This was Bedlam's first event at Club Freedom, but it was also to be the last ever Bedlam event, a decision taken by the promoters beforehand. This new venue has a 3am licence which meant a much later event than could be had at Bedlam's previous home, the George IV pub. The event started at 9pm and I got there about 15 minutes after this. There was no queue outside so I headed straight in and got an average search from a fairly friendly security guard. Club Freedom is a brand new club in Sheffield so I was very eager to check it out. The club has three levels and is unusual in that it's a relatively small club but is also quite plush. The first level has the reception desk and a few arcade machines and the second level hosted the second room which was a bar type room with seats and a dancefloor. The main room was on the third level and this had a dancefloor with the usual Bedlam banners as well as a strobe and some red lasers. There were two sets of toilets which were very clean by rave standards, although the water taps were turned off in one of these toilets. One of the things I liked best about the venue was that the sound system in the main room was LOUD and this enabled you to get into the music a lot more. The first set of the night was a DJ called ON:IT and he did a good set of upfront hardcore, playing "Definition of a badboy" on Quosh and "Ghettoblaster" by Kaos. Next up came Majestik, the owner of Higher Order Records and I really enjoyed his set. He started off with a couple of breakbeat tunes, then played a couple of drum and bass style tunes which had acid in the breakdowns. These were different and quite experimental I thought, then he moved on to playing older freeform including "Unda Ground" on Stompin Choonz and also the original "Body Slam". The next set was Bedlam resident Martin Space back to back with Phil Friction. They played mostly new stuff including what sounded like a different hardcore version of "Catch" by Kosheen and also quite a bit of stuff from the Phase 4 label. Following them came Jake Nicholls playing back to back with Andy Freestyle. These two played an older set with lots of bouncy techno tunes similar to what Paul-O would play, and these always go down well with the Sheffield crowd. Towards the end of this set I wandered down to the second room and caught MC Domer on the decks playing some wicked drum and bass, accompanied by Balistix on the mike. The two of them went really well together and on the dancefloor were a group of girls dressed in more clubby type gear who started brocking out hard and even doing cartwheels across the floor. :) The lineup in the main room had to be altered slightly because Kevin Energy was running late, so promoter UHF did the next set. He did a good set which started off with some really pounding hard trance tunes in M-Zone stylee and carried on like this for the majority of the set. At the end he threw in a few hardcore tunes for good measure, including a new remix of his own "Fight music". The next DJ had been due to be Spinner but he couldn't make it so was replaced by Birkenhead's Tugie who has previously played at North. The first thing that struck me when he came on was that he was completely mashed and was gurning so much that his jaw was moving horizontally. This didn't stop him playing the hardest set of the night though with quality hard techno that got harder as the set went on. He'd bought a group of mates over with him who gave it their all on the dancefloor and one of them was the MC for the majority of the set. The final set of the night was Kevin Energy along with MC Cynista, who has also released tunes on the Nu Energy label. Energy played loads of new tunes in the trademark Nu Energy style of hard tunes with crisp kickdrums and also dropped in "Visions of Infinity" and finished off with "Identify the Beat". Cynista was also good on the mike. UHF and Kevin Energy both did good sets on the night but my choice for set of the night went to Majestik for playing some really fresh and different tunes. The best thing about this night for me was the actual club itself which is really well laid out with a very good sound system, and has room to dance and chill out. I've always enjoyed Bedlam as a smaller more intimate event and it is a shame that it's now finished. Keep an eye out for promoter UHF's future plans though because I'm sure he'll be back with something else soon. :) Shouts to Lee UHF, Martin Space, Jonesy, Rich B, Lang-E, Part-E, Charliieee, Number 2301, Scott Majestik, Invader, Scott Potential, Andy Freestyle, Jake Nicholls, Sam, Phil Friction, J.O, Trigg, Runna, Shame, Bombjack, Hirsti, Shaun, and Kevin Energy.
