Our resident percussionist who performs weekly with Alfredo on the Sunset Terrace has been in high demand through the winter playing in clubs, at events and in studios throughout the world. Alfredo sums him up as an artist pretty well, “I never practice with Ian, never. I listened to him play in El Salon. He is the first percussionst to not get over the track and disturb the record. When he has to be silent he is silent. The way he keeps the beat is like a machine and melody with percussion is something I have not heard before. He is a humble guy to work with, I am pleased to know him and work with him.” Mark Broadbent belies his promotors hat like so, “I generally dislike drummers more than DJs but Ian is great.” Here are some tales and photos from his travels…

Ian C'enic

Six months since I played with Alfredo on the Sunset Terraza at Space and it’s hard to believe that Ibiza beckons already. I can remember that last gig like it was yesterday but I’ve crammed so much in since then – what a lucky sod!

Ian Frozen C

50 odd gigs since then (and some were odd) have led me around some parts of the world that I’ve never been to before… Denmark was amazing, mid-January, the sea was frozen (as was I) and I performed and partied in an old cinema with 800 or so people. In Sweden, amid their worst snow storm in 30 years we bounced around in an old church with only good music and strong alcohol for sustenance (by the if you are ever there and get offered a shot of liquid brown tar whose name escapes me, say no and run for the hills). In Austria, at a friends birthday party, I performed in a nightclub that is a coffee and pastry shop by day. Nice and randomly, as my life sometimes tends to be, I ended up staying with We Love’s Mr. Doris and his girlfriend Roxanne in Bahrain after finding out I had been booked to play at his winter residency (neither of us knew the other was there until it was all booked) – small world indeed.

Ian C of people

I’ve also been lucky enough to break some personal career records this winter and perform to 5,000 at Amsterdam Indoor Arena and a monster of a gig to 7,000 at the Dubai World Trade Center. This was rounded off rather bizarrely at an after party, with me drinking drinks I couldn’t possibly afford in the presidential penthouse suite of a well know Dubai hotel with some very nice folk indeed – in other circumstances I would have been mistaken for ‘the help’ and told to get my hair cut!

Ian C'eiling

The over-riding factor at all of the gigs (and many many previous events) in all the countries I have been lucky enough to visit over the years, is how universally, whatever our backgrounds, politics or colour, we all just want to have a bloody good time! So to the 30,000 + people that were at the gigs I’ve played at this winter, I salute you!

Ian C for yourself

The summer is nearly here, I can’t wait to get back on that outdoor terrace every week with Alfie again, Ibiza ticket (one way) is booked and a lot of my friends and all the We Love family are poised cat like for action, well, poised anyway… how about you?

Check out a mix created by Ian C and Jem Haynes, here. It’s a dex / percussion / fx mix recorded live and off the cuff by the duo. The busy pair have also just completed a bootleg of a classic Gorillaz record, check it out below…