Briggsy

The problem these days is that some of the kids take after their parents. The parents are 'rough around the edges' themselves - so the kids grow up the same

I can't take Boris Johnson seriously! Especially with that hair :eek:

I agree - her speech yesterday really was an embarrassment. Her other comments today were even more of an embarrassment. Ed Milliband wins quote of the week though with "we need to send the Police in hard". Yeah, nice one brains! I'm sure nobody thought of that one!

The riots that have taken place over the past few days are appalling and nothing to do with any government - past or present. It started off as a protest against the Police in Tottenham on Saturday, and since then, other 'copycat' riots have taken place simply with the intention of looting shops and causing trouble. This country has never experienced anything like this before (riots yes, but not in multiple places all at the same time) and I don't think anyone could have been prepared for it - Police, the government, the public, etc. Police have been under criticism for not having enough 'trained' riot police, etc - but in reality, they've never needed them in that sort of quantity before. The only thing that baffled me is why it has taken so long for decisions to be made - why has it taken Cameron to come back from his holiday before things can be discussed? What is the point in having a deputy prime minister if he can't make decisions while the prime minister is away. As soon as the riots started happening in multiple places, someone within government (Clegg surely as deputy PC) should have insisted that the army should have been drafted in. Why haven't plastic bullets been used yet? Why hasn't a curfew been put in place? Why is there not one single water cannon available outside of Ireland? Why are human rights even being considered? Stop fannying about - put a curfew in place, let the Police use some force, and get the army in to assist. If youngsters are out after the curfew, and clearly in places where trouble is happening, then they should automatically lose their human rights and face the consequences. Once its all blown over, Cameron and Clegg need their heads banging together for not making decisions quick enough - and the Police should train ALL officers in basic riot training so that as a last resort, they cna be used if needed. Costly - but it should be done. Perhaps Mr Cameron could have spent £600m on training police rather than giving it to India for 'aid'.

Yep! Apparently the "Fire It Up" slogan is soon to be replaced with "Dampened It Down" to reflect this too

I can hear it now - a Swedish House Mafia-esque tune (its the in-thing for everyone after all), but with Hip-Hop rapping through it, and a few trademark Westwood thunder crack and explosion effects.

Not a fan at all Eddie used to be my favourite DJ - but then he took a 6 month break, hyped up his "Ed-It" concept as being something new and never seen before - but after all that, it was just him, on a laptop, playing shit music. Eddie was great until his numpty of a brother took over from Serious/Integrity to become his manager. He seems to have a lot of control over Eddie, and i'm sure he's brainwashed him into thinking he's bigger than he actually is. If the rumours are true, then someone with the initials 'JS' produced these tracks for him. I lost respect for Eddie when I saw him play at the Ministry of Sound after Sean Tyas had smashed it out playing full-on Discover-esque Trance at a fair pace - and then Eddie came on, played a really long drawn out intro for about 5 minutes before plodding along at around 128bpm. The chants of "Eddie, Eddie, Eddie" turned into boo's and the room started emptying and everyone went into the 2nd room (the bar). Abysmal! I know the Eddie of old wasn't everyones cup of tea - he was a "love him or hate him DJ" because the Trance "purists" didn't want scratching over Trance, and breakdowns looping and chopped up - but I liked him simply because he was the one DJ that stuck 2 fingers up to the "Trance textbook" - there were no rules. He wasn't afraid to drop a Techno bassline over a Trance tune. He wasn't afraid to scratch over a 'hands-in-the-air' breakdown. He didn't wave his headphones in the air or do gay hand-hearts - he'd rather dive into the crowd or rip a tune to shreds on an EFX unit. Oh how times change

Tim Westwood all the way!

Absolutely spot on! It boils my blood when you've got people like Gareth Emery earning a fortune as a headlining club DJ because of a popular podcast mixed on Ableton - but stick him in a club, and his beatmatching is nothing short of shocking. I din't mind the odd loose beat now and again - its natural - but Emery's mixes when i've heard him have been out by miles, with no effort to correct it. As for producers getting high positions - I agree with that too. Ronald van Gelderen was getting high profile gigs based on the back of his productions a few years ago, yet the guy couldn't beatmatch, couldn't construct a set, and couldn't even phrase match! Bars were kicking in and out all over the place. You wouldn't hire an electrician to do your plumbing, so why vote for a DJ based on productions. They're two different jobs. SOME are superb at both (ie, Ferry Corsten) - but on the whole, most are good at one or the other - not both. As for Jules - I agree. Voting for him makes him believe that everything he's currently doing is working for him - and it isn't. It also means he'll retain a high position and he'll continue doing what hes doing now for another year - playing shit bootlegs, cheesey "Somebody screeeeeeam" jingles, and abysmal tunes that nobody else is playing. Each to their own, but this is everything that is currently wrong within the Trance scene at the moment.

I agree. Jules will always be my favourite DJ of all time - but these days, he's poor. There are far better 'amateur' DJs on forums.

haha brilliant!

