This was the second event that Slammin Vinyl had held at the Que Club in Birmingham, the first one being in June last year. I had enjoyed that event a lot, and so I was hoping that this one would be as good. Slammin is generally held at the Sanctuary in Milton Keynes but these Que Club events mean taking it to a different area, thus giving the midlands ravers an event right on their doorstep. I arrived at the Que Club at about 9pm, half an hour before the doors were due to open, to find a decent sized queue outside already. I had a credit card booking but here there was no separate credit card queue so I joined the main queue. The doors opened about 10 minutes late and then it took about another 10 or 15 minutes to get inside. I was given a reasonable search by the security, who were rushing to get all the ravers through as quickly as possible. I headed off to the cloakroom and dropped my coat off. The first arena I went to was the hard dance arena but they were still adjusting the sound system so there was no music in there at that time. I wandered off to check out the awesome main arena instead. This was a drum and bass arena at this event and there were big inflatables and coloured banners as there normally are in the Que Club main arena, as well as a video screen above the main stage and lots of Slammin Vinyl logos around the sides. I stopped in the main arena for about 15 minutes and then headed back to the hard dance arena, which now had music playing in there. Billy Bunter was on the decks first playing a hard house set. His set was fairly good with no tunes that I’d really heard before, and he was accompanied by MC Whizzkid on the mike. He played until 11:30 and then came the first hardcore set of the night, which was Dougal. I only saw the first half of his set, and he started off with about three tunes that I’d never heard before. These all sounded pretty good and one of them had quite a powerful trance riff in it. The last tune that I saw him play was “Wanting to get high” by Hixxy and this got all the crowd singing along. The reason that I only saw half of Dougal’s set was because Andy C was in the main arena at midnight and he is my favourite drum and bass DJ. When he came on the crowd just roared, and he was also accompanied by my favourite drum and bass MC, Shabba D. Shabba was on form apart from the three times when he addressed the crowd as the “Flashback massive”. Doh! :) Andy C played a fast set as you’d expect from him, including the “time to get grimy” tune and the brilliant “Shake your body” by Shy FX. In the main arena were two very powerful green lasers that filled the whole room, as well as about ten circling white lights at the front that spun round. The arena was full and I thought that this was the set of the night. After Andy C I headed back to the hard dance arena to see the second half of Brisk’s set. He played it hard as you’d expect from him, dropping in a new Fade and Dair tune, “Set you free” and some nice fast scratching near the end. Next up was Vinyltrixta who played hard house as he did at the last Slammin Vinyl here. He played a really bouncy hard house set with some great tunes, including “Maximum Floor” by Jez and Charlie. MC Storm had now arrived and so he was on the mike from this set onwards. The next set in the hard dance arena was Hixxy but I went off to the cafe for a cup of tea and some chocolate. I had a quick sit down there and then went back to the main arena to see DJ Rap, who one raver had on the back of his t-shirt as “The original rudegirl”. :) She played a good drum and bass set with a few classics at the end, such as the “Champion Sound” remix and the “Original Nutta” bambaata remix. The main arena was still full at this time and she was accompanied on the mike by MC Dett. I then went back to the hard dance arena to see Flashback promoter and resident Mistress Mo playing hard house. She played a fairly bouncy set and finished off with a couple of Lab 4 tunes, which were “Replicant” and the awesome “Reformation II”. During this set I nipped off to the cloakroom to pick up my coat and beat the rush at the end. The final set of the night in the hard dance arena was one that I had been looking forward to, which was DJ Sy and MC Storm. The last few times I’ve seen these I’ve really enjoyed their sets, and Sy is my favourite non-freeform hardcore DJ. In his set he played a few older tunes like “Set you free”, “Stay with me” and the Go Mental remix of “All I need”. He also played some brand new stuff I’d not heard before and some quite new tunes like the “Power of Love” remix and “Turn up the music” which he finished off with. The set also had plenty of Sy and Storm’s trademark scratching, which was fast and varied as usual. I thought this was definitely the best set that I saw in the hard dance arena, and was only just edged out by Andy C for the set of the night. Just like the last Slammin event here in June I thought this was a really good rave. The venue was well done out (although the Que Club is a wicked venue without any decor), it was full, and the crowd were all well friendly. I didn’t see any attitude or trouble in the hard dance or drum and bass arena, and I chatted to loads of ravers on the night. All the sets that I saw were good and I heard some new tunes for the first time. I thought that Slammin’s last event here was very good but this one was even better than that. I do enjoy Slammin’s events at the Sanctuary but I really hope that they also continue to put events on at the Que Club, perhaps one in every four that they do. I would definitely love to come to a Slammin event here at least once a year, if not more than that. Slammin Vinyl are the biggest rave promoter around at the moment and they’ve reached the point now where they’re consistently putting on high quality raves. Unless Helter Skelter return to hardcore soon then I really can’t see anyone else taking that number one slot away from them. Slammin’s next event has been announced as Saturday April 6th at the Sanctuary so make sure that you’re there :) Shouts go out to Rich, Nitesh, Wilson, Lollipop, Ted Pornstar, James, Charlie Kitten, MC Whizzkid and MC Storm. :)
