Five Hours Of The Flightpath Estate At The Golden Lion (And Six Hours Of Sean Johnston)

Last Saturday afternoon and evening three of The Flightpath Estate DJ team played some tunes at The Golden Lion in Todmorden, warming up on what was already a very hot day before Sean Johnston took over for A Love From Outer Space. ALFOS at The Golden Lion is always a special occasion, the pub being one of its spiritual home, much loved by Mr Weatherall and Mr Johnston, and always draws a beautiful crowd of enthusiastic dancers and revellers. 

Martin went on first, then me and then Dan. Martin played some dub, some leftfield stuff, some disco edits and some electronica. I went in a Balearic/ indie/ dub direction. Dan went full Balearica. After that we switched to playing three songs each in rotation and then a quick burst of one each, back to back, before handing over to Lion resident Matt Hum who played an hour ahead of Sean. Lion regular Tommo took a picture of us outside the pub. Apologies for the unexpected appearance of our knees (left to right, Martin, me, Dan). 

We've spent this week trying to recreate out sets- they weren't recorded live from the booth so these have been done afterwards. The entire thing, our individual three hours in the afternoon and then another two hours of us playing back to back, is at Mixcloud here. 

Martin

• John Grant: Day Is Done
• Kevin Morby: Bittersweet
• Horace Andy backed by The Welders: Straight To Hell
• B:Dum B: Dum Sound: There Is No Question
• King Tubby: We Rule
• Om Unit + TM404: Praha
• Marshall Watson: High Desert
• Puerto Montt City Orchestra: Our Patagonian Friends (Balearic Ultras Brooking Bass Remix)
• The Rolling Stones: Rain Fall Down (Ashley Beedle's Heavy Disco Vocal Re- edit)
• Diskjokke: Panatup
• Flamingods: Dreams (On The Strip)
• Curses: This Is The Day

Adam

• Kate Bush: Nocturn Coyote Dub Edit
• Manic Street Preachers: If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next (David Holmes Remix)
• Peaking Lights: Beautiful Dub
• Verve: One Way To Go (10:40's So High It Hurts Edit)
• Julian Cope: They Were All On Hard Drugs
• The Charlatans: Opportunity 3
• Marshall Watson and Cole Odin: Just A Daydream Away (Space Flight Mix)
• Jazxing: Fala
• Matt Gunn: Lost In The Drohn (Rude Audio Remix)* 

Dan

• Say She She: Prism
• A Certain Ratio: Tombo In M3
• Bugatti and Musker: Fate Demo
• HF International: I Can't Go For That Disco Dub
• Donald: A Ver A Ver (Ric Piccolo Edit)
• Marcel King: Reach For Love
• Manolo: Amalfi Drive
• Alex Kassian: Strings Of Eden
• Fila Brazillia: A Zed And Two Ls
• Rude Audio and Dan Wainwright: Heroes (Merry Prankster Dub)

Martin

• Gates Of Light: Embrace The Night
• Bozart: The Dark The Light
• Black Bones: Keep Dancin'

Adam

• Cabaret Voltaire: Yashar (John Robie Remix)
• New Order: Everything's Gone Green
• Yargo: Marimba

Dan

• Sworn Virgins: RWA
• X- press 2: Muse
• Dolle Jolle: Balearic Incarnation (Todd Terje Extra Doll Mix)

Martin

• Depeche Mode: Enjoy The Silence (Rich Lane A&E Cotton Dub)
• Heavy Disco: Running Up That Hill (Heavy Disco Edit)
• Black Bones: B.E.E.F.

Adam 

• The Vendetta Suite: Purple Haze Yellow Sunrise (David Holmes Remix)
• Jo Sims: Bass- The Final Frontier (David Holmes Remix)
• Dirt Bogarde: Heavy Blotter

Dan

• Roberto Rodriguez: Mustat Varjot
• Round: Glass
• Bodika: Over Not Over

Martin

• The Twilight Sad: Videograms (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

For an idea of what ALFOS was like last Saturday night, this six hour set of Sean playing at Phonox, Brixton, came online this week, the first Stream From The Booth in a series from Phonox. Sean is in imperious form, a slowly, insistently building set that is impossible not to want to move to, utterly compelling dancefloor action. Sean says that ALFOS is about 'charting journeys that pay off gradually but powerfully... an antidote to our culture of instant gratification'. It's evident in this six hour mix and it was there too at The Lion last Saturday night- and then some. Worth giving up some time too and then enjoying time and time again. 

* The last track in my afternoon section was actually a different one, a Bedford Falls Players remix of Matt Gunn which I was sent a few weeks ago and have been playing loads, but it's currently unreleased so I've replaced it here with a different Matt Gunn track and remix which I had in my bag. My hour is here if you'd like it as a single download. 

Saturday Live

Tonight three fifths of the Flightpath estate DJ team- me, Martin and Dan- are back at Todmorden's Golden Lion (Baz and Mark are at Glastonbury). Sean Johnston is headlining tonight, the A Love From Outer Space travelling discotheque returning to one of its spiritual homes, the Golden Lion. We have been asked to play some records this afternoon/ evening between three and eight. When we DJed there to support David Holmes last October and at the Andrew Weatherall birthday celebrations at the end of April, we were somewhat nervous. AW60, two months ago, went really well and we're a bit more relaxed about this one. So, watch us mess it up today. 

Back in 2010 Andrew and Sean hatched a plan to start a club night that would be 'an oasis of slow in a world of increasing velocity', tracks never exceeding 121 BPM and to be held in small, intimate venues. The first was in a basement at The Drop in Stoke Newington. ALFOS then travelled round the country popping up in Glasgow, Belfast, Manchester, various London venues, a few other places besides and in Todmorden. Since Andrew's death in February 2020 Sean has flown the ALFOS flag solo. This is a mix by Sean that was given away as a free CD to first few punters through the door at ALFOS in Stoke Newington back in 2010, an hour and twelve minutes of cosmic chug that opens with a voice saying, 'sure you want to trip into the future...'

Brother Johnston's Outer Space Consultation

In 2020 Sean put this mix together, three hours to celebrate ten years of ALFOS. If that's not enough, here's one from 2013 at Islington Mill, Salford, five and a half hours of DJ excellence recorded live.