Generally acknowledged as the biggest rave involved with the hardcore scene today, Slammin' Vinyl does the business on a regular basis up at the Sanctuary and Fastrack Warehouses in Milton Keynes throughout the year. Stunning production and only the biggest DJs on the circuit make it a party not to be missed. On that basis, I had been more than a little slack. My last Slammin' had been over a year ago and for various reasons had been a total disaster. Time being the healer that it is, together with a lineup including DJs that you dont usually see at an event like this, tempted me to return to the Fastrack. Something I vowed never to do again. The strength of Stu Allen's previous sets swung it in the end and the promised firework display helped matters as well. It all saw me confront a bloody big queue opposite the venue at about 8.15 on Saturday night. I found some friendly faces and slid in with them and began waiting to for security to let us in. We were in for quite a wait. Boredom quickly set in, shortly followed by frostbite. Eventually work was made for idle hands in the form of a phone call to the Slammin' information line. Potfish did the deed of darkness and was also responsible for quote of the night: PF: Hello, is there a rave on tonight? SV: Yes there is. PF: Oh thats good, any chance of letting us into it then? :) Eventually the queue started moving, accompanied by a huge roar from the crowd when it got underway. Security were fairly relaxed and all I got was a pat down for weapons. After that, I was in. No messing about here, I went straight to what I was there for, The Fastrack warehouse Hardcore arena. When I got inside, I saw what Slammin had done to the place, UV Heaven. The weird clouds from the first Hardcore Heaven had made a welcome return, together with loads of icicles suspended from the ceiling. All of it was bathed in bonkers amounts of UV cannons, It had the effect of a winter sky inside the Fastrack. Onstage, similar efforts had been made The decks were straddled by a huge spikey inflatable spider thing which changed colour throughout the night. As well as that, two Lasers, one blue, one green were right behind the decks. But probably the best thing about the rig was the strobes. If there were any then I didn’t notice them all night. A Definite bonus IMO. When I had torn my eyes from the ceiling, I managed to notice the tunes that were being played. Knew I was there for a reason :) When I got there, Producer was finishing off his set and a bunch of early starters were lapping it up. Playing a Hardcore Techno set at an obscenely fast BPM for the time of the evening, it was all too much for me and I gave up dancing and listened to the set from the dancefloor. Really and truly, it was a set that would have gone down better toward the end of the evening, but the tunes were good, even though I couldn’t dance to them and I can't name any of them now. After Producer had warmed up the party, Hixxy came on to keep things going. It was good to see Hixxy back behind the decks where he belonged after an injury left him unable to play out for a bit, but the fact he was on so early suggested that he still werent 100%. Playing out when you're still convalescing gets my respect, as does playing my favourite tunes during his set. About 40 minutes in, the video screens behind the decks proudly announced "Fireworks starting now!" but as I was walking out to see them, Hixxy dropped the remix of "Injected with a poison" Fireworks or wicked tunage? No contest! I was straight back on the dancefloor giving loads to one of my favourite tunes. Smiley was a suprise addition to the lineup, Accompanying Hixxy on the mic in a workmanlike manner. The fireworks could wait and it seemed that they did. Eventually I tore myself away from the Hardcore arena and went outside. I thought I had missed them, but eventually the display rose up behind the fastrack as the ravers gathered next to the merchandise stand watching them. When they had finished I returned to the Hardcore arena. Hixxy was finishing off his set and after he had dropped his last tune, he was replaced with by South Wales die hards, Cally and Juice. I had other plans for the 11-12 set but I stayed on because my attention was arrested by the stylish introduction that Cally and Juice got. Sounding more like a Boxing MC than a Hardcore MC, Shocker made a verbose introduction of the pair over the theme to 2001. Never seen that before and and it was definitely better than the usual "Make some noise for xxxx" that you usually get. Nice as it was to see something different, I made my way out of the arena. I had an appointment in the sweatbox to keep. Once I had got upstairs I was disappointed to see that Stu Allen wasn’t on the decks. Only slightly disappointed though, cos in his place was Mark EG, another DJ I had made the trip to