Kicked Off The Decks - Danny Howells

 
With EDM-pop star Calvin Harris kicked off the decks in Vegas for being not commercial enough recently and house legend Mark Farina similarly stopped before he even started, Skrufff asked a bunch of top DJs if anything similar had ever happened to them. Notorious party animal Danny Howells wasn’t quite sure.
 
”I'm certain I've been kicked off the decks at least once . . . but I honestly can't remember anything specific,” he admits.
 
“I was taken off the decks at The End once but that was more to do with the fact that I couldn't stand up and tried to mix in a slip-mat.”
 
 
Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): How does it make you feel being ejected?
 
Danny Howells: ”I've had promoters say things like "you can finish now" on a few occasions- which I think is a nice way of saying f**k off. You feel small, but the person who comes on after you is usually playing commercial, so that softens the blow. I don't think it is ever an insult to be ‘too deep’ for a club or crowd. It's an insult if you're deemed ‘too commercial’.”
 
Skrufff: Have you ever had customers or club managers trying to persuade you to play something different? 
 
Danny Howells: ”I was bottled in Brasil once- but that was before I'd put on my first record. It was nothing bad actually, I was late getting to the club as the organiser picked me up 90 minutes late, and as I was about to go on a bottle smashed me on the head. I was wearing a hat thankfully, otherwise it would have been grim.
 
I did have a chat with Louis from Space in Miami years ago who very subtly told me that he liked me ‘as a person’. He's a nice guy; I think that was his way of telling me my music was ‘not right’ for Space, and I tend to agree. I also had one of the organisers in Montreal tell me to ‘take it up’ (I loathe that phrase) a bit once. I was two hours into a ten-hour set so he was given the look of filth and blatantly ignored.”
 
Skrufff: How much do you believe DJs should respond to the crowd? How far?
 
Danny Howells: ”I think you've got to respond but only within your limits. You're booked because of who you are and what you play, therefore you're not going to stray outside of your limits. I'm booked at wrong venues sometimes and you know you've got your work cut out, but I'd rather go home having thinned the floor than knowing I'd sold out and played some Swedish ‘house’ or other muck.”
 
http://www.dannyhowells.com/