Four years ago, Jackmaster’s career was developing quite nicely. He had numerous record labels, released a steady supply of music and had a busy DJing schedule. It seemed that little could stop the 36-year old DJ and producer from Glasgow, whose real name is Jack Revill. But just then, things came crashing to a halt.
In May 2018, Revill was due to play at the Love Saves The Day festival in Bristol. It was his conduct which caused some problems after he overdosed on GHB – a drug traditionally used to treat the likes of narcolepsy, and alcoholism, but also used illegally for recreational purposes and even as a date rape drug.
Revill himself admitted in a statement to Resident Advisor to “attempting to kiss and grab people against their will” during the period he was overdosed. Curiously, the news of how Revill behaved at Love Saves The Day in May only made the press in August – Ears To The House understands this was partly due to legal reasons.
As a result, his career nosedived for a time – Revill spent much of this period getting help for what he accepted was a substance addiction. The episode was marred online by reaction to Revill’s initial Facebook post on the subject, which helped to only muddy the waters. But it wasn’t just the response which stank, if another rumour was correct.
According to the tale, Revill defectated into a kettle in his inebriated state. However, Ears To The House can’t find any evidence which confirms this ever happened – quite how we’re meant to prove someone did a crap into a kettle over four years after it’s meant to have happened remains a mystery. All we know is, out of the statements we’ve seen from staff members at the festival, none ever mention such an incident.
The alleged kettle incident looked to us like a dead cat operation – a tactic devised by Australian politicial strategist Lynton Crosby where a deliberately shocking announcement is made to divert attention away from problems or failure elsewhere. Revill denied this in an interview with Vice in December 2019, but appeared to accept an initially vague response allowed these rumours to spread.
Since then, he seems to have got help for his issues and done some work for charities including Brothers In Arms, a Scottish charity who are focused on tackling the horrifically high suicide rates amongst men. All well and good – and with his DJing schedule on the rise again, does this mean Revill has been forgiven by the business techno end of the world he once inhabited?
It’s hard to get a complete picture. What isn’t in doubt, though, is some of the venues Revill played for a few years ago have previously hosted, and still host people who have done similar things. In some cases, they’ve done considerably more, and are still being frequently booked.
Let’s face facts – in a scene which is ambivalent at best about the very serious and multiple sexual abuse allegations surrounding Derrick May, he was never going to be cancelled for long. We can’t help but wonder what those men and women whom he harangued at Love Saves The Day just make of it all…
