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How I risked my life kicking the drug gangs out of my club

dakat — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 09:04:19 GMT

by Ministry of Sound boss James Palumbo

An entrepreneur with close links to Peter Mandelson today reveals how Class A drugs worth more than £50,000 used to be sold in his London nightclub each weekend.

Writing exclusively in The Mail on Sunday’s Review section, James Palumbo says that after opening the Ministry of Sound in 1991, he routinely went to work there wearing a bulletproof jacket, and carrying spray gas and a stun gun to defend himself from gun-toting dealers.

Palumbo, a 46-year-old multi-millionaire and the Old Etonian son of property tycoon Lord Palumbo, recounts several close shaves with gangsters, who for a time seized control of the club.

James Palumbo's drugs-free Ministry of Sound

He writes: ‘At the height of its popularity, Ecstasy sold for £15 a pop and some clubbers took two, three or even four pills in one session.

‘The drug profits were astronomical – I estimated they totalled more than £50,000 a weekend. I was trying to run a legitimate business in an atmosphere of lawlessness and intimidation.’ He salvaged the club after tackling the dealers head-on with the help of the police. He later boasted it was the ‘only drug-free club in Britain’.

Palumbo retains a majority stake in the business, which has clubs in London, Egypt and Malaysia and was named Britain’s 406th wealthiest person with a £130million fortune.

In 1996, he gave his friend Lord Mandelson the use of a chauffeur-driven car for the following year’s General Election campaign.

Bouncers turned my club into the Ministry of DRUGS... until I risked my life to drive them out
I was braced for trouble I knew was coming. There I was, an ex-public school City boy, wearing a bulletproof jacket, tooled up with spray gas and a stun device, cagily monitoring the door of the Ministry of Sound, the hugely successful South London club I ran.

Having just fired the club's security staff for drug-dealing, I was waiting for them to retaliate, as street law dictated they must. Colossal drug profits were at stake and the organised crime families who 'run' nightclub doors weren't used to dissent.

We were the first club who had tried to take them on. The police had supplied us with a panic alarm and we were told armed units would respond within minutes at the first sign of trouble.

The biggest threat was a drive-by shooting. This might not even involve one of the old door team but some hothead they put up to it.

Street law rotates around the words 'respect' and 'disrespect'. The 'badder' you are, the more time you spend in prison, the greater the 'respect' due to you. According to this code for morons, the avenger of the 'disrespect' we had shown the door team would gain instant street credibility.

I don't mind admitting I was terrified as I warily eyed passing cars. Funny, I reflected grimly, how a 'security' team could make you feel so insecure.

The Ministry of Sound opened in 1991. I had worked in the City after leaving Eton and put up £500,000 for the venture. I wasn't so interested in the dance-music scene, but it was beginning to take off in Britain and the project seemed a sound commercial proposition.

It proved to be the case. We turned a disused warehouse in London's Elephant and Castle into a superclub, the first of its kind and one of the most famous and successful in the world. In those early days it would make about £40,000 in a weekend from ticket and bar sales.

But this figure was dwarfed by what dealers inside made from drugs. At the height of its popularity, Ecstasy sold for £15 a pop and some clubbers took two, three or even four pills in one session. With more than 2,000 people in the club on a Saturday night, the drug profits were astronomical - I estimated they totalled about £50,000 a weekend.

And there wasn't anything club owners could do about it. Why? Because Security would kill you.

Drugs in clubs were controlled by Security or the door team, who either worked for themselves under a head doorman or, more likely, for the local crime family controlling drugs in the area.

We had a team of 20: eight on the door, four on 'search' and the rest on the exits and dotted around the club. As with the majority of door teams, most were ex-cons who typically had day jobs as 'debt collectors'.

A lot of them were amateur kickboxers or bodybuilders. They were all heavily built and included both white and black guys.

I wasn't responsible for hiring our lot, and it was never completely clear who was: you didn't get these people from your local recruitment agency. Perhaps your DJ would know a doorman at another club and he would offer to sort out a team for you, or your bar manager would have a mate from Essex who could help out.

Drug-dealing in giant warehouse clubs such as the Ministry of Sound in the Nineties was a complicated business. Since the door team controlled the search it was easy enough to get drugs in. But thereafter the dealing became a sophisticated ballet of carriers, lookouts, enforcers and dealers. Taking £50,000 in cash, mainly in £5, £10 and £20 notes, needed careful management.

The real issue, however, was the door team's total denial of any involvement even in the face of incontrovertible evidence. These protestations of innocence quickly turned into indignation and threats.

On one occasion I spotted a dealer by a fire escape. I ordered one of the doormen called 'the Colonel' - so named because he had apparently once marched all night through a wood to dispose of a corpse - to search the man. The Colonel put him up against a wall and frisked him thoroughly.

'No, Boss, he's clean,' he said. I stretched out an arm and pulled an enormous bag of Ecstasy from the dealer's top breast pocket.

'Oh Boss, my fingers must've brushed past that. On my child's head, it wasn't there,' came the explanation.

On another occasion I called Security to a dealer and carrier I'd busted on the dancefloor. But instead of apprehending the culprits, the head doorman and a henchman bundled me into a small storeroom just off the dancefloor.

'No, Boss,' said the head doorman, 'you're confused. The lights. They play tricks, you know. Nothing's going on.'

The storeroom was maybe 30ft square. The doormen were both 18st and built like trucks. They had closed the door. What was I supposed to do?

Every so often, however, they would hand in a dealer - a minnow, not working for them, who had somehow managed to slip through the net. The token bust. The sacrificial lamb.

There was a shout and the sound of a scuffle one night when I was standing at the club's entrance. It was 3am on a Sunday in mid-winter and freezing cold. Security brought a drug dealer to me.

'We found him in the VIP area, Boss,' said the head of Security, 'with this.' He held up a bag of weed and pills.

The front-door team came over to join in the kill. I looked at the bag. Was he a big or small-time dealer? Small-time, it seemed.

More doormen flooded out of the club. It was the ritual. A dealer's arrest was a spectator sport, like an execution in bygone days. 'Don't call the Fuzz, don't call the Fuzz, don't call the Fuzz,' the dealer pleaded.

By now a dozen Security had formed a loose cordon around him. All eyes were on me. 'Show me,' I said.

The head doorman turned out his pockets and handed me a small cash roll. 'Pathetic,' I thought. 'This guy really is small-time.'

