United Dance happened to be my 5-year anniversary of raving, so I was quietly looking forward to once again voyaging out into hardcore land and reminisce on my raving memories over these years. United Dance has changed a lot from my first encounter with it in 1997. Back then hardcore was a lot bigger, United Dance was under different management and was resident at the Stevenage Arts + Leisure Complex. It was about this time 5 years ago that United Dance decided to mix up the hardcore arena with garage (I think it was?), and it had caused complete uproar with the ravers, it was the talk of many raves after that and United Dance’s next event suffered heavily through lower attendance; Actually, I think it was this event that unfortunately became the last event at Stevenage, and consequently was sold to Slammin Vinyl. And so the last time I had been to United Dance was back when it first moved to Bagley’s, and the first two events were so shockingly poor I decided not to go again. So all this time later, with the guarantor of Sweetstar who claimed it was once again a great event, I decided to give it another go. Getting into Bagley’s, It became apparent that the security throughout the club were reasonable, unobtrusive and polite. Its always nice when the bouncer searching you says "have a good night". Its these things which are important to me and show who the decent and honest promoters are. The venue was nicely filled; the hardcore room brought with it its unique hardcore vibe, which was something I had missed through my absence of hardcore raving. United Dance had definitely remerged to become a pioneer of hardcore events. However, with the good stuff side there are a few points that did come to my attention which need to be looked at in future: It seemed way too hot inside the venue. The cold taps were switched off in the toilets I was using (naughty naughty!). There was a lack of loo roll. Too many toilets were blocked. The water bottles were too small and the floor was too slippery at the entrance to the Techno arena. But, It was a good night, and im very glad I went, I recommend it to anyone who hasn’t been to one for a while! Bagley’s has much improved from the s**t hole it has been in the past. Big shouts out to all the people I talked to and the new ush peeps I met, good to meet new faces! Also, I coincidently bumped into the guy who first introduced me into hardcore when I was at school. It was so weird to meet up with him after all these years and to be at the same event 5 years after when we last went raving together, how mad is that ?
