the queue was initially as daunting as ever, if not moreso. the USH contingent must've arrived around 21:15 and already there were several hundred people in line! fortunately i'd been given a code to use in the guestlist queue because of a fuck-up with my ticket (it transpired that they'd sent it to the wrong house number) so i got in really quickly! :) (but at least they'd made a couple of improvements since UD. there was a row of barriers at the front of the queue to reduce pushing-in and they opened the doors around 21:45ish to start getting people inside. open doors before 22:30? that's unprecedented shirley!) once inside i started off in Arena 1 and had a good bounce, with lots of room, to Scot Brown playing some nice stuff including a few of his own tunes. then Sy (& Storm) after that who played a really good set. by then there was a good crowd of peeps in the room and there was a great atmosphere. i think that was the pinnacle of the night for me really. then Mr Bunter came on for the first of the controversial hardhouse sets... and about a third of the people in the room fled in horror. :) i had no problem with that. the first track was 'Are You All Ready' by Tony De Vit (may he RIP) which is a tune and a half! the mass exodus just meant that i had loads more space to leap around. heh. :) BB proceeded to play a good hardhouse set with more than a few anthems, Access remix, Cortina, etc. i don't see why that was so shocking though, he's been playing sets *exactly* like that (on occasion) since, i dunno, at least a year ago when i heard him play like that at the Sanctuary (main room). i suppose that some peeps disapproved of that even then. anyways the room gradually filled out again, as you might expect. nature abhors a vacuum, ravers in Bagleys despise it. :) and there was still a good vibe, i thought. obviously there were still a lot of people that were enjoying it and, personally, hearing some tunes that i really like in a proper big rave context was great. it was cool to hear some ravers getting into it, blowing horns in time to Access etc. :) the night continued with Pete Wardman who played a fairly typical set for him, from the harder end of his range i guess. i enjoyed that too, but not as much as Bunter's. sadly though by this stage of the night i was beginning to suffer from the usual problem at Bagladies. the place gets so busy and so incredibly hot/humid that it becomes difficult to do any serious dancing without soon overheating and feeling ill! i disappeared off to the old skool room after that, sitting around a lot and occasionally bouncing for a brief spell. Ratpack played their usual stuff (bit slow), NBM played a stonking jungle anthems set as per usual and Dougal finished off with some happier stuff. in the last hour i'd been sitting out for a while and was actually just starting to dry off. in fact i'd collected my bag and changed my tee-shirt. then Dougal started dropping some 96-97 happycore so i just had to start dancing again! i was soaked through again in minutes. heh. :) so i enjoyed the earlier bits and the endy bit but the middle bit was a daze of crowded heat, just as it always is at Bagleys. that's my main problem with the place (i didn't notice any of the security incidents and obviously i had no problem with the hhouse). will it stop me going back there again? i dunno, but it never has before! Bart PS nice to meetcha properly, Tom and N3mesis! PPS the house-party on Saturday night was very cool indeed. they'd set it up with lights and hangings and the place looked really smart. i followed hardhouse/trance sets from four deejay friends of mine and assaulted the masses with some classic happycore (the first time i've ever played happy out!) ...i built up to some trancecore and the peeps on the dancefloor loved it. a gabbahead mate came out with his usual "harder!faster! harder!faster!" chant so i built up to a finale of 'Procrastinator' by Marc Smith. 185bpm to start with and somehow the pitch got nudged up to +10 percent by the end. mwwahaahahahahaahahaha! 8)
