Upskirted, assaulted, accused of faking their music skills: Why female DJs need to be ‘bulletproof’
To see Koven’s Katie Boyle perform live is beyond impressive. Hailing from Luton, she is one of the most influential women in drum ‘n’ bass today, an artist who pioneered the art of singing live while DJing.
Although she’s now been doing it for 12 years, her vast knowledge doesn’t silence the trolls online.
“There is a real bad misogyny online against women,” she says of the industry, with plenty of critics refusing to “believe they’re doing what they say they’re doing, and that’s been quite a hard thing to combat”.
Koven is a duo. In the studio, Boyle collaborates with producer Max Rowat; live, she performs and mixes alone. They have just released their second album, Moments In Everglow.
Koven (L-R): Max Rowat and Katie Boyle
While both Boyle and Rowat are equally involved in making tracks, a minority of very vocal fans still refuse to accept she does anything other than sing.
“I will always be accused of the male half doing more on anything to do with technology,” says Boyle. “The amount of comments [I get] to say, ‘she didn’t make this’. No explanation as to why they think that it is, just purely because [I’m] a woman, which is just mad.”
Koven’s Katie Boyle says she has had some ‘awful incidences’
While Boyle loves performing live, there are moments, she admits, where being one of the few women on the scene can feel unsafe.
“I’ve had some awful incidences,” she says. “I had someone run on stage and completely grab me, hand down my top, down my trousers, while I was on the stage, which is crazy because you think that’s happening in front of an audience. I mean, this guy literally had to be plied off me.
“That was when I did think, ‘I need to bring someone with me to most places’. I didn’t feel safe travelling around by myself.”
‘You get trolled for everything’
DJ Paulette. Pic: Paulette
Sadly, Boyle isn’t alone. Over a 30-year career, DJ Paulette has scaled the heights of dance music fame, playing throughout Europe, with a residency back in the day at Manchester’s Hacienda.
“Let’s just say I have two towels on my rider and it’s not just because I sweat a lot,” she jokes, miming a whack for those around her.
“I’ve spent time in DJ booths where I’ve had a skirt on and people have been taking pictures up my skirt. People think upskirting is a joke… and I got fed up with it.” Wearing shorts, she says, she still ended with “people with their hands all over me”. Now, she sticks to trousers. “But we shouldn’t have to alter the way we look for the environment that we work in.”
She admits, in order to stick it out, she’s had to bulletproof herself. “You get trolled for everything, for the way you look – if you put on weight, if you’ve lost weight.”
Not only is the discourse towards female DJs different online, she says, she has also been repeatedly told by those working in the industry that because she’s a woman, she has a sell-by date.
“I went for dinner with three guys… one of them said to me, ‘you know Paulette there is no promoter or organiser who is ever going to employ a black female DJ with grey hair’, and they all laughed.
“That was them saying to me that my career was over, and I was in my 40s. At the time, I felt crushed… I think it really does take women who have a real steel will to make their way through.”
‘I will not stop talking about it’
DJ Jaguar at the International Music Summit in Ibiza. Pic: Ben Levi Suhling
As the great and the good of the dance world gather in Ibiza for the industry’s annual International Music Summit, with dance music more popular than ever there is of course much to party about.
But for BBC Radio 1 broadcaster and DJ Jaguar, one of this year’s summit’s cohosts, some serious conversations also need to be had.
“You can get off the plane and look at the billboards around Ibiza and it’s basically white men – David Guetta, Calvin Harris, and they are incredible artists in their own right – but the women headliners, there’s barely any visibility of them, it’s awful.”
She adds: “I will not stop talking about it because it is the reality.”
Trolling and safety are also big concerns. “You’re in these green rooms, there’s a lot of people there, drinking and doing other things… and I’ve walked into green rooms where I felt incredibly uncomfortable, especially when I was a bit younger. I was on my own, it’s like 2am, and you have to watch yourself.”
Male DJs don’t have the same stories
The International Music Summit in Ibiza
She says she has female friends who have had drinks spiked when they were DJing. But her male friends? “They don’t have the same stories to tell me.”
