Me and mates finally got inside the Sanctuary about 11.00pm, and surprisingly none of us even got searched, which was a real shock, security just let us walk straight through. Were security being slack tonight? I thought to myself, but obviously not if you read slightly on further in the review. The first DJ I decided to check out was Vinylgroover inside the packed Sanctuary. His set, I thought was slightly disappointing, as the previous sets I've heard from him were absolute blinders but this set even though it was still good just wasn't as good as I expected from him ( I'm sure others will not doubt disagree!!!! ). Next stop I decided to check out the Rollers for the sound of the one and only Sy accompanied by Storm on the mic. These two absolutely rocked it as they always do and certainly got all the whistle and horns crew going absolutely mental. After chilling out outside and I mean really chilling as me and my mates were completely frozen after about 20 minutes sitting outside as I'm sure everyone else was!!!! I decided to check out Force and Styles and the worst kept secret in raveland, the return of MC Junior. Even though Force and Styles played their predictable set ( Feelin Fine, Pacific Sun etc..) the atmosphere in here was wicked and certainly got everyone jumping. Junior even though he isn't technically one of the best MCs around, the power of his voice more then makes up for it, and the crowd made it well known they were more then happy to see him back again. I then decided to take it easy so I decided to hit the Technodrome just in time for the sounds of Loftgroover who was playing his usual mental music which got the entire Technodrome crowd going absolutely crazy!!!! The atmosphere in here was absolutely wicked as everyone was just going completely off the rails together. After unscrambling my mind I headed straight back into the Rollers for the set I been waiting for the most, Dougal and Hixxy. They didn't disappoint, the unusual combination of Dougal's vocal happy tunes blended well with Hixxy's hardcore / hard trance tunes. This atmosphere in here was the best atmosphere all night. The Rollers was rammed solid and the crowd were just loving it. Definitely the set of the night for me. Following Dougal and Hixxy was the hardcore leader himself, Slipmatt. He played a wicked set too, nice and banging, with not too mush cheese. Every other song Slipmatt played seemed to be a hardcore remix of and old skool tune which certainly got the crowds reaction and with Storm and Charlie B both on the mic the crowd were more then hyped up. The last set of the night was Vibes accompanied by who else, but the one and only Livelee ( lets hope he's hear to stay ). Vibes played a blinding set, with his usual mix of cheese and uplifting vocal tunes, which certainly had the reasonably packed Sanctuary rocking along too. When the night ended the crowd were greeted with warm sunshine outside, which was a very welcoming site and made sure everyone left in a good mood. There are however a few negative points I would like to point out about the night. The first is, yes you've guessed the security. After hearing the way some people were harassed by security at the last Hardcore Heaven, I was very wary about the security there. Generally as the night went on, the security seemed to be fine, and I thought to myself security here isn't that bad, people had been exaggerating a bit. How wrong I was!!!! When me and friends were chilling out outside two security louts came up to me and told me to get up and empty my pockets without any explanation. After rummaging through my pockets and my wallet, very mush to my annoyance their found no illicit substances. They then proceeded to search my friends and then searched everybody else who was sitting around me, doing their very best to piss off as many ravers as possible. Security just seem to get worse and worse as each Sanctuary event goes by. Another bad point was the fights that were breaking out in the hardcore arenas. I personally think that when fights breakout in the hardcore rooms at raves, the scene has a severe problem that needs to be dealt with. Seeing people fighting at hardcore raves is just unbelievable and demoralising to the scene and just defies the whole concept of what hardcore raves are about. The usual culprits who were fighting were pissed had stripey t-shirts, skinhead haircuts, annoying scouse accents and kept harassing the MCs for shoutouts so 3 guesses which part of England they came from. Its any guess what sort of trouble these pricks would cause at the next Sanctuary event. Anyway now I've got those burning issues of my chest, I'll like to say me and mates had a good night overall, even though I've had better nights at the Sanctuary in the past, but still in terms of production and music, Helter Skelter put on a good show. Despite the negative points I made earlier regarding the Sanctuary, the Sanctuary is the original rave venue and the only venue in the country around these days which seem to be holding big raves ( except Compulsion ) so I'll be definitely checking out the next Slammin Vinyl V Hardcore Heaven and I will hopefully see you all there!!!! Big shouts to everyone I met at the meet up. Over and out
