It was during a 2008 tour of Australia that UK prog champion Danny Howells his infamous dummy spit about the ethics of warm-up DJs, prompting some frenzied debate on the inthemix forums as to whether Danny was in the right to call for and expect a less ‘banging’ introduction to his headline set or whether he was just having a sook.

That incident has remained a talking point amongst local clubbers – with inthemix canvassing the scene for expert analysis of warm-up DJs – and before returning to Australia in April for some prized Dig Deeper club sets, Howells himself reflected on what happened in an interview with ITM.

“I still regret that actually, I think it was pretty unprofessional of me,” he told inthemix while prepping for his Dig Deeper party in Miami this week. “I do think it was unprofessional of him [to play that way], but it was more unprofessional of me because I’ve been DJing for much longer and I think I should’ve dealt with it differently.”

Howells explained that despite his remorse for the incident he was pleased with the dialogue that resulted from the fallout of his rant, saying that he was pleased that it at least spurred on some discussion about the ‘art of opening DJs’.

“I think it was actually on inthemix that I read a lot of comments about it and it was kinda like 50/50 with people saying that I should grow up and the other half saying that I was totally right,” he laughed. “I really appreciated both sides of that and I think that it raised some really valid points and I learned a lot out of it. I saw some people saying that they’re going to be at a club for eight hours and they want it banging straight from the word go, and if that’s the case then not I’m particularly sure they’re really my target audience, to be honest with you!”

Although he admits his fault in the previous incident, Danny contends that he’s not about to bite his tongue and enjoys getting things off his chest, including his most recent ‘moan’ this week about one his sets leaking online. “I think I’ve learned that if something bothers me I’ll get online and say my piece, but now with Twitter I’ll just keep it to 140 characters and then delete it a few minutes later. It makes me feel much better.”