Well I haven't been to The Drome since Summer Solstice last year so I was looking forward to seeing what had been done to the venue. The event was 3000 people full, made up of VIP's and guestlists, all of which were given free entry. A great way to promote the new event, but you have to wonder how much World Dance lost. World Dance's new fortnightly event Xprs Yrslf (actually spelt like that) is unfortunately an over 21's night but still goes from 10pm til 6am. We (Me & Garry (maxim/projeckt)) arrived at London Bridge at 9.00. Got a few drinks in to pass some time. Had some nutty geordie security geeza from The London Dungeon waffling to us about something or other. so we made our quick escape before we could laugh in his face and headed over to the SE1. We got straight to the front of the queue. As it was launch night we saw a few hench bastards and a few flash cars. TVR's, Beemers, & the Ram Records Merc. They didn't open the doors until 11.00 as the queue didn't fill up until then. An hours waiting and i went for one of the longest pisses in my life!!!! Got in and headed straight for the cloak room. Looked around the venue, which was looking fantastic! The 3 arenas in use still had the underground vibe of The Drome but was tarted up to look the b*llocks. Add new bars, new toilets, a mental new sound system & one of the best laser/light displays i've ever seen, and this was shaping up to be a night and a half. 3 Arenas were being used, The arena on the far side was the World Dance arena, hosting drum & bass and old skool, the middle arena was the Bostin arena, which we only stepped foot in to get to the Metalheadz arena, one room was used as a large chillout area, and the other was just used as a cloakroom. Before I get on to any music - the chill out room is the daddy of all chill out rooms!!! comfy comfy couches, and screens all around the room showing different images and special fx. Right onto the music. We headed straight into the World Dance arena where we caught Swan E playing the don of a set. Some nice new tunes. Nice to see Dangerous dropped in there! Hardcore influences were apparent within Bryan G's tune selection, so much that MC Moose kept goin on about the hardcore beat! Headed off to the Metalheadz room at 12.00. Oh yeah, big respect to Swan E for playing the mix of LK without MC Stamina. I'd seen Adam F last month at Helter Skelter & was impressed with tune selection & mixing skillz - like at Skelter he started his set with MOP's - Ante Up, and then switching to drum & bass. bo! big up that nanananananana tune!!! bryan gee also played this tune & i've heard fabio & grooverider cane this at fabric. A nice set but it was getting a bit jumpy & we needed something a bit darker so we headed over to the World Dance Arena, where Bryan Gee was caning out some nice dark twisted bassline tunes, and gradually mixing into jumpier tunes like Marky & Patife's LK. Some nice Dillinja tunage in there like Twist em out & Thugged out b***h, and that new dub - 'yer gonna run run run run run' wickd tune! We stayed in the World Dance arena as Ratpack were stepping up next. A bit of old skool always breaks up a full night of drum & bass nicely. Unfortunately I've grown tired of Ratpack's sadly predictable sets. I quite like the breakbeat remix of Sweet Harmony they started with, but a few of the tracks being played were far more garagey than new skool or breakbeat, and so we headed off to the chill out to sit out bits of the set. The chill out area is right next to the World Dance arena so you could hear everything being played, just in the comfort of niiiiiiice couches. Ratpacks set contained the usual anthems, Don't Go, Feel this way, Searching for my Rizla, etc. Nice to see a rewind on Dee Patten's Who's the Badman. Next up was the one like Zinc! This was one of the best sets of the night. Dubplate galore, and some cheeky mixes, like LK & Shake Ur Body. Rolling out dark basslines & some nice vocal tunes. 1 thing i've noticed is how much more vocal drum & bass is getting, as well as becoming more diversified. We went over to the Metalheadz room during the set as Ponder's twin identical seperated at birth brother Q Project was playing as part of the duo Total Science. Rolling out deep dark twisted basslines, nice amen breaks and some absolute stompers. Again dubplate galore. Headed off to catch the end of Zinc's set as next up was the bad man Andy C, who played the nights best set. Andy C started with some brazilian bizness & some vocal numbers before going all dark and sicko on us! the tune that sticks out most for me is his last tune which I've heard him play the last few time I've seen him, Andy C exclusive dubplate. What a tune! crowd went mental & all my energy came flooding back!! Andy also dropped a tune which uses vocals from an old house/hardcore tune - vocals = gotta keep on pushing it up, gotta keep on pushing it up. GQ gettin the crowd going. not a particularly good MC lineup, in fact rather w*nk, but with that sort of DJ lineup, there was no need to complain. Overall a wicked wicked night. Venue is looking good. Bring on more drum & bass events. Hopefully they'll use the SE1 for hardcore sometime in the near future. Shout outs to Maxim/Projekt, The Monster, The FIT girls giving out vodka shots, the rediculous price of £150 for Don Perignon, The trampy security fella - old skool waffler, T2 & Ravegirl for missing out on a wickd night, all the dj's, all the mc's, grant epidemik, the hench bastards, the c*nt with a TVR!
