As a promoter Helter Skelter needs no introduction. In the years leading up to the millennium they ran the best rave around and after taking 15 months off they then did some quality events at Bowlers. It had been over a year since the last one of those and here they returned with a brand new night. This was held at superclub CODE in Birmingham, home of trance giants Godskitchen. I arrived at the venue at 10:30pm, half an hour after the event started, and my friend parked his car in CODE's own car park which is situated right next to the venue. This is security patrolled and there is a two and a half quid charge to park in there. As I walked up the entrance there wasn't really a queue, and I could hear the music booming from outside. I was given a fair search from a friendly female security guard and I headed inside. I'd been to CODE before so I knew roughly what to expect, but I was still impressed as I went inside. The club is very plush but at the same time has a real minimal feel in the decor, and you can tell it was custom designed to place it above other clubs. The DJ is located in a booth on the far wall of the club, and there is a big dancefloor with dance platforms at the back. Stairs lead up to a balcony which overlooks the entire main room and then on this top level are chill out booths which actually have net curtains around them (I kid you not). There are lots of other seats up there beside these booths, and then the second room is located above the balcony. This was hosted by Tasty as a hard trance and hard house arena and this arena is designed as a kind of lounge room with a bar in it. The DJ plays on a table at the back of this arena, level with all the clubbers, and the decks and mixer are actually sunk into the table. In the main arena I counted four different video screens which showed video camera footage of the DJs mixing live and had some really cool visuals on including computer generated people who all danced in sequence Britney Spears stylee. There were also smoke machines which filled the dancefloor with a thick fog when they were used fully, and two really good powerful green lasers next to the DJ booth. The club is wheelchair friendly as it has ramps down to the main dancefloor. There were disabled ravers in wheelchairs there on the night and the security helped them out by leading ahead and clearing a path through the dancefloor whenever they wanted to move around. The best thing about the club is the sound system though which is among the best you will hear anywhere. It is loud but at the same time clear and crisp. The only times it had problems were on vocal sections of tunes when the DJ had the volume a bit too high, as it then tended to hurt the ears a bit, but the sound technician sorted this out pretty quickly when it happened. The first DJ of the night was Demand and I caught the second half of his set, in which he played Evolution tunes "Definition of a Badboy" and "Like an Angel". Following him came Tasty promoter and Honeypot manager Billy Bunter who did a wicked hard trance set. He started off with the awesome "Hands up" by Arome then dropped in some huge tunes like "All your Bass", "Revolution" by BK, the Paul Glazby remix of "Dreams" and the new "Times like these" on Nukleuz. The next set was Kevin Energy and Sharkey playing back to back. This set was a bit different because Sharkey was wearing one of the small Madonna-style face microphones and was actually MCing at the same time as he was playing. He did well to keep both up (although obviously he was only mixing half of the time) and the two of them did a really good set. They played "Crescendoes of ecstasy" and "Where's the party at" as well as a fair amount of new stuff including a few of Sharkey's brand new breakbeat tunes. Mark EG came next with a pounding hard trance set that I enjoyed a lot, and he also dropped in "Revolution" by BK. Next up was Sy alongside MC Storm, and in the first part of the set they played "Neck breaker" and "Elysium Plus". Then later on in the set I was standing there wondering if the tune mixing in could be what I thought it was and suddenly realised that yes it was - he was playing the drum and bass anthem "Warhead". He then scratched in his own anthem "Devotion" to a great reaction from the crowd. After Sy came the Raverbaby Hixxy who started off with the wicked hard trance tune "City to city" pitched up. He then played "You're shining", "Connection", a tune with the riff and melody from "Stay" by Sash and finished off with his new "Wonderful Days" remix. The special booking of the night was DJ Uberdruck direct from Germany, and he came next. He played a good hard trance set with some twisted acid in places, and dropped in his remix of "Hallucination generation" and his new remix of "No Alternative" on Sundissential. Even though I enjoyed this set I felt it was on at the wrong time of the night. It was absolutely thumping by trance standards but was still a decrease in speed from the two hardcore sets that preceded it. The dancefloor did empty a bit while he was on and I thought the set should have been earlier on in the night. The final set of the night was Styles. He played some good trance-led stuff with nice vocals, including "You're shining" and finished the night off with one of the new "Heart of Gold" remixes. Kevin Energy and Sharkey played my set of the night but Billy Bunter and Sy were both very good too. This drew a close to what I thought was a special night, especially because of the venue. CODE is an unbelievable club and is completely unlike your typical rave venue. The production was very good, the sound system even better, and it was great to hear hardcore played out in a club like this. The DJ lineup was fresh with a few hard trance DJs thrown in for good measure and the Helter Skelter atmosphere was there too. The only thing I can criticise it on is that there was nowhere that did food inside the club, although there was a burger van outside at the end. I'm expecting great things from this night and the next one falls in the new year on January 11th. If you didn't make this one (or even if you did) then don't miss that as you won't be disappointed. Helter Skelter is back! Shouts to Marcus, Dodgee, Sawyer, Thumpa, Hiney and the other Lichfield crew, Lee UHF, Steph, Phil Friction, Cris E Manic, Desire, HB, Ponder, Uplift, Scottie, Ravegirl, Astraboy, Davespice, Smithers, Russell, Immz, Leanne, Andy M, Bedroom Raver, Ted Pornstar, Becki, Adam, Toby Cypher, Hixxy, Kevin Energy, Sharkey and MC Storm.
