With a line-up full of the cream of the hardcore crop including Scott Brown, Breeze and Styles and Sy, ‘Delirium’ should have been a blinder. However, unfortunately the line-up was the only thing that held the Bristol based night together and that was only by the skin of its teeth. The venue was full of people with one intention and that was to get completely fucked and although that isn’t that unusual they were twats with it. The atmosphere was crap and the venue wasn’t much better with security that had no respect at all. It was basically like a ‘Jumping Jacks’ bar with dancers who looked 15, dressed as police officers – it just didn’t have the right vibe for a hardcore event. DJ Sy and MC Storm were on early (probably because they had somewhere better to be!). Sy played his usual bouncy hardcore which sounded fast and fresh. He played ‘Rock Ya Hardcore’ by DJ Kurt which has a fantastic Egyptian sound and a haunted house edge integrated into the bangin’ tune. Storm accompanied him with his wicked rhymes and his freaky little laugh fits in well with the DJ Kurt tune. Next up was the first absence of the evening Seduction was unable to play because he was unwell so instead ‘Essential Platinum’s’ Gammer stepped in to fill the slot. I had high hopes for the fresh faced 18-year-old after hearing some of his rocking tunes but he wasn’t quite as good as I expected. Saying that though it was really hard to know whether the set was good or bad because the sound system was shocking. On one side of the venue all you could hear was the MC and a small part of the tune. You could literally look over to the other side of the room and it was like they were at another rave. After a while of the tune cutting in and out and giving me a headache I told the sound technician who was totally oblivious. From what I could hear he played a range of different tunes and the old skool samples that he revives in his own music featured highly in his set. He played some wicked upfront tracks like ‘Fire In The Sky’ by Dougal and the young man himself, ‘Bring Me Round To Love’ by Sy and Unknown and ‘Back and Forth’ by Brisk and Brown. He ended his set with one of his collaborations with Dougal ‘Know The Score’. Next to take control was Breeze and Styles for a mammoth 2-hour marathon. They played a set full of the latest UK hardcore with so many wicked tunes it would be hard to name them all but highlights including ‘Tantric’ by Yum-Ye feat. Becky Judge, ‘Don’t Forget These Days’ by DJ Yanny and ‘Sweetheart’ by Resonance Q which has a fat old skool sample. For part of the set they had a verbal contribution from MC Buzz but to be honest he was out of time and was challenged with the shout outs to the whistle pose. Now the Delirium crowd were in for a treat with one of the four performances from the CLSM live show. However, the crowd didn’t appreciate the most cutting edge, challenging hardcore around and the crew managed to clear half of the dance floor. On the stage there was Ned the 78-year-old dancer and his friend Jimmy goat dancing away in ‘Ned-Chi’ style, dangling carrots off the end of fishing lines and writing messages to the unsure but dwindling crowd. During the performance Eric Frontpants sprayed a massive canvas with a graffiti logo saying CLSM. With a live bass player, drummer and vocalist you really couldn’t ask for more in terms of visuals. The set was made up of all the best CLSM tunes including ‘Liberation’ and with the live vocal from Stephan Booth it sounded amazing, ‘Transmission To Mars’ and ‘Where The Music Plays’. They also played loads of tunes from their ‘Hardcore Material’ album including ‘Faces Of Angels’ by Doc and Ponder and ‘Hardstyle’. With break beat interludes this was something totally different and really refreshing and amusing to watch. Last set of the night was meant to be from Scott Brown but for ‘unforeseen circumstances’ he was unable to make it (probably because he knew it was going to be shit!) In all fairness the replacement was more than satisfactory and Dougal filled the number one hardcore DJ’s shoes. Unfortunately I didn’t stick around I had a blinding headache from the shit sound system and constant arse slapping. From the flyer this night had real potential but it was only the wicked tunes and DJ’s that gave it any redeeming qualities.
