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Top DJ Brands New York Night-Life 'The Worst In World'

Author: Jonty Adderley (Skrufff.com)
Saturday, March 1, 2003
New York authorities' continuing all out assault on club culture in the City has nearly destroyed Manhattan's once fabled nightlife, ex-pat Swedish DJ Christian Smith told Skrufff this week.

"The quality of music is extremely low, the turn out at the events are extremely low unless you have a $20,000 superstar DJ," Smith told Skrufff's man-in-China Seb Bayne.

"It's quite sad because in the late 80's and early 90's New York was renowned for groundbreaking nightlife. Now you have to have a massive headlining DJ along the lines of Paul Van Dyke, Paul Oakenfold or Tiesto just to attract a big enough crowd to fill the big clubs."

The acclaimed Swedish techno producer DJ, who relocated to Manhattan several years ago, was chatting to Skrufff's Chinese correspondent Seb Bayne, prior to visiting the South East Asian country this weekend for a live show. He suggested that the recent police orchestrated closures of renowned superclubs Club Exit and Sound Factory had merely added to America's clubland crisis that's escalated since September 11.

"9/11 had a massive impact on New York City, but not just on the City, rather on the whole of North America," said Christian.

"I used to do about 60% of my bookings in North America, whereas now I do about 25-30%. I tend to go more to Europe because there isn't as much work here, with so many clubs having shut down. There used to be a vibrant rave scene in all the major cities in North America but nowadays they are all but gone."

Christian Smith plays 'Elektrobeat', at The CLUB, Sanlitun, Beiijing, China, this Friday night (28th February).
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