This was Raindance's third event at The Drome and they seem to be improving with each one they do. After seeing mini rainbows coming from the wheels of the cars on the M1 on our way down I knew it would be a good night. We got to the venue at about 9:15pm to find a new queuing system there. They had completely separated the ticket holders and non-ticket holders queues, making it a lot quicker to get inside. Raindance had dressed a man in a clockwork Queen's guardsman outfit and got him to walk alongside the queue to keep the ravers entertained. It was a nice touch and made me smile. After a fair search by the security we were inside for about 9:45. I dropped my coat in the cloakroom fairly quickly and went a walk round. One of the promoters Tony was kind enough to give me a guided tour of the venue toilets due to an error in my last Raindance review. There were plenty of toilets and sinks for drinking water dotted all around the venue. Once again Raindance had set up lots of mini stalls inside the venue doing photos, records, whistles etc and lots of little nik naks. It felt like they had put lots of time and effort into making the venue friendly and inviting. I then went into the hardcore arch to check it out. They had moved the DJ to the side of the room this time and the room layout didn't seem as good because of this. The sound system seemed a bit quiet on the night and was occasionally too bassy, making it harder to pick out vocals or the MC over the top. The decor was good though and the crowd in there were always friendly. First set of the night was Bosha and he played a good hard set. Next up were Herman and Storm playing back to back. They also did a banging set with a few new tunes thrown in. At midnight came Vinyltrixta and he chose to do an old skool set. I'm not a massive old skool fan but it is popular and went down well. I had thought that the hardcore room had seemed a bit empty up until this point but this all changed when Energy came on at 1:00. The room suddenly seemed to fill up straight away and everyone was going mad. When he dropped in "Free the Brain" I thought my head was going to explode. Energy played a wicked selection of banging freeform and it was definitely set of the night for me. At this point MC Storm arrived and he seemed to pick up on the atmosphere straight away as he was even more hyper than usual. He kept everyone dancing and did well, even considering that he is a Man United fan. The next set was Sharkey and thankfully he chose to play a hardcore set. He played a past to present set starting off with "Toytown" and "Rainbow Islands" then working through to recent tunes at the end. I chatted to him afterwards and he said he was giving up freeform because he has plenty of faith in Energy to carry the style on alone. Energy is a talented DJ with a bright future ahead of him so he's more than up to that task. At 3:00 came Billy Bunter doing a 95-96 hardcore set. I only caught the odd tune from it but it sounded as good as his set at the last Raindance. After him came Mark EG for an hour and a half set. He played his usual trancecore set with a few harder tunes at the end. If nothing else then he deserves his booking for the fact that he's such a great entertainer. At 5:30 came Vibes with his trademark bouncy uplifting vocal set. He didn't really play anything new but dropped in Vibes anthems such as "Hold me now", "Techno Wonderland" and "Rainbow in the sky". The last set of the night was USH's very own DJ Ponder. He was not on the flyer but was chosen to play through till the end. It was good to see Raindance give an up and coming DJ like him an opportunity. I only caught his first few tunes but they were all good and he did some good scratching as well. It was now the end of the night and we headed off to the cloakroom for our coats, which is the only thing that I can really fault the night on. One of the rails in the cloakroom had fallen over in the night and jumbled up a lot of coats. This meant that to find a coat the attendants had to get the ticket and hunt through a pile for it. There was no real shape to the queue as it was just a massive group of people pushing to the front. It took us over an hour to get our coats and when we left there were plenty of people still queuing up. However we were told this was just an unfortunate mistake on the night and definitely won't be a regular occurrence. Summing up, this was the best Raindance at The Drome so far. Apart from one pisshead I encountered in the toilets, everyone was really happy and friendly. It was obvious that Raindance had taken a lot of time to think how they could improve on the high standards set at their last event. The line up was a good variety of hardcore and worked well. I'm often amazed at how much the hardcore scene has changed this year. The number one rave at the moment is this one. Raindance are holding regular events with their next two being in June and July. This is exactly what the scene needs and gives it some much needed stability. If you want to see an all new wicked event ran by people who care and listen to the ravers then Raindance is for you. Make it your mission to get here soon. The night was summed up for me when a mate said "Everything here is so much better than at Bagleys". All I can say is, "Slammin who?" I'll see you all at Elation in four weeks time, another event that definitely deserves our support. Shouts go out to Slammin Sam, Kev, Time, Smithers, Peter and Emma, John, Viking, Bridie and Justin, Erica, Caine, Sarah, Michelle (good to see you again), Colin, Joe Retro and Jamie, Paul, Unit-E, Dimi, Peachy, Bug, Billy Bass, Conrad, Lukozade, Cris E Manic, Uplift, Breaker, Happy Bounce, Ponder, Sonic, Ravegirl, Jester, Scottie, Ade, Stuart and Lizzie, Egg fried rice, Carly madraver and Chris, Nemesis, Johnny Go Mental, Energy, Sharkey and MC Storm.
