When the Que Club closed it was a big blow for Flashback but the event was still to carry on here at the Sanctuary in Birmingham. This was Flashback’s first event here at the new venue and was also their 6th birthday event. I arrived at the venue at about 9pm, half an hour before the event was due to start. There weren’t that many people outside at that point but a queue steadily built up and when the doors opened 20 minutes late there was a good sized queue outside. Security guards were searching everyone with hand held metal detectors, which I thought was a good idea, and I was also given a full body search. I dropped my coat off in the cloakroom and headed off to check out the venue. The Sanctuary is set out on four levels, with the entrance on the ground floor level. The drum and bass was in the Factory arena on the basement level below this. At NEO this was the Fluffy hard house arena and the sound system there was much too quiet, but since then a brand new sound rig had been installed and this was easily loud enough. This arena had plenty of coloured hanging banners and had wooden blocks in the middle of the dancefloor which acted as dance platforms. The main arena is set on the first and second floor levels. On the lower level is a large dancefloor and the upper level is a balcony with seats to chill out on. In front of the DJ is a large stage with steps up to it so that anyone can dance on it. There were coloured banners hanging from the balcony and behind the DJ was a big video screen with visuals on. The first arena I went into was the drum and bass, and on the decks was an up and coming DJ whose name I didn’t catch. He played some good tunes like “Twist em Out” by Dillinja, “Playtime” by Roni Size and one of the new “LK” remixes. I then went up to the main arena where promoter Mistress Mo was playing. She started off with some old house then worked her way through to early breakbeat hardcore, and didn’t include any tunes that I’d heard before. The hardcore arena was on the top floor on the same level as the main arena balcony and this is where I went next. Finishing off his set was another up and coming DJ who I think was called Eon. He played “Like an Angel” by Qtex and added some nice scratching too. The theme on the night for this arena was the Bonkers 9 album launch party and next up came Bonkers DJ Sharkey. Almost all of his set was unreleased stuff and he played the majority of it on CDJs. He played “Where’s the party at”, “Identify the Beat” and a couple of really experimental and quite cool breakbeat tracks, before finishing off with “Terrabeat” by him and Devastate. Next up came Breeze who played the best set that I’ve heard him do in a while, dropping in “Connection”, “Black magic bad magic” and “You’re shining”. He was accompanied on the mike by Sharkey, who provided pure comedy as always (“Get your tits out Dougal”). The next set in the hardcore was Hixxy but I had to miss it as he clashed with Bad Company in the drum and bass arena. They did a wicked set which was dark and fast but groovy at the same time. They played their own “Triton’s Universe” as well as the classic “Planet Dust”. Brisk was due to be the next DJ in the hardcore arena but he wasn’t there for some reason so Sharkey ended up doing another set to cover. This wasn’t quite as good as his first set with slightly older tunes like “Serious Hardcore”, “Skills and Styles” and “Product of Society”. The next set was Clarkee but I missed this and the first half of Sy’s set. I caught the second half of that set though, and he was alongside MC Storm as always. Sy played “Like an Angel” and the “Sunshine after the rain” remix, and the two of them dished out plenty of scratching as always. The final set of the night in the hardcore was Mark EG alongside MC Whizzkid. He played a hard trance set with some acid in and plenty of nice riffs, and it was all stuff that I didn’t recognise. The security made them stop the music in there 15 minutes early at 5:45am, so I headed into the main arena until the night finished. In there were Sy and Unknown playing back to back with MC Storm. They played loads of recognisable tunes that the crowd were loving, and the stage was full of people dancing. They finished the night off with “Out of Space” by The Prodigy and then it was time to head off home. L Considering this was their first night at a new venue this ran really smoothly and there were no real problems with the night. The Sanctuary makes a great multi arena rave venue, offering plenty of choice in the music that can be provided. The main arena is the centrepiece of the venue and this is an impressive arena with the balcony round the top and the raised stage at the front. The atmosphere on the night was good and whilst this isn’t the Que Club, Flashback showed here that this is a venue they can do well at. There are a couple of criticisms I can make though. The first of these is that the sound system in the hardcore arena wasn’t that good, as it was distorting a fair bit and wasn’t really loud enough. The second relates to the food served in the 4th arena used as the funky house and chillout room. There was a good selection of food there at fair prices but when I went there at 3:30am I and others were told they were no longer serving food. We all complained and eventually got them to reconsider, but then I had to wait over an hour for the food to arrive, which is why I missed Clarkee’s set and half of Sy’s. Food should be served for as long as the club is open, that’s just common sense. J Overall this was a good night though. I thought that Sharkey’s first set was the set of the night, although Bad Company and Breeze were also good. The next Flashback is on new years eve and they’ve managed to secure the Que Club for one last time. Shouts to Xtra-C, Marcus, Dodgee, Ravegirl, Raz Power, Bug, Leanne, Carris, Toby Cypher, Adam, MC Whizzkid, MC Storm, Hixxy and Sharkey.
