It's f**king absurd. Paying through the nose to see someone with possibly no history of DJing spin some discs/cds/worst off all run the whole f**king thing off of his iTunes library just becasue he's in a decent band.

If it's a regular club night and there's no increase in the door price then I've got no beef with it.

what he said...

The trend is probably a little insulting to your trade if you're an actual DJ, I think people just reckon that DJing (properly) is easy.

But it's just playing some records.

(Ducks for cover)

I guess I'm in the mind that I'd rather hear a decent musician pick out his favourite songs rather than hear that damn same Whelans mixtape thats been going for years now...

There doesn't need to be a major craft to the dj set these days what with vinyl dying out and the laptop being omnipresent behind the decks, but it takes a good dj to hold the crowd.

The mixtape was lost when they were doing the redevelopments last year. Plenty of good stuff gets played there these days.

Laptops mightn't require athletic turntablism these days, but theres major scope for creativity these days, with programs like Abelton, the distinction between DJ set and live performance is getting slightly fuzzier. A great DJs mains skill is like you say, an ability to read the crowd, to drop tracks at that right moment, to know how to build up tension and release within a set, but I don't think being a musician necessarily gives you that skill.

I'm not or never have been a DJ in any form, but I appreciate the craft. If anything, a bad DJ makes you appreciate it, a good one often makes it seem effortless.

I don't usually go to them myself, but I've never really seen a musician I'm a really big fan of doing a DJ set here in Dublin. I thought about going to the Peter Hook one, but didn't bother in the end. I'm not dead against them though. I'm always interested in what kind of music musicians I like are listening to themselves. It might lead to some good recommendations, you might spot something in their musical taste that comes out in their own stuff (if that makes sense). Its enlightening, and I like those articles in papers like the Observer where they get a band or artist to talk about records that influence them.

Anyway, I'm veering off subject. Whats the protocol for a musician DJ. Are they meant to play something by themselves? Are they expected to stick to the genre they're in or is it the exact opposite? Are competitions to win a fabulous t-shirt allowed?

i saw a peter hook dj set a few years back. he played a bit of joy division and new order at the end to which the crowd reacted to but apart from that it was just like any other night in a nightclub.
personally i dont like them, especially when its a big name like boys noize or MSTRKRFT. the live set is always better.

Yes im not mad into it myself. I've Dj'd for about 5/6 years and (not wanting to sound extremely big headed) i can def do a better job that a load of the bit part DJ slots done here by people just because they are in a fashionable band. Like it was said before - there's more skill to it than just putting on a few CD's.

It's only ever really worth it if that band do something with it - I saw The Rapture and Interpol DJ on a few occassions and both (but particuarly The Rapture) were pretty deadly with lots of sneaky remixes and little tricks up their sleeves.

Not a huge fan of his own music, but David Kitt does an excellent DJ set after his solo gigs.

David Kitt played at my club and dropped some quality tunes.. one of the decks was acting up but he still made it work...

i think bands who aren't really dj's shouldn' jump on the band wagon...

but if your in a band and you know how to move a crowd

then why not....