IDM Mailing Archive

2000-07-07 03:42Wendy Ksorry irene - kelley - i find myself up in the middle of the night & have to reply with tw

From:: Wendy K <wendy@ninjatune.net>
To:: <substar@iafrica.com>
Cc:: <khackett@aba.iupui.edu>, <idm@hyperreal.org>
Date:: Fri, 7 Jul 2000 04:42:54 +0100
Subject:: [idm] world of wankers - bedtime for bonzos

sorry irene - kelley - i find myself up in the middle of the night & have to reply with two stories of musical racism & prejudice. sadly sadly yes, i've endured this kind of scenario in clubs in both san francisco and england. 2 small stories -- somehow i ended up playing commercial music in a couple of big venues in san fran on friday and saturday night circa 85/86 - mainly cuz i had a radio show on kpoo and called myself dangergirl & was willing to dress like madonna or some similar bimboette in the mid-80's. (i also helped run a pretty cool art club called club nine on thursday nights booking performance artists and groups like the beat nigs and karen finley- but thats another story) Story No. 1 One night as 2000 people are going nuts to grandmaster flashs' white lines, the coke snorting white owner of the club (the crowd for san fran that i attracted was always the best mix of asian, black, chicanos/hispanics and white, because i played a mix to appeal to everyone) comes into the dj booth & says, 'please dont play that music, we dont want THOSE people in here' (meaning brothers of course), and then in the same breathe asked if i could play some 'big chill' music. Now 15 years later, big chill means something completely different - ie ambient music - but I had to call up my dj pool director the next day and say, what the hell is big chill music? Pool director said, go out and buy the soundtrack to the movie and mix in a few old Motown records!!! Now to me, this was fucking absurd - don't play rap music, play some other black music, cause it was in a film popular with white folks. Go figure!! (My day job was a civil rights investigator and I was furious) I then had an argument with the owner, because he'd hired an Asian DJ For Sat nite who was only playing hi - energy-Euro disco screaming pap & pitching Madonna up to plus 8. I asked him why he didnt hassle the other dj about THAT because surely the crowd would then become Asian and hispanic - people who they really didnt want coming in. In the end Saturday night crowd turned as I predicted and there were all kinds of gang related shooting incidents at the venue (City Lights, then renamed City Nights) - it was the 80's version of West Side Story with Hispanic/Chinese gang wars!!! I was trying to get a progressive rock dj friend of mine a gig there (someone who played kraftwerk, depeche mode, killing joke, new order, that sorta stuff).. Ps - six months later, I was outta there; coke heads running straight clubs in San Francisco in the mid-late 80's was a nightmare.... Story No. 2 I've now moved to England with my 15,000 records and with great reluctance, my partner (now ex) and I are djing for a friend of his in an out of the way seaside place called Skegness. I am now playing only what I want how I want it in a small side bar room I called the ambient love lounge - while big name house dj's of the time (farley/heller, oakenfold, etc) are in the other room. I am playing a space time continuum record at the wrong speed and "our friend" the club runner comes in saying - i;ve got that record - you cant play it at that speed - that's wrong.....and why dont you put on something with a bit of vocal, you know,,,bit of massive attack or something..." HUH? What? Some wank box whose paying me £100 a night to play for 6 hours is telling me what and how to play, and at what speed while he's paying big names £500 an hour? Excuse ME..Life IS too short (and I dont mean the rapper, either!) Moral - where do i play records now? In my lounge to an audience of one! my records only sing to me now the way I want them to.... however, I'm still available for weddings, barmitzvahs, and the odd social exchange. w^:^) Ah, I see the suns coming up, time for a wee nap.... http://www.ninjatune.net coldcut on da radio mon nite 12am-2am gmt http://www.bbc.co.uk/londonlive http://www.worldtimezone.com zentertainment: wed nite 9pm - 1am gmt http://www.piratetv.net

2000-07-07 04:52Kelley HackettSweet dreams Wendy K and in the morning you will have a juciy message, oooooopppp!, sorry

