The headline pretty much says it all – it’s a real bolt from the blue, but tonight Zio has decided to stop Hell’s Gate, as of now. There seem to be a few reasons, but one is that there will be too few DJs from next year. Kana is taking a break from DJing, and Stanfield wasn’t going to be on the lineup for January’s event, leaving Zio, me, and Minagi (plus perhaps MKT/take-de-x).

Rather than bring in other DJs and risk changing the Hell’s sound, Zio has decided to call it a day… I’d hazard a guess that the financial side of things is another reason, as Hell’s has been doing no more than ‘ok’ with regard to attracting punters recently. The scene isn’t really big enough to get more than the couple of hundred that tend to turn out for this and NRGetic Romancer though (especially with both events being held on the ‘wrong side’ of Tokyo in Tamachi), so it’s difficult to see how that would have improved next year.

Of course, I’m really disappointed – the DJs and regular attendees at Hell’s were a brilliant crowd, and the atmosphere was really one of a friendly group of people who really love this kind of music. I’ve only played at two events, but my sets were (if I’m allowed to say so) very well received, and it’s really a shame not to keep developing that ‘relationship’ with the Hell’s crowd. I’ve suggested to Zio that one more ‘final’ event might be a good idea, but we’ll see…there seems to be a small chance.

So – it seems that I’ll be on the lookout for a new event to DJ at….although as there are only 2 or 3 in the whole of Tokyo, it might prove tricky. I have a few contacts in each though, so there’s still hope. In the meantime I’ll have more time to get some mixes out and concentrate on Hybridize projects, which is a good thing. Finally, massive thanks to Zio for giving me the chance to play at Hell’s, and to all the people who came to support/check out my sets this year.