Urghhh man! If how rough you are feel after a rave is proportional to how good the event was then United Dance was a complete and absolute blinder :wink: Slammin Vinyl have emerged to be the flagship hardcore promoter in this country, it is this organisation that has an immense amount of power in guiding hardcore in a direction they feel appropriate. Believe me, I am looking with a watchful eye at the growth and management of these events and am very pleased to say that they are going from strength to strength - the future for hardcore is definitely bright and in good hands :) VENUE: The SE1 club has come a very long way from the psychedelic squat parties that made it so infamous for me in the pre-millennia. I always particularly enjoyed going to Weston Street - its whack bang in Central London, only a few minutes from a major train station yet manages to retain a true underground feeling that is unique to the whole capital. The overhaul of this club was amazing. As indeed advertised, the complete club has been fitted with an industrial-sized air conditioning system that maintained the whole environment at a very chilled temperature. I spent a lot of the night, with im sure others, wondering how anyone managed to cope in their previously without any air conditioning. It improved the club so much it’s just a shame no one invested the money in it years earlier. TOILETS: My final memories of hardcore events at SE1 involved flooded, disgusting and repulsive toilets – but no more! These too have been overhauled to provide excellent toilet facilities, which were always supplied with toilet paper, cleaned, and all had minimal queuing to use them. I was stunned to see that there had even been taps installed to an area just outside the toilet so people could easily fill their water bottles up – whoever thought of this is a genius! SOUND AND LIGHTING: When it comes to the technical details of providing sound and lighting to clubs I couldn’t tell you what’s been changed, but whatever it was it has entirely upgraded what they had previously. The sound was really havin it – I haven’t come back from a rave to have ringing ears the following day for a long time! But the loudness of the sound was not at the expense of the quality. All the music throughout the club sounded crisp and very clear. What about the laser in the hardcore room? Spectacular! SECURITY: The security was unobtrusive but seemed much firmer than historically at this club. Unfortunately I guess this is a necessarily for such big clubs where things “could” go wrong. As long as security stay unobtrusive to the “average” raver then that’s all im interested in! CLOAKROOM: Excellent management and little queuing – another renovation from the grim memories of the Drome. Not only that but they also used plastic-style tickets – a much more raver-friendly ticket yhat fortunately does not dissolve in your sweaty pocket that I’m sure has happened to practically everyone at lease once! CONCLUSION: I have only 2 negative point about this night:- Why are there two drum n bass arenas? Is that really necessary? Surely it would be more appropriate to use the second one for another genre of dance music – truly “uniting dance”? There are so many types of music that would integrate so brilliantly with Hardcore and Old Skool. I saw a number of skirmishes going on with the Security team and people from the Drum n Bass arenas. A couple of them were quite violent and involved what looked like an enormous gang of people which, how can I put this, I wouldn’t like to meet down a dark alley on my own. Two arenas of drum n bass, perhaps, create a too dominant and intimating environment for some other people. My other point is that SE1 needs to have a chillout room that is quieter for people to sit down, chillout and talk without shouting. The structure of the club creates a very intense environment which can get too overwhelming if you are feeling ill, or simply want to talk to someone without having to shout in their ear hole. But over than that, the Slammin guys should be very pleased with what was an extremely successful night. This has concluded it for me that Slammin Vinyl is the place to go for New Years Eve – I have no doubt they will be putting in 200% making sure the night is the most successful and memorable for the many thousands of ravers who are looking forward to going to it.
