Gatecrasher

S

SeoulSaint

Active Member
What a clusterfück of a weekend it’s having.

Cancelled it’s classical and club event in Blackpool at the last minute, and then according to Signum and Binary Finary’s social media refused to pay the dj fees for some of the acts at the Sheffield night and even beat up their management (allegedly). GC deny this, but all in all seems like one dodgy event after another for what was a clubbing institution.

Incredibly, they still put on regular events although quite a few djs, most recently Jules spoke out about not being paid. So there’s plenty of form.

Such a shame as in its heyday it was fantastic, Republic, the Summer Soundsystems, the NEC events; these made my first few years clubbing. I for one won’t ever consider supporting this brand again though, which is quite a sad thought.
 
I've always assumed that Gatecrasher as a brand is something that keeps getting sold on or whatever - and no-one involved from it's 'peak' is really involved anymore. Is that fair or not?
 
Binary Finary post is a bit odd. He knew Signum wasn't going to play as he wasn't being paid + his manager had been beaten up, but still agreed to cover him and play 3 hours despite not being paid himself?

Some of these DJs need to have a bit of respect, boycott the brands and stop being mugged off. Sadly given where Trance is I expect they kind of rely on these gigs to keep their names out there
 
Springal said:
Binary Finary post is a bit odd. He knew Signum wasn't going to play as he wasn't being paid + his manager had been beaten up, but still agreed to cover him and play 3 hours despite not being paid himself?

Some of these DJs need to have a bit of respect, boycott the brands and stop being mugged off. Sadly given where Trance is I expect they kind of rely on these gigs to keep their names out there
Click to expand...
There's a long history of headline DJs accepting gigs from notorious shysters, getting paid and not worrying that everyone lower down the food chain is getting knocked. There's an endless production line of local DJ-sub-promoters, green to it all, happy to just be involved and any name DJ taking a Gatecrasher gig and claiming ignorance to their general MO is a liar.
 
I'd agree with the idea that the headliners accepting the gig while still owed previous payments, tells you a lot about the genre's support large events
 
The DJ's and agents have to weigh up the cost of the fee and expenses etc against the level of exposure. Like it or not, Cream and (sadly) Gatecrasher are still the two most recognisable brands in trance and pull in huge crowds. Unfortunately, Gatecrasher seem to insist on sullying their legend by acting like gangsters. At one point they were banned from operating in Birmingham because they owed the city council £1.7 million. Then they popped up in Ibiza with grandiose claims about buying Eden and then proceeded to rip off just about everyone they came into contact with. Eddie Halliwell turned up to play and found they didn't have his fee so jumped on the next plane back out without playing. I have two female friends who were huge 'Crasher fans and worked for them in Ibiza and are still owed £1,000 and about £2,000 respectively AND Gatecrasher kept their NI and work docs in spite of many assurances they would be returned.

So what's gone wrong? I have no idea to be honest. I don't understand why they can't start releasing CD's again- they did some of the best trance cd's around. That would generate some revenue at least. There's no excuse for behaving like scumbags and if they continue like this I doubt they will exist past 2020 in anything other than a name.
 
Springal said:
I've always assumed that Gatecrasher as a brand is something that keeps getting sold on or whatever - and no-one involved from it's 'peak' is really involved anymore. Is that fair or not?
Click to expand...

its still ran by the people who were always involved - Simon Raine and Scott Bond
 
Padster said:
. I don't understand why they can't start releasing CD's again- they did some of the best trance cd's around. That would generate some revenue at least. There's no excuse for behaving like scumbags and if they continue like this I doubt they will exist past 2020 in anything other than a name.
Click to expand...

cos they would have to pay the artists to licence the tracks to put on the cd's.

apparently, people are still owed money from tracks that appeared on all the old cd's that were really popular - Red, Black, Wet etc etc
 
I used to see lots of material from Gatecrasher; at least at Amoeba Music in Hollywood, CA where I used to shop. They always presented well with the Gatecrasher logo. I thought so anyway. I may have even purchased a few. I know I've had more than my share of trance and other CDs in my time...
 
Padster said:
So what's gone wrong? I have no idea to be honest. I don't understand why they can't start releasing CD's again- they did some of the best trance cd's around. That would generate some revenue at least. There's no excuse for behaving like scumbags and if they continue like this I doubt they will exist past 2020 in anything other than a name.
Click to expand...

Not so sure, do that many people buy CDs now? They just stream it off Spotify etc. And in this more modern age, how do Gatecrasher stand out when they sound like any other night?
 
Ikoda said:
Not so sure, do that many people buy CDs now? They just stream it off Spotify etc. And in this more modern age, how do Gatecrasher stand out when they sound like any other night?
Click to expand...
It's been going wrong for years though- I remember Carl Cox had a major falling out with them about 15 years ago.
 
Padster said:
It's been going wrong for years though- I remember Carl Cox had a major falling out with them about 15 years ago.
Click to expand...

Early 2000s, they f-ed him about leading up to a GC festival event, and then cancelled his branded tent on the day....
 
Gatecrasher never evolved. Even once the second SSS had been it had pretty much ran its course.

I went to the Millenium gig and it was £100 a ticket which was a bit of a shock in that era and they got many things wrong that night. Structure they put in was freezing and struggled for atmosphere despite an incredible line up backed by R1.

Like Cream though long term it couldn't sustain weekly events and eventually the whole festival thing exploded and SSS never kept up. Creamfields seemed to nail that balance of what people were looking for.

The Crasher kid Republic scene was also never going to last. Much like the happy hardcore fanatics in dungarees, face masks with there whistles it had a small shelf life.

They had to evolve into something different and didn't. The end.
 
Buckley said:
Early 2000s, they f-ed him about leading up to a GC festival event, and then cancelled his branded tent on the day....
Click to expand...
Ah, as I remember it, the tent they tried to put him in was only a quarter of the size they promised him and the roof was leaking dangerously close to the decks. When he complained they told him to play or f*** off so he chose the latter. It wouldn't have been so bad but he'd foregone other paying gigs to be there. It was the GC Summer Sound System at Turweston Aerodrome in Oxfordshire.
 
CraigyB said:
Gatecrasher never evolved. Even once the second SSS had been it had pretty much ran its course.

I went to the Millenium gig and it was £100 a ticket which was a bit of a shock in that era and they got many things wrong that night. Structure they put in was freezing and struggled for atmosphere despite an incredible line up backed by R1.

Like Cream though long term it couldn't sustain weekly events and eventually the whole festival thing exploded and SSS never kept up. Creamfields seemed to nail that balance of what people were looking for.

The Crasher kid Republic scene was also never going to last. Much like the happy hardcore fanatics in dungarees, face masks with there whistles it had a small shelf life.

They had to evolve into something different and didn't. The end.
Click to expand...

This. Now they run on a wave of dwindling Nostalgia.
 
Ikoda said:
This. Now they run on a wave of dwindling Nostalgia.
Click to expand...
I reckon this year is going to see a renaissance of trance/prog trance. Maybe not so much in the UK but elsewhere. There are more and more parties in the US than possibly ever, which is encouraging for the scene. A lot of newer djs and producers coming through too, which hasn’t happened for a while either.

I’ve been to a couple of the Gatecrashers at Area and there were plenty of newer names as well as the old guard, so for all GC’s faults I’m not sure trading on nostalgia is one I’d level at them.

But as per my original post this is it for GC and me. Plenty of other club events left though, such as Passion, Liberation, the Gallery, Tidy..etc.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top