Despite this being my first Raindance at the Drome, I knew I was in for a top night out judging by the way everyone rated his the last few events. Feeling very energetic and quite excited, I arrived very early and got a couple of drinks in down at the Kings Head pub (highly recommended) just around the corner from the station. At about 9:30 I joined the queue and got in very early (for once), after an extremely brief and lenient search by security (definitely a unique attribute to Raindance). Although I’d been to the Drome before, it seemed much bigger this time around because it was quite empty and there were so many new arches. It took me about 15 minutes to walk around the entire venue and I was still getting lost after that. After going on a bit of a mission to sort some records out, I soon found a nice place to plot in the chill-out area which was really good and big enough to handle everyone throughout the night. At first, I checked out all the arches so I knew where I was and more importantly, where the hardcore was playing. I entered the drum and bass room first where people seemed to be having a good time but I was on a quest for some hardcore so I moved right on. I found myself in the main arena next, which was quickly filling up as all the old skool lovers started to arrive. Eventually, I found the hardcore arch where Storm was playing back to back with DJ Herman. They played a good set with some exclusive edits of ‘Musik’ and ‘Sweet Harmony’ if I remember rightly. After their set, I floated about a bit and got to know the venue, meeting new people along the way. Back in the Old Skool room things were really starting to heat up with an incredible atmosphere in a true rave environment. The old skool was nice for a while but I soon found myself craving for something that had a bit more speed and was a bit more banging. When I found out that Sharkey was playing I was quite pleased as some friends and I had a little surprise for him. Knowing that he can’t stand his own ‘Toytown’ and anything else cheese related, we made a banner saying ‘TOYTOWN –YOU KNOW YOU LOVE IT SHARKEY!’ and just to be cruel we added a big picture of some smelly cheese. It was great to see the look on his face when he turned around and we had it hoisted right in front of him! I was well pleased though because he actually played the tune later in his set along with some other old tunes. This made a change to his usual line-up of trance-core and so for that reason I reward him with the set of the night. I was now in the mood to do some shopping. After passing by the merchandise stalls earlier, I told myself that I would come back later in the night before I forgot. The stalls were bigger and better than I’d seen at almost any other rave but their wasn’t much their that I wanted or needed so I settled for a car sticker, a candle (?) and some laminated Raindance cards for just 30p each. A short rest and then back to the hardcore room where Mark E.G. was up playing the usual really hard stuff which kept me dancing for ages. His set was good but I was starting to crave for some uplifting vocal hardcore, that some refer to as cheese but I’d rather call ‘quality happycore’. This is why I was overjoyed when Vibes stepped up and started with some nice piano stuff leading up to ‘Techno Wonderland’, always guaranteed the make a crowd go mental. He continued his set well until someone pulled me away and told me to get my coat as there was going to be problems in the cloakroom later. I reluctantly went to the queue and waited the best part of 40 minutes for my coat. The cloakroom, which looked a proper mess, was well under-staffed and the queuing system was all over the place. It only got worse later on after I heard reports of people waiting hours for their stuff. Some had even had their property lost or given out to the wrong person. To sum the night up, I really didn’t think they needed all those rooms; it took too long to get around and I didn’t even notice the ‘Pure FM’ or the ‘Jenkins Lane Re-Union’ arches, which I think probably, could have been covered in the old skool room. I do like house but at the end of the day, it is club music and should be kept within the club scene where it belongs. The cloakroom situation was a bad-note to end a good night on which is a shame. I think that Raindance need a little bit more experience at that particular venue before their raves start to peak and with Future Dance becoming more hyped as their next event draws near, they have stiff competition for number one London hardcore rave. Shouts to: Vince & Danny, Bridey, Kev, Slammin Sam & the USH crew, Happy J & Nick, Viking & Jon, Neil, Emma & Peter, Chris & Aaron, Sharkey, Storm, Kaos & the Go Mental crew, Cris-E-Manic & Uplift, people who I forgot, Demi & all the ravers down under, Danny & Joey Haynes, Joe & Paul, Energy, Chedda, Smithers, Conrad, Andrew & Jo, DJ Happybounce & all the Elation crew, MDMA, George Doors, Kaos & all the US ravers, Smithy and everyone keeping the hardcore scene alive & kicking. -Enough Respect- <~PEACHY~>
