Watching Duke Dumont get bottled and spat on broke my heart

It’s April 7, 2013 and Duke Dumont has just scored his first UK chart-topping hit with ‘Need U (100%)’. It blends addictive pop vocals with a danceable house beat and is well deserved of the fortnight it spends at Number One. I’m in the midst of my first year at university, living in the south Manchester suburb of Fallowfield where house music reigns supreme. ‘Need U (100%)’ becomes the soundtrack to a carefree spring season.

What a moment this must have been for the London-born Dumont. House hadn’t really bothered the top chart spot for close to a decade, following Shapeshifter’s 2004 belter ‘Lola’s Theme’, and now here was a relatively underground producer with a few EPs out on Tiga’s Turbo label scaling the dizzy heights. For years he’d been plugging away, entering unsigned producer competitions, striving for a hallowed breakthrough. He’d caught moderate attention with the aforementioned EPs and a few remixes for the likes of Lily Allen and Missy Elliott, but here he was, breaking out from the shadows and becoming a household name in his own right.

It surely would have felt like the start of a lifetime of fame and fortune, with a devout fanbase worshipping at the altar of his DJ booth. I mean, Number One; that’s something Bob Dylan hasn’t achieved over the course of 58 career singles. The track even picked up a Grammy nomination.

Then on March 23, 2014, it happened again. ‘I Got U’ marked Duke Dumont’s second chart-topping single in less than 12 months. Admittedly one-hit wonders can rise and disappear faster than you can say David Zowie, and selling a lot of copies of one record is no assurance of long-term success – Las Ketchup, David Sneddon and the Crazy Frog all hold chart-topping gongs, after all. But a second Number One? That’s the start of something big. It placed Duke among the dance music elite of fellow double-hitters such as Armand Van Helden and The Chemical Brothers.

Look at the confidence oozing from this smile. It indicates the idea of never booking a bad gig ever again. No more shoddy basements with weak systems and promoters palming you off to a Travelodge without breakfast. It’s arenas and Hiltons, limos and luxury jets.

Until a fateful night in September 2016, that is.

Last month, two weeks deep into a North American tour, Duke Dumont went up to Edmonton in Canada to play Union Hall, and the night went disastrously. A balcony overlooking the stage rained hell onto the DJ, with its occupants launching a tirade of bottles and spit onto the poor Duke, who halted the music, called out his aggressors and stormed off, cutting his set short. When he first hit Number One and imagined future fans salivating over his sets, we doubt this is what he had in mind. “If you’re brave enough, come the fuck down now!” he shouted down a mic in the direction of the balcony.

The whole thing’s heartbreaking to watch. The head of the Blasé Boys Club losing his cool while being booed. The Duke of the scene relegated to a ridiculed court jester. Within a country whose overt politeness is a source of mockery from its noisy southern neighbours, and a city named like an Oxbridge college, no less.

As Duke Dumont left the stage in fury, the highs of his best-selling singles, those moments where life seemed so perfectly on track, must have felt like ancient history, disintegrating like Roman ruins before his eyes. The thrill of the Grammy nomination now minimised in memory to the level of enthusiasm shown by Homer Simpson’s bellhop in Homer’s Barbershop Quartet, as bodily fluid and sticky alcohol dripped down his exposed skin.

Art imitates life, as the saying goes, so without stretching at all, it’s fair to say Duke Dumont’s fall reflects the fall of society. Just look at the facts. Today, notorious homophobe James Arthur sits atop the UK singles chart, having just ousted accused sexists The Chainsmokers. Meanwhile, a previous darling of the masses who made inoffensive bangers was hounded offstage by a medieval mob brandishing 21^st century weapons of spit and bottles in place of pitchforks. A harrowing scene to behold.

As Duke Dumont left the stage, he made a final apology to the “99.9 per cent” of people behaving respectfully, but this majority was of no comfort. As his career high noted, he needs 100%. And now summer 2013’s biggest anthem will be forever tinged with wistful sadness.

Patrick Hinton is Mixmag's Digital Staff Writter. Follow him on Twitter

Alex Jenkins is a freelance illustrator and regular contributor to Mixmag. Follow him on Instagram