The Daily Tonic: Workplace Harrisment

After dealing in music stories all this week, next week we thought we’d turn our attention to some of the other showbiz industries and shake a few stories out of them instead. We’ll start it off with fashion.

Whether it’s stories of supermodels, photographers, designers or famous front row fixtures, we want to know the best legends you’ve heard from the world of fashion. What can you tell us?

Send your stories and tips to hello@popbitch.com and we’ll serve up some digital goodies for the best.

On Wednesday, we mentioned the weirdly prosaic reason why heavy metal makes such repeated use of the Devil’s Interval. Today, here’s the weirdly prosaic reason that the Chicago house sound developed.

Schoolfriends Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May bought a Roland drum machine early in the 80s and started to play around on synthesisers together until they developed the sound that became Detroit techno.

The story goes that one month May couldn’t pay his rent so decided to sell some of his old production equipment – but Atkins warned him not to sell any of it to their rival Detroit DJs or producers who might copy them.

So May made a trip out to Chicago to sell a spare Roland 909 to someone there instead. The DJ at the Warehouse club, Chicago house pioneer… Frankie Knuckles.

mattinthehat writes:
“One time I was put on the guest list for Pacha in Ibiza but with the proviso that I get the headline DJ a drink. So I got in, asked the DJ what he wanted. A double brandy. 50 fucking Euros. Entry was 40… Thanks, Carl Cox!”

ER writes:
“Carl Cox once told me that he has a phobia of milky drinks because when he was young he drank a cup of tea without realising that the milk had formed a skin on the top and drank it down like a slick of snot.”

After recalling the Shane Richie/Garry Bushell spat of the early aughts on Monday, one of the other strange showbiz beefs we’ve since been reminded of was Madness v Calvin Harris.

There was a summer a few years ago when the two factions ended up having a multi-festival fall-out. It came to light when Lee from Madness called Calvin a prick on stage at V after an earlier incident at Camp Bestival where Madness ended up locking Cally in a portaloo.

It’s been suggested since that the toilet incident was an unprovoked attack, but we heard the Nutty Boys may have acted in retaliation, after discovering Calvin’s plan to prank them by rearranging the huge illuminated MADNESS letters they have on stage to spell D ASS MEN.

If you ever spot Steve Aoki in the club, don’t offer to buy him a drink unless you’re willing to pick up a pretty hefty tab.

Someone who made the offer for lack of anything else to say to him when they bumped into the millionaire star found themselves taking an order to buy a round of shots for Aoki’s entire table.

It’s no different if he’s by himself either. Another reader who once offered to get him a drink when he was moving Aoki’s stage gear was tasked with fetching him a full bottle of vodka – just for him. 1/3 of which Aoki ended up spilling. He poured another 1/3 over the young women who took his fancy on the dancefloor and he managed to drink the remaining 1/3.

The ten tracks that make up today’s audio quiz are all remixes of songs that (for the most part) enjoyed greater success than the original versions.

You don’t need to do anything complicated, like recall the details of the remixer or what particular type of mix they labelled it as. You just need to name the original artist (for one point) and the song’s primary title (for another).

If you can get the remix details though, feel free to give yourself some bonus points. It’s Friday. Fuck it. Why not?

[Play it here]

Eric Clapton’s yacht is for sale
[$7.5m and it’s yours]

Live Puffin Cam
[See in their burrow]

An interview with a professional used pants seller
[Read on MEL]