Tweet
the arrogance of paul oakenfold...
taken from this thread http://www.spins.us/forum/viewtopic.php?t=44414
in reference to a recent paul oakenfold show last saturday in charlotte, nc
or rather "the arrogance of paul oakenfold + his manager" 
in reference to a recent paul oakenfold show last saturday in charlotte, nc
If you care whatsoever about supporting our local DJs and community, you will hopefully read this long diatribe on some of the seamy events that occured this past Saturday night. If I can ask one request from you readers, it would be to read the entirety of my post so as to fully understand the situation and why many people are extremely upset right now.
------------------------------------------------------------
To be frank, this won't be much of a review, but moreso a rant. There's a lot that needs to be explained, and I will do my best to tell the facts as I saw them, since I was personally there to witness the entire clusterfuck that occured Saturday night, which most people don't even know occured.
Where to begin? The Oakenfold party was announced on Spins Feb. 15th, showing Oakenfold plus several locals manning up the main room in Scorpios. George Mack and TK were to close the main room for Oakenfold, and personally knowing both of them, they were floored to have such a huge opportunity given to them. However, not only did they not get to spin, but it was handled in such a malfeasant and disrespectful manner that it left me, and many others that saw or found out what happened absolutely infuriated.
Oakenfolds timeslot was suppose to end at 4am (this is including daylight savings time), as per the posted time slots leaving an hour for the closing DJs. George Mack and TK brought up their records and equipment just before 4am, ready to take over the decks when Oakenfold was to finish. A little past 4am rolls around, and Oakenfold is still spinning, which is pretty commonplace for a DJ to go past their posted time slot a bit. However, what happened next just absolutely blows my mind. Oakenfolds manager storms up into the DJ booth and yells for EVERYONE to get out of the booth immediately. No one was even standing close to Oakenfold at all, anyone up there was on the far left side of the booth which isn't close to the DJ. George Mack explains to the manager that he and TK are up there because they're the DJs closing for Oakenfold, and they're just waiting for Oakenfold to finish. Oakenfolds manager then yells:
"Get the FUCK out! This is OUR fucking club tonight!"
Immediately after yelling that, he begins to forcefully push them out of the DJ Booth, making TK almost trip down the stairs while holding flowers, demos, and her record bag, pushing George Mack, his girlfriend, and even the person operating the laser show who has to be there to operate the laser out of the booth. The manager continues yelling and physically pushing us into the crowd (including myself) AFTER we had already left the DJ booth to the point where he kept shoving us even though there were people physically blocking us and we couldn't even move forward. Oakenfold goes on to play until 4:40 or so, with Liquid Todd getting on after Oakenfold as a complete slap in the face to the closing DJs who not only had most of their time slot taken up, but even when Oakenfold DID get off, Liquid Todd takes up the remaining portion of the timeslot including playing an additional 20 minutes or so past when the club should have closed. The sheer amount of disrespect and egotism shown toward these local DJs is unlike anything I've ever seen.
Both George and TK spent a LOT of time, money, and effort preparing not only for their DJ set, but also in making the party become as successful as it was. Both had MANY friends and fans (including myself) come from Charlotte, as well as out of town paying for hotel rooms, gas, and expensive ticket prices NOT to see Oakenfold, but to see George and TK spin specifically. Aside from gathering a lot of people that they knew to come see them, George Mack himself was personally responsible for distributing around 5,000+ fliers in MULTIPLE cities using his own free time as well as gas money on many nights to spread the word for this specific party. Even Sugar Society, one of the promoters and also a good friend of George Mack, can attest to Georges commitment to getting the word out through fliers and multiple EDM internet message boards other than Spins. TK herself also spent a lot of what little time she has promoting the party to all of her friends, fans, and on the Internet. Anyone that has ever promoted before knows that it doesn't matter who you book if the word doesn't spread to the people, and George especially went above and beyond to do just that. It's impossible to get any hard statistics on how many people attended due to both George and TKs efforts but it is also naive to think that their efforts definitely did not sizable increase the promoters coffers by thousands of dollars. The fact of the matter is the Oakenfold party went beyond expectations, oversold completely, and people partially responsible for that level of success got completely fucked over losing an opportunity to play out to a crowd of 1100 people.