'Boss?' the head doorman asked. 'Don't do it,' the dealer pleaded. 'I've already been nicked. I can't face doing time. Please.'

Nobody spoke, although the collective question 'will he do it?' hung in the air. I nodded. Minutes later the police arrived. The dealer was arrested, he hung his head and disappeared off in the back of a police car.

A few weeks later he was standing on a platform, but he wasn't planning to catch the train. I'm told his death was instantaneous. It was sad but I didn't regret handing him over to the police. People who deal drugs know what they are getting into. It is a nasty business.

Over two years, the number of drugs-related incidents and run-ins with the door staff stacked up. I was trying to run a legitimate business in an atmosphere of lawlessness and intimidation, and it was wearing me down.

The final straw was the theft of the club's takings in 1993 after a particularly busy weekend. Although I could never prove it, I'm certain it went something like this.

The club closed at 6am on Sunday, the cleaners got to work, the takings were being counted in the cash office, the door team locked the front entrance.

Suddenly there were men in the alleyway behind the club donning balaclavas, shotguns in hand. Seconds later, the cash office door was kicked in, the bookkeeper overwhelmed, tied up and the money stolen. They were in and out in minutes.

It was obviously the door team because nobody would have dared trespass on their patch. At least they had the decency to wear balaclavas.

At this point I knew I had to act, for three reasons. First, drug-dealing is wrong and I detest it. Second, it was affecting my business. And finally, I had simply had enough of being kicked around.

My solution was to call in the police, some of whom I'd got to know since starting the club, and over several days they rigged the club with cameras and microphones.

Then, over a single night the following weekend, they struck. Plainclothes police with marked banknotes infiltrated the venue; surveillance and arrest teams waited outside.

As the club swung into life and the dealing started, the drug sales were covertly recorded. The carriers left with the marked notes; dealers were followed home; lookouts and enforcers noted and described. In one swoop the police made a dozen arrests and even identified some of the dealers' sources.

The reckoning with Security was quick. 'I'm shocked,' I told the head doorman and his sidekick. 'This was organised dealing. Obviously it had nothing to do with you. But how could you let this happen? The police are all over us. You've got to go.'

Over the next few weeks the club's front door became a fortress. In keeping with the law of the street, I expected a revenge attack from my former employees every time the club opened.

The problem of finding a new team to 'hold' the door was solved by importing one from Birmingham. No London team would take on the job or could be trusted to do it. So each Friday night, a minibus would arrive from Birmingham with doormen who had no connection with London crime gangs, and they'd go back up the motorway on Sunday morning.

But when trouble eventually came it had nothing to do with the original door team, who probably decided it wasn't worth it.

Hearing of our problems, a young wannabe gangster decided to test our mettle. He managed to get into the courtyard in front of the club and swaggered up to the main doors. Not liking the look of him, I had him pulled to one side. Instantly he pulled back his jacket to reveal a gun in his waistband. 'I'm coming in,' he said.

My stomach loosened and legs turned to jelly. I was certain something hideous was going to happen. And my bulletproof jacket was useless. He was a few feet away and could shoot me in the head.

Everyone froze. 'You can't come in with that,' I said stupidly. Ignoring me, he proceeded to walk into the club. Just as he was through the front doors, I said: 'OK, now you're in.'

He about-turned and said: 'I'm going to my car, then I'll be back.'

And that was it. He sauntered out of the courtyard and disappeared into the night before the police could catch him. But he'd made his point; he'd got over the threshold of the club and was now due 'respect'.

They say the best way to recover from trauma is to share the experience with others. After the drugs dramas at Ministry of Sound, it became one of the cleanest clubs in London but I still felt like the survivor of a bad accident who must unburden himself.

I was also angry. I had risked my life to save my business but most other clubs were turning a blind eye to drug-dealing out of fear and apathy. They also, I think dishonestly, stated that stringent anti-drug measures were in place. This risked bringing ruin on the industry.

A typical example was a club that put up enormous signs saying 'Drug-dealers will be arrested' and 'Say no to drugs'. A local MP visited the place and issued a statement along the lines of: 'I'm satisfied the drugs situation is under control. I saw for myself everything management is doing to combat this menace.'

Yet over the years there were two drug-related deaths at that club. One was of a young man found dead in a fire exit.

The collective hypocrisy of the industry led to a wall of silence and denial. It was obvious to everyone what was going on but club-owners continued to insist that everything was above-board.

And police didn't have powers summarily to shut offending venues. Even after several drugs deaths, clubs would use legal loopholes to defy police attempts to rescind their licences.

It was at this time I met Tom Sackville, the Minister at the Home Office responsible for club licensing. He had been fed a lot of hogwash by the industry, but decided to come down to see me in South London.

I explained to Tom, a clever and courageous politician, what was going on. The resulting legislation gave the police summary powers to close drug-infested venues. Ministry of Sound was cited in the parliamentary debate as the example of best practice.

It will never be possible to stop drug-dealing in clubs. But you can stop organised dealing by the door team. In fact, you have to.

While this was going on, there was no point in keeping the venue clean, doing the stock-take or preparing financial records. The sense of terror each weekend was all-pervading and paralysing. Drugs equals money equals death.

Ministry of Sound is now part of a global multimedia group that has clubs in London, Egypt and Malaysia, offices in London, Sydney, Berlin and New York and a range of lifestyle products. We are the largest independent record company in the world.

I no longer run the business, although I maintain a majority stake in it, and I now visit the club maybe twice a year. My bulletproof jacket-wearing days are over, although the memory is as sharp as the winter's cold on the front door.

I drew on the experience to write my new novel, Tomas, the message of which is that you only live once so you have to be prepared to take a few risks.

Over the years many of our competitors have closed due to poor management or leases ending. There are now countrywide doormen-registration schemes. The dance and Ecstasy craze is over; the new laws have had their effect.

But I suspect that lurking beneath the surface something similar prevails. And somewhere this weekend someone is being told, 'No, Boss, you're confused, nothing's going on.'

• Tomas, by James Palumbo, is published on Wednesday by Quartet at £10. To order your copy for £10 inc p&p, call The Review Bookstore on 0845 155 0713.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1195900/Bouncers-turned-club-Ministry-DRUGS--I-risked-life-drive-out.html#

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Sleeping on the Job

dakat — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:46:27 GMT

Life takes you in strange directions... this tribe has been idle since '06 as you can see. I'm currently in the SoCal area but looking towards Europe possibly,, so the original intention of this tribe is up in the air.

