I'd never been to a North event before this but I had been to The Emporium for club events, so I knew in advance what a nice club this is. This was the second North event held here after their 5th birthday event at the end of May. I was late getting picked up and so I arrived at the club at 10pm, two hours after the start time, and I was gutted when I found out later that I'd missed Sharkey's set. There was only a small queue outside so I got in pretty quickly, and with no search from the security. The first thing that struck me when I walked in was that the attendance was well below the capacity of the club, although The Emporium is a big club so this is no bad thing. The balcony section around the main room was closed off, and the second arena was located just off the main room. The main room itself is a fairly big room, and in it were lasers and a smoke machine which were used to good effect and really created a good effect. The sound system was booming which is exactly as it should be. :) The first DJ I saw was Luke McMillan (aka The Producer) playing techno in the main room. This was much slower than his usual gabba sets and I enjoyed this set. Next up came Mark EG who played a cool hard trance set with some techno bits in it and got all the crowd going. This would have got my vote for set of the night had it not been followed by M Zone who was even better still. He played a pounding hard trance set right up to his usual high standards, dropping in tune after tune. It was then time for me to check out the second room, where the much harder hardcore techno and gabba was being played. In there was Producer playing his second set of the night, this one being the hard techno he is more commonly known for. He played it well hard although there were harder sets in that arena. Throughout the night this second arena of hard techno was always busier than the main arena where the hard trance was. The crowd in there were really up for it and there was a good vibe with no bad attitudes. For the final set of the night I went back into the main arena to see promoter Vortex play back to back with Sheffield's UHF. These two played a good set with some hard trance and some techno and it finished the night off well. This night had a lot of things going for it and was really enjoyable. The best thing for me was definitely the music. You don't hear the kind of music that was here get played anywhere else, and I really came away feeling like I'd been educated :) There were only a few tunes played that I'd heard before, and most of it was dark, with not that much uplifting stuff dropped. The venue is also another advantage that this night has, as The Emporium is a very good venue with a great sound system and a quality selection of lasers in the main room. The only criticism that I can make of the night is the 3am finish, which for me is only half a night out. I've been to all night events at The Emporium before so it is possible to get a 6am licence for the club. Apart from this I can't fault the night though, and I really want to be at the next event they hold here. :) Shouts to: Smithers, Russell, Slammin Sam, Lee UHF, Andy Freestyle, Jake Nicholls, Sam, Paul W, Matt Teknohead, Nicky Technohead, Teknobabe + Teknoraver and Ikon.
