This was the third Future Dance club tour that I had been to out of the four that they have done so far. I missed the one in July and so this was the first time that I had been to the Colloseum in Vauxhall. Myself and seven others got a train down from Sheffield and we arrived into London quite early. I started queuing up at about 9:00, at which time there were only about 20 others in the queue with us. Eventually this filled up though and by the time the doors opened at 10:00 there was a fair sized queue outside. The security at the venue seemed pretty tight and it was obvious that garage nights had been held there in the past. I had a bag with some records in and the security guard who searched me asked what was in it, but he didn’t actually look through it. He gave me a quick body search, cracked a joke to show he wasn’t one of those wanker security guards you often get, and let me go through. I dropped my coat off in the cloakroom and headed upstairs to the arenas. Before the main arena was a bar area and this was really plush. There were plenty of nice chairs in there and from the window you call see right across the river Thames. I thought the Colloseum was a really nice venue, much nicer than the majority of rave venues that there are. All the arenas were well furnished and the toilets were amongst the cleanest that I’ve ever seen at a rave. I went into the main arena to check out how Future Dance had decorated the venue. There were hanging logos from the ceilings and banners as you’d expect from Future Dance. The main arena itself was a good size, with podiums at the back and sides of it. Between the hardcore and old skool arenas was a large seating area with lots of chairs and a bar. The hard house arena was just for people with a VIP wristband, which I didn’t think was fair at all. I like hard house but I wasn’t able to see any as I wasn’t a VIP. Why not just open the arena up for everyone? It was a small arena but the security could have quite easily have done a one in-one out system at the entrance to it. First set in the hardcore arena was Vinal and Devotion back to back for 2 hours. They played a varied set which included “Take me up”, “Live@Liverpool” and Chris C’s “Freefall” played at a pitched up speed. After them came DJ Sy, accompanied as always by MC Storm. Sy has really improved over the last six to twelve months and his sets are now full of new or newish tunes. He played the new “Power of love” remix, “Hold me tight” and a few tunes I’d never heard before, including one about halfway through his set which I liked a lot. Next up was my favourite hardcore DJ, Sharkey. He played a different set than he usually does, playing more hardcore and less freeform than you’d expect from him. He dropped in “Skills and styles”, “Serious hardcore” and that new rollercoaster tune he has done, with an intro that makes me laugh out loud every time I hear it. :) Following Sharkey came DJ Fade, but I went for a wander at this time. Having spent a good hour and a half chatting to everyone in the seated area next to the VIP room I went back to the main arena to see the last bit of Kaos’ set. He played a few newer tunes that I didn’t really recognise, and once again finished off with that “Fuck the macarena” tune. :) After Kaos came Energy, another one of my favourites. He played a nice and hard freeform set, with tunes like “The Baptism”, “In deep trouble” and “Insane asylum” (one of my favourite freeform tunes ever). He was even trying his hand at a bit of scratching. Overall I thought this was the set of the night, and I was dancing all the way through it. Last set of the night was DJ Impact, but I got into an in depth chat with a few mates and missed the first half of it. The second half that I did see was full of new tunes, some sounding a little bit trancy, and one which was by one of Paul Compulsion’s mates who I was introduced to on the night. Impact finished off with what sounded like a new remix of “24/7” by Hixxy. It definitely wasn’t the version that was played out regularly in ’97. The mark of a good night is when the end comes and you feel that you could still go on for a couple more hours, and I definitely felt that here. The two things that you can count on from a Future Dance event are a lot of effort put into the production, and a very friendly rave atmosphere. This event had both of these things, especially the happy atmosphere. The line up was varied to include freeform and hardcore in the main arena, and I heard lots of new tunes played that I didn’t recognise. The venue itself was very plush, far nicer than the usual venues that are used for raves. The only thing I can really criticise the night on is making the hard house room VIPs only, as I mentioned earlier. It would also have been nice to have had somewhere inside that sold hot food and a selection of chocolate bars etc. I’m sure that this could easily be sorted out for next time though. Future Dance are starting up a regular monthly hardcore night at the Colloseum from February 9th next year. This is exactly what the hardcore scene needs, and if these events can get the same amount of people in every time as there were here then the future looks very promising. Come along and support them because they deserve it after the work they’ve put in. :) Shouts go out to Sam, Lee UHF, Steph, Jonesy and his mates, Michelle, HB, Sweetstar, Paul USH and Carol, Joe Retro and Jamie, Paul Compulsion, Denno, Phick, Misdee, Billy Bass, Tom u4ea, Jonathon and Boo, James and Charlie Kitten, Emma, Erica, Tina, Scottie, Mayhem, Becki and Gemma, Dusty Vixen, Cris E Manic, Uplift, Caine, Allan McGrath and his uni mates, MC Rizla Dizla, Joe R, Andy M, Snow, MC Wildcard and Beth, Sharkey, MC Storm and MC Whizzkid.
