NEO is a rave put on by the promoters behind Cypher in Leeds. This was their second event, once again held at the Sanctuary in Birmingham, coming after two months after their debut event. The event started at 10pm but I got there about 10:45. There was no queue when I got there and I was given a reasonable search by the security. I headed inside, dropped my coat off in the cloakroom and went to check out the venue. The first thing that I noticed was that the location of the second room had changed. At the first NEO it was held in the Factory arena which is on the basement level but here it had been changed to the smaller Temple arena upstairs, where the hardcore arena was at the last Flashback. The second thing I noticed was that the main room balcony had been closed off, which was a shame as this is one of the best things about the Sanctuary. The production in the main arena was good with lots of painted banners hanging from the balcony, and video images projected onto the organ pipes behind the decks. The best thing was the sound system though which was unbelievably loud. The treble actually hurt the ears at times, but it was great to have a sound system which projected sound everywhere and didn't require you to strain in order to hear it properly. Scottie was on first in the main arena but I didn't really see his set, so the first set I caught was Cyber Steve. He played some wicked Picotto style techno including "Awesome" by Mauro himself and "Rectifier" by Ricky Effe. This was an example of how varied the NEO lineups are, as there aren't many other places you can hear pure techno in a rave arena. Following Cyber Steve at midnight came The Crow from Germany and he played an awesome set. It was hard and twisted with enough acid to keep a hippy commune happy, and he was active behind the decks. He dropped in some brilliant tunes like his own productions and remixes such as "The Speed", "Now or Never", "Hallucination Generation" and "Chainsaw", as well as the new "Bloody Slut". The next set I caught was Cruze upstairs in the second room, and this room was a mixture of old skool and hardcore. I only saw the second half of his set but he played some good old jungle with plenty of classics, and also added some scratching over the top. At 3am I went into the main arena to see the headliner for the night which was Yoji Biomehanika, flown over from Japan to play. I'd seen him before and enjoyed his sets so I was looking forward to this one. I ended up disappointed though as he threw a tantrum halfway through the set as the monitors weren't working that well. He stopped the music, tore his headphones off, threw them on the floor, took both records off the decks and went to walk off. It took five minutes of persuasion from Mark EG before he came back on again, during which time there was no music playing at all. Once he re-started he did play some good tunes like the S.H.O.K.K remix of "Ignition", "Hard house raver" and his own stormer "Dingaling" but the set had already been spoiled by that point. Following him came resident Ginge to play the final set of the night. He started off with hard trance and over the 90 minutes worked his way up to hardcore, including "Indestructible" by K Complex. There was one mix he badly clanged, then for his final tune he put on "Pilgrim" by Scott Brown, although the power was turned off by the grumpy sound technician before it even got halfway through. :( Overall this was a decent night with great musical variety. For any of you who've ever complained about having 8 hours of the same style in an arena this event could be for you, as that is certainly not the case here at NEO. The production was good and the main arena sound system was booming. The atmosphere was friendly with no trouble and I'd guess the attendance was around 400, about 100 people less than last time. I especially liked the DJ lineup they had, and for me The Crow easily played the set of the night. The second room was quiet all night though and they closed it an hour early so DJ Sy didn't get to play his old skool set. The main downside was Yoji Biomehanika's tantrum which was the worst prima donna display I've ever seen from a DJ, although the blame for this can't be levelled on the promoters. Another minor criticism is that although the canteen does a good variety of hot food the service was poor and it took me 45 minutes to get served with a burger and chips. No flyers were handed out for the next one but hopefully it won't be too long into the new year. I'll be there as NEO always book quality hard dance DJs to give a great musical variety. :) Shouts to Toby, Ginge, Marcus, Lee UHF, Smithers, Russell, Allan McGrath, Rich B, Part-E, Shaun, Scottie, Number 2301, happythoughts, Taff, Dodgee, Kaine, Dave, Cruze, Banksy and |-_-|
