Robbie (Garooba) Macmillan

Where do you start eh? my life Has been varied and exciting, see the trouble is I was born at a very early age!!!! here goes ...I,ve been into the House scene for about 20 years and i,ve always collected tunes so one day I decided I wanted to be the other side of the decks. Luckily my cousin had a successful pub and said I could play some tunes one night. So there I was ,I borrowed a mixer off of one of my mates and I,d never even used one before and obviously crashed every mix but hey I had the tunes!!!! I was hooked!! I linked up with a mate Dj Hughes who was already established and with his help I started to be able to string a mix together. Every Friday I,d go to the local record shop called soul sense (a place sadly missed ) and get the latest tunes and play them on the sat night at our night called The summer time vibe. I was gaining confidence all the time and the night became quite successful but I could feel my music was going in a different direction to that of the night and decided to call it a day with that project. I was still a mere novice in the scene and tried to get plays out, but it was tighter than a camels arse in a sand storm to crack so I sat down with a couple of mates and suggested we start our own night and Garooba was born. The name derived by letters of each of us and it stuck. So the Speed the plough was the venue deep in the Bedfordshire country side. As with all new nights it started slowly but every one that came left with a smile on their faces and next time they brought a friend and so on and so on. We created a real friendly atmosphere and it showed and any money we made we ploughed it back into the system. We ended up with a Cult following and started getting rave reviews in Mixmag (it was good those days ;o) ),Dj, Uk club guide as well as local tabloids. Suddenly I was being asked to play at different venues here and abroad which i did as a solo performer,but with the crew we stuck to our guns and refused to get sucked into main stream and we carried on at the same venue for some 5 years. Obviously house music was big time by then and the big boys were poppin up everywhere and sadly it noticed on our night .So we then decided to move on to TRAXX nightclub,Will the owner took a gamble on our night but it paid off !We had a good turn out for quite a while but again the big fish got the pie. We were approached by some of the big nights but I knew they just wanted the crowd. It just wasn,t us and still to this day I,d rather play to quality rather than quantity.Don,t get me wrong If I,m playin a festival the crowd roaring cannot be beaten.We all sort of drifted apart then because house music was everywhere by then.I kept the name and it still pops up now and again and I still feel proud when the name Garooba pops up and people say "yeah I,ve been to one of those nights". And people Fondly now call me Robbie Garooba. I started playing on the London circuit and that,s how I met my gorgeous wife Gina ( The Chunnel club,see I remember hun x) and gained a son called chay. I started to get a bit disillusioned with the music for a while and only played a few times. Then our little man Connor came along and he blew my mind and still does!! When he got a bit older the feeling for performing came back and so I put my name out a bit and got plays up and down the country from Scotland to Brighton.I am also linked with WWW.Applythebreaks.com if you fancy a look.I can,t really Define my style in music its whatever takes my mood at the time,anything from house to breaks and I always take a trip when i play ambient..I am also part of the Happy valley crew and we run a charity festival called The East end valley festival which is now in its 3rd year and growing (another Garooba perhaps?).Please give the website a visit WWW.Eastendvalleyfestival.co.uk and I play under the name the funky bhudaz,We raised a massive 15k this year for our chosen charities & a Massive thanks to everyone that helped us make it possible(you know who you are)..I,ve also Travelled a lot from spain, majorca,ibiza and spent 2 years travelling The Greek islands,Ios being the best island and vibe i have ever witnessed and been part of,Long time ago now but the memories are still in my Heart,As for now, life moves on at an incredible rate so who knows whats next. Here,s to everyone being successful in your chosen walks of life. nice one for droppin by.... Peace,love & unity to all my friends near & far