After the success of their christmas return to the Void, North came back here again for another event. The theme of this event was "Combined Forces", a joint event with Species from Manchester. The event started at 9pm but due to late and cancelled trains I arrived at the Void at about 10:30. There was no queue outside at this time so I walked straight in and was given a reasonable search by the security. I dropped my coat off in the cloakroom and then went for a wander round. The christmas event was really busy and the first thing that struck me here was that this one was much less so. The downstairs Radical hardcore techno room was probably the busier of the two, and this was equipped with two quite powerful strobes next to the DJ box. The sound system in there was loud, but as with the christmas event there were times when the bass was distorting on it. Between the two rooms was a merchandise stall selling North stuff including lots of tape packs and vinyl. M Zone had played the first set of the night in the upstairs Technology room, but as I arrived late I sadly found out I had missed him. The first set I saw was Dolphin downstairs in the hardcore techno room. I thought he played some really good stuff that was hard but still interesting to listen to, and this included one of his own new tunes. It was then upstairs for Sarge who played a good mixture of hard trance and hardstyle. He was followed by the promoter Vortex who played some hard trance and techno to a good reception from the crowd. Vortex was joined on the mic by the ever funny Sharkey who made me laugh when he informed everyone that Vortex was ginger, and yes that did matter. :) For the next set I would have loved to have seen Producer back to back with Radium, but this clashed with Kevin Energy and Sharkey doing a ninety minute back to back set. The first half of this was hard trance with a lot of new stuff and a couple of big tunes like "Red Snapper" and "Blow the Roof" by the Stimulant DJs. The second half was freeform which also included a lot of new stuff and also "Crescendoes of Ecstasy" and "Be Alive". For the final set of the night I caught some of Scorpio's set downstairs but for the most part saw Mark EG in the Technology room. He mostly played hardstyle along with Sharkey and Ikon on the mic, and at the end managed to squeeze in two more before it was time to go. Overall this was the decent night, and as always at North the music was fresh and not what you'd hear at other events elsewhere. Kevin Energy and Sharkey played my favourite set of the night although I also thought that Dolphin was good downstairs. The attendance seemed to be at least 200 down on the christmas event, but then that was very busy. The atmosphere was good and I didn't see or hear of any trouble. The only bad point to the night was when someone collapsed in the upstairs Technology room at about 1am. There was no sign of any of the security so two ravers had to pick her up and carry her out to the desk at the club entrance. Later on I saw the security lead out about four or five people, and they seemed a little bit over the top and heavy handed. Coming next from North is the 6th birthday party which is split into two parts, both here at the Void. The first is a Technology night with Uberdruck and The Crow on March 14th, the second is a Radical night with Holland's DJ Promo on April 18th. See you all there. :) Shouts to |-_-| , Matt Technohead, Kaine, Teknobabe and Teknoraver, Mick and Mike Heath, Pski, Sandy, babyraver and Andy, Alarm, Hardcore Ray, Kevin Energy and Sharkey.