Aside from Oakenfolds crew, it's hard to know where to place blame, if anywhere. I know that Kevin Mitchell from Sugar Society had his hands tied and couldn't do anything about it especially since he wasn't the only one putting money into this party, and promised to make it up to George and TK. However, I'm not so sure the other promoter group involved, Third Eye, were ignorant to what Oakenfolds crew were planning to do even before the night began. The reason I say this is because when timeslots were posted here by Third Eye, George Mack + TK had no slot posted, and Oakenfolds slot had a "..." implying he could play longer. I'm not sure if Third Eye knew or not, and if not I apologize for the accusation, but if it's true that someone knew that Oakenfold/Todd was probably going to play until close, it sure as hell would have been nice to tell the closing DJs so they could at least tell all their friends that spent money to go see them that they probably weren't going to play.
Local DJs are not just worthless time fillers to play music whenever the "superstar" DJ or headliner isn't up on the decks. They should be given at least some ounce of respect, and not treated like pieces of SCHIT.COM at the whim of a "superstar" DJ who is arguably worse as a DJ technically than most of the locals there that night. If you're a promoter and you know that someone you've booked might end up playing until close, it's your responsibility to tell the DJs that may be affected ahead of time that that is the case, and not to wait until the night of to inform them of this after they've already spent countless hours promoting YOUR party and having all their friends already pay their money to get in, into your pockets.
That's all I have to say for now. I'm still completely appalled by the whole situation and I hope by bringing this to the communitys attention, or at least to those reading this thread, that people will remember this the next time Oakenfold comes to Charlotte, if ever. Realistically, there's not much that can be done at this point, but perhaps an apology is in order, and those that were affected by this will hopefully spread the word, voice their opinion, and boycott future Oakenfold shows along with their friends.
Thanks to those of you who took the time to read this whole post, and a BIG thank you to djgloboi (John) and Launchpad for showing community support and giving George and TK a timeslot at the Illusions afterparty so as to not completely waste a lot of peoples time and money after hearing about what happened.
------------------------------------------------------------
To be frank, this won't be much of a review, but moreso a rant. There's a lot that needs to be explained, and I will do my best to tell the facts as I saw them, since I was personally there to witness the entire clusterfuck that occured Saturday night, which most people don't even know occured.
Where to begin? The Oakenfold party was announced on Spins Feb. 15th, showing Oakenfold plus several locals manning up the main room in Scorpios. George Mack and TK were to close the main room for Oakenfold, and personally knowing both of them, they were floored to have such a huge opportunity given to them. However, not only did they not get to spin, but it was handled in such a malfeasant and disrespectful manner that it left me, and many others that saw or found out what happened absolutely infuriated.
Oakenfolds timeslot was suppose to end at 4am (this is including daylight savings time), as per the posted time slots leaving an hour for the closing DJs. George Mack and TK brought up their records and equipment just before 4am, ready to take over the decks when Oakenfold was to finish. A little past 4am rolls around, and Oakenfold is still spinning, which is pretty commonplace for a DJ to go past their posted time slot a bit. However, what happened next just absolutely blows my mind. Oakenfolds manager storms up into the DJ booth and yells for EVERYONE to get out of the booth immediately. No one was even standing close to Oakenfold at all, anyone up there was on the far left side of the booth which isn't close to the DJ. George Mack explains to the manager that he and TK are up there because they're the DJs closing for Oakenfold, and they're just waiting for Oakenfold to finish. Oakenfolds manager then yells:
"Get the FUCK out! This is OUR fucking club tonight!"
