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| quote: | Originally posted by Jayx1
I will now offer my personal opinion on Mark Oliver. I have seen him spin next to and stack up nicely to the "best" talent in the world. Not every DJ is everyone's style as we have debated quite a bit around here already but to deny the talent and influence that Oliver has had over this city and to an extent the country is rediculous as well. Not everyone can pull of 9 hours straight every weekend. In fact most of the big name djs wont play more than 3 because they either cant handle it or arent interested.
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I could spend the next 3 months straight explaining why I think Mark Oliver is a very overrated DJ but I won't bother. Instead I'll sum up some stuff briefly here and never return to the subject.
1) No disrespect to any of the TOTA's, but my experience with people who love Mark Oliver is that they haven't spent considerable time partying in other cities and listening to resident DJ's from around the world. Alot of these people have typically spent most of their time in TO and consider the Guvernment their second home. Of course there are many exceptions to the rule, but the vast majority I find are like this. Of the many people I would consider global clubbers, they share my opinion that Mark Oliver is at best a decent DJ. They have told me time and time again that when they return to the Guv and listen to Mark, they don't find his sets impressive at all. Of course I'm not saying all of Mark's sets are bad... I have heard him play great sets before, or at least part of his set was played brilliantly. However, to be a top DJ and hold your own with top international talent you have to nail your set 95% percent of the time. Every DJ has an off night, but they should be few and far between.
2) Regarding your last statement about playing 3 hour sets, please provide some form of proof that DJ's are like this??? Anything will do. The only DJ that ever comes to mind is Oakenfold. Can you name another please? Most of the top DJ's in the world have been quoted as saying they prefer longer sets because it gives them the opportunity to take the crowd on more of a journey. A good DJ needs at least 2 hours just to get his set really going, then by the start of the fourth hour, he should be ripping you another hole. I would venture to guess that most DJ's would prefer 5 hour sets. Most DJ's spin because they love it... making money on the side is just an added bonus.
Now, the fact that Mark spins 9 hour sets means nothing. I could spin a 9 hour set if you wanted me to (or simply cause I enjoy it.. although finding 9 hours to spin in a day is tough for me). He's probably getting paid well over $5K to spin those sets (probably alot more). If someone waived that kind of money in your face, would you turn it down? What I find he's often missing in those sets is a sense of progression. The last marathon I heard him play was New Years, and it was God-awful. The entire set was horrible and seemed to contain just random track selection. Many of his marathon sets I endured in 98/99 had some of the same problems. He messed up the filler tracks but the crowd didn't care (or notice) as long as the next track was a trance anthem (which is much of what he played back then). Its always good to play to the crowd, but simply throwing on anthems doesn't cut it. To give him some credit, the split set he played on Saturday around Scott Bond was awesome (more of what I would expect from a man in his position). Possibly because each of his sets were only 3 hours long.
3) Nobody, and I mean nobody outside of TO to MTL have even a clue who Mark Oliver is. Certainly not in Europe, or the US, or Australia, or... Mark has only had influence over TO, and no other place. There was a time he played a set at Atomic in Ottawa, and 10 people showed up.
That's all that popped into my head for now (still recovering from the weekend  ). I'll add more as it comes to me (against my promise of never bringing up the topic again).
-Your Mother
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