Creamfields, arguably the UK’s biggest dance festival, is emblematic of the gender imbalance. It remains one of the least representative festivals in terms of female artists, with last year’s line-up more than 80% male.
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Laila MacKenzie, founder of Lady Of The House, a community that supports and tries to encourage more women into dance music, says the talent pipeline problem isn’t helped by the current discourse online.
“There is a real damaging factor how people can be really nasty online and really nasty in the media and how that actually may discourage and demotivate women from stepping forward into their talent,” she says.
In reality, for so many women working within dance music, the trolling can be so unpleasant that it’s drowning out the good.
“There is so much positivity and so many lovely and supportive people,” says Boyle. “But unfortunately it feels like the negative and the toxic energy is just louder sometimes.”
Entertainment
Dame Joanna Lumley warns of ‘crisis hidden in plain sight’ – with 1.5 million older people set to spend Christmas alone
Dame Joanna Lumley has warned of a “crisis hidden in plain sight”, with 1.5 million older people set to spend Christmas alone.
Age UK spoke to more than 2,600 people and found 11% will eat dinner alone on 25 December, while 5% will not see or speak to anyone the whole day.
Applied to the overall population, the findings suggest 1.5 million people will eat alone at Christmas, according to the charity.
Dame Joanna said the “silence can be deafening” for those left isolated and called it “a crisis hidden in plain sight”.
The actor and campaigner is now joining other luminaries including Dame Judi Dench, Brian Cox and Miriam Margolyes to back Age UK’s campaign against loneliness.
The charity says its volunteers made more than 70,000 minutes’ worth of calls to people during Christmas week last year and is urging people to donate.
‘A tragedy we don’t talk about enough’
Age UK said it also supports coffee mornings and festive lunches to give lonely people the chance to enjoy in-person interaction.
Dame Judi said: “For so many older people, Christmas can be a time of silence – days without conversation or company.”
Succession star Brian Cox called the issue “a tragedy we don’t talk about enough”.
He said: “Far too many older people are left spending the season in silence, when it should be a time of warmth, connection and joy.”
Brian Cox is another of the campaign’s high-profile backers. Pic: PA
Margolyes, of Harry Potter fame, added: “Growing older shouldn’t mean disappearing into the background, we need to be seen, heard and celebrated.
“That’s what Age UK is striving for – they’re changing how we perceive age.”
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The charity’s chief executive, Paul Farmer, said: “Your donation could bring comfort, friendship, and care to an older person facing loneliness this winter.
“From friendly, weekly calls to local lunch clubs, we’re here to make sure no one spends winter alone. But we can’t do it without you.”
Entertainment
Salman Rushdie on Charlie Kirk’s murder, surviving his own assassination attempt – and AI
Sir Salman Rushdie has told Sky News that Charlie Kirk’s murder was a “consequence of US gun culture”.
In an interview with Sky News lead presenter Wilfred Frost, Sir Salman said he thought the assassination of Mr Kirk, a conservative US activist, was an “appalling act of violence”.
“But it seems to me to be a characteristic or a consequence of America’s terrifying gun culture,” said the Booker-prize-winning author, who survived an attempt on his life at the Chautauqua Institution in New York in 2022.
“When you have a situation where there are more guns in private ownership than there are people in the country, I mean, guns are everywhere.
“When children are brought up being taught by their parents how to use guns, and guns are being left in the home in unlocked cabinets, it’s a country in which violent gun-related crime happens almost every day. And this is one of the most brutal examples of it.”
Sir Salman being interviewed by Sky News lead presenter Wilfred Frost
The Indian-British author also addressed the attempted assassination of US President Donald Trump, saying: “Well, I guess I’m happy that it failed. Beyond that, I don’t have a lot to say about it.”
Sir Salman was attacked by Hadi Matar, who stabbed him in the head, neck, torso and left hand, leaving him with damage to his liver and intestines as well as blind in one eye. Matar was jailed for 25 years in May.
He wrote about the attack and his recovery in his 2024 memoir Knife. His new book, Eleventh Hour, is a return to fiction.
