Tony Prince on one of the biggest World Finals in DMC history
Once again DMC stepped up to the plate to deliver a two day DMC WORLD DJ CHAMPIONSHIP FESTIVAL this time at the perfect venue for the event, the HMV Forum in London’s Kentish Town. The usual tribe of DJ turntablists arrived from 30 countries either as National Champions or Team Champions in their respective countries.
On Thursday night the event began…….
THE BATTLE FOR WORLD SUPREMACY
Canada came back onto the scene with a winning knock-out series of vinyl attacks from Vekked who began his campaign by knocking out China’s DJ Jamming until after an hour long Battle for World Supremacy, he faced off with the UK’s Ritchie Ruftone.
Vekked now joins fellow Canadians Dopey and A-Trak in the DMC list of Canadian DJ World, Team & Supremacy Champions.
The DMC DJ TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS
The world caught it’s breath, Mixfitz, a Belgian team were so surprised they had been judged the new DMC TEAM CHAMPIONS, they were stood at the bar when the announcement was made!
MIXFITZ were outsiders with Ladbrokes quoting them at 50-1 before the off. Belgium had never before featured in the winning credits for any DMC event over 27 years! Here is the way the judging went:
WORLD TEAM CHAMPIONS 2012
1. MIXFITZ (BELGIUM)– 26 POINTS
2. PHONA (FRENCH) – 13 POINTS
3. CLA LESTE (BRAZIL) – 11 POINTS
4. BATTLESTAR MASSIVE (USA) – 8 POINTS
5. TROUBLE TEAM – (CZECH REPUBLIC) 4 POINTS
6. BIGGER BANGER THEORY (PORTUGAL) – 2 POINTS
For further details: http://www.dmcdjchamps.com/news-view.php?n=NDgz
The highlights beyond the actual contests was undoubtedly DJ CRAZE hosting the evening and DJ Q-BERT’s own set which saw Craze jamming with him.
“I’ll have to stop drinking”, said Craze who’s been seen to enjoy a pint or two of Britain’s finest beer. Beer or no, his minute on the decks was up on the top shelf as this 3 times DMC World Champion shared the stage with Q-Bert who showed why this son of San Francisco remains the smoothest mother fucker in the world when it comes to crabs, flares and whatever else he does to make the decks dance.
Homegrown rap super group The FOUR OWLS featuring Jam Baxter hit the stage on the Thursday night and got the crowd hyped and ready for DJ Q-Bert!
The Friday night anticipation was enormous as the queue outside the venue began to form by 7pm. By 8pm the place was full with 1500 supporters who came with an air of expectancy that they might see something extraordinary once again, and they were not disappointed. An incredible opening welcome came from DJ SWITCH & JFB who for 30 minutes sailed through a medley of all kinds of music from Jazz to Hendrix. It really was quite amazing and later, back at the DMC hotel, Switch was introduced to Craze and Q-Bert who had never seen his Royal Albert Hall performance of Prokofiev’s arrangement for orchestra and turntable. Suddenly Switch pulled out an iPhone app which turned the phone into a projector, then he Googled Switch’s performance and everyone craned their necks to the ceiling to watch this BBC Proms film. It was a very special moment for Switch who received his second round of applause, this time from his DJ colleagues from around the world.
UK legend Jehst was joined on stage with Micall Parknsun and Jazz T performing to a packed out Forum, the UK crowd love Jehst and this was obvious with the cheers and crowd noise! The headliner on this final night was DJ FLY who last year was voted by DMC WORLD visitors THE GREATEST DJ PERFORMANCE EVER! Fly didn’t just come to accept his gold trophy to commemorate his accomplishment, he brought with him a live drummer and sessioned for 20 minutes with a set containing his own music productions backed by the masked drummer (rumour had it that it was Buddy Rich beneath the mask!).
With America bringing in PRECISION as their new 2012 DMC USA CHAMPION and the UK Champion Ritchie Ruftone looking to score before a home crowd, it promised to be one hell of a session. Little did the audience know though that during the afternoon elimination session where 12 went through to the evening, three times DMC Japanese Champion IZOH had scored most points to make him the final performer of the event. AND WHAT A PERFORMANCE!
Speed, musicianship, showmanship, drama, karate moves, these made up the elements of a six minute performance which will go down as one of the greatest ever seen.
The full results:
WORLD CHAMPION 2012
1. DJ IZOH (JAPAN) – 35 POINTS
2. DJ PRECISION (USA) – 21 POINTS
3. RITCHIE RUFTONE (UK) – 11 POINTS
4. FONG FONG (2012 ONLINE CHAMPION) – 4 POINTS
DMC have rushed through an edit of the IZOH winning set for all to see and enjoy: www.dmcdjchamps.com
The full DVD will follow!
Next year is DMC’s 30th anniversary. The company began as a DJ record remixing club which sent DJs pre-recorded mixes and a magazine they called Mixmag every month. The club was born on February 1st 1983. Next year DMC plans to stage something special to mark the spot, stay tuned.
Tony Prince
