Review for Raindance, 2 September 2000 at the Drome, London Now, after my, er, shall we say, rather bad experiences the day after meeting the USH lot in Namcos in London I wasn't meant to be allowed to go to this rave. As you can imagine I was truly gutted at this prospect, and was to do everything in my powers to rectify the situation! So after returning from a short holiday in Yorkshire I finally had the show-down with my parents, and to cut a long story short, at 7:00pm I finally got the train into London. A painless journey later and I was at Waterloo station just in time to meet some of the USH crew for their now obligatory Pre-Rave Meetups. I met here people like Kev, Jamie, all the Maidenhead crew, the up-and-coming producer DJ Happs (for his first rave!!), and plenty others. Then it was off to London Bridge station to meet yet more people, and then to finally join the queue at the Drome. We did get there rather too early, guaranteed, but I felt secure in the fact that we were well near the front, and first up in the Hardcore arch was the fantastic Ponder and Happy Bounce. So, search completed (found nothing again) I made the necessary purchases of my white gloves and a bottle of water and stumbled into the Hardcore arena, for what was to be the first of many pleasing shocks on the night. I had never seen such a construction for a DJ booth at Raindance before. Scaffolding holding banks of speakers, multitudinous lights, lasers and smoke machines, as well as housing the DJs, in full view of all the ravers - nice! Then came the music. Once again our boys Happy Bounce and Ponder put on a wonderful show. With Elmo on the mic, they once again probably deserved the set of the night. The arena was rocking by 10:00pm - just after it opened! A wicked set, full of nice older tunes interspersed with banging new breakbeatey tracks. Tunes like Incognito (tuuune), the new SSU tunes, and others were mixed with perfection, and scratched over by Ponder superbly. Then someone somehow managed, due to no fault of their own, to mess the mixer up so no-one could plug headphones into it - so the first few tunes of Bosha's set were characterised by not actually being mixed! So, I decided to check out the rest of the venue, and have a little sit down. The venue was already fairly full by this time - and more were queuing outside still. By the time everyone was in, the venue was packed to the rafters. But the good thing about a venue like the Drome is that the venue can be packed, but there is always room to move, there are always arches with room to dance, and there's always somewhere to sit! There was a noticeable difference in temperature throughout the venue, however, which should be rectified at the next Raindance. The Jungle arena and the main chill-out arena were boiling. It was so hot that my sweat was simply not evaporating, it was boiling off my skin! The Hardcore and Old Skool arches were OK though - with good use of air-conditioning fans and open doors keeping a nice breeze throughout the arch. After a quick meetup with friends at the USH meetup point, my mate James finally arrived! Missed his train was his excuse - more like played too many games of ISS on the computer beforehand! Anyway, after getting him kitted up with the raving paraphernalia we were just in time for Vibes - but sadly for many, not Livelee. All the same, Vibes played a set above his sadly rather low average lately. Way above! A 95/96 set this time - with some nice old classics thrown in, but not the anthem-fest some were imagining. And not the clag-fest most were expecting after some of his recent sets which didn't appear to have much effort put in to them. No, Vibes, you've done us proud with that set - mixing was seamless and seemingly effortless - and tune selection was very nice indeed! A bit of a pity (for some) that Livelee didn't turn up as advertised though. The pace of the night was getting quicker and quicker by this time, and the lightweight that I am, I decided to have yet another rest, and chat to all the people who were congregating in the huge chill-out rooms. One of the best bits about raving, for me, is perhaps all the wonderful happy ravers. Raindance, as usual, was packed full of them - and I really enjoy having a good chin-wag now and then whilst recovering for my next dancing session!! My mate James at this point decided to come and fetch me in time for the last 15 minutes of Jimmy J's set in the Old Skool arch. Now, it might seem a bit strange to you, but in the last three Raindances that I have attended I have not once been in the Old Skool arch for any major