Ahead of the Movement Electronic Music Festival in Detroit, which concluded last Monday, music journalists everywhere were busy rehashing tired old claims about the Belleville Three – whilst also simultaneously failing to ask exactly why Derrick May wasn’t playing at the festival this year.

Of course, Ears To The House readers will already know that May faced a barrage of allegations of rape and sexual assault back in 2020 – and his career has since been reduced from doing up to 200 gigs per year to just a few, mostly in his native Detroit. All the same, this seemingly didn’t cross the mind of any the journalists tasked with covering the event.

But if anyone had asked him, what reason might May give? Well, wonder no more. A reader emails in to tell us about her experience at the festival. She says she got talking with Derrick May himself and spent a few minutes with him – “he came across as very confident and was pretty happy to talk to me about his history. Then I asked him why he wasn’t playing this year.”.

She says his exact words were “I’m just taking a break right now, letting the new kids have their fun”. He then proceeded to change the subject fairly quickly before leaving – claiming he needed the toilet. That’s at least twice over the weekend.

Last week, he claimed the internet was the reason why he was doing no gigs, now it’s taking a break. Even Camille Vasquez would struggle to work this one out…