This night was a wicked night for many reasons but the sole thing that made the night for me was the return of MC Live Lee. He and Vibes have always been my favourite act and he had not performed before this since Slammin Vinyl vs Hardcore Heaven. I was beginning to think that he had packed it in but when he turned up on stage it was wicked, especially as I had seen a list of MCs for the night and he wasn't on it. The coach journey down was a bit of a mission. We got stuck in traffic in Manchester and got lost in Birmingham. The police then stopped us, causing much panic amongst us all, but fortunately they only wanted to make sure we knew where we were going and they escorted us to the M5. We didn't get there until 10:00 but there was virtually no queue so we walked straight in. The Sanctuary was done out well with drapes across the ceiling and the stage layout was amazing. The stage was along the side, like at Slammin Vinyl vs Hardcore Heaven and NYE Skelter and the DJ was in the middle of the arena, with a mini stage connecting him to the main stage. It was the best stage layout I've ever seen. Sharkey was on first and he did quite a good trancey type set along with MC Odyssey. I then nipped outside for the meetup. There were nowhere near as many there as there were at Slammin Vinyl but there were still a few. Hello to Kevin, Ess Kay, Rich e and Roo. Vinyltrixta was on next along with Storm and Charlie B and he played some quality tunes. Next came Force and Styles and they were surprisingly good, avoiding their usual vocally crap and going for a few of the classics like Discoland, Eye Opener and Shooting Star. Vibes and Live Lee was undoubtedly the set of the night for me. Everybody went crazy when Live Lee turned up and the whole place was buzzing. Vibes played a slightly harder set than usual with a bit less cheese and it was brilliant. They are still number one in my opinion. Sy, Unknown and Storm were on next and they played a very good set although it was not quite as good as recent ones they've done. They even dropped a drum and bass version of "Ready or not" by The Fugees so I'm not sure what was going on there. No-one seemed to mind. Next was Brisk and he played a his usual hard set which was good. After that came Seduction who played a good set as well. We were told of the rumour that Seduction was packing in DJing hardcore which thankfully Storm informed us was "Bollocks" and "A load of shit". Heh heh. Hixxy was up next and he played a set which was virtually all trance. I'm not normally a fan of trance but I quite enjoyed it because it was something different. Last up was Slipmatt and he did a lot better set than he usually does, finishing off the night with the all time classic "Shooting Star". Overall this was a wicked night but as always there were a few minor down points. The taps in the sanctuary toilets were all running warm water so if you wanted a cold drink you had to queue for ages to get a refill from one of only two drinking fountains. Secondly was the mad marquee with Mark EG and M Zone. This was a wicked idea but the location of it was not. I though it would be outside but it was located in the corner of the Sanctuary. On quite a few occasions during the night when the hardcore went into a break you could hear the bass from the techno over the top of it which pissed me off a bit. Finally was the old complaint that we always make which is about the Birkenhead. There were loads of them there as usual and they were bumping into people as they walked past and not getting out of people's way as they walked past them. On at least five occasions, probably more one or two of them would jump on stage and try to bug the MC until the stage manager chucked them off. I even saw empty water bottles come flying into the crowd from the general area of where they were standing. At about 5:00 the balcony was closed off and it wouldn't surprise me if that was something to do with them as well. It's about time they were banned because they are fucking up our scene. Those few small points didn't spoil my night though. I loved it and I thought it was slightly better than the last Slammin. In case you don't know there is "Slammin Vinyl vs Hardcore Heaven - The Rematch" on May 1st so I hope to see you all there.
