I used to be a regular at Bagleys for Slammin’ Vinyl, but this was the first time in a year that I had been there. In the past Bagleys has had quite a few problems with moody security, overcrowding and attitude, and the venue has developed a kind of stigma recently. I was determined to give this event a fair chance though, and headed to London to check it out. I arrived at about 10.00 to find that the queue wasn’t too big for a Bagleys event. I had booked my ticket by credit card only 2 days before, so I was on the guest list queue. The security started letting the main queue in at 10.15 and us about 5 minutes later. I had a quite thorough search by the security (felt inside the trainers), but the bloke did make an effort to be friendly with me. A friend of mine had his genitals groped in his search, which is very illegal and has been going on at Bagleys for ages now and really should be stopped. I was inside for about 10.30 and I dropped off my coat in the cloakroom straight away. The hardcore arena was quite empty at this time, so I decided to go for a wander and check out the venue. The old skool room was in arena 2 and had a load of mirror balls on the ceiling and there was a green laser in arena 3, which was the hardcore arena. I stopped off in arena 1, to catch some drum n bass as this was the fullest room at this point. Swan-E was on the decks alongside MC Fearless and plenty of people were already dancing. Swan-E played a decent set including the wicked ‘Bodyrock’ by Andy C + Shimmon. I then headed back to the hardcore room to catch the end of In Effect’s set. The tunes being played were good and like freeform, with tunes like ‘Lemonade raygun’ by Fury. Hixxy came on at 11.00 and the room filled up by this point. Hixxy’s set was all old anthems like ‘All systems go’ and ‘Eye opener’, and I was surprised he didn’t play any of his new Raverbaby stuff. He was mixing very quickly, which meant that he managed to fit loads of tunes into his hour set. It was a kind of sing-a-long set and all the crowd seemed to enjoy it. At midnight, I headed downstairs to arena 4 to catch Andy Farley in the hard house room. At first this room was nearly empty, but it filled up quite quickly as his set went on. He played a good banging set in typical Andy Farley style. After that I headed back to the hardcore arena to catch the second half of Sy’s set. Sy played older stuff as well, along with his wicked scratching. I really wanted to see Mark EG at 1.30, but he had swapped with someone, so he wasn’t there at this time. Instead I headed back to the drum n bass arena to see Kenny Ken. On the stage were about 3 or 4 MCs, who were all passing the mic around in rotation. I think drum n bass MCs are amazing, especially Shabba who was there, and I really enjoyed this set. Next up I went back downstairs to see Ian M play some hard house. The arena was virtually full at this point and the crowd were going mad. United Dance have managed to attract some new people to its crowd for the hard house, as there were some cyberkids there on the night. About 3.00 I had a breather and then went back to the hardcore room to see Scott Brown. He started off with a few trance style tunes like ‘Yeah oh yeah’, followed that by some newer Evolution releases, and the second half of his set was nu style gabba as usual. I really like seeing Scott Brown, because he has a style completely different to all the other big name DJs and has really made the nu style gabba his trademark style. For the last set of the night I was the disappointed to see that Andy C and BK clashed with each other, as I really wanted to see both these sets. But I decided to stick with the brocking, and decided to see Andy C. But Andy C had either swapped sets or not shown up, because when I got to the drum n bass arena, it was Nicky Blackmarket on the decks. Nicky Blackmarket was still good though and he finished off with a tribute tune to Stevie Hyper D, which I think had some of his lyrics on it. The drum n bass was still full at the end and when 6.00 arrived, I was wondering where the night had gone. Before this event I was a little sceptical because of the Bagleys reputation, but I really can’t fault the night in any way. I really liked the variety that it gave with its different arenas, and I had a varied night of hardcore, drum n bass and hard house. I didn’t see any trouble or attitude all night, not even in the drum n bass. In fact I thought this was a better night then Slammin’ Vinyl six days before, even though that was at the Sanctuary and was a bigger event. It was good to see hardcore back upstairs in a bigger arena and the hardcore arena was busy all night, with the atmosphere you’d expect from a good hardcore crowd. I definitely hope to go to the next United Dance as I really enjoyed this one :) Shouts go to: Allan Mcgrath, Erika, Emma, HB, Ponder, Tom U4EA, Cris E Manic, Uplift, Lukozade, Snow, Jonathan, Beckiboo, Phick, Madman, I-Wolf, Stix, Wotsee, Peachy, Mayhem, Minx, Bedford Caine, Danny, Mupster and MC Whizzkid.
