I didn’t make it to the last two Uprising events so this was the first time that I’d been to an Uprising here at the National Centre for Popular Music. I had been here for other dance events though so I knew in advance what a good venue this is. :) I’d heard numerous reports from the last event about the bad queues there were to get in, so I was a little bit wary of that as I arrived at this event. It was fine this time though, and I arrived at about 9:40 then was inside ten minutes later. There were no searches on the door though, which I always think is a very risky way to go on. I’d much rather everyone was body searched just to be on the safe side, even if it means queuing up for longer. As I came in I walked past the downstairs bar which was being used for a salsa night. This was kept completely separate from the event that I was at, but from the stairs up to the top floor there was a clear view of everyone dancing in there. The people there seemed a bit bemused by all the mad ravers that kept going past. :) I dropped my coat off and headed upstairs to check out the action. The stairs lead out onto a big foyer section, and this was being used as the old skool arena. This part of the venue is pretty big, and so there was room for a bar there, plenty of seats to sit down in, room for people to walk through it into the two other arenas, and still enough room for people to dance in. The two other arenas both led off from this foyer, and were located opposite each other. One of these arenas was a techno arena and this was where I went first. It was Jay Prescott on the decks playing a really banging techno set, with a tune that used the music from Inspector Gadget (?) and the classic “Are you on drugs?” tune. This was a fair sized arena but over the course of the night it was the quietest of the three. There was a big machine which filled the room with smoke, and this made the room seem even madder than it already was. The third arena was the main arena with the majority of the headline DJs in. This was well done out although there were lots of logos on the wall from Exhilaration, the hard house and trance night which usually uses the NCPM as it’s venue. At times I felt that the sound system in the main arena was a bit quiet, and the microphone was too loud. After I’d seen Jay Prescott I checked out Robbie Long and Devastate in the main arena. These two played a fair bit of nu-style gabba, and they also dropped in the wicked “Skills and Styles” on Next Generation. They were doing some pretty cool cutting up at one point as well. :) I’m not that much of an old skool fan normally but I spent the majority of the night in the old skool arena here. The first set that I saw in there was Gaz James, and he was playing a 95-96 bouncy hardcore set. I was only walking through to go to the toilet but his set sounded so good that I had to stop in there for it. He dropped in loads of well known old classics, the best of which was the original “Now is the time”, and these all went down well with the crowd. After him came Uprising promoter Kenny Sharp playing back to back with a DJ simply called “Nick”. Kenny Sharp usually plays the more commercial side of trance at Uprising so I wasn’t really sure what he was going to play for this set. Him and Nick played a really cool set of old piano style house, which included anthems such as “I’m raving, I’m raving”, “I’m gonna give you devotion” and “What can you do for me?”. This is not the kind of stuff that I would normally dance to at a rave but here I was really getting into it. I found myself grooving away for the whole set with a few mates, but the room did seem to empty out a bit for this set. Next up was Bedlam promoter UHF who had chosen to play a 96 hardcore set of cheeky uplifting happy hardcore (or cheese to you and me). This set was very DJ Vibes-esque, and he played some very recognisable old tunes, the best of which was the original “Hold me now” by Highlander. The needle on one of the decks was jumping quite badly in this set but he managed to make the best of this. The final set of the night was the one that I’d been most looking forward to, and this was DJ Sharkey. He played a set with loads of new stuff in, including “Get more fucked”, “Vertigo”, “Say it again”, the new “Badass” remix and “Serious hardcore”. He also mixed in his own “Hardlife” (although he cut it off before the amazing breakdown came in) and then finished off with the new “Creator’s game” on Bonkerz. This definitely got my set of the night, although it was let down slightly by the MC’ing that accompanied it. The mike was way too loud in relation to the music, and the MC on for the first half of the set (Marcus) chatted way too much and spoke over practically every breakdown. Natz took over for the second half of the set and he was better, although the mike was still too loud. This is something which really does need to be sorted out for the next event. Overall though this was an impressive event. Uprising have really fallen on their feet here because this venue is a real find. It’s much better than the Adelphi, the Arches, or even the old Area 51 where Revolution once was. This event (and the previous two Uprisings here) just seem to attract far more people than any of the other Uprising/Revolution events did. The venue has three arenas which means that more DJs can be booked, and now Uprising is able to put on separate hardcore and techno arenas at their events as techno has always been big up here in Yorkshire. The production here was also very good, and I can honestly say that this is the best Uprising or Revolution event that I’ve ever been to. I can’t make the next Uprising here but I do want to come back here very soon. Uprising events are now going to be held monthly at the National Centre for Popular Music, with the next one on April 27th. In the mean time they are putting on a smaller night called Club Uprising, and this is being held at The Orbit, a legendary purist techno venue in Morley, near Leeds. This is on Sat April 13th and they have Scott Brown and M Zone as well as residents. :) Shouts go out to Lee UHF, Jake Nicholls, Sam, Mick Moss, Steph, Impulse, Scott Majestik, Rich B, Lang-E, Part-E, El, Kerrie, Alarm, Dean, Trigg, C-5, Ben Uprising, Denno, Dj-Ti, Ravegirl and Sharkey. :)
