Saturday 17th July 2004 Lakota Nightclub, Bristol Info: 07973 734701 Times: 9:00 – 6:00 Prices: £7 How much is a beer: average £3.00 Unplanned nights are without a doubt the best and Absolute Hardcore was definitely an event that exceeded expectation. The night was celebrating its third birthday and it certainly did it in style. The Lakota nightclub was home to the three floor event - Old skool in the large, cool main arena, Techno in the mildly moist second floor room and hardcore in the sweaty, shoe box top floor room. Many a raver has got very hot and very sweaty at events but this was unbelievable the attic room was so hot and sweaty my Polo’s (yes, the very hard mint with a hole!) melted in my pocket! With a maze of staircase’s linking up the different floors and rooms there was fun to be had navigating through these rabbit warrens with people sitting bemused on the steps obviously looking for the hardcore room! On arrival the top floor was being filled with sounds from fresh new faces Sketchy and Compulsion. These lovely lads were rocking the pants off the crowd and going mad for it themselves bangin’ out tunes like ‘The Outlaw’ by Compulsion and DJ B, ‘Transmission To Mars’ by CLSM and HTID remix of ‘Injected With The Poison’ by Hixxy. Back down in the old skool room Vinyl Junkie was taking a detour back in the past and revisited the quality days when The Prodigy ruled the world. He played ‘Everybody In The Place’ and ‘Your Love’ which will never fail to sound absolutely superb. Nice and Easy was the MC that was lyrically twisting along to the set and he puts so many MC’s to shame as he was quality. Back up in the sauna Dougal was on for the second time of the night he played his usual trance based hardcore with tunes like ‘Takin’ Me Higher’ by Darren Styles and the original mix of ‘Heartbeatz’ by Breeze and Styles. Next on the decks were outlawed by the three amigos - Sketchy, Compulsion and Gammer new kids on the block took control. They played a wicked selection of tracks with loads of CLSM sounds especially for the Transmission To Mars crew and ended with Gammer and Dougal’s new tune ‘Rippin’ Up’ which is coming out on Relentless Records soon. Next up was Vibes who had a lot of love to give to the Bristol crowd. He played a classic set with tunes like ‘Techno Wonderland’ and ‘I Need Your Lovin’. Kickback was next to make the top floor turn from sauna to oven. With a set that deserves total recognition this up and coming star played an absolutely fat selection of tracks starting with a Scott Brown flavour playing tracks like ‘Back and Forth’ by Brisk and Brown and then moving on to some of the more anthemic hardcore with tunes like ‘Ultimate High’ by Stargazer, ‘All Of My Life’ by Aluna and ‘Today’ by Evil Angel. Legendary Sy stepped up to the decks next and took the crowd up to an even higher level playing a blinding set. With tracks like ‘Making Me Wanna Dance’ and ‘Move Your Body’ by Sy you couldn’t possibly fail to muster up some energy and dance like a trooper. Moving on to play more recognisable tunes like ‘Do It Like We Do’ (the discovery channel tune!) by Plus System, ‘Free Your Mind’ by CLSM and ‘Neck Breaker’ by Plus System. This night was all in all a massive success. The atmosphere and people were superb and the venue was fantastic even though it was a little toastie. Absolute Hardcore, Absolutely Bangin’ – It certainly was!