From:: Kelley Hackett <khackett@aba.iupui.edu>
To:: 'wendy@ninjatune.net' <wendy@ninjatune.net>
Cc:: 'idm@hyperreal.org' <idm@hyperreal.org>
Date:: Thu, 6 Jul 2000 23:52:01 -0500
Subject:: [idm] RE: world of wankers - bedtime for bonzos

Sweet dreams Wendy K and in the morning you will have a juciy message, oooooopppp!, sorry superiors.......I'm heading off list! -----Original Message----- From: Wendy K To: substar@iafrica.com Cc: khackett@aba.iupui.edu; idm@hyperreal.org Sent: 7/6/00 10:42 PM Subject: world of wankers - bedtime for bonzos sorry irene - kelley - i find myself up in the middle of the night & have to reply with two stories of musical racism & prejudice. sadly sadly yes, i've endured this kind of scenario in clubs in both san francisco and england. 2 small stories -- somehow i ended up playing commercial music in a couple of big venues in san fran on friday and saturday night circa 85/86 - mainly cuz i had a radio show on kpoo and called myself dangergirl & was willing to dress like madonna or some similar bimboette in the mid-80's. (i also helped run a pretty cool art club called club nine on thursday nights booking performance artists and groups like the beat nigs and karen finley- but thats another story) Story No. 1 One night as 2000 people are going nuts to grandmaster flashs' white lines, the coke snorting white owner of the club (the crowd for san fran that i attracted was always the best mix of asian, black, chicanos/hispanics and white, because i played a mix to appeal to everyone) comes into the dj booth & says, 'please dont play that music, we dont want THOSE people in here' (meaning brothers of course), and then in the same breathe asked if i could play some 'big chill' music. Now 15 years later, big chill means something completely different - ie ambient music - but I had to call up my dj pool director the next day and say, what the hell is big chill music? Pool director said, go out and buy the soundtrack to the movie and mix in a few old Motown records!!! Now to me, this was fucking absurd - don't play rap music, play some other black music, cause it was in a film popular with white folks. Go figure!! (My day job was a civil rights investigator and I was furious) I then had an argument with the owner, because he'd hired an Asian DJ For Sat nite who was only playing hi - energy-Euro disco screaming pap & pitching Madonna up to plus 8. I asked him why he didnt hassle the other dj about THAT because surely the crowd would then become Asian and hispanic - people who they really didnt want coming in. In the end Saturday night crowd turned as I predicted and there were all kinds of gang related shooting incidents at the venue (City Lights, then renamed City Nights) - it was the 80's version of West Side Story with Hispanic/Chinese gang wars!!! I was trying to get a progressive rock dj friend of mine a gig there (someone who played kraftwerk, depeche mode, killing joke, new order, that sorta stuff).. Ps - six months later, I was outta there; coke heads running straight clubs in San Francisco in the mid-late 80's was a nightmare.... Story No. 2 I've now moved to England with my 15,000 records and with great reluctance, my partner (now ex) and I are djing for a friend of his in an out of the way seaside place called Skegness. I am now playing only what I want how I want it in a small side bar room I called the ambient love lounge - while big name house dj's of the time (farley/heller, oakenfold, etc) are in the other room. I am playing a space time continuum record at the wrong speed and "our friend" the club runner comes in saying - i;ve got that record - you cant play it at that speed - that's wrong.....and why dont you put on something with a bit of vocal, you know,,,bit of massive attack or something..." HUH? What? Some wank box whose paying me £100 a night to play for 6 hours is telling me what and how to play, and at what speed while he's paying big names £500 an hour? Excuse ME..Life IS too short (and I dont mean the rapper, either!) Moral - where do i play records now? In my lounge to an audience of one! my records only sing to me now the way I want them to.... however, I'm still available for weddings, barmitzvahs, and the odd social exchange. w^:^) Ah, I see the suns coming up, time for a wee nap.... http://www.ninjatune.net coldcut on da radio mon nite 12am-2am gmt http://www.bbc.co.uk/londonlive http://www.worldtimezone.com zentertainment: wed nite 9pm - 1am gmt http://www.piratetv.net --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org

[idm] RE: world of wankers - bedtime for bonzos