Well here it is, the Happy Bounce view of the new Manc event known as Erratic. After a fun car journey through the country to Milton Keynes I was greeted with a nice friendly car parking fee of 8.00 pounds. Good start. Then after a nice train journey with Peachy, Dimi and St1x whilst struggling with the Take a Break puzzle book we arrived in the NORTH! Our first port of cal was a local juicer. After a crafty pint we taxied it to the Park. It looked like a house from the outside and quite small but we heard music playing which meant it was the right place:-) There were a few of us queing outside so they let us in early (8.45ish). No search as the security obviously hadn't turned up yet so I got to carry my weapon, needles and gear into the venue no probs (heh). Once inside I had a quick look around the venue, saying hello to everyone I knew and got myself a beer. 2.10 a pint!! I'll come here again! First up on the dex were Ardee and Troopa who were playing some wicked old skool. There was only about 30 people in the venue at the start of the night but a handful were enjoying the sounds of the old. They had a three deck set up which was nice, using two dex for mixing and one for scratching. Up next was Loops who started banging it out at 180 bpm getting up to 185 at the end. Fast and banging but a couple of cheesey (heh according to some on this list) numbers like Eye Opener and a plethora of Evolution tunes. For his last tune he cranked it up to about 190 bpm just to make everybodys legs fall off. Up next was Voltage (Kev) and Radium b2b for their first ever play out. And it showed!! Heh only joking lads!! A good mixture of bouncey, happy and Spanish (Radium) tunes. Okay the volume was a bit all over the place but the mixing seemed okay. It was also the first time I had heard the Spanishcoe sounds. It was okay but I wouldn't say it was better than the English stuff. Bit like Toytown without the breakbeat. The highlight of this set was Kev dropping Supernova. A bold move and showing that the nu talent will play the tunes that no-one else dare play. Reeeespect. Heh;-) Up next was Vibes who, despite Kevs worries, did show up in time. He was down to play a 94/95 set but didn't. He played some late 95 bouncey stuff into 96 cheese into a couple of modern tunes like All I need rmx. An okay set anyway with good mixing and ending on Sing it Loud (again). The place had about 80 people inside at thispoint and it wasn't going to get any busier unfortunately. During Vibes' set I noticed a few of the USHers looking around the venue lost. Apparently Kevs record bag had been stolen with his money for the night, records, phone, wallet and Loops headphones. Nightmare. Maybe next time they wont let as many people in the DJ booth!! Up next was Breeze with his Infinity album launch set. I was looking forward to some new tunage and saying Hello to Storm. Stor was unfortunately stuck in London at UD so it was Breeze by himself. He playd basically and old skool set. Well 1996/7 mainly with a couple of newish tunes but nothing I hadn't heard before. He played a very HIxxy 97 style set which was fine in 97 but not exactly what I was hoping for. Then the free record give aways which I missed but Bart gave me his record (heh cd jocks!!). Well I got INF20. Great! Last up on the decks was Caine who was playing the experimental set of the night (at last) and started at 160bpm with some good nu nrg type stuff slowly cranking it up to 170 at the end. It all sounded good to me but I had to flyer as people were leaving. Overall a good night music wise, not over keen on the MC's but I aint the biggest MC fan in the world;-) It was a shame that there were so few people there but the atmosphere was good all night. I didn't see much decor wise and didn't see the name Erratic anywhere. Maybe I am just blind:-) I hope the next one does better it deserves to if they get the advertising sorted out. Half the crowd were people you would see at London raves so who knows where the northern raving massive were but it was good to see people travelling:-) Shouts to: Peachy, St1x, Dimi, Mick Madness, UHF (who kept pouncing on me in the bogs heh), Paul, Carol, Emma, Barticle, Alarm + missus, Paul (Bristol), Dave, Sarge and big shout to all the Erratic crew - Ardee, Caine, Kev, Ned, Troopa etc etc etc and anyone else I missed out:-) See you at the next one!!
