This event marked the first stop in the Future Dance club tour and also their Christmas celebration. Crash in Vauxhall more renowned for its hard house nights, was the venue and preparing itself for a hardcore invasion. The club was another railway arches venue, like most of the clubs around that area and I descended on there just after 10.00. After a slight delay in opening and then after a swift search by the relaxed security I stepped inside. Security on the night were pretty inconspicuous and just kept themselves to themselves, which was good to see. The first room you came into was the main arch, which was of reasonable size and held about 300-400 people. It seemed nicely laid out with the DJ booth perched high up at the front and with the MC situated just in front of him. There was dance platform in the middle, in case anymore fancied showing their dancing skills to everyone else. The production as it always is at Future Dance was top quality. Plenty of backdrops, good sound + lighting, free tape giveaways and not forgetting a special guest appearance from Father Christmas himself to add to the occasion. First DJ on the decks was Devotion who I thought was excellent. Slowly building up his set, dropped a few Evolution tunes and then progressed into a sprinkling of freeform towards the end. The set did a very good job of getting the dancefloor warmed up and certainly got my appreciation. Sharkey was on next, one of my favourite DJs and he didn’t disappoint either. Unleashing a full on dark banging freeform selection, most of which was brand spanking new material, got the dancefloor whipped up into a frenzy. Definitely my set of the night and marked a good start all round to the evening’s proceedings. The actual venue itself, I really liked and that seemed to be the general consensus among the ravers. Everything seemed well laid out, plenty of bars, plenty of places to sit and I came out in the morning with clean trainers, always the sign of a nice venue :) I hope we get to experience more hardcore nights there in the future. Next up on the decks was Mr Compulsion himself, DJ Demand who played a reasonably good set. He dropped lots of bouncy up tempo style tunes, even with the odd bit of Spanish hardcore thrown in, which seemed to go down pretty well. He slipped in the odd bit of cheese in true Demand style, but the dancefloor seemed happy enough with his performance. By now most ravers had arrived, with the venue being just below three quarters full, and that was the way it stayed for the rest of the night. I was personally expecting the venue to have been a lot more rammed for this, especially for an established night like Future Dance. But on the flip side it meant there was ample space for everyone on the dancefloor to strut their moves. The general atmosphere on the night was top quality though. Everyone seemed very friendly and came with the intention with having a good time, as you usually get at these smaller club events. It was now 1.00 and time for Kaos who I thought played a good set. He seemed to play it a lot more harder then the last time I heard him earlier on in the year. Dropping a few of the ‘Hooligan of the Nu Skool’ tunes, along with lots of other new material to showcase to the crowd. Its so much better to hear Kaos playing it slightly harder and more serious, then the cheesy selection he was renowned for in the past. MCs on the night did a good job as well. Whizzkid and Ethos were getting everyone hyped up at the front and got all the whistles and horns blowing mad all night. There was also a second room situated at the back, which was smaller and held about 200 people. There was a variety of sets being played in there during the night, ranging from hard house to old skool to jungle with DJs like Squirrel and Nicki Blackmarket making guest appearances. Most people popped in there for a bit to have a dance, as it gave a nice break away from the main hardcore dancefloor.. Meanwhile back in the main room, Energy has just stepped up with his box of tunes. As always he got the whole dancefloor jumping. Playing lots of new dubplates, along with a few more well known tracks like ‘Waves of Desire’ and ‘Product of Society’ got everyone going mad. Again he dropped a few vocally tunes which seemed to go down fairly well with the crowd. As Brisk failed to show, Impact took control off the turntables and played a decent set. He dropped it hard, fast and very bouncy. Perhaps a bit too fast, but it certainly got me and the others stomping mad, even though some of the others were finding it difficult to handle the pace. It was now 5.00 and the last hour had come around all too quickly. Vinal was in control at the front and it was a nice set by him to round off the night. He played lots of Evolution tuneage alongside more well known tunes like ‘Virtual Dreams’ and ‘Rock this place’ remix. The dancefloor remained busy until the very end and everyone left the venue with smiles on their faces. Overall it was a quality night and I really enjoyed it. Everyone I spoke to had an excellent time and were impressed with the night as well. The Future Dance crew seem to be going from strength to strength on the scene and if they keep up the high level of input into their events, I’m sure they’ll just keep getting bigger and bigger. Big Shouts to: Kev, Peter, Andrew, Jo, Emma, ‘The Crash Barman’s favourite’ Happy Bounce, Ponder, Charlotte + James, Steve, Chrissy, Adidas Matt, Beth, ‘The Dapper Don’ Chedda, Alieeeson, Peachy, Mupster, Tom U4EA, Phick, Swaver, Tony Resonance, Miss Go Mental, Becki, Jonathan, ‘The Ladies Man’ Paulie, Gaz, Stix, Bedford Caine, Lee UHF, Snow, Stuart, Lizzie, Raver Geoff, Bedroom Raver, Madraver, Allan Mcgrath……....hugs to the girls, handshakes to the boys.…….hope you have a good Christmas !! Over and Out Slammin’ Sam