Immediately after yelling that, he begins to forcefully push them out of the DJ Booth, making TK almost trip down the stairs while holding flowers, demos, and her record bag, pushing George Mack, his girlfriend, and even the person operating the laser show who has to be there to operate the laser out of the booth. The manager continues yelling and physically pushing us into the crowd (including myself) AFTER we had already left the DJ booth to the point where he kept shoving us even though there were people physically blocking us and we couldn't even move forward. Oakenfold goes on to play until 4:40 or so, with Liquid Todd getting on after Oakenfold as a complete slap in the face to the closing DJs who not only had most of their time slot taken up, but even when Oakenfold DID get off, Liquid Todd takes up the remaining portion of the timeslot including playing an additional 20 minutes or so past when the club should have closed. The sheer amount of disrespect and egotism shown toward these local DJs is unlike anything I've ever seen.
Both George and TK spent a LOT of time, money, and effort preparing not only for their DJ set, but also in making the party become as successful as it was. Both had MANY friends and fans (including myself) come from Charlotte, as well as out of town paying for hotel rooms, gas, and expensive ticket prices NOT to see Oakenfold, but to see George and TK spin specifically. Aside from gathering a lot of people that they knew to come see them, George Mack himself was personally responsible for distributing around 5,000+ fliers in MULTIPLE cities using his own free time as well as gas money on many nights to spread the word for this specific party. Even Sugar Society, one of the promoters and also a good friend of George Mack, can attest to Georges commitment to getting the word out through fliers and multiple EDM internet message boards other than Spins. TK herself also spent a lot of what little time she has promoting the party to all of her friends, fans, and on the Internet. Anyone that has ever promoted before knows that it doesn't matter who you book if the word doesn't spread to the people, and George especially went above and beyond to do just that. It's impossible to get any hard statistics on how many people attended due to both George and TKs efforts but it is also naive to think that their efforts definitely did not sizable increase the promoters coffers by thousands of dollars. The fact of the matter is the Oakenfold party went beyond expectations, oversold completely, and people partially responsible for that level of success got completely fucked over losing an opportunity to play out to a crowd of 1100 people.
Aside from Oakenfolds crew, it's hard to know where to place blame, if anywhere. I know that Kevin Mitchell from Sugar Society had his hands tied and couldn't do anything about it especially since he wasn't the only one putting money into this party, and promised to make it up to George and TK. However, I'm not so sure the other promoter group involved, Third Eye, were ignorant to what Oakenfolds crew were planning to do even before the night began. The reason I say this is because when timeslots were posted here by Third Eye, George Mack + TK had no slot posted, and Oakenfolds slot had a "..." implying he could play longer. I'm not sure if Third Eye knew or not, and if not I apologize for the accusation, but if it's true that someone knew that Oakenfold/Todd was probably going to play until close, it sure as hell would have been nice to tell the closing DJs so they could at least tell all their friends that spent money to go see them that they probably weren't going to play.
Local DJs are not just worthless time fillers to play music whenever the "superstar" DJ or headliner isn't up on the decks. They should be given at least some ounce of respect, and not treated like pieces of SCHIT.COM at the whim of a "superstar" DJ who is arguably worse as a DJ technically than most of the locals there that night. If you're a promoter and you know that someone you've booked might end up playing until close, it's your responsibility to tell the DJs that may be affected ahead of time that that is the case, and not to wait until the night of to inform them of this after they've already spent countless hours promoting YOUR party and having all their friends already pay their money to get in, into your pockets.
That's all I have to say for now. I'm still completely appalled by the whole situation and I hope by bringing this to the communitys attention, or at least to those reading this thread, that people will remember this the next time Oakenfold comes to Charlotte, if ever. Realistically, there's not much that can be done at this point, but perhaps an apology is in order, and those that were affected by this will hopefully spread the word, voice their opinion, and boycott future Oakenfold shows along with their friends.
Thanks to those of you who took the time to read this whole post, and a BIG thank you to djgloboi (John) and Launchpad for showing community support and giving George and TK a timeslot at the Illusions afterparty so as to not completely waste a lot of peoples time and money after hearing about what happened.
Comment