see. Mark was in the middle of one of his usual hard as nails hardstyle sets and the crowd were loving it. A lot of people must have made the same journey I did, but if any of them were disappointed with the DJ swap, they didn’t vote with their feet cos the dancefloor just got busier and busier. Shortly after this, the atmosphere went ballistic and I was having a great time along with everybody else including Mark, who as per usual, was going haywire behind the decks. What the lone security girlie, used to dealing with errant ravers made of the Dj being the rowdiest person in the room is anybodies guess. But her face was a picture when Mark picked up a metal stool and started waving it about right in front of her :) The next thing I remember after Mark's set was being in the Hardcore arena, when Breeze came on. I really enjoyed Breezy's set, primarily because he played a lot of remixes of classic happy hardcore tunes. I was particularly pleased when he dropped "feeling fine" as co-incedentally, that was exactly how I was feeling at the time. Great set. One of the let downs of the night had surfaced by this time. The sound. It was all over the place. Usually I wear earplugs to take the edge off the volume, but the stack was so quiet that I took em out cos they just weren’t needed! If that weren’t bad enough, towards the end of the night the quality took a dip, then worst of all, one side of the stack repeatedly cut out during the final hour. At one point it was so bad that normal conversations were able to be held on the dancefloor, so I went to find the technician. All I got was "Hold on a minute mate" then he f**ked off! I can appreciate that as just about the biggest event to be held at the sanctuary, the promoters might receive a lot of unwanted attention from environmental health officers, hence the lack of volume. Perhaps a donation to the the officers favourite charity would help? As the night moved on, we were due a gabba-thon from special guests Bass D and King Matthew. Unfortunately they were not there to play their set, but I didn’t care when the emergency back up DJ was announced. DJ Uplift took his long overdue place behind the fastrack decks and played one of the better sets of the night. He and Wotsee took control and hammered the place with a highly enjoyable set featuring crowd pleasing tunes and finishing with my #1 tune of the moment, "Liberation" by CLSM. I was dancing all the way through Uplifts set, terrific tunes, well MC'd and highly entertaining. More please. Uplifts set was good, but it was made better by being followed by the final, and best set of the night. Energy and Sharkey took the stage and interestingly, so did Storm. Cant remember the last time Storm MC'd a freeform set, but ever versatile, he and the Nu Energy boys finished the off the night with an amazing set. Up went the BPMs and right behind it was the atmosphere as the whole rave got on its feet and stomped its guts out for the final hour. Tunes like "Wicked MC" "Freedom" and a new tune "Hitman" sent the crowd wild, with Storm right beside Sharkey and energy, hell bent on personally hyping up every raver in the building into a frenzy. Without doubt the set of the night, exactly the sort of thing I go raving to experience, if nothing else than for right at the end when Sharkey was pulling back one tune on the right hand CDJ, whilst Energy was scratching the vinyl tune on the right hand deck. Superb. Things I liked. Nice lineup, more please. The water barrel in the fastrack. Great Idea, pity it was empty by 11pm though. Cracking production, I could see where my ticket money had gone. Great atmosphere, particularly in the last two hours. Attendence. It werent pack, but nicely full. Things I liked less. The sound. If Illegal raves can setup in half an hour and not miss a beat all night, then surely a professional setup can do better than that. No Stu Allen! Grr. one of the DJs I wanted to see and he didnt show. Gutted, The young gentlemen with stripy sweaters and Bum fluff taches who started on Dave the Rave. You are Bastards to a man. However, maximum respect to Neil the Stage Manager for being on it in a flash and sorting everything out. I'm glad I went to this party. I weren’t going to go on general principle and past experiences, but after the event I am more than happy to go to another one based on more sensible notions such as the memory of a great night out and innovative DJ lineup. Shouts to:Laura, Doc-E, Hayley, Potfish and his missus, Compy, Deddley, Sykee, Smiley, Andy M, Desire, Cris-E, Uplift, Mark HB, Ponder, Sweetstar, Wildcard, Charlie Kitten, James, Stargazer, Immz, Raz Power, LordPeter, Dave the Rave, Sharkey, Chris, Energy, Whizzkid, Storm, Wottsee, Sorcerer, Fish Geffo, Ronin, Moron, IceKold, Benz, Dreamscape Gill, Dusty Vixen, StormTrooper and the many people I have forgotten.
