DJ

Uffie Apologizes For Failed Bastille Day DJ Set in Shanghai, Promoter Claims She Was Drunk

Darren Ressler Leave a Comment

French singer Uffie has apologized over a failed DJ set in Shanghai that left fans angry and promoters crying foul. The 24-year-old electro artist with a party girl reputation was booked to spin at Mao Livehouse, but the set turned out to be a flop. Talking to SmartShanghai, the party’s promoters, Four Leaves Productions, claim Uffie “got absolutely intoxicated and spent the whole time on stage just walking around doing nothing. We couldn’t do anything about it.” Angry fans, who paid 300rmb (about US $47), immediately took to Uffie’s Facebook to comment about their dissatisfaction with the performance. “By far the worst show I have ever seen and paid for,” wrote one fan on Uffie’s Facebook wall. “All you did was jump around like a drunk bitch having someone else spin records. If you don’t give a fuck then don’t take people’s money and run.”

Uffie’s team deleted the negative comments (read a few of them below via Shanghaist), with the singer later posting an apology and explanation about what transpired at the club.

“For my audience who was disappointed by the performance at Mao Livehouse, let me sincerely apologize and explain: I am a singer and not a DJ, so when I was booked for a DJ set at the Mao Livehouse in Shanghai, it was clear that I was bringing along another DJ to play songs I love (and obviously not to sing as it was a DJ set booking). Its really unfortunate the public paid a high fee expecting a live and not a 3 DJs line up party. The audience should have been clearly informed on the flyers and promo that it was a DJ set with a DJ partner and not a LIVE. Again very sorry for this incident…”

Four Leaves Productions say otherwise about what went down: “It said in her contract that she would DJ but in fact she came with a support DJ and just handed the DJ CDs to play. When we realized she wasn’t going to be DJing herself, we thought she was going to sing like she always does, with the DJ supporting her in the background. But she refused to sing.”

While some fans accepted her falling on the sword (read Uffie’s tweets below; she seemed genuinely upset about the gig), some didn’t. One commented: “As you are not a DJ, why did you accept an offer to do a DJ set ? I might offer my services to a local hospital tomorrow. I’m not a doctor but fuck it, the money is good.”

The event’s promoters say they’re going to have a stern word with Uffie’s booking agent in the hopes of receiving compensation.

“Now we are trying to put together as much evidence as we can to send to the agent and try to get something back. The only thing we can do is to apologize to everybody in Shanghai.”


via Shanghaist

Top image via Facebook

DJ Culture Infiltrates North Korea

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DJ culture has infiltrated The Hermit Nation. Yes, North Korea, a totalitarian state where a ruthless gang of thugs politicians and military figures syestmatically starves and imprisons its people, denying them of the most basic human rights, will get its first DJ event, Shake Your Mass Games!, on August 13.

According to City Weekend, the idea came about earlier this year when North Korea-based musician David Thomas Broughton came to play some shows in China. Shanghai’s DJ BO, a.k.a Brian Offenther, helped him with local promotion and says what he wanted in return was a chance to DJ in the DPRK. He floated the idea to friend Simon Cockerell of Koryo Tours and after a few months of planning they can now say it’s definitely going to happen.

DJ BO says he initially wanted the party to take place at a pool, but party rules limit such gatherings to events playing only North Korean music. Instead, he’s bringing his party to a karaoke bar that holds around 100 people.

BO plans to spin classic rock and “fun tunes to get people dancing,” adding “I heard the Kim family loves Eric Clapton, so I promise to play something for them.”

No word yet if dictator Kim Jong-un will make an appearance with his new squeeze, Hyon Song-wol, a married pop star who his late father, Kim Jun-Il, prevented him from seeing 10 years ago. For the unaware, Ms Hyon has stormed the North Korean charts in recent years with songs like “I Love Pyongyang,” “Footsteps of Soldiers,” “Excellent Horse-like Lady” and “We are Troops of the Party.”

DJs React to Paris Hilton’s DJ Debut on Twitter

Darren Ressler 4 Comments

They say bad things come in threes. In the world of dance music, Pendulum and Swedish House Mafia called it a day, and socialite Paris Hilton made her debut this past weekend at a party in Brazil. If you’ve seen the video from her performance (see clip below), then you’ll know that it isn’t a stretch to say it was an epic fail on many levels. While some gossip sites have declared Hilton’s set a success, it hasn’t gone down well with DJs and many took to Twitter yesterday to express their disdain. Florida breaks champion DJ Icey called her inroads into dance culture “a mockery” while trance jock Christopher Lawrence wondered, “Is this what EDM has become? Perhaps the best comment we came across was from a fan on YouTube who wrote, “I wasn’t even there and I want my money back.” Have a look below at what a few DJs had to say about Hilton’s maiden DJ voyage. Oh, and if you were wondering what Afrojack thought of his ex’s set, well, his lips were sealed.













Editorial: Deadmau5 Ate Rolling Stone’s Cheese

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With a small coterie of electronic music artists breaking through into the mainstream in the past two years, it’s interesting to observe how the media is scrambling to wrap their heads around and capitalize on the gargantuan global fan base of a few select acts. Try as they might, often times their coverage isn’t on target. In March, for example, Forbes launched a DJ column about the best DJs in the world written by an expert in “workplace trends and culture shifts.” The problem is that some of the DJs interviewed weren’t exactly the best in the world, and the questions were, well, lame.

Now Rolling Stone bellies up to the trough with their Dance Madness! (their exclamation mark, not ours) issue, featuring Joel “deadmau5” Zimmerman on the cover and interviews with Skrillex and Swedish House Mafia. In a genre where big personalities and bold opinions are rare among its artists, putting Zimmerman, a live wire who is infamous for his online rants about pop collaborations and his distaste for Ultra Music Festival, on the cover was a no-brainer for RS‘s editors.

But at what cost did Zimmerman pay for this career milestone?

Today we’re reading about how Zimmerman attacked Madonna (again) in the cover story over the silly drug innuendos she made at Ultra Music Festival.

Zimmerman told RS: “You want to be ‘hip’ and ‘cool’ and ‘funky grandma.’ Fine. It’s not my place to say you’re irrelevant. [But] if you’re gonna come into my world, at least do it with a little more dignity. I understand she has millions more fans, and is way more successful than I’ll ever be. But it’s like talking about slavery at a [bleeping] blues concert. It’s inappropriate.”

David Guetta‘s DJ sets were also in Zimmerman’s crosshairs in the article. “David Guetta has two iPods and a mixer and he just plays tracks,” Zimmerman said in the article. “Like, ‘Here’s one with Akon, check it out!’”

Zimmerman even scrutinized Skrillex’s mixing abilities: “Even Skrillex isn’t doing anything too technical. He has a laptop and a MIDI recorder, and he’s just playing his [bleep].”

“There’s… button-pushers getting paid half a million [per show],” Zimmerman said. “And not to say I’m not a button-pusher. I’m just pushing a lot more buttons.”

For someone who uses his blog to present himself as a pragmatist on the side of what’s right, was it really necessary for Zimmerman to be negative, criticize his peers and an aging pop star whose influence will go on forever? Didn’t he see that he was put on the cover because of his penchant for spewing venom, which RS seems to gleefully relish. Ask yourself why Swedish House Mafia, an equally popular global phenomenon, weren’t on the magazine’s cover. Well, could you imagine Axwell taking another DJ to task in an interview? If you know anything about Axwell, you’ll know that’s a rhetorical question.

As someone who is intimate with dance culture, Joel Zimmerman must know the ’90s rave term PLUR (Peace Love Unity Respect). He ought to practice it more often.