Music
'I'VE always played bootlegs. They're a good idea if the records aren't available and when they are something creative. Most are a labour of love and you don't really make any money out of them. 'Satisfaction Skank' isn't a bootleg. It's just an acetate I pressed up at home, a mix of Rockafeller Skank and the Rolling Stones.
"There are certain bands you know will have a sense of humour about being bootlegged and the Stones have absolutely no sense of humour. I'm almost hoping they'll come after me. There's only one copy and there's no financial gain so I figure there's nothing they can actually sue me over. "I think if a shrewd record company picks up a bootleg there's no reason why the people who did it and the original artist can't both benefit. Aphrodite and Mulder's mix of 'Rockafeller Skank' started out as an acetate. They wanted to drop it in their set - just like me and the Cornershop track. They re-did it properly and it's going to be on the B-side of 'Praise You'. The same thing happened with the Urban Takeover mix of Da Luniz. "But there have been some terrible ones this year. That one with the Beastie Boys and Alan Braxe was fucking horrible, because it managed to put together my two favourite tracks of the year and make them sound shit. A complete bastardisation.
"I played a Stardust bootleg a couple of times after Ibiza because I was getting bored of the original. I didn't mind that. It was Spacedust's 'Gym And Tonic' that was appalling. That sort of behaviour is obscene. "I know everyone's slagging it off but I'll have to add my twopenn'orth. It's sheer theft. That was basically nicking someone else's idea, changing two notes, turning it into lowest common denominator cheese and then having the audacity to get a big hit out of it. They should give half the money to Bob Sinclar. Or should it be Thomas Bangalter?
"It's a lawsuit waiting to happen, that record. And Bob Sinclar's own label [East West] put it out: with record companies like that, who needs enemies?"
Club
GATECRASHER @ The Republic, Sheffield
Another dreary Saturday night in Sheffield
Object
Kid's toy remixed for '98 with flashing lights and dayglo. Made grown men look more than a little daft
News
- Blue Peter presenter Richard Bacon is sacked after going on a cocaine binge
- DIY drug-testing kits become available, raising the spectre of widespread testing in the workplace. Two-thirds of US firms already use the tests
- Stardust is named best dance act at the MOBO awards
- The event attracts Puff Daddy, who sets his bouncers on Mel
B's boyfriend when she tells him to hurry his act up
- A Glastonbury shopkeeper called Free Rob Cannabis wins an award for his flower displays, which contain 13 marijuana plants. He is later arrested
- US researchers prove ecstasy causes permanent damage to serotonin-producing nerves in the brain
- Cher enlists Junior Vasquez and Todd Terry as producers on her new album, while house legend Marshall Jefferson claims to be twiddling the knobs for a U2-style rock outfit