It is obviously very positive that Techno is being represented on the national airwaves, but the way in which R1 are doing this makes me feel pretty uneasy.

I think that if a genre of music is to be represented well, then it needs to be done so by somebody who is respected within that genre. Fergie is a hard house cretin. He may be playing techno in his sets (shit techno at that) but I don't see how it's either logical or fair that someone who has been involved in the dance scene for a very short space of time, and in a completely different genre should be "representing" a sound/genre that he has little knowledge of, nor any respect from the community who's sound he is representing. I know a lot of people may say "Who cares?" but if you think about it for a moment then EVERYONE should care.

To me, the media seems to be attempting to dig itself (and a whole host of DJ's and Clubs) out of a very scary looking pit. (Scary to them, not to me.) What with the superclubs Cream and Gatecrasher suffering from a mass exodus of punters, this whole issue stinks of conspiracy to me. The punters that no longer find anything interesting or exciting about the aforementioned superclubs are not just going to stop going clubbing. The chances are they will be going to nights/venues that have more to offer them musically, perhaps more underground, intelligent parties.

It appears that to combat this (ie. to keep shitty clubs and useless DJ's who play bland music in work) the media (of which R1 is a massive part of) are trying to coax their ex-punters back by playing them the music that they are going elsewhere to hear. What right do they have to do this?? Cream can hardly become a "techno" night, because Fergie is playing so called Techno, can it? And for those that may argue "well he's playing techno"- does anybody think that REAL techno clubs will start booking the ex-hardhouse/trance DJ's?? Very very unlikely. Also, places like Slinky booking Billy Nasty- whats that all about?? Billy should have told them to **** right off, as it is a blatant attempt to stop themselves from becoming bankrupt, just like the rest of the "HH/Trance FAD clubs."

You may think that I'm taking this a little too seriously, but I seriously care for our scene, which up until now, has only ever been looked down upon by the national media. There was never any support from them when techno was struggling (slightly) in the mid nineties, so why should WE support the ailing trance and hard house scene now that it's up the creek?? Answer: we shouldn't.

If things like this continue, they will get out of hand. There will be less decent parties to got to, the quality of the music will be diluted enormously, and most importantly the artists/DJ's that we know and love will have to get themselves day jobs, because people like Oakenfold, Tong, Fergie, Jules et all will have cashed in, at our expense.