Slammin Vinyl have now done a few events at the Que Club in Birmingham, this being their fourth one here. The Que Club was originally planned to close last September but thankfully they have managed to get in a few more months of events before construction work starts. The event started at 9:30pm but I arrived at the venue at about 10:45. There was still quite a queue outside at this point but the security kept it moving quickly and I was at the front within fifteen minutes. I was given just a quick search by a security guard and then headed inside. The cloakroom queue was pretty big and it took me almost half an hour of queuing to put my coat in. There was a security guard at the front of the queue to keep it in order, which is always a good idea. The Que Club has three dance arenas but the main arena is by far the biggest of these. It has a kind of theatre layout, with a big stage at the front, a dancefloor in the middle, and then rows and rows of seats going up high around the sides and back of the arena. The main room was decorated with hanging inflatables, and had a powerful green laser with other lights at the front. The sound system in there was good, in fact all three arena sound systems were easily loud enough. The other two arenas are downstairs from the main arena, and the hardcore was in the bigger arena of these two. The old skool arena was just across the corridor from this. The Que Club also has a café which does a good selection of food, a big chillout room upstairs, and Slammin had set up a merchandise stall in a bar behind the main arena. I caught a little bit of Billy Bunter’s set in the hardcore room when he was accompanied by none other than MC Charlie B on the mic. The first full set I saw though was Sharkey in the hardcore room at midnight, making a welcome return to a Slammin Vinyl event after way too long. He played a wicked hard set with lots of freeform, and this included the new “Pilgrim” remix, “Technorocker”, “Party Zone” and “Mind Control”. Following him came fellow freeform DJ Kevin Energy. He seemed to play a newer set than Sharkey, with him also playing the “Pilgrim” remix as well as “Unlock your brain”. For his last tune he played a brand new tune which bizarrely started off with the vocals from “Walkin in the air”, from the cartoon “The Snowman”. Next up came Breeze at 2am. He played a good set which included “Sonic”, “Connections” and the new remixes of “Pretty Green Eyes”, “Wonderful Days” and “Sunshine on a Rainy Day”. For the next set it was a tough choice between seeing Sy or Andy C, both favourites of mine. I eventually decided to see Andy C’s set in the main arena, but 30 minutes into it he still hadn’t arrived. Five minutes later Flashback co-promoter Lenni informed everyone over the mic that Andy C wasn’t coming and hadn’t contacted them to say why, so this was a shame. :( I then went back down to the hardcore arena to catch the last 25 minutes of Sy’s set. As always he was with MC Storm, and they played “Elysium Plus”, “Neck Breaker” and the new “Sweet Harmony” remix, before finishing off with “Commence” by Scott Brown. For the penultimate set I saw some of Phase2’s set in the main arena where he played quite a lot of fresh stuff I hadn’t heard before. I didn’t go in the main arena that much during the night but every time I did go in there it was busy, including all the seats round the edges. I went to pick up my coat early and beat the ineveitable rush at the end, then went to see Dougal for the last set of the night in the hardcore room. Dougal and MC Storm did a good set at the end which included the new “Love of my life” remix, “Gang Bang Society”, “Sonic” and the new “Follow me” remix. Dougal then played a rip of Ian Van Dahl’s “Will I” as his penultimate tune, and then finished the night off with “You’re Shining”. There was to be no sneaking extra tunes in after finish here though, so that made it 6am and time to go. This bought to a close a good Que Club event by Slammin Vinyl, quite possibly their last ever one here. The turnout was good and in terms of the hardcore I thought this was a very good night. Although the drum and bass in the main arena was busy and the music seemed good I saw some attitude flying round there during the night. Sadly this now seems to be a symptom of Birmingham drum and bass events though, as many now seem to attract bad attitudes. :( The production was good, especially in the main arena with lots of lights and a nice loud sound system. My favourite set of the night was Sharkey’s in the hardcore arena, although I thought that Breeze was also good. Apart from some of the attitude in the main arena there are no other criticisms, as everything else was fine. The next Slammin Vinyl event is on April 5th at their usual location of the Denbeigh Leisure complex in Milton Keynes. As for the Que Club, the next event there is Flashback on March 1st. There have been no more events announced there after that as of yet, so it is not clear if that will be the last ever event there or not. Let’s hope not though eh? :) Shouts to [time], Dodgee, Xtra-C, James and Charlie Kitten, Nicky Technohead, Pski, Mick, Bedroom Raver and Andy the Birkenheader, CDJay, Ben-e, Raz Power, Hyper-g, melancholy, who_d_fuk, babyraver and Andy, Breeze, Kevin Energy, Sharkey, MC Whizzkid, MC Storm and Sarah.
