This was the second event that Bedlam had put on in the space of a week, and I thought that the previous one had been the best Bedlam event yet. This event was once again held in a function room above the George IV pub on Infirmary Road in Sheffield, regular venue for Bedlam. Normally I have to work on Fridays and arrive at Bedlam late, but here I was able to get there at 7:15pm, just after the venue had opened. I could hear the tunes pumping out as I walked up to the venue, and I walked up the stairs and into the room. It was still pretty quiet as I got there, but it was still pretty early so this didn't worry me too much. The sound system was once again nice and loud, and the venue had been kitted out with a mirror ball that reflected light round the room, and a UV tube by the decks, as well as the usual Bedlam banners all around the walls.

When I got there it was promoter UHF and Future Dance's Vinal playing a short back 2 back set on the decks to fill in for one of the booked DJs who was late. These two played some nice hard trance which was nice to listen to, although the dancefloor was still empty at this point. They played for about half an hour and then it was time for Darkhouse DJ Stig from Scunthorpe to take over. He played a hardcore set which was mostly recently released tunes, such as "Skills and Styles" and "Return to Elysium", and he finished off with a hardcore version of the classic track "He never lost his hardcore". He was also doing some really nice scratching over the top, which he was pretty good at. :)

After Stig came Doncaster up and coming DJ Jake Nicholls, a current favourite on the Yorkshire hardcore scene. Jake played a bouncy older set with lots of recognisable tunes and crazy samples in, including the "Burn city hardcore" tune and "Jiiieeehhhhaaa!". The theme of the night was the Future Dance Records tour, and so one of the main guests was Future Dance co-promoter Ethos. I had been really impressed by his set when I saw him at Futurism three weeks before and he played very well here too. His set included the forthcoming "Get more fucked" and Wipeaway", and the rest was pretty much all unreleased stuff that I'd never heard before. The main thing that impressed me about him was his tight mixing though, which was better than that of many other big DJs around.

Following Ethos came promoter UHF with a good hard trance set. The crowd seemed to really enjoy this one, and he played a lot of good tunes. He finished off with Uprising anthem "Piano in trance", which always goes down well in any Yorkshire event. The final set of the night were Future Dance residents Vinal and Dan Devotion playing back to back, accompanied by Ethos on the mic. These two usually play well at Future Dance events, and here they played lots of new stuff like "Vertigo", "Wipeaway" and their own "Say it again", before finishing with "Feel the beat" on Evolution. Unfortunately not everyone stopped right till the end though, because this was a good set.

This event wasn't as busy at the event the week before, and the atmosphere seemed a little subdued, but this could have been down to the fact that Uprising was on the night after. It was still a decent night though and I heard a lot of new stuff played out, which is always better than hearing the same old tunes again. The next Bedlam event has an old skool theme to it and is being held at the George IV on Friday April 19th. The two main guests are DJs Fergus and Impact, although this is the DJ Impact known for playing Gabba a few years back at Uprising, not Future Dance resident Impact. Give it a try if you're in the Sheffield area because you could be dancing to a DJ or listening to an MC who could be quite big in the future. :)

Shouts go out to Lee UHF, Jake Nicholls, Sam, Impulse, Max, Jonesy, Shame, Trigg, Runna, J.O. , Trigg and Kleiny.

:)

- Chedda (chedda@ush.net)