There was a lot of hype surrounding this event before it happened and no-one was really sure what to expect. At the first Slammin Vinyl since last November they had introduced hard house to the main arena and created a new hardcore room downstairs. The ravers were all very interested as to how this event would turn out. We got there at about 9:30 and entered the venue at around 10:45. The security gave me quite a strict search. There were more accounts of security guards groping people at the search point and they were quite bad at this event. They seem to have gotten progressively more aggressive at past Slammin’s and now have become even more rude and surly than the infamous Sanctuary security. I managed to drop my coat in straight away and headed off to see Scott Brown. The main arena was fairly full but there was still enough room to dance. Scott had filled in for Vinylgroover at 10:00 and he played through until 11:15. He dropped in plenty of Evolution tunes including “Elyssium” and “I died in Aberdeen”. Following him came the one and only Sy and Storm with another quality set as you’d expect from them. They are now an established and well respected rave double act and they never fail to disappoint. Sy played a few recent tunes like “Yeah oh Yeah” as well as a few anthems like “Heart of Gold”. I had decided to see at least one hard house set in the night so I chose to see Billy Bunter at midnight. I was pretty impressed by what I heard and the hard house was a touch of something different, which fitted well in with the hardcore. It was all fast stuff and I enjoyed it a lot. I then went down to the arena downstairs to catch the end of Sarge’s set. He played a few decent tunes and had been on the decks since 10:00. Following him came the one and only Vibes and I was delighted when MC Live Lee turned up out of the blue. These two have always been a brilliant double act and it made my night to see them play together once more. Vibes played an older anthems style set with a few new Go Mental tunes, finishing up with the classic “Hold me Now”. After Vibes at 2:00 came Sharkey on the decks. I was gutted to be told by the MC that this would be Sharkey’s last ever hardcore set. I asked him about it later on and he said that it was true and he was giving up DJ’ing hardcore. He’s going to spend his time producing hard house from now on. That’s a real shame as he’s probably the best DJ around at the moment and an impressive producer. Massive respect to Sharkey, you’ll be sorely missed and the scene won’t be the same without you. Sharkey played a great set of freeform including “Now Control” and the “Music’s so Wonderful” remix. After Sharkey came Dougal at three but I decided to take a wander at this point so I only caught the last few tunes of his set. He dropped in “TKM” and “Healing Mind” to keep all the ravers dancing. Next set was Energy with some more banging freeform, and plenty of Nu Energy tunes included in it. Unfortunately I missed about half of his set but the part I did catch was fast and banging, with “Take me up” getting played. Last set of the night was Slipmatt and to many raver’s disgust he chose to play a hard house set instead of the hardcore they were expecting. Slipmatt dropped in a few banging tunes but the stuff he played was generally quite slow and weak. I spent the last 20 minutes in the old skool room listening to 96-97 style tunes. The general opinion amongst ravers is that Slammin Vinyl isn’t as good as it used to be and I would probably agree with this. As a night out it was quite good but there are a few quite serious faults they need to resolve. The main fault was that Bagleys was just too full. I was denied access to the basement arena because it was too full at around 3:30 and other people said they had the same problem earlier on in the night. The whole idea of the two arenas is that people should be able to move between them freely. When this isn’t possible it means that people don’t get the chance to see all of the DJ’s they want to see. The Bagleys complex wasn’t as full as at United Dance but Slammin definitely need to admit less people next time. The other problem was the Birkenhead scumbags doing their best to wreck another hardcore event. I heard reports of them attacking someone for no reason, girls throwing glass bottles at people and just their general malicious attitude. I was with MC Storm earlier on when he was chatting to one scouser. The scouser assured Storm that he would behave himself on the night but yet later on him and two of his mates were throwing water at me as I walked past. I did the sensible thing and walked to the other side of the arena away from them. I find it extremely hard to believe that even though these pisshead townies were a major factor in Hardcore Heaven’s downfall, Slammin Vinyl have taken no action to stop them coming. They obviously care far more about their ticket revenues than providing a good friendly atmosphere at their events. Slammin Vinyl is virtually the only event around though (as well as United Dance) that gets Birkenhead problems so if you want to avoid them then avoid this event. I think the idea of a few hard house sets in the main arena worked in principle, but needs thought put into it to ensure that this hard house is banging like hardcore. Overall this was a decent night but didn’t reach the potential it was capable of. The scene has changed a lot since last year and Slammin Vinyl are now not as good as Raindance or Future Dance. Their next event is not until September 1st and I intend to give them one more chance to prove themselves. If hardcore keeps progressing as it now though then Slammin Vinyl are in danger of being left behind. Shouts go out to Sam, Kev, Conrad, Happy Bounce, Ponder, Cris E Manic, Uplift, Lukozade, Roo, Bridie and Justin, Andrew and Jo, Peachy and Sandy, Happy J, Claire, Carly mad raver and Chris, Emma, Raver J, Danny, Joe Retro and Jamie, Adidas Matt and Beth, Snow, John, Dimi, Tony Raindance and wife, Sharkey, MC Whizzkid and MC Storm. I’ll see you all at Raindance in two weeks time. Don’t miss it.
