The Grooverider Is Free!
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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE FOR YOUR SUPPORT.

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MODERATORS CANNOT SEND MESSAGES OUT TO THE ENTIRE GROUP. IF YOU WANT TO HELP, PLEASE SHARE LINKS TO THE OFFICIAL PETITION AND SIGN IT. THANK YOU.

Official Petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/gr00v3

COMMENTS OFFENSIVE TO GROOVERIDER SUPPORTERS, OR CITIZENS OF THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, WILL BE REMOVED AND YOU MAY BE BANNED FROM THIS GROUP.
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The Grooverider Is Free!

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Name:
The Grooverider Is Free!
Category:
Common Interest - Current Events
Description:
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE FOR YOUR SUPPORT.

-----------------------------------------------------------


MODERATORS CANNOT SEND MESSAGES OUT TO THE ENTIRE GROUP. IF YOU WANT TO HELP, PLEASE SHARE LINKS TO THE OFFICIAL PETITION AND SIGN IT. THANK YOU.

Official Petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/gr00v3

COMMENTS OFFENSIVE TO GROOVERIDER SUPPORTERS, OR CITIZENS OF THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, WILL BE REMOVED AND YOU MAY BE BANNED FROM THIS GROUP.
ALL UNRELATED TOPICS MUST GO IN THIS... (read more)
Privacy Type:
Open: All content is public.

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Website:
http://www.grooverider.com
Office:
Official Petition for release and / or immediate deportation: http://www.petitiononline.com/gr00v3

Recent News
 

News:
Thu 4th September 2008

Grooverider released from Dubai Jail!


Thanks to all 13,000 of you who joined this newsgroup and spent your own time spreading the petition link and supporting the Free The Grooverider global campaign over the last 10 months.

We've won the campaign so crack open the champagne!

Respect to yourselves!

WELCOME HOME GROOVERIDER!



Official Petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/gr00v3

Tuesday, 19 February 2008, 13:41 GMT

Grooverider jailed for four years

Radio 1 DJ Grooverider has been jailed for four years in Dubai after admitting cannabis possession.

The DJ, whose real name is Raymond Bingham, co-presented a weekend drum & bass show on the station.

He was arrested on 23 November 2007 after being caught with 2.16 grams of cannabis at the airport.

Bingham claims the drugs were in the pocket of a pair of trousers and he had forgotten about them.

He'll serve the minimum sentence for possession in the United Arab Emirates but his agents have told Newsbeat they hope to get him released.

A Radio 1 spokesman said: "Grooverider has paid a very high price for a serious mistake."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/music/newsid_7252000/7252803.stm


Renowned British DJ jailed for four years for possession of marijuana

By Bassam Zaza, Senior Reporter
Published: February 19, 2008, 09:28

Dubai: A famous British disc jockey will spend four years in prison for bringing in and possessing 2.16 grams of marijuana, a court ruled yesterday.

The Dubai Court of First Instance found the 40-year-old DJ guilty of bringing in and possessing marijuana for personal use, as charged by the Public Prosecution.

The accused, who will be deported after serving his term, claimed he was unaware that he possessed marijuana which was seized from him at Dubai International Airport.

"I did not know the drugs were in my possession," R.W. told the court earlier.

Medical reports said tetra-hydro cannabinol, an active component of hashish, was found in the defendant's urine.

R.W.'s lawyers Mohammad Al Redha and Mohammad Al Suwaidi presented their defence earlier this month.

http://archive.gulfnews.com/nation/Police_and_The_Courts/10190903.html


Star DJ admits charge
Last Updated : Monday 28 Jan, 2008

DJ Grooverider admitted possession of marijuana when he appeared in court in Dubai yesterday. The famous British dance DJ, whose real name is Raymond Bingham, admitted having 2.16 grammes of marijuana in the pocket of his trousers when he arrived in Dubai in November last year.

