Being an old Skelter Technodrome head and with its demise, my hardcore techno experiences had been limited over the last few years. This was my first visit to a big North event and a night I had been looking forward to ages. I arrived at The Emporium in Coaville just before 9.30pm. Bit of a weird feeling to the local area, because Coaville is a sleepy Midlands village and not the location at all you’d expect a big club to be situated. I didn’t get searched by security and the bouncers on the night seemed fairly laid back. The first room you came into was the Hard Trance / Techno (Technology) room, which looked wicked and I’d say had about a capacity of 900. The DJ was situated above the crowd and had a great view of the whole dancefloor. There were loads of stages and raised areas dotted about, which the crowd could dance on. A green lazer and loud sound system were also present, to make it a really good arena. It took me about 15 minutes to work out where the Hardcore Techno (Radical) arena was. But straight down the stairs at the back and I found it. This room was smaller then the Hard Trance room and held about 500 people. The DJ booth again was at the front and had a clear view of the dancefloor with a stage in the middle. Apparently this room is usually the funky house + garage room for the Emporium’s club night on Saturday, certainly not tonight though ! It had a low ceiling and a well phat crystal clear sound system....perfect for techno :) Addiction was on the decks laying down some wicked hardcore techno, a real good set. No warm up business here at North, this was hard + fast from the off !! Not that many people were dancing yet, a lot of people were standing around the side nodding their heads. I then went into the Technology room to catch Luke McMillan aka Producer in his purist techno guise. He was laying down a wicked techno set, playing some of his own tunes. The crowd in there were really enjoying it and Producer seemed to be loving it to, as I don’t think he often gets the chance to play out the purist stuff. Rage was on next in the Radical room, really upping the bpms playing a speedcore set. I liked the tunes, but the music was really too fast and intense and I think it killed of the dancefloor a bit, just as the room started to get going on. The speedcore was just a bit too fast for the majority to dance to !! Just past 11.00, Dolphin followed on next and played a wicked set. Starting off slowly, gradually building it up and was the set which really got the hardcore techno room going, getting more people onto the dancefloor. Up the stairs and back over in the Technology room, Mark EG was just coming to the end of his set, which mainly consisted of hard acid trance and sounded brilliant. The room in there was fairly busy by now and very having it. There seemed to be more people in this room then the hardcore techno room at this point. Unfortunately Mike Nero from Germany was unable to make it on the night. I found this disappointing because he was one of the main DJs I was looking forward to seeing on the night. M-Zone followed on next, laying down his trademark hard German + Italian trance selection. Good stuff, relentless pounding kickdrum flowing through the tunes which got the crowd going, alongside Ikon on the mic. The overall attendance on the night I thought would have been better and a slight downpoint I thought. I would estimate there was about 400 people there in total. Apparently the last event there pulled in about 600 and I was expecting the same if not more this time. Maybe a lot of people were on there summer hols or something this time around, I’m not sure. It meant due to the size of the club, the arenas seemed never more then half full, but still the atmosphere + vibe on the night was good. I would say not as happy smiley as a hardcore rave, but still no attitude at all and everyone had come to enjoy the music and have a good time. It was also wicked to see so many girls having it to the hardcore techno, you would have never thought it. It was now 1.00 and time for Producer on the decks in the hardcore techno room. Producer played a brilliant set, probably the best set I’ve heard all year. Just the finest quality dirty hardcore techno, playing lots of French tunes, some Deathchant stuff and some mad tunes with evil heavy dark breaks in them. Technically excellent as well, loads of cutting up, bringing the bass down to build it up and then slamming the bass back in to get the ravers going. The crowd in there was proper having it and going for it on the dancefloor. Ribbz was on the mic with that clear distinctive voice filtering around the arena, the old techno warhorse doing a wicked job as usual. Scorpio played out the last hour, a DJ I haven’t see play for ages. He didn’t play as dark + filthy as Producer, but played a pretty good set. His mixing seemed alright and just layed down his usual hardcore techno + gabba selection, whipping the crowd into a frenzy. Dropping in quite a few old crowd pleasers as well, did its job of getting the crowd stomping mad to the very last beat. Overall I had a wicked night. Took a few hours for the night to get going, but for me it was certainly the best music I’ve heard and enjoyed at a rave for a long time. The music in both rooms was first class all night, just in your face throughout. It was so good to have it mad to hardcore techno again and has made me wanting to check out more of these events again. The only downpoint was the attendance, a couple hundred more and both rooms would have been just right all night. I definitely intend on going to North going again because the venue is first class and I recommend you should go if you haven’t been there. Shouts to: Chedda, Smithers the Lightweight, Paul W, Russell, Debbie Teknobabe (need to dance more :p ), Rich Teknoraver, Lucy Pski, Lee UHF, Technohead, Amit, Matt Teknohead, Jake, Sam + The legendary Ikon.....big up !