Very true. Its shit.

The baffling thing about Trance is that its at, in my opinion, the weakest point it has been for years - everyone complains about the tunes being generic, samey and lacking imagination - yet the Trance tents are always still the biggest at the festivals, and over recent years, its been Trance DJs dominating the DJ mag poll. Bizarre!

I think the biggest problem with tunes now is that people are no longer producing because they want to have something unique in their sets that nobody else is playing or because they've thought of a cracking melody whilst having a crap - they're producing because they know that if they have one bit of luck along the way, the DJ bookings will start coming in - and thats where the money is these days. I think that is backed-up by the fact that most "producers" don't even produce their tunes these days - they pay someone else to make a tune for them, and then they release it under their own name instead. If you really wanted your own unique 'sound', then you'd learn to produce yourself surely rather than paying Steve Allen or Ben Nicky to use a 'template' sound. No wonder everything sounds the same these days when you've got 30 "producers" (that didn't produce) that have all used to the same 2 or 3 artists to make their tune for them.

2002-07-06 - Judge Jules, Mardi Gras, London View File 01. Joy Kitikonti - 'Joy Don't Stop' (Freaky Mix) [bXR] 02. Fergie - 'Bass Generator' [Duty Free/Decode] 03. VPL - 'T-Break' (Steve Murano Mix) [Closet] 04. Members Of Mayday vs. Superchumbo - '10 Revolutions' [white label] 05. Paul Masterson pres. Sushi - 'The Earthshaker' [You Clash/NuLife] 06. Jam X & De Leon - 'Can You Dig It?' [serious] 07. Jurgen Vries - 'The Theme' [FFRR] 08. Scott Mac pres. DJ Cams - 'Just Doing It' [Limit] 09. The Moon - 'Shake It' (CJ Bolland Big Bone Mix) [byte] 10. Snap! vs Plaything - 'Do You See The Light?' (Steve Murano Mix) [Data] 11. Dave Joy - 'First Impression' [Planet Traxx] Tried and Tested 12. Dark Monks - 'Insane' (Steve Murano Mix) [incentive] 13. Syntone - 'Can't Believe It' [silicon] 14. BK - 'Revolution' [Nukleuz] 15. The Clergy - 'Oboe Song' (The Green Martian Mix) [FFRR] Judge for Yourself 16. Yves Deruyter - 'Calling Earth' (2002 Mix) [bonzai] Eddie Halliwell Guest Mix 17. Frank Biazzi - 'Turbulence' [Lupp] 18. Organ Donors - '4 Tribes (Wanna Be Startin' Somethin')' (Original Mix) [Nukleuz] 19. Marco V pres. Confusion Album Sampler - 'The Mutalisk' [iD&T] 20. Marco V pres. Confusion Album Sampler - 'Atlanta' [iD&T] 21. Rank 1 - 'The Awakening' (Cosmic Gate Mix) [Clubgroove] 22. GTR Vs The Shrink - 'Nervous Breakdown' (Hard NRG UK Bootleg Mix) [Nutrition] Submitter Briggsy Submitted 07/27/2011 Category 2002  

When Ferry is at his best, and playing 'proper' Trance (rather than the Electro-TRance 'LEF' nonsense he plays now and again), he's the best around in my opinion.

Finally, someone else that agrees! It annoys me when people put their top 5 on forums and then say "because he produced a great tune earlier in the year". Producing and DJ'ing are two different things - I don't get why that is so hard for some people to grasp. Agree with the podcast thing too. The majority of them mix them on Ableton and then they sound good, but stick them in a club on decks, and their beatmatching is woeful (Yes Gareth Emery & Alex Morph, I mean you!).

Yes, its that time again! We all know that its a load of crap, and we'll all moan when the results are announced because people have voted for their favourite producers rather than DJs, or the good DJs have finished in the lower positions while the usual, stale, suspects finished in the higher positions - not to mention the DJ management teams that voted hundreds of times for their own artists - however, we'll all still vote anyway. We always do! Sooooo, who are you voting for this year? I've gone for 5 DJs that i've never voted for in the past but have really impressed me over the past 12-18 months. Mine are as follows: 1. Bryan Kearney 2. Indecent Noise 3. Mark Sherry 4. Markus Schulz 5. Fabio Stein I'm voting for Kearney and Indecent Noise because their style is right up my street, and they're pretty much the only two that continue to play full-on 142bpm bosh! They're also very good at why they do and rarely play a bad set. Mark Sherry is one of those DJs that never gets talked about - despite being around for ages and being one of the most consistent DJs around. I've never heard a bad set from this guy - and he's very down to earth too. If anyone deserves some points this year, its him. Markus Schulz is an odd one for me. I usually hate the slower side of Trance - however, Markus's sound is, usually, very dark, moody with a techy edge (I don't like his Trancier, more vocal, floaty sound he occasionally plays) and his sets somehow always seem to sound faster than they actually are (if that makes sense). Again, he's also a very down to earth bloke too. His productions aren't always my cup of tea, but his mixing is always spot on. Fabio Stein is someone i've always rated very highly. His style has changed a bit over the past 2 years, but as a DJ, his sets are superb. Great producer, great DJ, and one of the nicest people you'll ever meet in your life. I've not voted for any of the top 5. Armin gets gayer and gayer with his taste in tunes each year. PvD still plays Born Slippy and 1998. Yawn! Above & Beyond - well, we won't go there. Gareth Emery is massively over-rated. Tiesto plays pop music. None of them are worthy in my opinion. My choices were easy this year. In the past, i've had to pick 5 from about 8 or 9 DJs i've been torn over - but this year, the Trance scene has been so dire, there aren't even any others that have impressed me in the slightest.

