So Derrick May ended up doing the gig in Portugal’s Baixa Bar on Tuesday night. I’m still not quite sure how they made enough to pay his supposed $10,000 fee, given that admission at the door was €15 until 1.30am – they’d have needed at least 589 people in the venue to cover the cost.
I’m reliably told that May is staying in Europe until the weekend. I understand he has a gig on in Napoli on either Friday or Saturday night – the dates and times of his appearances are now becoming so secretive that even some of his closest friends don’t know what they are.
It’s a far cry from the Derrick May of the past. Sources in Detroit have described to me many times a man who, in years gone by, constantly boasted about dates coming up in his diary. He was very proud of his work – as opposed to nowadays when even promoting an appearance from him is fraught with risk.
Baixa Bar locked down their comments section in a display of defiance against May’s alleged victims after they started plugging his appearance. And only one photo of him at the event is on their Instagram page – looking quite haggard and pale, it has to be said.
Here’s a video someone took of him DJing on the night…
A few things seem off with this clip. The music itself doesn’t seem quite as fast as at a conventional May gig, and the trademark energetic performance from the man himself seems absent. There are also a number of women in the booth with him and if you listen carefully, he appears to be telling a gentleman at the beginning of the video to “be careful” – the reason is unknown.
At least three sources have told me in the past that May hates being accompanied by anyone in the DJ booth. Depending on the venue, he will either demand security remove them – or in venues he’s more familiar with, he prefers to do the job himself.
Accounts of how he does it vary, but most methods appear to involve large amounts of swearing…
