Slammin Vinyl is pretty much the biggest rave around at the moment and their events here at the Denbeigh leisure complex are always good. I hadn't been here since their November event last year so I was well up for this event. I arrived at the site at about 8:40 to find the biggest queue along the path that I've ever seen at the venue. This understandably meant that it took a long time to queue up, around 45 minutes for me, although this was reasonable considering the length of the queue. I was given a fairly thorough search and wasn't surprised to see the security talking down to people at the entrance as well as at other points during the night. I've given up expecting for a little bit of courtesy from the Sanctuary security as they blatantly don't know the meaning of the word. :( Once I was in the first thing that I did was drop my coat off in the cloakroom. There were two outdoor cloakrooms on the site which was a good idea as it reduced waiting times to put your coat in. I left it right till the very end before picking my coat up and still got it almost straight away. There was the usual merchandise stall on site selling a wide range of rave accessories and Slammin merchandise, dodgems, a fairground ride and a chillout tent. There was also a much bigger than usual food stall which sold hot food as well as drinks and a wide variety of sweets and chocolates. The first arena that I went into was the Fastrack arena. This was well done out with UV drawings all over the ceilings, a fully carpetted floor (although this was quite rucked up in places) and on the stage were no less than four of the powerful green lasers. The only bad thing about this arena was that it had two sets of female toilets and no male toilets. There were portaloos outside but to get a refill for a water bottle meant going right into the sanctuary warehouse. The sound system in there and the one in the sanctuary were both fine with no faults all night. The first set I saw was Andy Farley and he did a good set but the arena was still filling up at this point. He played "Revolution" by BK, "Good God" by JFK and "Tension" by Paul Maddox. Unfortunately the set was spoiled slightly when two Birkenhead lads just walked straight on stage, turned the mike on and started MCing over the top, drowning out the tunes completely. Hard house shouldn't have an MC anyway but especially not someone who hasn't even been booked and isn't a professional MC. These two were eventually thrown off after about four tunes had played, but someone should have realised and threw them off sooner. After him I went into the Sanctuary arena to catch some drum and bass. I was delighted to see that the stage was along one of the shorter walls of this rectangular warehouse, as opposed to the longer wall where it usually is. This shorter wall is the best place to have the stage as it makes the room seem bigger, but no-one really seems to put it there anymore. Please can you keep it there for next time Slammin? :) Playing in there was Ray Keith along with an MC I'd never seen before called Sugars. He did a decent drum and bass set with a few big tunes and I caught about half an hour of his set. I then headed back into the Fastrack to catch the last half of Brisk's set. He played some decent tunes including a couple of good bouncy ones as well as the new "Eye Opener" remix and the brand new "Hold me now" nu-style gabba remix (which got a great reaction from the crowd), although I did head off when he dropped in the rip of "Silence" by Delerium. It was then back into the Sanctuary where Mampi Swift was playing. He did a good set which was quite fast and played a fair amount of stuff I hadn't heard before. I stopped there till just before midnight when I headed off to the first USH meetup, and when I got there I was gutted that I'd missed Sy's set. I was under the impression that it was Rat Pack who had been on so that was why I wasn't in there, but it turned out that they had either cancelled or not shown up. Around the site there just weren't enough lineup posters as I only saw one on the glass doors of the Sanctuary and this was pretty easy to miss. After the meetup I went to see Lab 4 in the Fastrack, and this was the set I really wanted to see on the night. They played a wicked live set which was hard and fast (as fast as the other hardcore sets on the night) and had loads of twisted acid sounds in. No-one does acid like Lab 4. They were really interacting with the crowd and the one with the dark hair was constantly coming to the front of the stage to yell at the crowd and shake hands with all the ravers. They started off with a few tunes I hadn't heard before, played "Reformation II" and "Candyman" but didn't play their remix of Eminem's "Without me" which I though was a shame. Hixxy was next up and he started off by playing "Put your hands up" pitched up, a regular tune in Scot Project sets, and I was impressed by that. I didn't catch the rest of his set though as I headed back into the sanctuary to catch some more drum and bass. Hype was on and he did a good set including "The Chopper" and "31 seconds". I had meant to catch the Raverbaby PA but it clashed with my favourite drum and bass DJ Andy C so I had to miss it. He didn't disappoint me and played a fast set with some cool tunes in. I especially like the way he always bounces up and down with the music while on the decks. :) The next set I caught was some of Dougal's in the Fastrack and I thought he did some really good stuff. There were some new trance style tunes I hadn't heard before which had crisp kickdrums and really nice riffs in, and he played the new remix of "Follow me" by Force and Styles. I then went to the second USH meetup and the next set I caught was Scott Brown. He played the hardcore version of Kosheen's "Catch", "Elysium +", the nu-style gabba tune with the vocal section from Scooter's "The Logical Song", his new "Eye Opener" remix, "Cold as Ice" and a couple of tunes I hadn't heard before. I only caught about five minutes of Breeze' set because I had to leave the arena when a girl collapsed almost right in front of me. She was having a fit on the floor and it was a pretty disturbing thing to see. Another girl had also collapsed earlier on but thankfully they were both okay. I then caught the first half of the last set in the drum and bass which was Nicky Blackmarket. He played plenty of classics like he always does, including “The Chopper” and “Original Nutta”. For the last half an hour of the night I saw Demand in the Fastrack arena. He played a hardcore version of Sweet Dreams and a couple of tunes I hadn’t heard before. The hardcore arena was still reasonably busy as the end of the night arrived. Slammin have been doing Sanctuary events for almost two years now and they have now reached a high level of consistency. Their events are always high quality with good production and good lineups. The Denbeigh Leisure Complex is one of the very best rave venues around and it’s to Slammin’s credit that they are the ONLY promoters who use both the Sanctuary and Fastrack warehouses. The atmosphere was good on the night with the hardcore being packed with up for it friendly ravers and the drum and bass was very friendly too with no attitude in there at all. Andy C was really good and I thought Dougal did a good set, but for me by far the best set of the night was Lab 4. They rocked the hardcore arena and the one thing that struck me when they were playing was why hasn’t any hardcore promoter ever booked them before? In an ideal world I’d like to see them play at every Slammin event in the same way that people like Sy, Hixxy and Brisk do, but they are extremely in demand at the moment so it’d be good to see them at every second or third Slammin event. The only two criticisms I can make of the night are that there definitely should have been a LOT more lineup posters around the site, and one of the toilets in the Fastrack should have been designated as a male toilet. Apart from that this was a very good rave, bring on the next one! :) Shouts to Slammin Sam, James and Charlie Kitten, Sawyer, Thumpa the lollipop thief, Ponder, HB, Sweetstar, Tom u4ea, Karen, Rob, Voltage, Adam and Emma, Wildcard, Cris E Manic, Uplift, Desire, Number 2301, Rich B, Shaun, Xtra C, Immz, Raz Power, Phick, Potfish, Billy Bass, Lloyd, DJ Matsui, D.Jay, Andy M, Davespice, Scottie, Tombola the evictee, DJ Shields, Paul Compulsion, Grob Le Frog, DJ Cruze, Doc-e, Loony, Paulie, Ado, Becky, MC Whizzkid and MC Storm.
