Dance News

What better way to get the ball rolling than with a dose of scandal and Prince worthy 'Controversy'? For once the debate over WHICH Trance DJ would most likely win 'DJ Mag's Top 100 DJ Poll for a sixth year running did not take precedence. Instead the days leading up to the announcement saw a number of DJs, but most prominently Christopher Lawrence and DJ Dan (both of whom share the same marketing manager) disqualified after their chances were unfairly boosted by cyber-vote rigging. As 'DJ Mag' publisher James Robertson explained, "This year, I made a decision to investigate votes where the same IP address appeared over 50 times for the same person. The chances of the same person getting voted for by 50 different computers each having been allocated the same IP address within a week would be billions to one." Both Lawrence and DJ Dan claimed no knowledge of the vote-rigging, a view supported by 'DJ Mag' who issued the following statement: "We fully accept their explanations that they, personally, had no involvement in any cheating." Oh, and in case you're interested in the actual DJ Poll result, the Top five for 2007 are: 1. Armin Van Buuren, 2. Ti‘sto, 3. John Digweed, 4. Paul Van Dyk and 5. Sasha. Dirty South scraped in at 98 which, if memory serves, makes them the first Australians in the Top 100 since Anthony Pappa back when progressive house ruled the dance floors.

It's been an exciting and somewhat frenzied fortnight regarding confirmation of DJs and dance acts soon to hit our shores. The 'Swedish House Mafia' don, Axwell will be playing in Adelaide at HQ's Australia Day celebrations on Sat 26 Jan. Those who prefer the more soulful side of house will be well served by Jay-J, considered to be one of the leading exponents of the 'San Francisco sound'. You can catch him on Sat 1 Dec at Electric Circus. However, if jacking Chicago House is your micro-genre of choice, Stacy Kidd will be playing at Marble Bar on Sat 24 Nov.

Amazingly, legendary DJ, producer and remixer, Andrew Weatherall, has never toured Australia before. Seize the day on Fri 18 Jan at Rocket Bar.

As mentioned earlier, Paul van Dyk came in at 4th on the 2007 DJ Mag Top 100 DJ Poll after spending 2006 at #1. Having partially toured Australia earlier in October, he'll be in Adelaide as part of the 'In Between' Album Tour, Part 2 on Sun 9 Dec at the Shores Complex for 'Paul Van Dyk's Beach Party'. In the interest of accuracy, perhaps the promoters will change the current advertising which reads: "The World's #1 DJ presents..."

Quote of the Week: "Masturbation is always a challenge while seated on a plane so that kills an hour or so." Lee Burridge's response to an interview question asking how he passes the time on planes and in airports. 'Balance 012',a triple-disc mix by Lee Burridge, is out now.

Editor's note: we welcome back dance news writer Terry Goldfain, who returns to the pages of dB Magazine after a lengthy spell, taking over the chair from Julian Cram. Send all your news, gossip and innuendo to gold@chariot.net.au

Terry Goldfain