This is why I need a crew!

Last weekend was the Soulbeach festival in Aruba and we got treated to some great performances by Estelle, Jamie Foxx, Common, Robin Thicke, Etana and Wayne Bradie. I am not much a soul/R&B fan, but I still had a lovely time on the beach.

Estelle was great. She has an amazing voice and is such a lovely and funny London girl! I was chatting with her backstage and was just so gutted that I had no camera team with me, we could have done such a nice interview! All I had was my sister's Blackberry, so I decided to- at least- take our picture. Funny though, I had no idea how to do that. Estelle had to set it up for me. I am so useless with all forms of technology. See? That's why I need a crew!

I also didn't realize until later that you can make voice-recordings on a Blackberry. I got a quick ident from Robin Thicke and a few lovely rants from Common, but I messed them up too! Only the Robin Thicke one got recorded. See? I told you. I'm crap with technology/buttons, etc.

By the way, Robin Thicke was brilliant too. Incredible voice, only it's a bit weird to see him bump and grind and fake orgasms on stage, without making fun of himself in some shape or form. If he was having a laugh with it, he'd be able to get away with it (ala Robbie Williams), but now it just looked rediculous. Shame!

Ape Magazine & RetoMatic gig

For those of you in Aruba...my band RetroMatic are back on stage at Chaos, this Saturday the 4th of April at 11.00 pm. Please, come out and support! It's gonna be fun.

And for those of you who can read Dutch, check out my recent interview with Ape Magazine. Also available for free at the Free Record Shop & at clubs, gig and festivals in Holland: www.apemagazine.nl (April issue, pages 30-31)

Our next RetroMatic performance

We will be back onstage at Chaos Cafe in Aruba this coming Saturday, the 14th of March, from about 11.30 pm.

BTW...now that we're adding more and more current tracks ('So what?' from Pink, 'I kissed a girl' from Katie Perry, etc.) to our set, our name is making less sense all the time. We are becoming less 'Retro' than we had first intended. Maybe now is the time to change our name?

Back off to the Cool FM studio

Good morning! I'm just getting ready to go to the Cool FM studio again to record my radio show 'The Weekend Express'. I'll be live on air between 10-12 am Aruban time. Tune in if you want or join the chat here on the blog. I'd love to hear from you. Tell me what you think of the videos I've posted in the last few days, share your thoughts on recent pop news or just say 'Hi'.

Love, Simone

Just found a picture of our first RetroMatic performance

BTW, the radioshow today was great fun. I'm starting to get the hang of it and am enjoying it tremendously. Thanks for the online messages, everyone. Special thanks to Yianni from Greece for the kind words. And keep on dancing y'all.

Cool FM

Starting the first of May I will be joining Aruba’s number 1 radio station, called Cool FM.

Of course, this is a small island, so if you compare it to Europe or America, then you'd have to conclude that radio production is still in its infancy in Aruba. But Cool FM is by far the best station the island has. And they are very involved when it comes to live events. These guys are everywhere!

I’ve never done radio before, so it’s actually a nice challenge for me. I’ll be doing a show every Saturday morning from 10 to 12, called the Weekend Express. It will be a ‘standard’ radio show, with some tracks from the Dutch, English and American Charts, the Caribbean & Latin charts, some classic tracks, some dance tunes, some mash-ups…you get the drift.

The thing that’s rather worrying is that I am meant to do the show all by myself & I get very intimidated when I see lots of buttons, computer programs, etc. I just haven’t got a clue how to work these things. Also, I am starting so soon (May the 3rd) that I have no idents yet, no jingles, nothing. Still, I know how to introduce music and as long as the songs are good, the show should be okay. Right?

On the first of May the radio station is hosting a big event here on the island. I’ll be presenting part of the day and also my new cover band (RetroMatic) gets launched on that day. We have never been on a stage yet together & just two weeks ago we got a new drummer. And now our first performance will be in front of 10.000 to 20.000 people, plus be broadcast live on air. How crazy is that? We always envisioned playing our first gig in a smoky old bar somewhere, not in front of such a large audience! Still, we’re pretty confident that it will work out alright. And anyway, it’s just some covers we’re playing.

Wish me luck!