Just read this article in DJ mag and thought it really funny. Homelands have lost the plot......

HOMELANDS SHOCK LINE-UP





Words: Terry Church

Techno ravers, trance kids and prog bods have all been scratching their heads as to the decision made by Homeland’s promoter Darren Hughes to exclude their favourite DJs from this year’s Matterley Bowl event.

There will be no techno arena this year and only a handful of trance and progressive DJs have been invited to play at the event, which represents a dramatic u-turn in Homelands’ line-up.

“The festival in 2002 was just too large and too hard to distinguish from the other major dance music festivals,” claims Hughes. “Last year we decided to change our musical direction and the event was a massive success. This year we are simply continuing on with that change.”

This suggests that this year’s event progresses from initial dramatic changes that occurred in 2003. Last year the exclusion of big trance DJs such as Tiesto, and Armin Van Buuren shocked many, but the omission of techno and progressive house stalwarts this year like Jeff Mills, Sasha, Dave Clarke, and John Digweed - has been even more surprising.

Unexpectedly, in the place of a techno arena is a new hip-hop tent hosted by BBC Radio 1’s Tim Westwood. Hughes however disagrees with those that suggest that hip-hop isn’t quite dance music: “The talent we’ve secured for the hip-hop arena are proper old skool, people like Mr Scruff, Jazzy Jeff and Grandmaster Flash. I dare anyone to stand in front of those guys and tell me that that isn’t great music to dance to.”

Hughes believes that credibility is the key to the future of dance music festivals. “Mainstream dance music has taken a battering over the last year or two,” notes Hughes. “But, we needed it, myself included. We had lost touch, money became more of an issue and we forgot why we put on parties in the first place. In my opinion the shit-end of the stick has been cut off, and good riddance.”

What about the exclusion of the techno arena? “Of course I’m very sad to see the techno tent go,” maintains Hughes, “but I think the Homelands crowd prefer live music than anything else. When a band are on form and they pull out all the stops on stage it beats any DJ.”

However Homelands still is the ‘official’ start to summer’s clubbing.




what do u think??