GBH are primarily a Bristol based rave organisation who were holding their first event of the year so I went down to check it out. I arrived at the Depot at 9.30 and was greeted by a small queue. The place looked a bit mysterious from the outside, the appearance resembled more a social club then a rave venue. After a comical search by security, where the bouncer searched me one handed as he had a cup of tea in his other hand, I finally got inside. The Depot is a bit off a strange venue. Its situated on 3 levels and has a capacity of about 600 - 700. The ground level as you walk in has the main dancefloor. Downstairs has the second dancefloor along with a third smaller dancefloor and upstairs is the main chillout area. The first arena I checked out was the main room where the dancefloor was slowly filling up. The main room was quite big and had a capacity of about 250. It had a high ceiling and had good sound and lighting systems along with décor like UV backdrops, inflatables hanging about. According to the DJ timetables posted about, it was time for Hixxy on the decks. But I was a bit disappointed with Hixxy’s set, as I thought he would be unveiling some of the new banging tunes he’s recently been making with UFO. But instead he played in a more trancey / hardcore sort of style dropping tunes like the ‘Binary Finary’ remix. It was still quite a good set as it was slightly more banging then the stuff he was playing last year and certainly got the crowd moving about. But I was really expecting him to unleash some proper banging hardcore on the crowd. Next up were Juice & Cally representing GSI with their sounds of Powertrance. The few times I’ve heard these two play, I’ve always been impressed and tonight was no exception. They banged out their unique sound of uplifting trancey / hard house sort of stuff, which had the packed dancefloor loving it. The turnout was good on the night. The place was pretty much full to capacity and all the dancefloors seemed to be fairly busy most of the night. The atmosphere was good inside as well. No attitude just lots of happy smiley people out to have a good time and everyone seemed fairly up for it on the dancefloor. The crowd were a fairly mixed bag. There were plenty of proper ravers dressed in the usual raving attire (including some in togas !!) but there were also a few more smartly dressed sort of people compared to other hardcore events, but still the vibe throughout was good, which is what counts. I then checked out the arena downstairs which had low ceilings and pillars giving it a more underground feeling to it. But the sound system down there really was dire to say the least. You could barely hear the bassline and everyone (including the DJs) weren’t impressed with it at all. It was a shame because a lot of good music was being banged out down there throughout the night, but the ravers could barely pick up on it, so maybe next time the problem will be rectified. It was now 12.00 and time for DJ Skippy, who is one of Bristol’s most well known hardcore DJs. It was a wicked set by Skippy, playing a mixture of banging hardcore, dropping tunes like ‘Space Odyssey’ had the crowd fully rocking. I’m not sure who the MC was but he sounded quite impressive and definitely a lot better then Robbie D who I thought was poor on the night, which is a shame because back in the day Robbie D used to be so good at getting the crowds going. Next up in the downstairs arena was Vinylgroover, who was celebrating his birthday. Now I was unsure whether Vinylgroover would play it hardcore or play it hard house especially after what he did at Skelter NYE. But thankfully he kept it hardcore and played a wicked set. Playing tunes like the ‘I Need Your Lovin’ remix and blending in few Evolution tunes had the crowd stomping mad. I then decided to take a breather in the chillout room on the top floor. There were loads of pool tables up there for the ravers to have a game on and there were plenty of ravers scrambling around trying to have a go. In which I did and won 3 – 0 and I won’t mention the name of the person I thrashed :) After that it was back to the main room where it was time for Sharkey who instead of playing his usual banging freeform was playing hard house instead. At first, I was a bit disappointed as I was really looking forward to Sharkey banging out some freeform. But still, the hard house he played was banging and uplifting. Some of the stuff he was dropping was touching on about 160 bpm and certainly had me going mad on the dancefloor. I think the music policy on the night was generally aimed more towards the harder and cutting edge side of hardcore, with strong trance/ techno / hard house influences being heard. The happy sound of hardcore was given the back seat on the night, which I didn’t mind too much because it gave a chance to check out some new sounds for a change. But I think having a happy DJ playing the odd set in the main room would go down well with the ravers. Last hour of the night so I headed downstairs to check out Brisk who was up to his exceptionally high standard and probably the set of the night in my opinion. He played it extra banging then usual making sure the crowd were loving it and a storming way to round of the night. Overall it was a good night, everyone I spoke to enjoyed themselves and had a wicked time. I’m sure judging by the amount of support they have, the GBH crew will go from strength to strength and keep on representing Bristol for the hardcore scene. Birthday Shout to Andrew……..hope you had a good one mate :) Big Shouts to: Kev, Conrad, Jonathan, Jo, Tina, Kiki, Skippy, Simon Patten (don’t give up the raving mate !!), Carly madraver, Emma, Sash …….seeya around soon :) Over and Out Slammin’ Sam
