On April 23rd at 6.30pm the UKTI Business innovation awards will honor recipient Paul Oakenfold, the internationally acclaimed, globe-trotting DJ recorder producer and remixer, with a Creative Fusion Award at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, at 300 South Doheny Drive.
The 5th Annual Business Innovation Awards, presented by Virgin Atlantic, celebrates outstanding achievement and innovation in Technology, Social Impact, Product Design and Business Services, and Oakenfold certainly qualifies. From his early years as a DJ in a Covent Garden Wine Bar in the late 1970s, Oakenfold moved on to become a pioneer in the Ibiza house music scene, helped introduce Acid House dance parties to the UK and then immersed himself in Goan Music, remixing and redubbing South Indian melodies to create a completely new international dance genre.
Oakenfold also pioneered large-scale global dance events, including Cyberfest, a dance event in San Francisco that drew over 80,000 fans. He was also the first DJ to perform at both the Glastonbury Festival and the Hollywood Bowl and has remixed numerous tracks from artists as diverse as Madonna, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake. He is widely considered to be the world’s most famous and and influential DJ. Keynote speaker for the event is Andy Bird CBE, a British film producer and executive who is currently chairman of Walt Disney International.
Staying with the world of British DJs, on April 24th at 9pm at the Palihouse in West Hollywood leading British DJ and Producer Evil Twin will be joined by a selection of LA’s finest DJs for a five hour celebration of Electronic Music. Evil Twin, Jamie Charles, Chris Samba and Jordan Epperson will be spinning in a can’t-miss event for contemporary music lovers.
Running three nights (April 24-27th) at the ComedySportz space at 733 Seward Avenue in Hollywood are two alternative troupes, Mannerhouse Manor and Chickspeare.
Mannerhouse Manor (April 24, 10pm & April 26, 9pm) are described as “A fully improvised Edwardian comedy in the style of Downton Abbey or Upstairs, Downstairs. The show takes place on an English country estate during the 1910s, and every show presents the family who lives there, the servants who tend to them, and the comedy and drama that unite their lives. Each episode is entirely unscripted. Mannerhouse Manor contains love, honor, and tea… so much tea.”
Chickspeare (April 26, 7pm & April 27, 5pm) is an all-female, improvised Shakespeare-style group from Charlotte, North Carolina, performing on the ComedySports patio. Attendees are encouraged to “Come early and bring a picnic…..Our cast of verbose vixens will keep you laughing until the sun has set.”