That remix of 'When The Dawn Breaks' was released - I had it on Vinyl. If you look around, you'll find it somewhere.

Yeah, Digital Society were the prime example of what I was talking about - they used to have around 5-6 lower-profile DJs that hardly anyone else in the UK booked, had drinks promotions at most events, and it was run by clued-up people that knew what times to put the DJs on to get the best out of them. If a few more promotors followed that example, the Trance scene could re-ignite itself again (Yes, Godskitchen and Gatecrasher with your bland, samey, line-ups, i'm talking about you).

The basic state pension is crap - £102 per week. For a couple, the 2nd person gets a pathetic £61 per week.

The problem is, when promotors do drop the bigger names and go for 'lower-profile' DJs, they either stick to the same names all of the time (like Godskitchen always going for Simon Patterson, Greg Downey or Jordan Suckley) because they get block booking 'deals' from agencies, or a deal where if they book 3 DJs from the same agency, they'll only pay one booking fee - but they don't reflect that in the price and still expect people to pay £15 and £4.50 for a drink. Nobody is gonna pay £15 to see a few 'lower-profile' DJs when they can see a headliner and a few support DJs for a few quid more elsewhere - whereas if they dropped the ticket price to £7-£8 and made the drinks prices more reasonable, people would turn up - and the nights would still make a profit. Godskitchen don't seem to grasp that expecting people to travel to Birmingham, many of which stay in hotels afterwards - and then expecting them to pay £4.50 a drink (from a poor selection of water, Corona, Bacardi Breezer or Jack Daniels which aren't even chilled once the first lot out of about 80 bottles from the fridge have sold out) and £15 a ticket isn't going to work.

Its about time pensions were simplified across the board. Regardless of whether your a public or private sector worker, everyone should retire at the same age, and everyone should get a pension relating to a a percentage of what they've paid in. If people want to retire early or have a bigger pension pot, then they should pay into a private pension too.

Agree 100%. As long as the deficit wasn't spiralling deeper out of control like it was under Labour, then there wasn't any need for such drastic action. All it needed was some 'steadying of the ship' by cutting out the waste - and then monitored to ensure that things stay that way. I agree to some extent - however, some of those that are striking now (such as some of those Birmingham council workers) are only doing so because they've always had a fairly cushy number doing a relatively easy job, earning a higher-than-average salary and had the luxury of being able to retire at 55. Now the government have said "enough is enough chaps, its time you got with the real world and you'll have to work to 67 like everyone else). They're striking because they've been greedy/lucky for years - and have now been told to live like the rest of us. I don't have any sympathy for those at all. I do sympathise with those that have had a 'proper' job though and are now going to have to re-adjust through no fault of their own. I know you work within the NHS - correct me if i'm wrong, but from what I understand, they have a really unique and bizarre "rob Peter to pay Paul" system that was flawed from the very start in that the money that you pay into the NHS "pension pot" now is actually being used to pay those that retired years ago. When you come to collect your pension, the money you get will be money they'll be collecting from the NHS workers that are working at that time? I think the problem they're having is that when it comes to your retirement age, there won't be as much money in the "pension pot" then as there is now - so there's a big black hole that they've got to sort out. From my understanding, this isn't any recent governments fault - it goes right back to the very beginning when nobody really thought about people living longer and retiring later 30/40/50 years down the line when the NHS pensions scheme was introduced. This is what I understand from the little i've read about it. This is true. I'm not really sure what the best solution would be either because Labour cannot be trusted to look after the countrys finances - so we can't have them in power yet. The Lib-Dems maths just didn't add up leading up the election last year anyway - they were wanting to hand money out left, right and centre - whilst also somehow reducing the deficit. Common sense says that was impossible. As for the Tories - well, they've proven that they're just far too aggressive in dealing with things. Unfortunately, not one of the big parties stands out at the moment - which is quite concerning. Yeah - this is the problem. If Labour get back in to govern at the next general election, it won't be because they've done anything to make people want them back - it'll be because people have had to vote for them because of their lack of respect for either of the current bunch. Thats exactly why I voted Conservative last time - not because I wanted them in particular - but simply because we needed Labour out, and realistically, the only party that were likely to shift them were the Tories - so they had to get my vote. If the situation had been different, I'm not sure who I would have voted for (if at all to be honest).