.In fact it was more of a night finishing around lunch time the next day. It was such a success that we all agreed that it needed to be done again.

That was the start of The Jungle Club. So for the next 3 years The jungle Club became the best club in Asia as voted for by Mixmag. It only opened one night a week, Fridays. The only other club on the island opened Tuesdays and Sundays, after all its a tiny island, so there was no conflict. The Jungle club became the place for the local dive masters and instructors to let off steam, tourists weren't told about it unless they were really cool. We didn't need to advertise or promote it as it was all word of mouth, very hush hush on the QT.  Well everything was going nicely until we decided to open Christmas Eve one year.

We'd never done this before as we didn't want the headache but  this year our 3rd we thought hell why not, what's the worst thing that can happen. We only did this due to the huge public pressure. The "locals" didn't want to party at the "other club" as it was normally filled with hookers and taxi drivers listening to crappy Thai pop music at ear splitting volume. It was this decision that ultimately ended up with a price being put on my head. 

That night we had the best night in the history of the club 800 people dancing the night away while back on the beach only drunk taxi drivers and hookers were in 'the other place', all 20 of them. The "other place" had spent a huge amount of money on fireworks which we got a perfect view of from our jungle hideaway, thanks "other place". This caused a massive loss face which in Thailand can get you killed. The price put on my head was £100!!! Life is cheap out there. To have a Thai person killed the price was about £40 back then so in a way I felt strangely proud. Not proud enough for me to boast about it, in fact I was shitting it. I'd been on the island too long anyway so it was time for a change of scenery and quickly. I spoke to the Thai owner of The Jungle Club about the matter and he said it was my problem not his so I booked the next boat out. The jungle Club collapsed and was quickly engulfed by the jungle from which it came.

One year later I returned to Koh Tao to continue my diving and to get involved in a underwater filming project. I decided to go and see the boss of the "other place" to make sure that the hit had been called off. We sat and chatted for a while and he told me that as long as I didn't open another club there was no point in him wasting his money on bullets. He then asked if I was still DJing as his DJ had been taken ill and he needed to fill the slot. He told me he loved the way I played and even wondered if i want to take on the residency at his club. Yeah right I needed a gig like that like I needed a hole in the head.