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Looking Back: Dancing plagues and mass hysteria

dakat — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:43:22 GMT

John Waller on how distress and pious fear have led to bizarre outbreaks across the ages

The year was 1374. In dozens of medieval towns scattered along the valley of the River Rhine hundreds of people were seized by an agonising compulsion to dance. Scarcely pausing to rest or eat, they danced for hours or even days in succession. They were victims of one of the strangest afflictions in Western history. Within weeks the mania had engulfed large areas of north-eastern France and the Netherlands, and only after several months did the epidemic subside. In the following century there were only a few isolated outbreaks of compulsive dancing. Then it reappeared, explosively, in the city of Strasbourg in 1518. Chronicles indicate that it then consumed about 400 men, women and children, causing dozens of deaths (Waller, 2008).

Not long before the Strasbourg dancing epidemic, an equally strange compulsion had gripped a nunnery in the Spanish Netherlands. In 1491 several nuns were ‘possessed’ by devilish familiars which impelled them to race around like dogs, jump out of trees in imitation of birds or miaow and claw their way up tree trunks in the manner of cats. Such possession epidemics were by no means confined to nunneries, but nuns were disproportionately affected (Newman, 1998). Over the next 200 years, in nunneries everywhere from Rome to Paris, hundreds were plunged into states of frantic delirium during which they foamed, screamed and convulsed, sexually propositioned exorcists and priests, and confessed to having carnal relations with devils or Christ.

These events may sound wildly improbable, but there is clear documentary evidence that they did in fact happen. The dancing plagues were independently described by scores of physicians, chroniclers, monks and priests, and for the 1518 outbreak we can even read the panicky municipal orders written by the Strasbourg authorities at the time of the epidemic (Midelfort, 1999; Waller, 2008). Similarly, trial documents and the archives of the inquisition provide copious, in-depth accounts of nuns doing and saying the strangest of things (Sluhovsky, 2002).

Writers then and now have offered various interpretations of these strange and sometimes deadly crises. It has been suggested that the dancing maniacs of 1374 and 1518 were members of a heretical dancing cult. Contemporary observers, however, made clear their view that the dancing was a sickness. Nor did the Church, at a time when heresies were quickly suppressed, believe the dancers to be anything but victims of a terrible affliction, natural or divine. In recent decades a vogue for simple biological explanations has inspired the view that epidemic madnesses of the past were caused by the ingestion of ergot, a mould containing psychotropic chemicals (Backman, 1952; Matossian, 1989).

But scholarship in the fields of psychology, history and anthropology provides compelling evidence that the dancing plagues and the possession epidemics of Europe’s nunneries were in fact classic instances of a very different phenomenon: mass psychogenic illness.

Altered states
An important clue to the cause of these bizarre outbreaks lies in the fact that they appear to have involved dissociative trance, a condition involving (among other things) a dramatic loss of self-control. It is hard to imagine people dancing for several days, with bruised and bloodied feet, except in an altered state of consciousness. But we also have eyewitness evidence that they were not fully conscious. Onlookers spoke of the dancing maniacs of 1374 as wild, frenzied and seeing visions. One noted that while ‘they danced their minds were no longer clear’ and another spoke of how, having wearied themselves through dancing and jumping, they went ‘raging like beasts over the land’ (Backman, 1952). The hundreds of possessed nuns described in chronicles, legal records, theological texts or the archives of the Catholic Inquisition were equally subject to dissociative trance (Newman, 1998; Rosen, 1968). Some may have simulated the behaviour of the demoniac as a means of eliciting positive attention (Walker, 1981), but the detailed descriptions of astute and cautious inquisitors leave little doubt that most were genuinely entranced.

How might we explain these epidemics of dissociation? Ergot could have induced hallucinations and convulsions in nuns who ate bread made from contaminated flour, but it is highly unlikely that ergotism would cause remorseless bouts of dancing (Berger, 1931). Nor is there any evidence that what the victims of mass possession ate or drank made any difference. Rather, as explained below, there are very strong indications that fearful and depressed communities were unusually prone to epidemic possession. And given that there is a well-established link between psychological stress and dissociation, this correlation is immediately suggestive of mass psychogenic illness.

Fear and loathing
The years preceding the dancing epidemics were exceptional in their harshness. The 1374 outbreak maps on to the areas most severely affected, earlier in the same year, by one of the worst floods of the century. Chronicles tell of the waters of the Rhine rising 34 feet, of flood waters pouring over town walls, of homes and market places submerged, and of decomposing horses bobbing along watery streets (Backman, 1952). In the decade before the dancing plague of 1518, famine, sickness and terrible cold caused widespread despair in Strasbourg and its environs (Rapp, 1974). Bread prices reached their highest levels for a generation, thousands of starving farmers and vine growers arrived at the city gates, and old killers like leprosy and the plague were joined by a terrifying new affliction named syphilis.

These were intensely traumatic times. Nuns were protected from many of the indignities of daily life, but nunneries could also become toxic psychological environments. Even in well-managed communities, some nuns were inevitably unhappy. Sisters were often consigned to lives of quiet contemplation in accordance with the wishes of their parents rather than any conspicuous piety on their own part. Once inside the cloisters it was very hard for them to get out. But those who keenly embraced the spiritual life were often the most desperate. Tormented by a feeling of falling short of the exacting standards of holiness imposed by their orders, plenty reflected with terrible fear on the fiery destiny awaiting those impure in mind or deed.

A notable example is that of Jeanne des Anges, Mother Superior of the Loudun nunnery in southern France, who became infatuated with a local priest, Father Grandier, in the year 1627. ‘When I did not see him’, she later confessed, ‘I burned with desire for him.’ In consequence, Jeanne felt overwhelming worthlessness and guilt. After weeks of painful penance and introspection, she fell into a dissociative state during which she repeatedly accused Grandier of plotting with Satan to make her lust after him. Within days, several more nuns had followed suit, all deliriously pointing the finger at the hapless priest. After an investigation by the Inquisition, Grandier was burnt alive (de Certeau, 2000). As in the case of the Loudun nunnery, a deep, guilty longing for human intimacy could trigger collective breakdowns. This is in part why, during their possession attacks, dissociating nuns often behaved with alarming lewdness: lifting their habits, simulating copulation, and giving their demons names such as Dog’s Dick, Fornication, even Ash-Coloured Pussy. Guilt and desire could drive a nun to distraction (Sluhovsky, 2002).

