via: judgejules.net
“Let me express my apologies to everyone who came along to my gig in Sunderland on Saturday 7th November. Only once before in my career (around 15 years ago) have circumstances forced me to stop djing mid-set and abandon the turntables, in protest at treatment received by a promoter or venue.
This happened (for the second time) in Sunderland on Sat 7th.
To set the scene, my dj performance contract with promoters is relatively short and non-demanding (by industry standards), running to a meagre two A4 pages.
It sets out a technical spec of three Pioneer CDJ1000 turntables, a Pioneer DJM800 mixer and monitor speakers. Drinks-wise, there are no rock’n’roll excesses. It requests a bottle of vodka and mixers, plus some water.
None of the above should present a problem for venues. Whilst the technical spec is crucial, the vast majority of venues have the Pioneer stuff mentioned in the contract anyway. However, not having the right equipment makes it very difficult to do my job properly.
As they always do, in the run-up to the event my management phoned the Sunderland promoters on at least four separate occasions to check that the correct equipment was in place. They were assured that everything was fine. However, as soon as I arrived the promoter took me to one side and told me that the Pioneer 800 mixer had ‘broken’. In its place was a vastly inferior model, and the sound quality in the venue was shocking as a result.
Unconvinced, I asked him to get me the ‘broken’ mixer, so I could try and fix it. I repeated the request between every record of my (short) set, to be told that it was ‘on its way over from another bar’. It never came.
Under the circumstances, I would have reluctantly carried on, and got my management to give the promoter a dressing down on Monday morning. However, about 5 tracks into my set, I found a hidden high quality mp3 recorder, secretly recording my set without permission.
This is strictly prohibited by the contract, as earlier in my career I had a big problem with promoters secretly recording my sets and selling them.
I can’t find a better way to explain things, other than saying that the promoter was totally taking the piss. I immediately stopped my set and left the club.
There no winners when one is forced to act like this. The club was busy and I was letting down everyone who’d paid to see me. In the absence of being able to explain my reasons I ended up looking like a jumped-up diva. But what was I supposed to do? If you were at the night in Sunderland please email me on julesjudgejules.net.”