With the closure of the Sanctuary our scene needs new venues to hold raves in and here was a great chance to see one firsthand. I had heard great things from the Drome (especially from Kev) so I wanted to go along and see what this new venue was really like. After a busy Saturday me, Kev, Time and Billy Bass arrived at the Drome at about 11:20 pm. This was a lot later than we had planned to get there and the others had already gone ahead without us. I was eager to get inside and get raving but we just seemed to be waiting loner and longer in the queue. Overall we waited nearly two hours which when you think about it just takes the piss really doesn't it? There is no greater mood killer than waiting outside for what seems like an eternity as by the time you have got inside you're already on a downer. The cloakroom queue was also massive and quite disorganised so by the time I'd dropped my coat off it was 2am. I took a walk round the venue to see what it was like. The Drome was absolutely massive and was completely different and underground to any other venue in the scene. It had been partitioned into about five arenas by curtains and the hardcore room wasn't massive but big enough for us all. Another thing that I learned inside was that there were no taps in the toilets so a new bottle of water was required every time one was emptied. This is not only expensive but it's also dangerous and illegal. I hope they sort it out for next time. Vibes should have been on for midnight but he didn't show up, although I wouldn't have been inside for his set anyway. I caught the end of Breeze's set and he played some great tunes including "Let's Fly" and "Virtual Dreams". Next up were Force and Styles and they were playing for two hours. It seems to be the general consensus that they played a poor set at Slammin Vinyl with a new weaker trancey style and as this was their first proper event since then I was very curious to see what their set would be like. I'm glad to say that they were back to playing hardcore again and in fact they played the best set of the night in my opinion. They played some of their own tunes like "Feelin Fine" along with classics like "Shooting Star" and newer Scott Brown tunes. MC Storm arrived to do the last half hour of Force and Styles' set and he got the crowd going as usual. However this half an hour was the only MC'ing that he did all night which I thought was a bit unusual and a shame as he is one of mine and most people's favourite MC's. Mark EG was up next along with MC Ribbz and they played a hard trance set. I'm not really a fan of their style because it seems slower than happy hardcore but I was pleased to see what a nice bloke Mark is. I went to shake his hand and instead of shaking mine he grabbed me and gave me a massive hug,. How many other DJ's would do that? Vinyltrixta played the next set and he did a good selection of tunes with not too much trance included. The event should have finished at 6am but as the queue took such an excessive time to empty they decided to keep the venue open for an extra hour or so. Only at an underground venue like this would they have been able to get away with that. For instance, the Pleasure Rooms always seems to finish at two minutes to six every week, no matter what. Easy Ed played the last set which went on until about 7:15. I have said many times that I am impressed with his style and where did it here again. He played a great selection of happy tunes, including a few older ones that you wouldn't expect to hear played but were still banging. This bought the night to a close and looking back on it all it was a great night. However the only really bad thing about it was the organisation of it all. Standing in a queue for two hours is not on at any rave, and this was made even more frustrating by the fact that there were seemingly no security guards to monitor the queue. Also, having no taps in the toilets means no drinking supply which is pretty dangerous. People had to keep buying new bottles from the bar each time which was expensive and there will always be people who aren't willing to do this. It was a nice touch to keep the venue open for an extra hour and a quarter though and I was impressed by this. Raindance did well to get a new venue like this and it has great potential to be a really good rave venue. If they can sort out the queuing problem and the lack of free drinking water then the next event there will be brilliant. Shouts to all the new friendly people that I met in there as well as all the usuals. They are Time, Kev, Slammin Sam, Andrew and Jo, Rich and Jo. Bridie, John, Stu and Lizzie, Happy J, Justin Vinyl, Billy Bass, Breaker, Cris E Manic, Uplift, Lukozade, Tina, Mad Raver, Kia, Paul and Carol, Emma, Nicky P, and MC Storm. Apologies to anyone that I've forgotten but there were so many of you. I'd just like to point that if I am the daddy of the site as alleged this week then Slammin Sam is the crippled old grandad. He wanted to go about 40 minutes from the end but of course I persuaded him to stop. And he has the cheek to call me a lightweight for grabbing a crafty nap the morning after. Heh heh. There aren't many big events before NYE Skelter but I'll be going to Revolution next week in Sheffield and then Sensation at the Emporium, Coalville the week after. I'll see you all soon ravers.