The fortitude of many a nun was most severely tested during the evangelical reform movement that swept their communities from the early 1400s. Striving to restore the harsh spiritual codes of earlier centuries, reformers instructed the nuns to consume only the blandest fare, to spurn all vanity, to adopt exacting regimes of abstinence and self-abasement, and to meditate routinely on the evils of Satan and the flames of Hell. Often the younger daughters of nobles or rich burghers, many nuns did not adjust well to tasteless meals, pillow-less beds and evenings bereft of music and conversation. Hence the arrival of reformist Mother Superiors precipitated a significant number of mass possessions. Take, for example, the Ursuline nuns of Auxonne in eastern France who experienced a possession crisis in 1658 after the appointment of the evangelical Barbe Buvée to their nunnery. For several years, distressed and dissociating nuns accused her of being a witch, of killing babies and of being a lesbian. Barbe Buvée was exonerated but judiciously assigned to an alternative nunnery. The possession crisis petered out (Sluhovsky, 2002).

Mass possession also affected secular communities, and here too the role of stress is abundantly clear. The girls whose ‘grievous fits’ and ‘hideous clamors and screeching’ set off the Salem witch panic in New England in 1692 were the members of a community rent by factional strife (Demos, 1983). They were also terrified of attacks by the Native American tribes which had already slaughtered the parents and relatives of several of those at the heart of the witchcraft accusations (Norton, 2003).

Fear and anguish were the common denominators of dancing plagues and possession crises. But this is only part of the story.

Rude devils and cursing saints
Studies of possession cults in hundreds of modern cultures, from Haiti to the Arctic, reveal that people are more likely to experience dissociative trance if they already believe in the possibility of spirit possession (Rouget, 1985). Minds can be prepared, by learning or passive exposure, to shift into altered states. The anthropologist Erika Bourguignon (1991) speaks of an ‘environment of belief’, the set of accepted ideas about the spirit world that members of communities absorb, thus preparing them later to achieve the possession state. It is not necessary, however, to be formally trained. The dancers of 1374 and 1518 occupied an environment of belief that accepted the threat of divine curse, possession or bewitchment. They didn’t intend to enter trance-like states, but their metaphysical beliefs made it possible for them to do so.

Similarly, it is only by taking cultural context seriously that we can explain the striking epidemiological facts that possession crises so often struck religious houses and that men were far less often the victims of mass diabolical possession. The daily lives of nuns were saturated in a mystical supernaturalism, their imaginations vivid with devils, demons, Satanic familiars and wrathful saints. They believed implicitly in the possibility of possession and so made themselves susceptible to it. Evangelical Mother Superiors often made them more vulnerable by encouraging trance and ecstasy; mind-altering forms of worship prepared them for later entering involuntary possession states. Moreover, early modern women were imbued with the idea that as the tainted heirs of Eve they were more liable to succumb to Satan, a misogynistic trope that often heightened their suggestibility.

So when one especially distressed nun began to faint, foam, convulse and speak in strange tongues, there was always a chance that the more suggestible of her sisters would begin to experience the same kind of dissociation, convinced that Satan was stalking their cloisters in search of impure souls.

Modern anthropology and psychology also reveal how beliefs and expectations can shape the individual’s experience of dissociation. In societies where people are encouraged to enter trance states so as to make contact with a spirit world, they typically behave in ways prescribed by their cultures (Katz, 1982; Sharp, 1993). We have every reason to think that the victims of dancing plagues and possession epidemics were also acting in accordance with the rich theology of their worlds.

That the dancing plagues were reliant on cultural belief-systems is apparent from the fact that they were concentrated in just those communities where we know there to have been a pre-existing belief in the possibility of dancing curses being sent down from Heaven or Hell. In 1374 the dancers believed that Satan had unleashed an irresistible dance, hence they not only danced interminably, but also begged for divine intercession, hurried to holy sites, and submitted gladly to exorcism (Backman, 1952). The people of Strasbourg in 1518 were convinced that a saint called Vitus had unleashed a dancing curse (Martin, 1914; Waller, 2008). And so, having entered the possession state, it seems that they acted according to the conventions of the St Vitus myth: dancing for days on end. The dance turned epidemic, as it had in 1374, because each new victim lent further credibility to the belief in supernatural agency. Indeed, the Strasbourg epidemic exemplifies the awesome power of suggestion: the city authorities ensured that the outbreak got out of control by having the dancers gathered together and left to dance in some of the most public spaces in the city (Waller, 2008).

Theological conventions also conditioned the behaviour of demoniac nuns. This is apparent from the fact that nearly all possession epidemics occurred within a single 300-year period, from around 1400 to the early 1700s. The reason is that only during this period did religious writers insist that such events were possible (Newman 1998). Theologians, inquisitors and exorcists established the rules of mass demonic possession to which dissociating nuns then unconsciously conformed: writhing, foaming, convulsing, dancing, laughing, speaking in tongues and making obscene gestures and propositions. These were shocking but entirely stereotypical performances based on deep-seated beliefs about Satan’s depravity drawn from religious writings and from accounts of previous possessions. For centuries, then, distress and pious fear worked in concert to produce epidemics of dancing and possession.

Body and mind
In 1749 a German nunnery in Würzburg experienced an epidemic of screaming, squirming and trance which led to the beheading of a suspected witch. By this period, however, the dancing plagues had disappeared and possession crises were rarities. The incidence of possession declined with the rise of modern rationalism (Bartholomew, 2001). Thereafter, mass outbreaks of dissociation tended to be confined to harshly managed settings such as factories and schools, and to be triggered by groundless fears of poisoning or exposure to toxic chemicals (see box opposite). For a variety of reasons, even these outbreaks are now uncommon in the Western world.
But the dancing plagues and the experiences of demoniac nuns still have something to tell us about human responses to stress. For these events place in bold relief the extraordinary power of context to shape how anguish and fear are expressed. What the historian Edward Shorter calls the ‘symptom pool’ for psychosomatic illness has varied significantly over time and between cultures (Shorter, 1992), and the changing incidences of conversion disorder, somatoform disorder and dissociative trance are all attributable, at least in part, to shifting norms and expectations (Nandi et al., 1992). Madnesses of the past of course tell us much about the worlds that sustained them. But wild epidemics of dancing and possession can also serve as powerful reminders of the instability of many psychiatric conditions.

