Bedlam have done a few events at the George IV pub now, and I think that this was the third one that I’d been to here. This event was promoter UHF’s birthday special and he was hoping that all the ravers would turn out to wish him a happy birthday. I had to work till 8 so I arrived there at about 8:45pm. The first thing that I noticed as I came into the venue was that the lighting had improved from the last Bedlam event here. The room had been fitted out with more disco lights and had a glitter ball on the ceiling which reflected light all round the room. The sound system was nice and loud but there was some feedback during parts of the night from the microphone. The promoters had purchased a new infra red mic meaning that the MCs could wander round the dancefloor and interact with the ravers, but due to the feedback there were certain parts of the room where they couldn’t stand. I thought that the portable mike was a really good idea though. The first set that I saw was a DJ called Xstatic. I have to admit that before this event I’d never even heard of him, never mind seen him play, but I was really impressed by his set here. He played an M Zone style hard trance set but harder than M Zone would play it, and his mixing was tight. The tunes he played were really pumping and I can’t believe I’ve not seen this guy around before. He was better than a lot of more well known DJs who play out much more regularly than he does, and I think he’s a real talent for the future. Unfortunately I only caught the last 20 minutes of his set though, as I would have loved to have seen him play more than this. Next up on the decks was Unification’s Gaz James playing back to back with Defiance promoter DJ Impulse. These two also played a hard trance set which was not quite as hard as the one before it, but still pretty good. They played a few tunes I recognised but lots of stuff that I hadn’t heard before. Following these came a back to back set between Bedlam promoter UHF and resident DJ Martin Space. These two were on for an hour and a half so they managed to fit in a lot of tunes in that time. They played a lot of new freeform like “Identify the beat” and ”Chemical Warfare” as well as “Little Mermaid”, a tune made by UHF himself, and then Hixxy’s “No Alternative” ripoff. It was a good set and they were accompanied on the mike by Uprising resident MC Domer, as well as Shame and new boy Balistix. After these two came a special back to back set between Uprising promoter Paul-O and talented up and coming DJ Jake Nicholls. Paul-O has always had his own bouncy style and Jake has a style very similar, in fact I’ve heard people call him “the new Paul-O”. You could say that this was a set between the seasoned old master and the prodigal young upstart. The set had loads of bouncy techno tunes as expected and the dancefloor was full all the way through it. The final set of the night went to Unification’s DJ Hazard, alongside MC Bombjack. Hazard playing a new hardcore set which included ”Identify the Beat”, “Skills and Styles” and DJ Styles’ “Komodo” ripoff. He also played some nu-style gabba at the end, such as “Cold as Ice”, the “fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me!” tune and ”Eardrumz” which he finished off with. Bombjack was doing some cool vocal scratching which complimented the set. This was definitely the busiest Bedlam I’ve been to at the George IV and I would rate it as the best Bedlam event yet. The room is not that big and so to have all those ravers jammed into it gave a really great atmosphere. There was a real buzz in the air all the way through the night, and Bedlam once again stuck to their “Nu Breed” policy by booking almost totally up and coming DJs and MCs. I got the definite feeling that this event was a turning point for Bedlam, and I think when people look back at this in six to twelve months time they’ll be able to say that it was here when Bedlam really took off. In you’re in the Yorkshire area then you must give this a try as I think we could have a future Uprising in the making here. :) Shouts go out to Lee UHF, Martin Space, Jake Nicholls, Jonesy, Rich B, Lang-E, Part-E, Hirsti, Lynsey, Steph, Impulse, Trigg, Runna, J.O. Shame, Max, Bombjack, Si, C-5, Ben Uprising, Kleiny, Tracy, and the prostitute who on the walk back home offered me sex for a fiver (usually she charges £10, but she had sympathy on me because I was so desperate) :)
