I left from Hanley about 4 o clock, bus journey there was fine, arrived at Lakota @ 7.30ish. Half an hour early, so me and the 11 mates went round a few pubs, I knew it was going to be a good night as soon as I stepped into a pub with Red Stripe on the pump. I’ve never seen this before, after coming in my boxers, I asked for a pint of Red Stripe, mmmm nice. Finally arrived @ Lakota at 8:30 and was in the queue for 10 mins max, bouncers at door gave me a good but quick search before handing my ticket in. This was my first time at Lakota, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I walked into the main arena (Bionic) and was very impressed. Bionic had some inflatables hanging up and I liked the look of having a balcony up above. The dancefloor was fairly large and even by this time 8:30ish, there was a good crowd of people dancing. I think DJ D-ice was on with Si the Sigh, had a little bop and made my way to the balcony. Bought yet another can of Red Stripe and chatted to the misses for a bit, went for a walk round with my mate and looked for the North and Absolute Hardcore rooms. First found the happycore room, the room and soundsystem were fine, but I was only in there for a good 2 mins before I was bored. Eventually found the North room, nice sized room, and very dark. Think Dan Avery was on, caught most of his set, quite good, then realised the time was nearly 10.00, time for M-Zone. As ever this was one hell of a set, nice set of hardstyle, he played quite a few of the classic tunes from 95 onwards. But the original bassline was replaced with a Hennes & Cold reverse bass kick. Tacky u may think, but hearing these classic tunes with a proper bassline on a loud system was a dream come true for me. Oh by now the whole place was rammed, i heard this night had sold out, and I’m pretty sure it did. Every room right up until about 5:30 when I left was full from back to front. By this time I was really pished up, bumped into Matt Sheppard and had a chat & stomp with him while Vortex was playing. Yet again another top set, he also played one of my fav tunes of 2003, sorry I don’t know the name. It was time for the midnight set, Mark EG. I wasn’t sure what to expect from him, but i wasn’t disappointed. He started with this feckin quality tune, that had the vocals "one night in hackney", would love to know the tune id for this if anyone knows. I got my lady and a few mates on the dancefloor and was running around like a loon congratulating everyone on a happy new year (beer = bad). I can’t really remember much about any other sets. The last full set I caught was Producer in the North room. It was heavy as hell in here and I loved it very much. I made my way to the cloak room about 5:20 because I heard the bus was waiting for us. The only complaint of the night here, the muppets who worked behind the cloakroom did one of the most stupid things I have ever seen. On the way in when people handed their coats in they ripped of both ticket numbers on the hanger, instead of one. So when people brought there tickets back they couldn’t find the number...doh. Some serious pushing going on there, but eventually got my coat and went out. This was my first North since March / April and I loved it. Deffo best night of the year for me and probably one of my best nights ever. The set of the night goes to either M-Zone, Producer & Mark EG for surprising me. Lakota itself was a bit tatty but I loved it. The sound systems were quality and everybody I met had a good attitude, deffo going in February for the last one.