Sir Salman Rushdie says Charlie Kirk’s assassination was a ‘consequence’ of US gun culture
Discussing the book and writing in general, he suggested that he doesn’t think AI would be able to capture emotion, humour and creativity like humans can.
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“The couple of little experiments that I’ve carried out with AI suggest to me that at least this far, it doesn’t have a sense of humour. And it’s not original,” he said.
“What it can do is to duplicate things that have been fed into it. But good art is original, and I don’t think that AI has an original bone in its body.”
Watch the full interview, including Sir Salman’s comments on book bans and freedom of speech in the US, during Mornings with Ridge and Frost on Sky News.
Biker romance Pillion has picked up the top prize at the British Independent Film Awards.
The film’s first-time feature writer and director Harry Lighton was also named best debut screenwriter at the ceremony, held at the Roundhouse in Camden, London, on Sunday evening.
Starring Harry Melling as sweet and timid Colin, and Alexander Skarsgard as rugged biker Ray, the film picked up four prizes in total – including craft wins for best costume design and make-up and hair.
Members of Kneecap holding director Rich Peppiatt. Pic: PA
Jessie Buckley and Olivia Colman. Pic: PA
Tom Basden and Tim Key took home the BIFA awards for best joint lead performance and best screenplay, for their debut feature The Ballad Of Wallis Island. Also starring Carey Mulligan, the film tells the story of a faded folk musician and his former partner who reluctantly reunite for an eccentric fan.
Elsewhere in the acting categories, Robert Aramayo was honoured with the best lead performance award for his portrayal of Tourette’s campaigner John Davison in I Swear, with the supporting performance award going to Jay Lycurgo for his role in pressure-cooker school drama Steve, also starring Oscar-winner Cillian Murphy.
Newcomer Posy Sterling’s portrayal of a mother fighting for custody of her children in Lollipop earned her the breakthrough performance award, while the best ensemble performance prize went to the cast of Warfare – including Will Poulter, Kit Connor, Joseph Quinn and Charles Melton.
Jack Lowden and Saoirse Ronan. Pic: PA
This year’s ceremony also celebrated cinema itself, with the inaugural cinema of the year award going to The Magic Lantern Cinema in the Welsh coastal town of Tywyn.
The BIFA for best international independent film was awarded to Sentimental Value, Joachim Trier’s intimate exploration of family, memories and the reconciliatory power of art.
Behind the camera, Akinola Davies Jr was named best director for his debut feature My Father’s Shadow, a story of two brothers who first come to understand their father at a pivotal moment in both his life and Nigerian history, while The Douglas Hickox Award for best debut director went to Cal McMau for prison drama Wasteman.
Robert Aramayo in I Swear. Pic: StudioCanal
And in the documentary categories, Myrid Carten’s exploration of mental health and addiction within her family, A Want In Her, picked up three BIFAs – best feature documentary, The Raindance Maverick Award, and best debut director for a feature documentary.
Elsewhere, Emily Watson, star of films including Gosford Park, Punch-Drunk Love and War Horse, and TV series including Chernobyl and Dune: Prophecy, was awarded the outstanding contribution to British film prize.
Tim Key (left) as Charles Heath and Tom Basden as Herb McGwyer in The Ballad Of Wallis Island. Pic: Focus Features, LLC/ Alistair Heap
Production company Warp Films – behind films such as Dead Man’s Shoes and This Is England, as well as the recent critically acclaimed series Adolescence – was honoured with the BIFA special jury prize for its “unflinching and uncompromising” commitment to telling “raw and relevant stories”.
Sophie Okonedo. Pic: PA
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Founded in 1998, the BIFAs aim to celebrate, promote and support talent and creativity in British independent film.
Previous winners of the best independent film award include Kneecap, the semi-autobiographical story of Irish-language rappers Kneecap, and Oscar winner The Favourite.
Jessie Buckley. Pic: PA
This year’s ceremony was hosted by comedians Lou Sanders and Harriet Kemsley, with Carey Mulligan, Stephen Merchant, Ruth Wilson, Billy Crudup and Celia Imrie among the star presenters.
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