Let's get one thing straight: the year is 2016 and we're facing bigotry and hatred on all fronts at the moment. What we absolutely do not need right now is for that to bleed into otherwise open-minded, inclusive platforms like Boiler Room.
Yesterday, Glaswegian club destroyer Nightwave delivered a typically stellar set for Boiler Room's show, joined by DJ Deeon, Feadz, Marvy Da Pimp and Detente, with Sound Pellegrino boss Teki Latex hosting. It looked like a hell of a night and Nightwave lenged it down with some bass-heavy ghettotech and footwork tunes. Apparently, a few feeble-minded bigots didn't agree and quickly hopped into the Boiler Room chat room to vent their frustration that a woman (*gasp*) was DJing. Both Nightwave and the Boiler Room team weren't having any of it.
Here are just a couple of Nightwave's excellent tweets on the matter:
Boiler Room wasted no time in expunging all the hateful comments and made it clear that kind of behaviour wasn't going to fly.
After deleting the comments in the chat room, the Boiler Room Twitter account fired off a series of scathing tweets.
They also announced they would be taking immediate steps to hire moderators to make sure this doesn't happen again, or at the very least can be immediately nipped in the bud.
We reached out to Boiler Room Editor-in-Chief Errol Anderson for his comments:
"Boiler Room and the vast majority of our audience have always celebrated diversity in every kind, and will continue to do so. Unfortunately it's a small faction of keyboard warriors trying to spoil the party with their small-mindedness. Although it's impossible to police the Internet 24/7, we're aware of these vile actions and are actively trying to stamp them out. We're looking to bring in moderators in order to regularly keep our chatrooms in check. Bigots have no place there, or anywhere for that matter."
We also reached out to Nightwave herself, who had this to say:
"Every performer faces critique, it's part of the job and I don't hide from that, but as a woman in the music industry, there's no doubt that I have had to face disproportionate prejudice over the years and most worryingly, I've seen first-hand how it discourages other women from DJing and making music. I had a great time playing Boiler Room last night and a few sexist trolls aren't going to ruin that for me, but if this experience helps the industry and the fans to take a look at this ingrained and blatantly unacceptable misogyny, then obviously I will support that wholeheartedly. The love and support from Boiler Room, my fellow DJs and the fans—both male and female—has been overwhelming and I'm just going to keep making music, playing shows, running my label and doing what I do best."
Still, they're dealing with it and seem to be taking the matter seriously. For the sake of ending on a positive note (because positivity is sorely lacking these days), here's a clip of Nightwave's Boiler Room set. You can watch it in full over at Boiler Room.
