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Local police are worried that a mob war might have broken out between the different factions of the Oxford Music Mafia after a number of sinister incidents over the last month. The first signs of trouble came in the early hours of the 26th of April when a fire broke out at Oxford Music Central, the office complex that is home to Shifty Disco, Nightshift, the Point’s promoter and website designers Interrobang. The electrical fire caused significant but not severe damage to one of the offices and according to one insider has left the complex “coated in a horrible slimy film of soot that smells slightly of old burnt fish”. Police investigating the fire were quick to scan the Nightshift demo pages for clues to who might have had the motive. They were soon able to narrow a list of suspects down to some 273 local bands. At first this seemed like an isolated incident. But a mere two weeks later the Rotator Records studio complex on Magdalen Road was the scene of armed police activity when a car used in an earlier post office raid was discovered in the studio’s car park. Everyone in the studio, including the bands Unbelievable Truth and Ginger Baby, were forced to shelter in the building for over an hour as police investigated the abandoned vehicle, which some sources suspect may have been left as some kind of sinister ‘horse’s head’-type warning to Rotator godfather Richard Cotton. The incident was further compounded when one member of Ginger Baby, having ‘over-relaxed’ somewhat, ventured outside to see what all the fuss was about and was promptly arrested for being in no fit state to explain who he was. Events took an even more violent turn the following night, Sunday the 14th of May, when a car was driven through the front door of the Zodiac, headquarters of the powerful OX4 cartel. What initially appeared to be just another road accident is believed by some to have been a revenge attack by the OMC mob, angered that the Zodiac had gone and booked The Dandy Warhols on the same night as the England Vs Germany match. Following a tip off, Thames Valley Police CID are looking into the theory that the original OMC fire was started by Zodiac stage manager Andy Grey, incensed by Nightshift printing an old photo of him with long girly hair in the May issue. Grey was said to be “on business in France” on the night of the fire. He was also supposedly “on business in Sweden” the night of the Zodiac incident, although insiders claim he is still fuming after Zodiac promoter Nick Moorbath made him peel all the old bits of gaffer tape off the stage after a gig. A spokesman for Thames Valley Police told Nightshift that “This is an emergency number, you’re stopping important calls from coming in. Don’t call it again, you silly little man”. |