It’s hard to believe that Future Dance have already been going for two years. I was at their first ever event and since then the event has gone from strength to strength. This was the 8th big event they had put on, as well as the numerous club tours that they’ve also done. I arrived at Bagleys at about 9:45 and there was a medium sized queue outside. Unfortunately the queue took far too long to get in and I wasn’t inside until about 11pm. Long waits to get in have always been a problem at Bagleys and sadly this was still the case here. I had quite a light search from a security guard who was actually quite friendly, and overall the security here were far friendlier than they used to be. I headed off to the cloakroom and dropped my coat off so I was ready to rave. The cloakroom is located in the third arena and as soon as I walked into it I could see the difference from when it was refurbished at the start of this year. The cloakroom is now arranged better with a better queuing system, the bar has been removed from one wall of the room so there is more space to dance, and they’ve also put up a couple of dance platforms and spaces to sit round the side of the room. I nipped into the hardcore arena to see who was on and found it was Robbie Long and Devastate on the decks. These were playing a couple of breakbeat style hardcore tunes and I couldn’t really get into them so I went to the Frantic arena instead. On the decks was London regular Spencer Freeland and he played a decent hard house set which was quite hard but not rock hard. Midnight arrived and it was time for the USH meetup. This was possibly the biggest USH meetup I’ve ever been to, and I stopped for a while before headed back inside. Playing in there was Hixxy, and while I’m not much of a Hixxy fan I thought I’d give his set a fair listen. I decided to stop in there unless/until he played a rip and then leave, and to his credit this lasted for 50 minutes. He played a remix of “My way” and a “Get into love” remix which I quite liked, and the brand new “Elyssium” remix, with the rest was all newer stuff. It was very vocal-led and had a strong trance feel to it, and it went down well with the crowd. At 1:00 it was time for Brisk, and I have to say that I was a bit disappointed with this set. I only caught about half of it and he did play some good tunes like “Skills and Styles” and “Serious Hardcore” but I heard him play no less than three rips, including the one of “Silence” by Delerium. It seemed almost like he had lost his hard edge, which I hope is not the case because that is what makes Brisk what he is. It was around this time in the hardcore room where they had the special dancers on stage. These two were both in schoolgirl outfits with low cut blouses that revealed a LOT of cleavage, and high skirts that flashed off pairs of white knickers. They put on a show which involved a lot of rolling around together on stage, and I have to confess that I was mesmerised by them. I was trying to dance but I found it very difficult to take my eyes off them. :) At 2:00 came Sharkey and Energy back to back, the set I most wanted to see on the night. These two played a great set of banging freeform, including “Vertigo” and a fair bit of new stuff as well. It got my vote for set of the night, but I was a bit disappointed that it clashed with the first half of BK’s set. He was the headliner in the Frantic room, and hard house and hard trance fans usually have freeform as their favourite style of hardcore, so would have wanted to have seen both of these sets. I went to the second USH meetup at 3 and then headed off to catch the second half of BK’s set. He played a good hard house set to his usual high standards, and played the wicked “Khemikal Imbalance” tune which he made with Andy Farley. Unfortunately I realised later on that I had missed Jenimental as she was on in the hardcore arena at this point. Doh! After this I caught the first part of Phil Reynolds set in the Frantic room, and then headed back into the hardcore to see a bit of Scott Brown. He played “Cold as Ice” and then dropped in a couple of nu style gabba tunes which I hadn’t heard before, but were hard and bouncy as nu style should be. I then went downstairs into the North room to see Vortex and Sharkey playing back to back. The sound system in here was loud and very bassy, in contrast to the system in the main room which I felt could have been better. These two played a good techno set which was hard and interesting to listen to, although the room was a bit empty when I was in there. For the majority of the last hour I went into the newly added fifth room (the bar room below the hardcore arena) to see my mate UHF play. He had already played first hour in the North room which I had missed, and for this second set he chose to play a Gatecrasher style trance set. He dropped in some great tunes like “Punk” by Ferry Corsten, the original “No Alternative” by RBA (not the hardcore rip), and even one of the remixes of “Element Four”, the Big Brother theme tune by Paul Oakenfold. I enjoyed this set because it wasn’t the kind of thing you’d normally hear at Future Dance, but added to the musical variety on the night. The security closed the room off at about 5:50 so I headed back to the hardcore room to catch the end of Kaos’ set. I caught him play “Get more fucked”, and then he finished off with his new “Badass” remix which I like a lot. Once again this was a good Future Dance and had all the things you’d expect from a Future Dance event. The atmosphere was great and very friendly, and though there were quite a few Birkenheaders there even they behaved themselves, and I didn’t see or hear of any trouble all night. The line up was good and well varied, and I thought that the Frantic room was a good idea. It was great to be able to see someone like BK at a hardcore event. There were a couple of nice touches with the production, and I especially liked the japanese manga videos they were showing on projection screens in the Frantic room. They had lots of amusing poems stuck up on posters all round the venue too which made me smile. There were a couple of small things that could have been improved though. The queuing to get into Bagleys still needs to be sorted out, as I didn’t get in till 11 and I wasn’t that far back in the queue. The doors opened late as we didn’t seem to start moving until well after 10. The other thing is lineup posters. Future Dance hadn’t put lineup times up here on USH in the days leading up to the event, and on the night I didn’t see any lineup posters up in Bagleys. Whenever there are multi arena events on there will always be people like me who will spend time in different arenas, so lineup times are absolutely essential. These are only relatively small criticisms though, and on the whole this was a good night. It was a bit quieter than at Future Dance 7, but then that was a very good rave event. Future Dance 9 has been arranged for Friday June 28th and the line up looks very impressive. As well as the usual hardcore suspects they have the rock hard Paul Glazby, Chris Liberator who I have wanted to see for ages, and the unbelievable Lab 4 playing live. Can you imagine Lab 4 at a hardcore event? See you all there. :) Shouts go out to Slammin Sam, Lee UHF, Rich, Rich B, Lang-E, Part-E, Martin Space, Denno, Banksy, SD, Icklemiss, Max, Shame, Alarm, Kerrie, Dean, Kev Voltage, Little Miss Nails, Jodi Minxx, Dusty Vixen, Cris E Manic, Uplift, Jonathon and Becki Boo, Paulie, Chris, Ado, Becki and Gemma, Joe R, Wildcard, Rizla Dizla, Buzz, HB, Sweetstar, Ponder, James and Charlie Kitten, Lord Peter and Emma (great to see you both again), Swaver (same to you too), Beth, Mikey B, Grob LeFrog, Raz Power, Immz, Paul USH and Carol, Mike Sureal and Missus Sureal, Tombola, Stormtrooper, Casper, Astraboy, T2, Phick, Billy Bass, Potfish, Snow, Han-E, Emma O, Pir-8, Energy, Sharkey, MC Whizzkid and MC Storm :)