The 40-year-old, who appeared in court dressed in white prison overalls, admitted possessing illegal drugs and told judges: “The drugs were in my possession and I forgot I had them in my trousers.” The DJ, who used to host a weekly drum and bass programme ‘Fabio and Groovrider’ on BBC Radio 1 before his arrest, could face four years in jail - the usual minimum sentence for possession of drugs.
His lawyer, Mohammad Al-Reda, who defended Grammy-winning R&B producer Dallas Austin when he was arrested in Dubai in 2006 with 1.26g of cocaine, told 7DAYS yesterday: “He feels regret and knows he has made a mistake, especially when I told him the sentence he could face. I have met him a number of times and he is in a good condition. He has asked not to be transferred to the central prison and wants to remain at the airport prison.”
In an interview given from his cell, the DJ previously said: “I just want this to end and to never come back. It was a small amount. Back home I would not even get prosecuted.” According to police reports, he was arrested at Dubai International Airport on November 23 after flying into the country to play a set at the city’s Chi at the Lodge nightclub.

A Dubai Customs official said in a statement read to the court: “I searched him and he had nothing illegal on him, but when I searched his bag I found marijuana in a plastic bag inside a pocket of his jeans. When I asked him about it he said it was marijuana and that it was for his personal use and he had forgotten it was in his trousers.”
A spokeswoman for Groove Connection, the British management agency which represents Grooverider, said last night that she would not comment on the court case until she had taken legal advice. The case has been adjourned until next month for the defence case to be heard.

http://www.7days.ae/en/2008/01/28/star-dj-admits-charge.html


From The Times
February 20, 2008
Grooverider: downfall of an innovator
Ed Potton

A sentence of four years in jail for the inadvertent importation into Dubai of 2.16g of cannabis seems pretty draconian. But perhaps Grooverider, the unfortunate Radio 1 DJ involved, can count himself relatively lucky. This month another unfortunate British visitor to the United Arab Emirates, Keith Brown, received the same sentence for the same offence. But he had only 0.003g of the drug on his person and that was stuck to the sole of his shoe.

Unless Grooverider's lawyers win him some sort of reprieve, the global dance industry must party on for the next few years without one of its most influential figures.

The 40-year-old DJ - real name Raymond Bingham - is recognised as one of the godfathers of drum'n'bass, a genre of electronic dance music characterised by super-fast, chopped up “breakbeats” and deep rumbling bass sounds.

While other branches of dance music, such as house and techno, have direct roots in America, drum'n'bass has a claim to being Britain's first - and arguably only - genuinely modern homegrown musical genre. And Grooverider - together with his co-presenter Fabio - is its prime mover.

Grooverider started off playing hip-hop, soul and disco in his native Streatham, South London, before graduating to house music, which he has described as his “first love”. He began his career with a South London sound system, a mobile collective of DJs who would put on parties in different locations. In the mid-1980s, he and Fabio joined the pirate radio station Phase 1, where marathon sessions became the norm.

When the owner of the station opened an after-hours club, Mendoza's, in Brixton, Grooverider and Fabio were invited to become resident DJs. But it was not until 1991 that the duo's profile rocketed, as they embarked on a residency at the hugely influential Rage night at the Central London club, Heaven.

A new musical style was emerging: hardcore, a breakbeat-led precursor to drum'n' bass which soundtracked the underground clubs and huge-scale raves of the early 1990s. Grooverider was one of its leading exponents. He was also at the forefront of hardcore's evolution into drum'n'bass, and subsequent mutation into dark, uncompromising sub-genres such as hardstep and techstep. In 1994, he founded his Prototype label, through which he released his own album, Mysteries of Funk.

Although his production, remix and presenting work have provided ample distraction, the winner of the 2002 MOBO award for best DJ has always been happiest playing to live audiences. “I'll always be a DJ first,” he said recently, and his services remain in high demand all over the world. Including Dubai, where a sell-out crowd waited in vain for his arrival at The Lodge club last November.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article3404292.ece

Official Petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/gr00v3