So yeh,i spend alot of time sorting my set as i wanted it to be perfect,i always do,i think most artrists would say that they try n get there set as tight and nice sounding as possible....i got on my train,travelled for hours,got the the town in question,carried on sorting my set out at a mates house,left for the venue...
As soon as i got there i thought it was going to be a bit shit seeing as there was just a few crustys jumping around a couple of speakers,but then you shouldnt judge a book by its front cover,ive played bare gigs that havnt looked all that cracky on arrival,but its the vibe of the people there and the promotors clear love for the music that makes the night usually really wicked,but this was something else...
As i have said,i got there and knew what was what straight away,they were trying to recreate a free party in a shitty pub,really poor hard trance being played,about 4 people "stracking" it in front of the speakers,the odd mid fifty year old that had clearly done to much acid(and kept on doing it),djs that couldnt mix batter together and overall a really aggy vibe.
I still thought fuck it,gonna play my set,have a few beers and enjoy myself...it got to my set,i started to play,i was playing dubstep....to be fair i had been warned that it may not go down very well and i had considered doing a really dark neuro funk drum n bass set but i thought if i did that i wouldnt be standing by my convictions and my love for dubstep so i warily cracked on with my dubstep set...
After 4tunes and 15minutes this complete cock of a bloke comes up to me and says that i was gonna "have to wrap it up" i could not believe what i was hearing,i said to him that i was the only travelling dj(everyone else was from the town of the "party")that i had travelled for ages on a friday afternoon to get there and that i wasnt to impressed about having to be taken off,i asked him why and he told me that the landlady of the pub didnt like the music i was playing and wanted to shut up for the evening,he said i had ten minutes,i told him to do one and stopped the tune that was playing there and then,he just looked at me and went "niiicceee one mate" i left...but to make matters worse they then refused to pay my travel that had been agreed yonks in advance,i had spent all my cash gettin there(december is not the month of the year to be gettin fucked over by so called promotors)so there fore i was stranded...completely stranded and had no way of gettin back. Then when i was stood outside trying to argue it out with the promotors about the fact i wanted my travel and that i knew they had made the money on the door a crowd of all that can be described as "a band of pikey stnuc" started to gather round me and to be honest i felt a little intimidated and was expecting to get jumped if i didnt leave it,so i left....salt in the wound was that i had been told the landlady wanted to shut up shop,but as soon as i finished/got told to fuck off another hard trance dj jumped on the decks and the party resumed,when i put this to the promotor he said that he had to pay the landlady a load of cash to keep it open,call me a pesimist but i reckon that is a total load of bollox,they didnt like what i was playing and didnt have ther go-nads to tell me....
See there are obvious things here that im not happy about but to be honest for me the thing that got to me the most was that hey had refused to let me play my set,that was the really upsetting thing,i take what i do seriously and dubs that i had picked up from the likes of syanide,high rankin,flux pavillion and loads more didnt get the run out and the speaker test that i wanted to give em...
A message to all promotors,if your going to book someone,make sure that you like the music that they are playing,make sure you can cover expenses like you say you are going to and dont be such selfish cocks about it,the promotors job is to put the night on and get people there and just if one person doesnt like the music it doesnt mean that the whole room doesnt....
I hate to sound like such a bitch but this happened on friday night,its monday morning and im still red raw about the whole thing....i will NEVER play in that town again,no matter what im offered to play,there loss
I would also like the say a massive thanks to the two lads that came up to me after when i was clearly distressed and offered to pay for me to get home,i had never met them before in my life and even though i couldnt except the offer it was a lovely gesture and made a quite appaling night have a nice touch on it at the end...
bless
So yeh,all djs,beware of pocket lining promotors who are doing it for themselves and not for the music as they so loudly claim....
peace