John Waller is in the Department of History at Michigan State University, and is the author of A Time to Dance, a Time to Di wallerj1@msu.edu

BOX: Modern hysterias

Even if dancing plagues are things of the past, mass psychogenic illness (MPI) remains a part of the human condition. MPI has been defined as the ‘collective occurrence of physical symptoms and related beliefs among two or more persons in the absence of an identifiable pathogen’ (Colligan & Murphy, 1982). Simon Wessely (1987) has usefully separated outbreaks of MPI into two different kinds: ‘mass anxiety hysteria’ and ‘mass motor hysteria’.

Mass anxiety hysteria usually involves the sudden expression of intense anxiety in response to a false threat. In Western settings, plausible fears of poisoning or exposure to toxic chemicals have been known to trigger classic stress-reactions such as fainting, nausea, weakness and hyperventilation. In a school in Blackburn in 1965, for instance, as many as 141 pupils were affected by psychogenic dizziness, nausea, spasms and shortness of breath after several girls had publicly fainted (Bartholomew & Wessely, 2002). Unless the initial fear is given credibility by the media or authorities, cases of mass anxiety hysteria seldom last more than a few days.

Mass motor hysteria, in contrast, typically requires a prolonged build-up of psychological tension which then manifests itself in dissociative states, conversion symptoms and other psychomotor abnormalities. These can persist for weeks or months. Such outbreaks are often shaped by the kinds of supernaturalist beliefs that were responsible for the dancing mania and the possession crises of European nunneries. In modern-day Malaysia and Singapore, for example, factory workers are often drawn from rural communities steeped in beliefs about the spirit world. Those who find it hard to adjust to the regimentation of factory life sometimes enter a dissociative state in which they behave in a manner shaped by their culture’s understanding of spirit possession. MPI may arise where fellow-workers share the same beliefs and are also experiencing severe psychological strain. These outbreaks are often brought to an end with a religious ritual involving the slaughter of a goat (Phoon, 1982).
In both Western and non-Western settings, mass motor hysteria usually occurs in schools. In 1962, for example, several girls at a mission school near Lake Tanganyika developed a compulsion to laugh and cry by turns. The affliction soon spread to neighbouring populations (Rankin & Philip, 1963). Similar outbreaks of laughing have been recorded in both Zambia and Uganda. In fact, schools in central Africa are especially prone to outbreaks of mass motor hysteria. Late in 2008 several girls in a Tanzanian school responded to the pressure of taking important exams by dissociating: some fainted, while other sobbed, yelled or ran around the school.

In other cases, conversion symptoms predominate. Thus in 2006 around 600 students in an emotionally austere all-girls school in Mexico City developed paralysis and nausea lasting days or weeks. Analogous forms of MPI have been described in European and North American schools. In a school in North Carolina in 2002 a dozen pupils experienced seizures or other paroxysmal episodes over the course of four months (Roach and Langley, 2004). In many such cases, the victims receive extensive medical treatment before a failure to identify a pathogenic cause leads to a diagnosis of MPI.

More properly described as ‘mass hysteria’ are cases in which groups of people act upon beliefs which gain exaggerated credence in times of social and economic distress. For example, parts of south-east Asia are periodically struck by epidemics of a fear among men and women that their genitals are shrinking into their bodies. ‘Koro’ is fuelled by a belief in the existence of an evil spirit that causes genital retraction. Death is said to ensue once the penis, nipples or vulva have fully disappeared into the body: hence men have been known to drive pegs through their penises in the attempt to prevent complete retraction (Bartholomew, 2001). A similar phenomenon has been recorded in parts of western Africa where men claim their penises to have been shrunk or stolen through evil magic. Individuals accused of stealing or shrinking genitals are sometimes beaten to death or lynched: at least 14 suspected penis-thieves were killed in Nigeria in 2001 (Dzokoto & Adams, 2005).

Mass anxiety hysteria and mass motor hysteria can be hard to distinguish from the effects of actual exposure to environmental hazards. Experts have therefore identified several features that are indicative of a psychogenic origin for a sudden outbreak of illness symptoms in a group of people. These include the lack of a plausible organic basis, their occurrence in a relatively closed group, and the prior existence of high levels of stress. It is always necessary, however, to test fully for potential toxic or pathogenic exposures. This point is underscored by a case in 1990 when several children at a London primary school fell sick with typical symptoms of MPI: nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain and over-breathing. It looked like a classic case of hysteria. However, it turned out that they were actually suffering from poisoning from pesticides used on cucumbers (Bartholomew, 2001).

References

Backman, E.L. (1952). Religious dances in the Christian Church and in popular medicine (Trans. E. Classen). London: Allen & Unwin.
Bartholomew, R.E. (2001). Little green men, meowing nuns, and head-hunting panics: a study of mass psychogenic illness and social delusion. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Bartholomew, R.E. & Wessely, S. (2002). Protean nature of mass sociogenic illness – From possessed nuns to chemical and biological terrorism fears. British Journal of Psychiatry, 180, 300–306.
Berger, G. (1931). Ergot and ergotism. London: Gurney and Jackson.
Bourgignon, E. (1991). Possession. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
Colligan, M.J. & Murphy, L.R. (1982). A review of mass psychogenic illness in work settings. In M.J. Colligan, J.W. Pennebaker & L.R. Murphy (Eds.) Mass psychogenic illness: A social psychological analysis (pp.33–52). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
de Certeau, M. (2000). The possession at Loudun (Trans. Michael B. Smith). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Demos, J. (1983). Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the culture of early New England. New York: Oxford University Press.
Dzokoto, V.A. & Adams, G. (2005). Understanding genital-shrinking epidemics in West Africa: Koro, Juju, or mass psychogenic illness? Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 29, 53–78.
Katz, R. (1982). Boiling energy: Community healing among the Kalahari Kung. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Martin, A. (1914). Geschichte der Tanzkrankheit in Deutschland. Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde, 24, 113–134 & 225–239.
Matossian, M.K. (1989). Poisons of the past: Molds, epidemics and history. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Midelfort, H.C.E. (1999). A history of madness in sixteenth-century Germany. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Nandi, D.N., Banerjee, G., Nandi S. & Nandi, P. (1992). Is hysteria on the wane? A community survey in West Bengal, India. British Journal of Psychiatry, 160, 87–91.
Newman, B. (1998). Possessed by the spirit: Devout women, demoniacs, and the apostolic life in the thirteenth century. Speculum, 73, 733–770.
Norton, M.B. (2003). In the devil's snare: The Salem witchcraft crisis of 1692. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Phoon, W.H. (1982). Outbreaks of mass hysteria at workplaces in Singapore: Some patterns and modes of presentation. In M.J. Colligan, J.W. Pennebaker & L.R. Murphy (Eds.) Mass psychogenic illness: A social psychological analysis (pp.21–32). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Rankin, A.M. & Philip, P.J. (1963). An epidemic of laughing in the Bukoba district of Tanganyika. Central African Medical Journal, 9, 167–170.
Rapp, F. (1974). Réformes et réformation à Strasbourg: Église et société dans le diocèse de Strasbourg (1450–1525). Strasbourg: Association des Publications près les Universités de Strasbourg.
Roach, E.S. & Langley, R.L. (2004). Episodic neurological dysfunction due to mass hysteria. Archives of Neurology, 61, 1269–1272.
Rosen, G. (1968). Madness in society: Chapters in the historical sociology of mental illness. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Rouget, G. (1985). Music and trance: A theory of the relations between music and possession. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Sharp, L.A. (1993). The possessed and the dispossessed: Spirits, identity, and power in a Madagascar migrant town. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Shorter, E. (1992). From paralysis to fatigue: A history of psychosomatic illness in the modern era. New York: Free Press.
Sluhovsky, M. (2002). The devil in the convent. American Historical Review, 107, 1379–1411.
Walker, D.P. (1981). Unclean spirits: Possession and exorcism in France and England in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Waller, J. (2008). A time to dance, a time to die: The extraordinary story of the dancing plague of 1518. Cambridge: Icon Books.
Wessely, S. (1987). Mass hysteria: Two syndromes. Psychological Medicine, 17, 109–120.

