Occasionally, Ears To The House is asked whether we would publish stories that dance music press outlets have declined or refused to cover. This is normally asked by newcomers, apparently unaware that this is precisely why we came into existence.
Today, we’re pleased to do so once more – at the risk of yet again incurring the wrath of one of Detroit techno’s more established names. A few weeks ago, Juan Atkins did one of his rare Cybotron performances at Movement Detroit – something which dance music press doyenne Annabel Ross mentioned in her gushing report for Mixmag.
In it, Ross claimed that Cybotron’s appearance had “some technical difficulties, [but] it was a majestic, mesmerising set”. Hardly surprising in an article where, as one source previously said, she so “shamelessly licked the boot of the Detroit scene [that] she’s probably got cherry blossom poisoning now.”.
But what exactly were the technical difficulties that Ross referred to? Well, we’ve had it confirmed by two different sources that Juan Atkins, in fact, walked off stage a full half an hour before the Cybotron show was due to finish – leaving Tameko Williams and Laurens Von Oswald to conclude business by themselves.
One source said “Everyone just carried on without him and gave a good show, but there’s no denying that Juan p***ed a lot of people off by doing it. Even now, nobody knows why he walked off. He seemed to be in a strange kind of mood the whole time, though.”.
Despite our best attempts, we’ve been unable to find out the reason Atkins left the stage early – and nor are we aware of why this crucial detail doesn’t appear in the Annabel Ross review of the festival. But one thing we have been able to confirm is details of an altercation from the same day that turned violent.
The woman in question – whom Ears To The House has decided not to name at the present time – took umbrage with something one of the organisers said. This resulted in the woman smacking the organiser so hard that she hit the floor – we’re told that the violent incident was the result of a dispute over the timing of Cybotron’s performance on the day.
Those who complain about our coverage of certain names in Detroit techno could do with a reminder – we can’t publish it if it never happened…
