Statement from Celtronic: (the promoters)
We would rather be sitting at this stage reminiscing about a great night but
instead we feel compelled to set the record straight about the actions of Miss
Kittin at our event on Friday night past. After years of negotiations, we
finally secured a date for Miss Kittin to play at our clubnight. It was a night
we were really looking forward to enjoying ourselves but due to the actions of
Miss Kittin, we found this impossible. In all our time of promoting parties, we
feel we have never been treated so badly by a visiting artist.
The venue we had chosen to put Miss Kittin on was The Nerve Centre where we have
put on a variety of DJ’s and live acts including Laurent Garnier, Dave Clarke,
X-Press 2, Mylo, 2020 Soundsystem, Jon Carter, Layo & Bushwacka, Justin
Robertson, Slam, Paul Daley, Tom Middleton, Erol Alkan, Andrew Weatherall, Lee
Burridge, Mr C, David Holmes, DJ Format & MC Abdominal, Radioactive Man,
Fingathing, Silicone Soul, Umek, Craig Richards, James Zabiela, Billy Nasty,
Jazzanova, James Lavelle, Scratch Perverts, DJ Craze, The Psychonauts, Si Begg.
The Nerve Centre has also hosted some of the biggest names in rock music
including The Thrills, The Undertones, Ian Brown, The Zutons, Embrace, Gomez,
David Gray, Sinead O’Connor, The Doves.
Miss Kittin was picked up at Belfast Airport by taxi which transported her to
The Tower Hotel in Derry where we had booked her the most expensive suite as
well as an additional room for her manager. On meeting Miss Kittin and her
manager outside the hotel and welcoming them to our city, we were greeted by
Miss Kittin with ‘It’s fucking freezing’ - no hello, nothing.
On returning to the hotel to bring Miss Kittin and her manager to the club, we
advised Miss Kittin that the club was next door to the hotel so we would walk to
the club. After walking no more than 15 metres, Miss Kittin stopped dead in her
tracks and said ‘This is next door… where is the fucking club?’ We told Miss
Kittin that the club was just another 30 metres away round the corner.
We then took Miss Kittin to the boardroom of The Nerve Centre where we had a
large range of drinks, fruit and various snacks prepared for her. Initially
refusing a drink, Caroline then said ‘How am I meant to enjoy myself tonight.
It took me six fucking hours to get here and I’m fucking freezing. I could have
been in New York’. Prior to booking her extremely expensive flights, we had
suggested several alternative travel options to Miss Kittin that would have got
her to Derry quicker. We also warned her of the regular delays that take place
at Heathrow on Friday evenings. However there was no flexibility with Miss
Kittin regarding flights.
Miss Kittin eventually decided to have a bottle of water but complained that she
did not want the water if it was too cold as she was already ‘fucking freezing’.
We then brought Miss Kittin upstairs to the venue to commence her set. We pride
ourselves on providing everything artists ask for. The setup on stage was
perfect, as was asked for in the contract. Both our resident DJ’s tried to
introduce themselves to Miss Kittin but were greeted with a hateful ‘I don’t
understand you’. After starting her set, we are informed by her manager that
there was a problem. Basically, the problem was that Caroline was used to
playing in bigger venues in front of larger crowds. At this stage the venue was
only open an hour and there were nearly 300 people in the venue and there were
people still coming in to the club.
We are then informed that Miss Kittin will play for 1 hour only and that we
should have one of our DJ’s ready to take over. Informed by her manager that
there was no way of changing her mind, one of our residents took over from Miss
Kittin after she had played 75 minutes. At the end of the night, when paying her
fee to her manager, we asked what should we say to the clubbers who had came to
the club to hear Miss Kittin. He informed us that we should lie, ‘tell the
people she was sick or something as she has fans and she would not want to
disappoint her fans.’
These are the fans that she refused to acknowledge all night and basically
refused to play for. We have always found that truth is the best policy and we
are not going to change now and we don’t believe feigning illness for Miss
Kittin to keep her reputation intact as a good enough reason to change this
policy. Within the genres of music we promote, we find that the majority of
people that we invite to play are likeminded people, sociable and polite but
more importantly professional. In almost eight years of putting on parties, Miss
Kittin is the outstanding exception to this rule.
We have been lucky enough to host some of the world’s top DJ’s and producers
over the years who always retain a sense of honesty and humility. Derry may not
be as cosmopolitan as New York, Paris or Milan but you will be hard pushed to
find a more receptive or passionate crowd. Most visiting DJ’s comment on the
great reaction and warmth of the people. There is no excuse or valid reason for
Miss Kittin’s actions on Friday night. She was getting paid a lot of money to
play records for a couple of hours. All we wanted was for her to do her job.
...
a quick google search will tell you that this is all over the net by now.
