Review for Future Dance 2, Castle Studios - Friday 9th June 2000 As MC Ethos said at the end of Future Dance 2 - "Hardcore is Dead? Like fuck it is!!" This was a night that will surely go down in the Hardcore Annals as the day Hardcore stuck two fingers at the rest of the world and said "We are truly great again". I only decided to go to this rave at about 10:30 Friday morning, so I jumped on a train at 11:00am to get into London. Bought my ticket in Blackmarket, and I went to meet up with Dimi, Kev, Jamie, Twigg and the American candy-junglist Gyre (Brian). Under the pouring rain we congregated at Baker Street, and had lunch in a nearby pub. By now, the prospect of going to Future Dance was finally sinking in. Twigg was already jumping up and down singing a hardcore beat to himself with a mile-wide grin on his face!! Then it was back to Kev's, where we met loads of more people ready to go mental. After a few mixes, and a little smoke it was after 7:00pm, and time to go to Waterloo to meet the rest of the USH crew. There must have been well over 30 of us at the pre-rave meetup, and after finally tracking down Andrew we were off to London Bridge. Kev, the great-geographer that he is, almost led us to Wembley Park, but luckily someone noticed that we were going the wrong way down the Jubilee line, so we turned back towards our destination. Taxis were the order of the day, as we couldn't be arsed waiting for the shuttle-bus. A short wait on the taxi rank, and a five minute journey down to Castle Studios, and we were there!! Simply seeing the outside of the Castle Studios made me shiver in anticipation. Again, there was no queue, and the searches were firm but fair. After dumping my coat in the cloakroom, we made our way into the bar. This place was already pumping out hardhouse, and was to be the Hardhouse room for the night. There was a small wait until the rest of the venue was opened, but when it did we were by no means disappointed. The chill-out room had turned into a banging old-skool arena, and the original main arena was once again wickedly decorated on an Egyptian theme. The USH crew were once again represented in the decorations by two banners, one on the back wall, one on the DJ's front panel, which was, once again, a nice touch by the ever-thoughtful Go Mental crew. It was shortly after this, however, that the only major downer of the night occurred. Kev got chucked out, and refused re-entry for allegedly possessing quite a lot of summat dodgy. Johnny Go Mental tried, in vain, to get him re-admitted - but somehow I knew that this would not spoil things, and would definitely not be the last we saw of Kev!! I dropped something (er) at about quarter to 10, little did I know that it would take 3 blooming hours for me to, er, um, get happy (!). Unfortunately I missed some of the early sets in the Hardcore arena, as I was mainly either out-side, or sitting by the bar, waiting. However, I have to say that Energy played an absolute blinder of a set, and the last half of it was especially appreciated by me, as I started to get rather excited. Yeyeyey, at last!! After Energy came the PA of the night - Silk Cuts. No matter how good the PAs were at the last FD, this was better, as it was truly live. Bananaman was going crazy on the keyboard, and the singer was, er, singing. Bit of a shame that the microphone didn't seem to be set up properly for her voice, but on the second song it sounded much better. Absolutely blinding all the same, and a theme Future Dance should definitely continue - bring back live PAs at raves!! Then it was the turn of Scott Brown on the decks. What a stroke of genius to book this guy - many people, including me, agree that he is one of the best DJs around at the moment. His sets are always top quality, and his set on the night was no exception. He produced a pumping hard set, with many of his new evolution tunes included - he even used a CD mixer at one point which got me thinking how he got hardcore on CD!? I think it was DJ Impact next, who played, in my opinion, a superb set. A great contrast to the last set he played at FD - with that now infamous 20 second clanger!! I got chatting to MC Odyssey, and have almost arranged an interview with him for USH - watch this space! Top bloke again, 100% hardcore. Around this time came the whispers of gossip saying - "hey, Kev's back!!". I was over the moon at this news, and when I saw him in his red bandanna, shorts and sunglasses I nearly exploded in joy!! One of the definite highlights of the night - he'd gone all the way back to New Malden, got changed, and came all the way back, just for Future Dance - that was how good it was! Next up on the decks, to my great surprise (I'd completely forgotten about him), was VIBES AND LIVELEE - my heroes!!! In my opinion, this was the set of the night. Vibes played a superb set, with some classics in there, but with some different tunes from the normal, to add some variety. I'm a great fan of his style, and it was nice to have cheese represented at Future Dance with such panache! Aargh, I can't remember who came on next, that's really going to annoy me, but it must've been wicked - cos the rest of the night was. All I do remember was Kaos rounding off the night. Strangely though, I didn't rate his set amongst the best of the night - not, perhaps, saying his was bad, but the others were just mind-blowing. I spent the last hour or so either in this room, or in the old-skool room where Sy and Storm were playing to a packed arena. They played some absolute classics - 95/96 style - a foretaste of Future Dance 3!! I've said nothing about the turnout yet! The venue was nicely full, with enough room to dance, yet loads of people to get the floor full! I have to say that the only time when the main arena seemed a bit lacking of people was when Sy and Storm were playing in the old skool arena to a packed crowd. If people love the 95/96/97 sound this much, they're going to love the next Future Dance!! The entire venue was top class again. Security were actually very very nice. Even though they chucked Kev out, I got chatting to a few of them, and they seemed nice blokes who actually gave a damn about *our* safety. The toilets were clean, and plentiful, and the bars and merchandise stalls were well stocked, cheap(ish) and the people serving were pleasant and helpful. My only gripe about the merchandise stall was that they had no white gloves - yet apparently it was not their fault - the bloke delivering them didn't turn up! All in all, however, I shall crown Future Dance 2 the BEST RAVE FOR A VERY VERY VERY LONG TIME!!!!! With all these wicked raves on at the moment Hardcore is looking alive and kicking - Raindance, Future Dance, Elation, Erratic, Fusion, GBH, and all the many many more up and down the country. Future Dance 3 is going to blow your mind once again - 95/96 style - do not miss it - there are NO excuses!! Big huge hugs and shouts to: Dimi, Kev, Twigg, Mupster, Jamie, Brian, Peter, Emma, Bart, Chedda (thanks for the jacket mate!), Miss Go Mental, Sam, Fusion, all the Reading crew, all the Maidenhead crew, all the Isle of White crew, Ade, Phick, James (Odyssey), Whizzkid, Ponder, Happy Bounce, Androoo, Jo, Sonic, Mikey B, Paul, Icekold, dHaynes, Vibes, Kaos, Impact, Energy, Scott Brown, Ethos, Storm, Sy, Livelee, all the other people I met, all the other DJs and MCs, all the stage dancers, Energy's sister who just got married, Bridie who's just got engaged (congratulations!!), the other American bloke, the two Canadians from Bluelight, and every one else at Future Dance 2 - as the MC said - "It's you who makes Future Dance what it is!". Massive shout to the Go Mental Crew for organising all this, respect to you for doing it, and doing it so well!!!!!! Tom Bennett / U4EA
