After ten months of silence about the arrest and conviction of his BBC Radio One radio show partner Grooverider, Fabio (pictured) broke his silence and commented on Saturday night’s show about his friend’s pardon and release from a Dubai prison. Fabio sounded elated and was relieved that Grooverider was back home in England
“My great friend of many, many years…is back,” Fabio said. “I spoke to him a couple of times, and he sounds fine. He’s going to take a little time off, sit down, get some tunes and get everything back together, see his friends and family. The scene hasn’t been quite the same without the man. The godfather is back in town!”
Free at last, free at last, thank god all mighty, free at last! English Drum ‘n’ bass DJ Grooverider (Raymond Bingham) has been pardoned by the Dubai Royal Family. He was released from prison on Thursday after serving ten months of a four year sentence for possessing 2.16 grams of cannabis and pornographic material. Grooverider was arrested at Dubai airport last November, and although he claimed he was unaware of the contraband found in his bag and the country’s no-tolerance policiies, the DJ was convicted and imprisoned. According to the BBC, the DJ, who helmed a popular weekly show on Radio One with Fabio, has already flown home to spend time with his family and friends. Grooverider’s release comes during Ramadan, a holy time in September when Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed, traditionally pardons foreigners caught with small amounts of narcotics.
It’s perfectly acceptable for an electronic music artist to remain anonymous. Iconic Detroit techno act Underground Resistance and Parisian house masters Daft Punk are never seen without their masks and tracks crafted by producers (some well known, some not) under the guise of an alias regularly devastate dance floors simply because they’re good, not because of who made it. When dubstep producer Burial made his debut in 2005 with his South London Boroughs EP, he opted not to show his face or talk to the press. While many were curious about his identity, few lost sleep about it since his subsequent productions were so incredibly good.
While one-named, angst-ridden, renegade folk artist Jandek has never revealed his identity over the span of 50 albums, it seems Burial’s nomination last week for a coveted Mercury Music Prize inspired Gordon Smart, a writer for UK tabloid The Sun, to embark on a self-appointed mission to discover the identity of the man he calls “the Banksy of music.”
Smart urged readers to help him “dig up the real Burial” and it was obvious that some people just messed with his head. “A reader texted me this curious puzzle: ‘Burial is not Jesus but was born of Mary. The riddle takes you to Germany where no is the Kode.’”
Burial succumbed to the pressure and revealed his identity last night on his MySpace blog. “my names will bevan, im from south london, im keeping my head down and just going to finish my next album, theres going to be a 12″ maybe in the next few weeks too with 4 tunes. hope u like it, i’ll try put a tune up later.” He added: “im a lowkey person and i just want to make some tunes, nothing else.”
Although the cat was already out of the bag, Smart, who apparently didn’t check Burial’s MySpace page, devoted another column today wondering about the producer’s identity. Perhaps justice was served when The Guardian gloated that Burial’s identity had already been revealed in an article their paper ran about the Elliot School back in February. Does The Sun not shine on Google?
Lily Allen has reportedly broken up again with The Chemical Brothers’ Ed Simons. Allen announced the couple’s split on her Facebook page. Allen parted ways with Simons in January after she miscarried the couple’s baby. At Glastonbury in June (where she learned her grandmother had died), the couple seemed to have reconciled and offered hints of the reunion on their Facebook pages last month. (On July 7, Lily changed her status to “in a relationship with Ed Simons.”)
However, Allen has reverted back to her single status, after updating her profile. On Friday, an upset Lily posted that she was “wasting away.”
