First of all OH MY GOD! Secondly, after arriving at a neat time, not being searched and locating the main area, I expected to see s hard house dj starting off slowly. How wrong was I? Very. Breeze was ripping it up right from the get-go. Though I only caught the second half of his set, he slapped out some tunes, such as Heartbeatz Remix amongst a flurry of upbeat happy anthems. Just 2 days previously I'd been moaning that I haven't heard any tunes from the last couple of months recently because of the ever-evolving scene we all love. And then....Breeze,last one, 24-7. Amazing. Then I ventured into the hardcore room to see Stompy finishing with Rush-Ins.Hmm...I think my phones tapped by Mark Breeze and Stompy. anyways, I took a stroll around the arenas, noticing how relaxing funky house is when you want to chill.A few people seemed confused by the rooms, they're werent signs up and for anyone who had never been to SeOne was confusing apparently. Anyway I digress. I caught the last 10 mins of Mark EG's set and it seemed he'd worked the ravers into a frenzy.Returning to the main room, on the 1's and 2's was Scott Brown. Having noticed a few people commenting that his set is all too similar to the one he played the week before, i was anxious to see whether it would seem that way again. Absolutely not! Without a doubt this was the highest point of my night, as he kicked out tune after tune after tune. I was practically begging for Boomstick, but apparently Anne Savage told Scott not to play another.....bitch! For that reason I decided not to hang around for her set and again walked into a hardcore room, of people absolutely HAVING IT! I got home about 5 mins ago, so my mind is still blocked...and i cant remember who was on! DOH! After a lengthy bounce-a-thon, I returned to the funky house room to eat ice and chill. 2am Darren Styles. Having never seen Styles and not been impressed, It was kind of obvious I was going to enjoy myself. Indeed...Darren didn't disappoint again. Moonlight,Blue Anthem, Heartbeatz and Back and Forth all featured in a set that again impressed. I assumed having just sacrificed seeing Nu Energy:(, that the next dj in the main arena would be hard house. A lack of set times for the main arena annoyingly made me miss half of Hixxy. As i walked in, Heavens Above was building up.I was in Heaven. As a newer raver amongst the crowd, it was the song that introduced me to the new style of hardcore as previously i had been mainly listening to old skool business. The Boss then proceeded to faultlessly mix tune after tune after tune....including Close Your Eyes, This is How We Do It and his final, Injected With a Poison. I absolutely flipped...I have never been as hyped up and my arms were everywhere. As recently I have found myself doubting whether I actually enjoy seeing Hixxy as much as i used to back in April, this was like being kicked up the arse.If by chance you read this Hixxy, ive learnt my lesson. I was absolutely knackered and I knew if I didnt hold back a bit then I'd be missing playing football on Sunday. Kevin Energy 1 Football 0. Energy somehow seems to have an endless amount of ability to change the way a song sounds. A relentless hour set as usual. Dougal or Sy? As much as i love Sy, i decided EP over Quosh and Dougal smashed out a set like no-one else can. I don't actually remember a single song that he played but I was absolutely going mental. If anyone's reading this who was there, or if anyones reading this at all then....I was at the front in the yellow shorts with my hands like this o/ and then .o/ and then o. all the time. Diagrams not to scale. Hmm...Afterthoughts...the atmosphere was great, although Hard House ravers seem a hell of a lot less friendly than us. probably to do with an inferioty complex or something...and rightly so, they're not as good as us. Set times for the main room would have been very nice, especially as there were clearly 2 types of crowd wanting to see their fave dj's in there.Although an extra 2 mc's (Odyssey and Sharkey) not advertised on the flyer more than made up for that. All in all, this was the best rave I've ever been to, and I hope that more events are organized as well as this in the future. Free ice from the bar was also very well recieved. Statistics of my night: Fags "ponced"- 4 Hardcore raver friendliness- 10, of course.Big up to Astra for recognising me from previous events. Shouts to Neil and Dave for a great friendly chat in the train station, as well as to all the "performers" and promoters. A great night.And if Astraboy says otherwise, he's wrong, incidently, shouts of "Where's the Astra?" were heard early in the night from various mc's. im sure he was around somewhere. See ya's all the next time, same review time, same review place, taking it for granted that this will get approved for general consumption.Yay!