www.thepsychologist.org.uk/arch...e.cfm

posted in Dance Music Culture - 0 replies

Rainbow Gathering

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 19:14:18 GMT

Hello all. I was wondering if any of you have been to the Rainbow Gatherings?? I'm really interested in going this summer and would love to hear some feedback. I've heard scary stories about the police arresting people and wanted to know your experiences. Peace.

posted in Dance Music Culture - 0 replies

INDIGO CANCELLED

gerber — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 21:58:57 GMT

Sorry. Just in case you were thinkin' of coming tonight....

"Club Euphoria" is postponed 'til next Thursday.

Some to-do with Alcohol Control etc.

Thanks,

G

posted in Dance Music Culture - 0 replies

Chubritza performs in Arcata, Friday and Eureka, Saturday.

CraigKurumada — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 21:48:05 GMT

Our band Chubritza will be playing world dance music on Friday, Oct 20, from 8-11 p.m. at The Finnish Country Saunas and Tubs and Café Mokka, 5th and J Streets in Arcata.
We will also be playing Saturday night, from 6 - 8 p.m. at Cin Cin All'italiana Restaurante 421 Third Street in Old Town, Eureka. No cover charge, but please support our hosts by having a delicious mocha or a glass of fine wine, respectively.

posted in Dance Music Culture - 0 replies

Alternative Night @ Indigo this Thursday 10/19

gerber — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 00:58:44 GMT

Have I posted this everywhere yet? haha

Hi everyone: Gabe here, ( DJ GERBER ).

( I DJ now & again with Deep Groove Society @ Humbrews on Sunday nights )

Did you know there's an Alternative Lifestyles Night @ INDIGO?

I didn't know until today....when I was approached to play dance music there THIS week.

THURSDAY NIGHT

OCTOBER 19th

Here's the deal: I'm pretty much promised a regular gig there, assuming Thursdays draw a crowd.

This sounds great, because I pretty much attribute my becoming a DJ after falling in love with dance music in the heyday of the old Club Triangle back in the mid 90's. To get that same venue rocking again would be a joy to see.

Not to mention, I'm anxious to get a proverbial foot in the door at Indigo for some of the other DJs in the area to guest spot!

Think about it:

Red, Touch, Boogie, JSUN, Jan, Blanca, Dub, and more.....

It could be, as they say, "Off the hizee " hahaha

I know there are varying opinions out there about Indigo, some good, some bad.
I personally don't like the "booty" nights there, but that's simply because I
dislike a majority of the clientel that those nights attract. ( i.e. posers )

What it all comes down to is: The Music, and The People.

Forget what the venue is. It's just a room with speakers. We provide the fun.

So, who's with us?

THIS THURSDAY NIGHT

OCTOBER 19th

posted in Dance Music Culture - 0 replies

club lesson

dakat — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 04:34:34 GMT

get a building without neighbors--standalone. visit the area at night to see if people made lofts in industrial areas near your space. heavy bass will carry at least 1/2 block or more, and longstanding loft types won't take losing sleep, etc. and you'll have pd on you.

brick and drywall will hold sound better than metal or wood. the less windows the better, but they can be insulated.

posted in Dance Music Culture - 0 replies

Envision: Celebrating Radical Self Expression thru the Interdimensional Arts (September 30th 2006)

alegria-sita — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 17:38:06 GMT

Greetings!

Please join us in Celebrating Radical Self Expression thru the Interdimensional Arts at Envision on September 30th 2006.

What do we mean by Radical Self Expression and Interdimensional Arts?

Inspired by Burning Man, we want you to explore what it means to be You... offering you an opportunity to Radically Express Yourself in a sacred and intentionally designed space surrounded by an intricately woven tapestry of the Arts in various Dimensions: visionary artwork, soundscapes, prayerformances, dance, and fashion. That's right! Get your Creation on!

We're not just requesting your presence... we're inviting you to express yourself in a way that creates the experience you're looking for! Gifting, Performing, Dancing, Healing, Costumes, etc. ENCOURAGED!

WHEN: Saturday, September 30th
TIME: Doors Open @ 8:30, Fashion Show @ 9pm, Prayerformances throughout the evening
WHERE: Synapsis Warehouse: 47A W 3rd Street, Eureka, CA

PRAYERFORMERS:
Goddess Alchemy Project (Sebastapool, CA)
Tigger Bouncer
Sub Rosa

DJs:
F'kir
Danny
Aspects
Knutz

VISIONARY ARTWORK:
Roman Villagrana
Moksha

FASHION DESIGNERS:
Stazia
Shemaia
Mo

VISUALS:
Rhett
Ishan

TRIBAL MARKET
artwork and fashion available for purchase

& MORE TBA...

