"Tuesday, 22nd August, 2000. Virgin Megastore, Oxford Street, London.

I heard Soulwax were making an instore appearance, so I decided to make my way down to the Virgin Megastore, seeing as I was in the area for a meeting that day anyway. Aptly enough, this instore gig was to be my 'virgin' Soulwax experience, as I had missed all their previous gigs because I was abroad, so I was pretty excited! I got there about 30 minutes before Soulwax were due to start, and the stage was just being prepared for them. There didn't seem to be any other Soulwax fans there yet, so I was right up at the front, against the barriers! A crowd slowly but surely started to form around me, and Soulwax appeared right on schedule, wearing their usual kitschy suits and with their usual sexy neon strip-light microphone stands. It was just like being at a real gig, apart from the lack of the big Soulwax sign made of CDs (which was replaced by a big Kerrang! sign)! And Soulwax certainly seemed to treat it like a real gig, as they played a totally rocking set and had the whole store moshing with them and shouting C-A-S-I-O! They obviously couldn't play a full setlist, but the set went as follows:

Much Against Everyone's Advice
Saturday
What Now?
Conversation Intercom
Cut Some Slack
Pop Life
My Cruel Joke
Too Many DJs

The highlights for me were the particularly rocking versions of My Cruel Joke and Too Many DJs, and the point where one of their roadies scampered onstage in the middle of a song to untangle some wires but tripped over and fell on their face; prompting David to point and laugh hysterically! Sadly I didn't capture that moment in any of my photos, but I got some decent pictures of the gig.

After the blinding set Soulwax disappeared off the stage and into a lift, as we were all told to head upstairs for the signing session, where the band all appeared a minute later in a new set of clothes and sat at a desk signing autographs for the queueing fans. After a ten minute wait I reached the band; asking them to sign all my singles. They seemed shocked that I had so many things for them to sign, and happy to see a real fan! They were all really friendly, and David and Stephen chatted to me for a couple of minutes and shook my hand; thanking me for being a fan and telling me I had good taste (haha!) and saying how much they love London and that they had just completed a remix of Muscle Museum by Muse and hoped it would be released sometime (which it later was, as a Muse B-side). After that I thanked them, took a couple more pictures, and then left - overjoyed at having seen such a great performance and at having met the band, and looking forward to seeing them again!"