length of time! What met my eyes on this occasion was a magical explosion of lights and lasers never before experienced by myself. The arch is huge, and the production was mind-blowing. Raindances just keep getting better and better. Jimmy J was spinning some top-quality old skool tracks, and only the prospect of Billy Bunter in the hardcore arch tore me away from this place. So it was from old skool into more old skool as Billy Bunter got on the decks in the Hardcore arch for a trip back to 1995. Another blinding set from the man - the ravers were loving it. All that dancing - I needed another quick sit down to catch up with all my mates dotted around the various chill-out rooms. By this time even my flashing alien face on my T-shirt was getting a bit tired - but after a little chat I made my way, once again, to the hardcore arch in time for the last few minutes of Frisky's set. I saw this guy at Future Dance 3 - and once again he played a wicked set, with many ravers in complete awe of Canada's number 1 DJ. After Frisky, however, was what many people on the night had been waiting all this time for - DJ Energy. In my opinion, he is one of the most consistently brilliant DJs around at the moment, and he kept this up with one of the best sets I've ever heard him play. Many of the tunes were new to me - hard freeform style, less trancey than usual I thought. After a quick exhibition of Energy's MCing skills (!) shouting into a pair of headphones, a proper microphone was found and MC Ethos, the Go Mental resident, showed us how it should be done!! I was grinning from ear to ear by this time - loving every minute of it!! I had danced so hard during the frantic pace of Energy's set that I needed to get my breath back! I wandered around the huge venue - smiley faces everywhere - checking out all the different rooms. Each arch was nicely packed with ravers - and every room was rocking. I have to say that Raindance had excelled themselves yet again with all the decorations in the main arenas. UV backdrops, objects suspended from ceilings, wicked lights, mesmerising laser shows - enough to make you crazy! So, with all this wandering and chatting I missed most of Herman and Storm's set - but the reports I heard from people who experienced it were all glowing! However, I most definitely was in the Hardcore arch for the one and only DJ Uplift. Showcasing a couple of new tunes written by himself, Cris-E-Manic and Lukozade, the whole arena was going crazy. In my opinion these new tunes are the dog's dangly bits - can't wait till they're released!! A banging set, with the icing on the cake being that the lovely Cris-E-Manic was there at the front of the arena dancing away!! I honestly thought all my dreams had come true(!). At 7am DJ Lukozade joined Uplift on the decks to finish the night Back2Back style. A superb tune selection made even better by wicked mixing and stupendously fantastic scratching by the scratchmaster Lukozade finished off the night in pure ecstasy. Even though the sound man came and turned the sound down at about 7:40, we all raved on till the end!! I honestly can't get over quite how mind-blowingly brilliant the whole Raindance experience was. I know that I say this every time (I'm a raver aren't I?) but it was quite honestly the most fantastic rave I have ever, ever attended. Everything was spot-on perfect. The sound, the music, the DJs, the MCs, the production, the lights, the lasers, the venue, the ravers, the security, the bars, the stalls! One slightly irritating point thought was that the venue is so god-damn DIRTY!!!!!! But that only adds to the whole underground raving experience I suppose - so I'll let Raindance off that one!! Truly and honesty though, the standard has been set now. The hardcore scene just gets better and better. I only hope that it can be this good forever. Shouts out to: James, Raver Jo, Kev, Twigg, Nemesis, Mupster, Jamie, Ed, Potfish, Androoo, Alieeeson, Denno, Happs, The One Like..., Phick, SiMonDMA, Sophie, Becki, Jess, Barking Boy, Alister, Whizzkid, Ethos, Ponder, Happy Bounce, Sonic, Uplift, Lukozade, Cris-E-Manic, Sammy Sam, Chedda, Stix, Icekold, Erica, Nic and everyone else from One Love Magazine, Tony and Richard from Raindance, Grant from Epidemik, Scottie, SD, Doug, Craig, Oily, Delirious, Nick Spice, Dan and Joe Haynes, Danny, Joe Retro, Caine and his mate who's name I keep on forgetting, Miss Go Mental, Johnny Go Mental, Kevin Energy, all the DJs, all the MCs, everyone I met, everyone I didn't meet (hmm that's just about the whole world then)! See you all at the next rave! Tom Bennett / DJ U4EA