Bring your own cups, Planet Chai on tap.

TICKETS: $10 (get 'em at the door)

call: (707) 826-7380 for more information
or visit: www.synapsiswarehouse.org

See you there!

In Celebration,

Alegria~Sita

posted in Dance Music Culture - 0 replies

Whirled Hoops Hoopshop Tuesday, July 11th

alegria-sita — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 00:11:06 GMT

Date & Time: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 6:00 PM
Location: Synapsis Performance Warehouse
Eureka, CA 95501 view map
More Info: (707) 826-7380
***************************************************
Empower yours'elf and the world around you through Joyful Revolution in a Whirled Hoops Hoopshop! Join me in a transformational journey as we give our hoops a whirl, implement spiral consciousness into our bodies, minds, and spirits, and take this consciousness into the world . Together we will embark on a voyage of s'elf discovery, co-creation, inspiralation, and joy as we explore the many facets of hoop-dance!
***************************************************
Whirled Hoopshop includes:

*Hoop-Stretching
*Fundamentals of basic Hooping
*Hoop Trix instruction (at beginning & intermediate levels)
*Hoop Dance
*Smiles & Laughter Guarenteed!
**************************************************
When: Tuesday, July 11th
Where: Synapsis (Eureka, CA)
Time: 6pm - 8pm

Cost: $25 with Pre-registration (until Monday, July 10th)
$30 thereafter

Limited space, so pre-register ASAP by calling (707) 826-7380.

Whirled Hoops provided for use/play. Wear comfortable clothing, bring water and a playful heart!
Whirled Hoops also for sale!

Whirled Hoops: Empowering the World Through Joyful Revolution!
Go on, give it a Whirl!

posted in Dance Music Culture - 0 replies

Whirled HoOps HoOpShOp Sunday, June 25th

alegria-sita — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 23:58:47 GMT

Date & Time: Sunday, June 25, 2006 1:00pm - 4pm
Location: Synapsis
47A W. 3rd Street
Eureka, CA 95501

More Info: (707) 826-7380

Greetings!

Empower yours'elf and the world around you through jOyful revOlutiOn in a Whirled HoOps HoOpShOp! Join me in a transformational journey as we give our hoOps a whirl, implement spiral consciousness into our bodies, minds, and spirits, and take this consciousness into the world . Together we will embark on a voyage of s'elf discovery, co-creation, inspiration, and jOy as we explore the many facets of hoOp-dance!
***************************************************
Whirled HoOpShOp includes:

*Guided instruction and materials for building your own, personalized *"RevOlutiOn" Whirled HoOp. *(A "RevOlutiOn" Whirled HoOp is decorated with 1-2 colors of vinyl tape and is included in the HoOpShOp fees. Additional and other decorative tapes will be available and will increase the price of the HoOpshop).

HoOpShOp also includes:

*EmpOwering Affirmations
*HoOp-Stretching
*Fundamentals of basic HoOping
*HoOp Trix (at beginning & intermediate levels)
*HoOp Dance
**************************************************
When: Sunday, June 25th
Where: Synapsis (Eureka, CA)
Time: 1pm - 4pm

Cost: $45 with Pre-registration (until Wednesday, June 21st)
$50 thereafter

Limited space, so pre-register ASAP by calling 826-7380.

Whirled HoOps provided for use/play. Wear comfortable clothing, bring water and a playful heart!

Whirled HoOps: EmpOwering the wOrld thrOugh jOyful revOlutiOn!
Go on, give it a Whirl!

posted in Dance Music Culture - 0 replies

Good show tonight at the ALIBI!!

blanca — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 21:00:18 GMT

Come check out NickyClick, tonight at the alibi. It will be a night of good electro feminist wicked fun music. Also performing will be your local favorite DJ's kEroes and Blancatron.
Show starts at 11pm 21+ $3

posted in Dance Music Culture - 0 replies

Sunday!!! Confessions at Church

blanca — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 06:16:07 GMT

This sunday i am very excited to share that we will be broadcasting from HumBrews 10-12am on KSLG 94.1 coinciding with Dub Cowboys radio show Church of the 12" Circle.
So come out and let the airwaves hear how much fun we have.

This weekend femiNasti productions will be hosting Dj's ECHO and CHRISTA.

Show starts at 10pm 21+ $3

I'll hope to see all you're wonderful faces there!!

posted in Dance Music Culture - 0 replies

SHOW Tonight!! Benefit for RAVEN Project.

blanca — Fri, 12 May 2006 01:26:56 GMT

For those that don't know the RAVEN Project is a non-profit organization based out of Eureka that provides services for homeless youth in our community. They have a house where they have free clothes (if you ever feel like donating some holla at me, they always need more), weekly gathering nights like Queer Coffee house, Girl Space and Art Space. NOT TO MENTION that they put on workshops to teach youth about healthy choices, and so on. THEY ALSO do a lot of street outreach passing out contraceptives, bleach kits (for needle users), clean socks, toothbrushes, and so on. THEY ROCK AND NEED LOTS OF SUPPORT.
So i'm reposting this for them.

Hey y'all,
The RAVEN Project is having a benifit show tonight in Mckinlyville at 6 Rivers Brewrey.

Spread the word and let people know Bucky Walters and Chapter Two are playing some awesome bluegrass tonight.

The show starts at 9pm and is $5( i think) and 21+(sorry young'uns).

And Keep your eyes peeled for an all-ages metal fabulous show in the next couple weeks, as another benifit for RAVEN. Its in the works, so i shouldn't spill thembeans yet but i promise it will be metal-rific!

And feel free to repost this!
Love and Respect,
RAVEN

posted in Dance Music Culture - 0 replies

March for Ganja

Wed, 29 Mar 2006 17:40:27 GMT

The march will be held Saturday, May 6th in virtually every large city in the world. Now is the time to begin preparing. Go to http://www.globalmarijuanamarch.org and find out who is hosting the march in your area, contact them and attend. Pass this on to others and bring other people with you when you attend. If their is not a march near you, volunteer on the site to put one on in your area. Let's show the world that we are sick of having to live in fear of being put in jail because we enjoy the benefits of cannabis.

