This second Raindance back at SeOne was a special easter event called “The Long Good Friday”, echoing their ‘Long Good Friday” event here three years ago. Their return to this venue two months ago had gone well with plenty of people turning up, so the signs for this event were all good. The night started at 10pm and I arrived about ten minutes after this. There was quite a big queue outside stretching for almost half of the tunnel, although it seemed smaller than it had done at their last event. The clockwork guard was once again watching the queue, and as I had a credit card ticket collection I joined a much shorter queue near the entrance. The staff were being quite thorough on credit card collections and asking photo ID for verification, which is only a good thing if it keeps thieves away. :) I was in after about ten minutes of queuing and a search by security who were friendly enough. The cloakroom was well organised again with lots of fences and someone by the front to direct the queue. SeOne is a big venue with lots of different arenas and the one closest to the entrance is the drum and bass arena. This had two powerful green lasers at the front and once again had a “less is more” MC policy on the night. This policy was vindicated for them here as the room was busy all night and there was no attitude or trouble in there. Next to the drum and bass was the Jenkins Lane reunion arch where old 89-90 acid house was being played. In here were lots of stalls selling different things such as UV items and instant photos, then there were also sofas in here for people to chill out on. Walking through this room to the other side of the venue led to the old skool arena which was the biggest arena there. This had a big stage at the front with plenty of lasers and this arena was also busy for most of the night. The hardcore arena was located in an arch between the top halves of the old skool and DnB arenas, and could be accessed from either of them. This arena had a big dance platform right at the back and on the ceiling were machines that sprayed lots of bubbles all over the dancefloors. There were strobes above the decks and the sound system in general was loud enough. On a few occasions it seemed to cut to a low level, but on the whole it was much better than last time when it had been much too quiet. The good thing about this event was that Raindance had managed to open a few extra arches at the end of the venue. These were where the hardcore and house arenas used to be at the old Drome, and were reached by going through the back of the drum and bass arena . The middle of the three arenas was used by Pussina as a house room, then the two either side were used as chillouts. This room wasn’t massively busy on the night as I don’t think a lot of people realised it was there, but it was good to have an extra arena for more musical choice. The first set that I caught was the last half an hour from identical female twins Two’2 Company in the hardcore room. These played an upfront hardcore set that included “Tekno Harmony 2003” and “Brutal” by Uplift, although the room seemed a little subdued as there was no MC. Following them came Nu Energy boss Kevin Energy with an early set for him. He played a really good hard freeform set with “Crescendoes of Ecstasy”, the “Pilgrim” remix and plenty of other stuff that I hadn’t heard before. There was no MC for him either so he got round this by taking the mic and doing a little bit of MC’ing himself. :) Next up I saw Kenny Ken in the drum and bass arch and he played a good set including “The Hornet” by Bad Company. This arch was pretty full so at times it was difficult to find a good dancing spot, but I thought the atmosphere in there was really good. Phantasy came next and I caught the first part of his set which started off with “Original Nutta vs Bambaata”. He then went on to play big tunes “ Mo’ Fire” and “T-10” but I didn’t stop in there long. This was because Scott Brown was on in the hardcore arch and he was joined by the first MC of the night, Storm. The set included “Elysium Plus”, “Rock You Softly”, his new joint effort “Back and Forth” with Brisk and his own remix of “Hold me Now”. This was to a busy room at this point and the vibe in there was good. Tom u4ea came next with MC Whizzkid and started off with “Higher and Higher” by CLSM, but then I headed off to the Pussina house arch. I was expecting this to be a funky house room at first, but when I walked in there I heard playing the all time hard house classic “Baby Wants to Ride” by Hani. It was Cristo on the decks and he then went on to play a mixture of hard house and trance. Although the tunes were good his mixing was a little bit ropey, and he finished off with “Generator” by Parker and Clind. At 3am came Sy in the hardcore arena, along with colleague MC Storm. They played a good set which included “Commence”, “Product of the Devil”, the “Turn up the Music” remix and the Scott Brown remix of “You’re Shining”, although the sound system seemed a bit quiet at times during this set. Afterwards I went back to the Pussina house room where it was Matt Jay and Tony R playing back to the back. The majority of their set was tunes I didn’t recognise, although near the end they played “My Lovin” by Steve Hill, “Emotion” by Lee Pasch and then finished with a rip of “Born Slippy”. The atmosphere in here was a bit chilled in comparison to the other arches, although the music was good. At 5am it was due to be Nicky Blackmarket in the drum and bass although he got there about 15 minutes late, so I heard Funky Flirt playing “Thugged Out B/itch” by Dillinja. Nicky came next with “Original Nutta” and “Grimey” to make it 6am. One of the best things about here is the 7am finish as very few other events have this, so there was still an extra hour left to go. The last set for me was Filthy Dirty Rich in the drum and bass arch. He played a good set including “Warriors” by Distorted Minds (my favourite drum and bass tune at the moment) and a tune with Shabba D on (not his new “Here Comes the Mic Man” one). For the last ten minutes of the night I saw Kaos in the hardcore arena where he played “Mad World” along with MC Wotsee. The management were quite set about finishing on time so he only played a few minutes over and finished off with a tune I didn’t recognise. Raindance have built up yet more momentum with this event, their second quality one in a row at SeOne. This was slightly quieter than their last one in February but the turnout was still good and so was the atmosphere. The production was good in all the arenas, especially the lasers in the old skool and drum and bass, and the bubble machines in the hardcore arch were a nice touch. I thought the extra Pussina house room worked well and gave the night some extra variety, although possibly one of the two chillout arches next to this could be used as another music arena next time round. Musically I thought that Kevin Energy played the best of the night, and even though it came quite early it really got the night going for me. Kenny Ken was also good, as were Sy and Matt Jay b2b Tony R in the Pussina arch. Ever since it’s much needed refurbishments SeOne is now a nice multi-arena venue which works well with no problems. The big air-conditioning system keeps the venue cool enough and all the toilets with attendants are also fine. The only real fault I could find with the night were occasional problems with the hardcore and DnB sound systems. Every now and then they seemed to cut to quite a low volume, although this was only infrequently and not a constant problem all through the night. The next Raindance here is on June 21st and is the third of their Solstice events. Before then in London though is Ravenation at Heaven on May 4th. This is also a multi-arena event and looks quite similar to Raindance, especially with their reduced MC policy in the drum and bass room. See you at both of them. :) Shouts to Grob, Tenz, Frog, Doc-e, HB, Ponder, Tom u4ea, James F, Marshy, MC Kans and Happy Roller, Sophie, Nitr8 and his girlfriend, Jordan Spenno and the other Epidemik crew, Stoned, Androoo and Nat, Alan, Uplift, Lukozade, Cris E Manic, Desire, Paulie, Josh-e, Nuclear Raver, Kazzer, Hyper Babe-E, Astraboy, Caine, Wotsee, Whizzkid, MC Storm, Sarah and Kevin Energy.
