When I lived in London, I was a member of The South London Swimming Club at The Tooting Bec lido, where I swam regularly – but not quite all year round!
2006 was the centenary year of this fantastic, iconic olympic-sized pool. I was on the events committee and helped organise the varied film programme over that late July weekend. I also had the privilege to DJ on the Saturday night.
I remember playing an eclectic mix of music based around the summer, weather, water and other elements. Two tracks I remember playing were ELO’s Mr Blue Sky and Lee Perry’s Cold Weather.
I was later invited to provide music for the UK Cold Water Swimming Championships, which first began in 2006. Two years later, I did the same as South London Swimming Club hosted the World Winter Swimming Championships – the first time they’d been held outside Finland. The Finns love their cold water swimming and turned up in numbers. I also DJ’d at an evening event up in town at the culmination of the championships. The place was packed and Scandinavian-heavy. The record that blew the roof off that night was Abba’s Dancing Queen!