Since the closure of skelter there haven't really been enough big events around. Johnny Go Mental decided to put on his own night to help the scene along and we're all very glad that he did. Johnny and his record label Go Mental are well respected by all ravers as someone who genuinely cares about hardcore so if anybody could have pulled it off then it would be him. We set off for London Bridge station with virtually everyone from USH NET present. There was supposed to be a free bus run to the venue by Go Mental but this was either quite late or didn't actually happen because we waited from 9:00 until 9:30 before deciding to get a normal bus there. This was quite an ambitious thing to promise anyway so no-one was really bothered when it didn't show. The venue was quite hard to find. It's not by a tube station and needs a bus ride to get there. We were all lucky because if we hadn't bumped into someone who knew the way then we would have struggled to find it. We arrived there at about 10:00 and there was no queue so we were in pretty quickly. I had a fairly lenient search by the security who were friendlier than at a lot of other places, then walked in to see the venue. Initially it went into a large bar room playing hard house. It had plenty of chairs and tables inside so was good for chilling out in. Walking through the bar led to the main arena which was pretty big inside. There was a big stage at the front with plenty of space for the many stage dancers they had on the night. There were lots of inflatables and decorations hanging from the ceiling and they'd put lots of effort into decorating the arena. They also had a merchandise stall selling whistles and glow rods, and of course records. The first set of the night was Vinyl and he played some decent tunes including "The Invader". Next up was Sharkey and he was the best set of the night for me. He played "Distornord", "Now Control" and plenty of other hard tunes to get everyone dancing. Following him came Slipmatt who mixed up hardcore and some breakbeat style tunes. His set was a little bit slower than the ones before but kept everyone going. After that was the first of the two live PA's on the night, this one by Nu Energy. They played "Take me Up" and "Free the Brain". Then Energy played his set but instead of playing his usual freeform style he did an old skool set. Even though I'm not a massive old skool fan it was still something different and broke the night up a bit. During this set I walked through the bar area where Slipmatt was playing hard house. This music is quite listenable to, although it's definitely inferior to hardcore. The next act was the live Go Mental PA. They had Vickie singing the boyzone remix "Sorry" and "Autumn Again". While it is very doubtful that they were actually playing those keyboards they had, this was for me one of the best things about the night. Having the vocalist on stage made it seem like a concert and everyone there was singing along. The next set was swapped around from the original line up so it was Vibes playing. Vibes has taken a bit of a slating recently for being "too cheesy". No-one can deny how popular he is though amongst the ravers and he always lifts the atmosphere when he comes on. No-one plays it quite like Vibes, and here he played "Techno Wonderland", "The Rave Theme" and "Rainbow in the Sky. The penultimate set of the night was Impact. He played some good tunes like "Healing Mind" but his mixing was a little off at times. Following him came Kaos to play the final set at his own event. He played lots of Go Mental tunes including "Hold me Now" and "Don't Go". The night finished at 5:00 and most people were dancing until the end. Summing up, I was really impressed by this event. The atmosphere was extremely friendly with a great raving crowd. The venue was really good and made a change from the usual rave locations. With so many events now putting on trancecore it was good to see one that continues to play vocal uplifting hardcore. There were a few different styles on the night with Sharkey's freeform and Energy's old skool set. For a first event, this was pretty full and is run by a promoter who obviously cares a lot about the scene. Their next event has been arranged for Friday June 9th and it's well worth a visit to. At times like these where the scene is not at it's healthiest it is good to see someone really making the effort. This could be the next big event. In terms of hardcore I thought this was better than Raindance, but Raindance is much bigger overall and just edges it out of the two. I don't think that Slammin Vinyl will be as good as this was but I really hope that I'm proved wrong. I'll see you all there on April 7th. Shouts go out to Kev, Sam, Smithers, Lukozade, Cris E Manic, Uplift, Adidas Matt, Beth, Caine, Majestik, Ardee, Dave, Sarah, John, Stuart and Lizzie, Peter and Emma, Rich and Jo, Nita, Emma, Tina, Andrew and Jo, Radium, Danny, Conrad, Paul and Carol, Joe Retro, Bridie and Justin, Happy J, Raver J, Cakes and Charmy, Kaya and Click, Ravegirl, Happy Bounce, Ponder, Claire and Dougal, Ned, and most of all to Johnny Go Mental. :)
