Got there early and queued a long time. Same old same old, but to a certain extent queuing I find builds anticipation – and usually the longer the queue the better the event; I say that to my self lots whilst in the queue. All the décor had gone a bit haywire, maybe exotic is the word to use, with cheap polyester hanging from the corridor ceilings in the fast track, I liked the mini stages, in the rooms even though I didn't have a wiggle on them, it broke up the crowds a bit, and made the areas seem less arenary. I'm pretty sure there were less lasers too. Where have all the crazy cyber kids gone, they have been replaced with smartly dressed pretty boys and girls. Ok of course there were the usual fluffy boot and fluro paint crew, but hardly any of the people you look at and think wow, where the hell did they compile that out fit / how can they dance in that outfit / is that human? Has Slammin' gone all trendy? I usually spend the majority of my time in the hardcore/fast track – mainly because I f**king love it, and sometimes I find D&B a bit intimidating but this time I did split my time a bit more evenly and even had a bit of a stomp in the old school. Every one I spoke to blethered continually about the line up but I never bothered to check the flyer so I wasn’t sure about the line up before I went in there, but it wasn't at all disappointing. It was lots more varied than the past, with DJ Paul, Brisk and Energy, and Lab 4. I think my favourite set over all was Brockie in the D&B he was quite early, but I liked the variation in the style of choones he dropped. Slammin' Vinyl is loud that's the rules that's the law – I though I must be going def in me old age cos both arena's seemed a lot quieter than usual, but luckily it wasn't me going def, it was quiet, sometimes you didn't have to shout to hear each other, and when the crowd went off you couldn't hear the music. I'm pretty sure the Sanctuary doesn't have sound restrictions, so I don't know what all this quietness was all about. Also I think the bass went a couple of times in the hardcore. Other complaints were the floor in the hardcore room, started to come up so people were slipping about all over the place, and there was no cinema and all the good fair ground rides were gone, but technicalities aside, we did have a wicked night – I think that's inevitable at Slammin'.
