Despite being told by some that 'World Dance has been shit since nye97' I had been looking forward to this event for quite sometime, considering that it had the best d&b lineup since One Nation, and it was a brand new unused venue. The pictures of the venue looked amazing, and the prospect of a funfair was quite enticing. After a long drive around docklands trying to find the venue. (believe me, it is not easy) we ended up outside at about 9:00pm First, the bad points… 1. There was no funfair - This really pissed me off coz I really was looking forward to it. 2. There were no lasers - This would have annoyed me, but the lighting was so good despite this, it didn't even matter 3. No fucking parking near the venue - On arrival at the venue I was told by the security that I could not park there, and there was no parking nearby… I had to turn round and park in some dodgy alley.. luckily, my car was fine.. Now that those are out of the way, I have to simply say that this was the best rave I have ever been to. After all those disappointments this maybe hard to believe, but it really was a fucking top night! I started the night off in the D&B room, where Marley Marl was playing a mad set… there were a few unknown mc's there for this set that I got to meet during the night, one being Richie C, who gets a shout out for being a sound geeza! Dropping tunes such as Original nutter, Marley Marl really started rave off at a fast pace… After this set I headed off for a wander around the venue. For those who don't know, the lighthouse is the last lighthouse in london, with a large outdoor area and three large arenas. Two of these are old warehouses, with a really ravey feeling to them, and the other one was an enormous plastic dome. This was the old skool room. Overall, the venues capacity is about 3000 I reckon. The lighting in the d&b room was absolutey amazing, no lasers, just incredible intelligent lights that were spinning around and causing the room to constantly change colour. This really added atmosphere to the room. The lighting in the old skool room was also very good, with a large lighting rig in the centre of the room. The old skool room had wicked vibe in it… it was packed full of happy smiley people (cept the person I asked for a bit of her water and she turned round and said "fuck of you cunt! Its mine!" - pleasant peepsJ ) I cant remember who was djing at this point, but 4am suddenly came on and I went proper spasmo! After that tune, I decdied to go and see who was playing in the d&b.. in between the oldskool and D&B room, there was the *cough* garage room which for a laugh I decided to walk through. Just plain crap.. however it was full. Big smiles as I got into the D&B room… Shabba had appeared (my fav. MC ) and Swift was on the decks.. an absolutely rinsing set from the two of them, with shabba properly going mad on the mic and swift dropping some of the newer RAM records choons, such as Titan. I really think Swift is one of the best d&b djs around at the moment. I decided to hang around and go abit mad for a bit, and Brockie appeared. Im not a great fan of brockie, coz I find he seems to play the same old set at every rave. This set seemed slightly different, but he still knocked out boring tunes like Reprizent and Dangerous which I think are well passed their use by date. I stayed for a bit longer and IC3 appeared. Ive never heard shabba and ic3 together, but they go very well. The next set in the d&b room was Ray Keith, who played for nearly 2 hours by my watch, playing the new champion sound remix (which made the room go fucking mental.) about an hour into the set, det appeared and got the crowd going in his normal way. At two o'clock, DJ rap jumped on the decks! Ive never seen her before and I was very impressed with her choon selection..not being a dj, I couldn't name them, but it was an enormously good set nad about half way through Skibbadee turned up. At this point the room was at its most pumping and the atmos was fucking amazing. Everyone looked like they were having a brilliant night. After that set I wondered off for a sit down outside and went off jabbering to complete strangers for an hour or so. ( I love doing that!) I could here the music from outside as the sound system was VERY loud, and bad company had just got on the decks. Skiba and dett stayed on the mics for the whole set and from what I heard from people, they played a brilliant set. It was now four o'clock, and I was faced with a dilemma… Ratpack or Hype? Well, I hadn't heard ratpack for a while so I stepped in there for a bit, only to leave very soon afterwards as the room had died. There was no where near as bigger crowd as there was earlier in the night so I went off to see hype. By now, dett had left and it was just skibba on the mic. (looking particularly rude, in some dungarees!) I managed to get o the front to watch hype do some of his famous scratching. He played a brilliant set, mainly jungle, dropping some older tunage such as chopper, terrorist, and six million ways. The room was just as packed as it had been all night, and there was no sign of it calming down as the last set was Mr Blackmarket!! Nicky Blackmarket is my fav. Dj by far, and although I was disappointed with his set last week at raindance, I still really hoped this would be a stormer. Playing his normal tunage, such as that fucking brilliant steel drums tune, he didn't dissapoint, with mc rage ripping up the mic. I have never heard rage b4, but he seems rather good… I think he's one of the metalheadz mcs. I left half way through the set, as I was completely fucking knackered, only to find out that skiba and shabba had come back for the last half hour of Nickys set.. man .. I'm still fucked off about that… never mind… Overall, this was a fucking Brilliant night, with a top class d&b lineup, (One Nation Standard) a brilliant sound system that was LOUD, and excellent lighting. Even though there was a garage room at the event, the attitude was non-existent, and I didn't see one bit of trouble all night.. The next one is on the 26th August! Be there! Shouts out to: My Vicky, Ross, Daz, Greg, the Epidemik records crew (for letting me borrow their pen,) Richard Raindance, chris and his mate(I forgot your name - sorry man) IC3 (top bloke) the glowstick man, and everyone else that ive forgotten…. Until phase 3, latersJ Ade.
