Raindance at The Drome is one of the biggest and most loved London raves of recent times, and it was always busy. When the venue was refurbished to become SeOne the first Raindance back there in June 2001 had disastrous consequences though, with two people dying on the night. Since then work has been done on the venue, Raindance have been at other venues, and here they returned to SeOne once again after an absence of over 18 months. The night started at 10pm and that’s when I got to SeOne. The venue is directly underneath London Bridge train station in numerous stone arches, between two roads going beneath the train line. As I walked round the corner I saw a huge queue stretching over half the length of the tunnel, and once again the clockwork guard was monitoring the queue. After 40 minutes of queuing I reached the front and was surprised to find that the security were actually quite friendly, much more so than usual at dance events. I was given a reasonably thorough search which involved going through a metal detector, and I headed into the venue. The cloakroom had been re-located since I was last here to the bottom of one of the arches, with metal railings and a security guard which ensured it was well organised. Since the days of The Drome SeOne has had a serious paint job and has a huge air conditioning system which does actually keep the venue reasonably cool. The toilets have been refitted to keep them much cleaner, although the lavatories themselves were all blocked after about 3am. The biggest arch there is the old skool arena with a big stage at the back and lasers above it. The drum and bass was the other side of the venue and was also a fair sized room. Both of these two were busy pretty much throughout the night. The hardcore room was located between these two and had some quite powerful strobes at the front as well as lasers. The Jenkins Lane reunion arch was playing really old skool house from the late eighties to early nineties, and in here were lots of sofas and stalls selling a wide range of things. There were lots of coloured banners and drapes all over the venue, which gave a chilled and underground feel throughout. The first set I saw was the end of Nemesis’ in the hardcore room, and he played the “Turn up the music” remix, “You’re Shining” and “Get More F/ucked”. After that I went into the drum and bass arena where a DJ called Iffy was on the decks. He played a couple of big older tunes, although he tended towards his name as some of his mixing was more than a little bit dodgy. Following him came Swan-E who played a good set along with Five-O on the mike, including “Ska” by Zinc. The theme of the drum and bass arena here was to just have one MC (MC Moose) on the mic throughout the night, although they didn’t stick to this completely as I saw about three different ones in there. Next up came Elation boys HB and Ponder in the hardcore arena along with MC Elmo, and they played quite a fresh sounding set. It was mostly breakbeat led and included the breaks version of “Chemical Love” and “Original Source” by Ponder and Elmo, as well as some scratching by Ponder. Then it was time for Sy, this time with MC Whizzkid. He started off with “Hardcore is the future” and went on to play “Commence”, “Black magic, Bad Magic” and “Neck Breaker”. After that I saw DJ Ron in the drum and bass arena. He was joined by MC Moose on the mic, and halfway through the set dropped in the classic “Body Rock” to set the crowd going. At 4am came Kevin Energy in the hardcore room with MC Storm. These two did a good set including “Get More F/ucked”, “Wanna Be” and “Unlock the Brain” as well as quite a lot of new stuff I didn’t recognise. Next up came Raw Elements DJs Cris E Manic and Uplift playing a joint set. Cris E Manic did the first half hour then Uplift did the second, playing “Sonic”, “Released” by Stargazer and his own tune “Brutal”. For the final set of the night I saw Devious D for the first half in the drum and bass room. He did a good set that included “LK”, “All Over Me”, “Hornet” by the mighty Bad Company and “2 Degrees” (my all time favourite drum and bass tune). For the last half an hour it was Slipmatt playing a classics set in the hardcore room with Wales’ MC Wotsee. It was generally 94-96 stuff, with him dropping the original “Now is the Time”, “Rainbow in the Sky”, and “United in Dance” which he finished the night off with. It was especially good that this event had a 7am finish, which rarely happens with raves these days. The set of the night for me was Sy, although I thought that Devious D, Kevin Energy and Swan-E were also good. All in all this was a really quality night which showed that Raindance is back at SeOne in full force. Whilst this didn’t quite reach the standard of the old Drome events here it tended towards that level and had much of the same underground feel to it. There was a really chilled atmosphere on the night and I didn’t see any trouble or attitude. The production was generally pretty good, with lots of banners and lasers all round the venue, and in the hardcore arena were two machines that sprayed bubbles from the ceiling. There were also the “rave monkeys” making their way all around the venue as well to add to the atmosphere. :) SeOne isn’t really comparable to any other venues around because of the layout it has, and this is a big point to Raindance’s advantage. The underground layout seems to be reflected in the crowd, as the night almost has a hippy feel to it. All of the modifications such as the air conditioning have improved the venue for the better, and even though the toilets were blocked late on they were still much better than they used to be. Adding an extra hard house/hard trance arena to the lineup would have improved the night even more, although this depends if there are any empty arenas currently unused at SeOne. The only downside was the sound system in the hardcore, which just wasn’t good enough. For the first half of the night it was too quiet and was only loud enough at the front of the arena, but here some of the sound from the neighbouring old skool arena managed to filter through. After about 4am it was turned up but then it seemed to be distorting quite a lot, so this needs to be sorted out for next time. Raindance is back, it’s the best rave in London, and the next one is back here on Friday April 18th, which is Good Friday. See you there. :) Shouts to James and Charlie Kitten, HB, Sweetstar, Ponder, Tom u4ea and Karen, Tenz, Astraboy, Andy M, Potfish, Alan M, Sorceror, Nemesis, Snort, Erica, Caine, Happy Roller, MC Kans, Cris E Manic, Desire, Uplift, Lukozade, Wotsee, Elmo, Frog, Nitr8 and his girlfriend, Phick and his fiancée, Brad 35354, Kevin Energy, MC Whizzkid, MC Storm and Sarah.
