I have failed to mention the name of the club that later reshaped my life: Far Out. It was located at the Champs Elysee of Berlin, at the northern part of Ku’ Damm. Unlike the majority of the nightlife locations, it had a bright white interior with a white marble dance floor that was surrounded by four bars. A gigantic picture of Osho was placed on one side of the dance floor with an even bigger mirror framing it.
The entire commune’s income was generated here and it was open six days a week. We had no boss or manager in the club so every night at 9 p.m. there was a disco meeting where we sat and gambled for the open jobs using two dice. The only jobs that were not included were the DJ spots, Tuesday and Wednesday only one, Thursday till Sunday two DJ’s, as the nights were longer.
Every Saturday all the DJs met and had their very own exclusive battle about who played when and how many times. Everything was so democratic that everybody could have a go as a DJ. It could be absolutely horrible as most of them didn’t have the passion or talent to do the job and just wanted to slide a quiet ball. I might sound like a snob but the core crew disliked any new entries as it meant we had to collect the glasses in the club or do other unworthy jobs.
The musical program was from ABBA to Zappa. We played a bit of every music style but never more than 20-30 minutes. It was an unwritten law that the style had to change. It was fun for a while but the more I dived into electronic music the less I could stand to play the “good old stuff” and started to rebel against it. Crucial for this development was my encounter with two other DJ’s that I admired a lot: Pushava and Sangeet.
Pushavas elegance when mixing was almost sexy and Sangeet had this mad enthusiasm about all sorts of electronic music. I extended the parts of modern music and played them louder than the other stuff. It got me into deep trouble sometimes to the point of being called a bloody “Arab” by one of my colleagues, who then threw a wet cloth in my face. I didn’t care and kept doing what I did.
With time I found a few tricks to shut them up, one being using techno tracks that used Osho samples. The hypocrisy was amazing, they would never complain about the music, no matter how loud, if there was an Osho sample. I had a few supporters but the majority tried to tell me to let it be. I remember exactly how one day I told a friend in the commune that I will travel around the world with my records and she just laughed and said that my beloved music is just hype and that in 2-3 years it will disappear. She wasn’t right and I traveled to all continents because of my music.