just to expand on this a bit...
basically our show being cancelled is a direct result of the absurd
bullshit that has gone down between Ultraworld Productions and the
Baltimore Police (if you don't know about this, I highly suggest you look
into it. I believe Paper & Urb printed some things about it a while back
or you can contact L.G at concanno@digex.net for more info. It basically
amounts to the 90's version of Footloose and/or 1984 except about a
million times more scary when you consider what could have happened to
the Ultraworld promoters had all the bogus charges stuck). It would seem
that at this time the Baltimore Police are on a mission to shut down
anything that remotly resembles someplace where someone might have a good
time. The police got wind of our show, immediatly set about seeing what
this whole Ninja Tune thing was about, subsequently decided that we were
not welcome in their city and suggested to John Hopkins that they might
not want to continue with the show. John Hopkins University, not willing
to be involved in police politics (which we completly respect by the way,
and hold no ill feelings towards them) decided to cancel. Funnily enough
one of the alleged reasons cited was that they went to our web page and
discovered that (god forbid) we make Ninja Tune rolling papers for
promotional use, therefor we must be a bunch of evil drug lords. Doesn't
this rational mean that every corner store in America is guilty of this
also. Of course they didn't take the time to actually obtain a pack of
Skinz (I would have been quite happy to send them a pack) and read what's
on the package. Aside from label/artist info it contains the following
slogan 'Don't be a dope-head. Have you ever seen a Blunt needle? Stay
sharp suckas!' Hardly a big pro-drug stance is it? The main point here
however is that we are a legitimate business, and all our artists are in
the country working with all the proper legal papers, meaning they all
had to be checked out by American customs beforehand (ie. if anyone had a
criminal record they wouldn't be allowed in the country in the first
place). Anyway, that's where it's at. Hopefully in the future this will
all blow over and we can return to Baltimore. It's a shame, as I know we
sell a lot of records there and any party I've been to there has always
been awesome. All we ever wanted to do was have fun and sell a few
records.
Take Care (and beware)
Jeff