Another Slammin Vinyl event at The Sanctuary had come around and time for a spot of summer raving, which I always love. I arrived at The Sanctuary about 8.30pm on a fairly mild evening and was greeted by a fair sized queue. I was in the credit card queue, so I was in double quick...bonus. After a fairly strict search by security, I was in, minus chewing gum. I thought the security was stricter then I thought it be. I noticed a few of the old imposing Sanctuary security faces seemed to back in town and I witnessed on a few occasions during the night they came into toilets, dragging people out of cubicles etc, making a nuisance of themselves. I personally thought, especially after seeing a much more discrete security presence on NYE, those days of security harassment were over at The Sanctuary, but obviously not. First stop me was the Fastrack warehouse, which I have to say was looking brilliantly done up. UV backdrops were scattered all over the ceiling and walls. A big stage at the front, with the DJ booth situated in the middle and videoscreens on either side of the stage. And 5 green lazers to boot, which looked amazing when all 5 were going together. Sound system was pretty good too. Slammin Vinyl certainly spared no expense to impress the hardcore ravers. First DJ on the decks was Andy Farley who was playing his usual hard house set. He did an alright job of getting he dancefloor warmed up, but personally I can see the point of paying £800 or whatever it costs to book Andy Farley and then put him on at the start of the night. Especially when an up and coming hardcore DJ would happily play a set of banging hardcore for gratis. Brisk (complete with glasses !) was on next and played a pretty good set. Laying down some new Next Gen tuneage and tunes such as the new ‘Eye opener’ remix and finishing off with the now complementary nu skool gabba. MC Whizzkid was on the mic busting out some wicked rhymes and getting the crowd hyped. Just past 12.00, the hardcore arena was pretty much full and time for the set I was looking forward to the most, the Lab 4 live PA. At the front were 2 dread locked hippies banging out on keyboards and various studio equipment paraphernalia. They started off the set at about 170bpm and gradually got faster and faster. I can’t describe what they were playing, it was like hard house / hardcore/ freeform mishmash stuff, but sounded good and different. It got an excellent reception from the crowd and went down really well. They seemed to be going mad dancing behind the equipment, showing they are ravers just as much as everyone else ! I then slid over to The Sanctuary to catch a dose of D+B pressure. This time the stage in the Sanctuary was facing opposite the entrance, as opposed to opposite the balcony, which made a nice change. Production in here, eventhough not as good as in the Fastrack was still pretty impressive. Good sound, lighting and décor all round. The wicked Mampi Swift was on the decks laying down some rough drum n bass for me and the others to brock to. Respect to the Swift, probably one of the most underrated drum n bass DJs around. Atmosphere on the night was generally good, I personally didn’t see any attitude and everyone seemed to be safe + sound. Meanwhile back in the hardcore arena it was time for the Raverbaby live PA. It included all the Raverbaby crew in effect, with mainly Hixxy + Styles at the front playing on keyboards. I doubt very much they were actually playing live, but I really enjoyed the tunes they were playing, pretty banging and uplifting. ‘Futureset’ seemed to get the best reaction from the crowd and overall made it my set of the night. MC Storm was on the mic, keeping control of the crowd as only Storm knows how. Just after 2.00 and I fancied chilling out and catching up with some good old raving waffle. The weather was nice because everyone could chill outside without feeling cold. But I had enough of the chilling because DJ Druid was on the Technics in the old skool room with MC Marley on the mic. Druid was playing a wicked set consisting of mainly 94-96 hardcore classics, with tunes such as ‘SMD 4’ and ‘6 days on the run’. It’s a shame the floor in there doesn’t vibrate as much as it used to, because everyone in there was enjoying it and jumping around. Scotland’s finest, Scott Brown was now over in the hardcore arena. Doing his usual thing of playing Evolution style selection first, with tunes such as ‘Turn up the music’ before finishing off with nu skool gabba. Some of the gabba tunes he was playing were proper cheesy, I wouldn’t have minded hearing a bit of darker less cheesy gabba for a change though. By now I fell again into trap of sitting down and got stuck into the sordid addictive web of waffling to raving mates. But before I knew it was past 5.00 and into the last hour of the night, so I felt compelled to dance. Demand closed out proceedings in the Fastrack. He played a mixture of stuff, a bit of nu skool gabba such as ‘Cold as Ice’ remix, bit of happy and a bit of cheese. It was an alright set and the dancefloor remained fairly busy until the end. Overall it was a wicked night and I really enjoyed it. I wouldn’t say it was amazing, just really good, but that was probably down to the fact I’m beginning to get a bit bored off going to The Sanctuary. But once again Slammin put on a wicked night and with more big promoters using The Sanctuary for their events in the near future, they're going to have a tough task keeping up with the standards set by Slammin. Shouts to: Kev, Chedda, Mark, The gorgeous Gabrielle, James, Charlie, Paul Ponder, Number 2301, Matsui, Endurance, The celebrity that is Paul Dunn, Potfish, Phick, Tom, Karen, Andy M, Billybass, Lloyd, Paulie + his Chelsea thugs, Aidan, Charm, Cakes, Random Cousin, Summy, Shox, Buzz, Gurn-E, Paul Compulsion, Mayhem, Bedford Caine, Loony, RaveAngel, Kryogen, Edd Jedi, Nitr-8, Rizla Dizla, Velocity, Icklemiss, Dave Spice, Grob le Frog, Chrissy, Dan Desire, Matt Wildcard, Rooth, Steve Uplift, Sorcerer, Plantie, Xtra-C, Immz, Stix, HayLou, Reepa, Thumpa, The legendary Sawyer, Cruze, Rich B, Scottie, Simon Mdma,||-_-||, Icekold Pete, Marshy, Joey R, Shieelds......major apologies to anyone I’ve forgotten......hugs to the girls, handshakes to the boys.....seeya soon :) Over and Out