Please post a response the more who do the more people will read it.

posted in Dance Music Culture - 0 replies

Santa Cruz

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 02:56:59 GMT

Any one know of any thing dance related going on in Santa Cruz????

posted in Dance Music Culture - 2 replies

People

dakat — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 19:30:35 GMT

This thread is for people to talk a little about themselves. You can include basic bios, resumes, or interests in related arts. Obviously tribe.net provides a way to make a profile--this thread is just a place to condense who you are as we begin to network.

posted in Dance Music Culture - 10 replies

Theater Artists

dakat — Fri, 11 Feb 2005 03:40:43 GMT

This thread is for actors, mimes, jugglers, acrobats, set designers, light designers, film & video prducers & editors to discuss their crafts.

posted in Dance Music Culture - 1 reply

Art of Business

dakat — Wed, 02 Mar 2005 16:47:58 GMT

(This is something I posted at another tribe)

The wheels turn slowly sometimes--the internet & places like tribe are a new kind of friendship & collaboration, and yet in some of the work I've been doing its amazing what can come out of it.

You might look at the Dance Music Culture Arcata project I have posted in Listings, also the Media Bay project. You plant the seed of your idea and anything is possible. Its impressive the quality of people you find at different tribes, and yet as people have to live and take care of their daily needs, it takes time to gather momentum.

I wanted to add a comment about money--capital. It seems like a dirty word to an artist and yet its difficult to achieve most types of creation without it, granted a writer or artist can produce with just a pencil and paper.

Having worked in a variety of arts, pursuing many of them requires some capital. The idea of capital in business (working capital) is necessary funds for the day to day expenses. While it seems contrary to the spirit of creation, its a necessary evil and one usually has to approach the business side of the arts, including marketing your work.

As one matures in an art you start to realize you have to understand and use all of the techniques of business. Maybe a purist can live in a retreat and produce like Van Gogh, maybe never selling a work, and that's OK too. Most esthetic people are probably turned off by PR hype and commercialism. We see it in television, in print media, in the music business, in the movie business, etc. How does one draw the line? Of course we try to stay true to our ideals.

There are specific business approaches to each art form, but to summarize I just want to mention a few I've noticed. If one is lucky enough to live in Canada (and some other countries) there are programs tfrom the govt to subsidize the arts. Canada, to compete with the American music "industry" will give grants to record music projects, in the hopes of opening the US monopoly up. They also require a percentage of radio play to be Canadian artists. From what I've seen their program is very generous and worth pursuing even for artists on the fringe of music.

In the US , particularly in areas supported by tourism or low in industrial businesses, one can find support in the form of business loans to arts oriented businesses. These are through what are called small business development, or economic development organizations, usually run by the local cities or county govt. They frequently work with the SBA, the federal agency that helps create new businesses.

By contacting these groups, they will give you all the information necessary to pursue such loans or grants. The downside is you usually need some basic business skills and the drive to treat your project as a business.

The positive side is that these govt types realize the value of the arts to the community and to their economic health, as they provide jobs, taxes, and promote tourism.

Is money/business good or bad? Of course there are more radical guerilla techniques to make artistic statements, and a non-materialistic person might find other avenues. Artists frequently find patrons that handle the funding, or maybe a business person to handle the business side.

How does one avoid the stigma of "business" and is there a way to reconcile the need to create art with the need to fund it?

posted in Dance Music Culture - 0 replies

DJ's

dakat — Fri, 11 Feb 2005 03:19:39 GMT

This thread is for DJ's to discuss their craft, trade records & gear, and promote or find gigs.

posted in Dance Music Culture - 2 replies

Gear

dakat — Wed, 23 Feb 2005 06:49:41 GMT

Talk about, buy, sell. fantasize.

posted in Dance Music Culture - 1 reply

Shout Outs

dakat — Fri, 11 Feb 2005 03:43:21 GMT

This space is for anyone to say hi!

posted in Dance Music Culture - 3 replies

Events

dakat — Sun, 13 Feb 2005 00:59:24 GMT

Post info on any Humboldt or West Coast events.

posted in Dance Music Culture - 3 replies

LINKS

dakat — Tue, 22 Feb 2005 01:56:33 GMT

http://dancemusicculture.tribe.net
http://mediabay.tribe.net
http://dmcillicitfun.tribe.net
http://deepgroovesociety.tribe.net
http://sfraves.tribe.net

posted in Dance Music Culture - 0 replies

MEDIA BAY

dakat — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 19:38:02 GMT

mediabay.tribe.net

Is a core component of DMC. Modular workstations for producers, artists, and craftspeople located within the dance studio.

Wired and wireless internet and multimedia networking.

Shared office resources, organic foods, & multimedia equipment will be features offered.

posted in Dance Music Culture - 3 replies

Mission

dakat — Sat, 19 Feb 2005 20:19:14 GMT

The best athlete
wants his opponent at his best.
The best general
enters the mind of his enemy.
The best businessman
serves the communal good.
The best leader
follows the will of the people.

All of them embody
the virtue of non-competition.
Not that they don’t love to compete,
but they do it in the spirit of play.
In this they are like children
and in harmony with Tao.

Lao Tzu

posted in Dance Music Culture - 0 replies

Radio, Net Radio, Links

dakat — Fri, 11 Feb 2005 05:26:35 GMT

Post your favorite music stations, streaming web links, net radio, artists, and download sites.

posted in Dance Music Culture - 2 replies

Musicians, Producers & Recording Engineers

dakat — Fri, 11 Feb 2005 03:37:19 GMT

This thread is for musicians, producers, and recording engineers to discuss their craft, look for gigs, and collaborate.

Dance Music Culture's topics - tribe.net

How I risked my life kicking the drug gangs out of my club

Sleeping on the Job

Looking Back: Dancing plagues and mass hysteria

Rainbow Gathering

INDIGO CANCELLED

Chubritza performs in Arcata, Friday and Eureka, Saturday.

Alternative Night @ Indigo this Thursday 10/19

club lesson

Envision: Celebrating Radical Self Expression thru the Interdimensional Arts (September 30th 2006)

Whirled Hoops Hoopshop Tuesday, July 11th

Whirled HoOps HoOpShOp Sunday, June 25th

Good show tonight at the ALIBI!!

Sunday!!! Confessions at Church

SHOW Tonight!! Benefit for RAVEN Project.

March for Ganja

Santa Cruz

People

Theater Artists

Art of Business

DJ's

Gear

Shout Outs

Events

LINKS

MEDIA BAY

Mission

Radio, Net Radio, Links

Musicians, Producers & Recording Engineers

Dancers