Another event which has been away a long time in its original guise, Jellybeanz has built up its fanbase for quite a few years, before going all quiet on us. After its highly successful event at Empire's Discoteque at the start of last year, the promotion, apart from a few (okay more than a few) room hostings has been pretty much silent. This meant one of two things, either the event had died a death in its solo format, or the promoters were building up to something big and needed the time to put it all together. In the end, the answer to my questions was answered when the flyer advertising their latest venture landed in my hands. Their biggest venture to date. "Natural Born Ravers", the most imaginative name for a Hardcore event I've come across for a while, but this was only the start of something new for the promotion. New venue, in a new city, and while two rooms isn't a first, it was the size of the first arena which really made it stand out. Although the second arena was more like what they were used to, the main arena took the bulk of the venue's 1000 capacity. Add to that, one top notch lineup, with plenty of headliners mingling amongst the lesser known artists across the complex. However, in terms of innovation, pick of the bunch had to go to putting Nicky Blackmarket and MC Five Alive in the middle of the night in the main arena. Whilst many ravers reactions were sharp intakes of breath and sucking of teeth, I for one was looking forward to it. If nothing else, it was an interesting addition to an already entertaining lineup. Best of all, Cambridge is not as far away as I keep thinking. I'm always imagining a long drive, but 40 minutes round the M25 and a left turn later and I was going to be there. I've definitely done longer journeys for the sake of the music I love, that much is for sure. It was no surprise that I was going to be there then, with a short journey and the promise of a good night out seeing me flying up the M11 and for once not getting confused halfway along and taking a wrong turning. We even managed to navigate to the venue once we arrived, a rare event in itself, seeing as we only had flyer directions to go on. Once we found our way to the venue a good sized queue presented itself and once we had found our way to the friendly face that is Mark JBZ, and had handed over our tickets, we were in. It always nice to go raving in a new venue and as I had never been to this one before, some exploring was in order. First off I found the toilets and got some earplugs on the go, before making my way to the main arena. It werent hard to find, considering it was flippin huge, a definite mark up from previous efforts from Jellybeanz, the hexagonal main room was crammed with sound system, main stage and a man sized lighting rig suspended above it. About the size of the main arena at Empire, Milton Keynes, on pure size alone it was definitely going to be an interesting evening. Best of all, it had everything a good sized arena needed most of, Ravers! there was more than adequate in the place already, as well as the good sized queue I saw when I got in, this was not going to be sparsely populated, not by a long shot. But I weren't there to people watch, I was there for the music and not much else. The first DJ in the place was someone I have heard of, but not seen before, a DJ called prophet, as well as an early appearence from MC Sharkey on the mic. Entertaining the early crew in the place was Prophet's job and boy did he come up with what was required. Playing a set which was solely designed to impell the ravers to dance, Sharkz and Prophet tag teamed the party crew who were determined to make a start on things the way they wanted to continue, Hardcore. Sharkey summed up this sentiment, ressuring the ravers by telling them "The early bird catches the Hardcore Worm" while Prophet made sure the crowd didn't go wanting on tune selection. Playing a crowd pleasing mix was the way to go so he obliged with "All the tears I cried", "Elysium" and the immortal "makin me wanna dance". Did he succeed in hyping the ravers? Well the singalong to the latter tune I remembered when it weren't much past 10pm told more than any "Up and coming" hype could. Next up it was the first of Hardcore's Big guns to do his stuff. Brisk and Wotsee took to the stage and the steadily swelling crowd eagerly awaited him to start up. Starting off with a vocal introduction of both DJ and MC, Brisk tore into his set with trademark enrgy and passion. Wotsee did the same on the mic, quickly moving into his favoured delivery speed of 'kin quick, alternating between pre written and ever popular lyrics and bad to the bone freestyling to compliment. The backbone of Brisk's set (or at least what I could recognise) was remixes of ever popular crowdpleasers, with "24-7" and "Higher Love" and "Boomstick" all getting namechecked. However, if you think that was the sole contribution then think again, with the majority of the tunes in his set being totally unrecognisable to me, but filled with energy and drive, all delivered in Brisk's inimitable, understated style. With Brisk & Wotsee's contribution to the rave at an end, The Nu Energy Collective took their place for the next set and continued where they left off. As was to be expected, Kev Energy's freeform dominated tune selection motivted the ravers (and me) to dance, while MC Sharkey did what he does best. Kevin Energy was in his element here, playing faster and harder that the previous set which was pretty damn fast and hard already was obviously no problem as he got underway and worked through his set. As usual, I utterly failed to recognise the majority of his set, but a few tunes did rise above the rest, most notably "Suck My Rock", one of a growing number of remixes of "Voodoo people" and best of all "Hardcore Machine". However, all of this was overshadowed by one man, namely MC Sharkey who was ferociously up for it throughout and determined to project his love of the music to the ravers. He chose to do that through looning about throughout the set whilst on the mic. You name it, he did it, Record sleeves on the head, ringing up a raver's mum (that'll learn her to pass up her phone for a shout) and getting all the party people to sit down in the middle of the arena. Another rave with Sharkey on the mic, another occasion where I am left astounded at the man's talents. For the midnight set, I was tempted to stay downstairs for the jellybeanz crew and their seminal performance. However, when Bouncy techno is in the equation, all bets are off, so it was time to pay a visit to the second arena to see what Vapour had up his sleeve. A lot, it would seem. The second arena at The Junction is more like what Jellybeanz events of old consisted of. a Small but tightly packed dancefloor was jumping to the sound of Vapour and Sykee accompanying him on the mic. As promised, it was Bouncy techno all the way, with a large amount of my favourite tunes getting represented, including "Toytown", "Fuck my best friend" and "Jeeee Ha!" all getting spun. However, it was one tune which stood head and shoulders above the rest, with a bouncy techno rip of "Livin on a prayer" not doing much in terms of credibility, but shit on me the reaction from the crowd was phenominal. The floor shook and then started the bounce as the party crew stomped their guts out and as for when the vocals came in, well the singalong crew were in full effect. I actually tore myself away from it to look at the reaction from the back. Impressive is not the word. Even though I was near the back when Vapour and Sykee had finished, I had no intention of leaving. This was becuase the one and only TC had surgically removed himself from East London for one night only and was next up to play at Jellybeanz, along with MC Enemy on the mic. I have heard a lot about this guys forthcoming tunes so it would be interesting to see what he could come up with on the decks. A stompy, energetic and euphoric set was the order of the day, it would seem, with plenty of alternation between breaks and kick driven tunes (which is always nice to see) as TC worked through his set. Playing a fair selection of tunes which I had not heard before, as well as sprinkling in a few tunes which I was more than aware of, most notably, two firm favourites of mine, "Feel the panic" and "Walking on the moon". I wanted to stay for what Immz had to offer, but the main arena was calling me again, so I went ad got better aquainted with it. A good thing too, since Dougal and Whizzkid were in the area when I returned and whats more they were well into their set, so I joined my friends on the dancefloor and got on it in no uncertain terms. Dougal's trademark is an overload of euphoric, rushy, vocal based Hardcore and those that were there for that were not dissapointed in the least. With the one like Whizzkid by his side on the mic for his first performance of the evening, it was all systems go as the ravers stomped and the tunes flowed. Like I said, vocals are the backbone of Dougal's tune selection and as such, few were surprised when "I see the light", "Still the one", "Through the Darkness" and the epic "Tell me a story" were rinsed out in quick succession. I said few were surprised, but I for one was rushing hard throughout, with the top end frequencies pinging off the endorphin receptors in no uncertain terms. All of it enhancing my night to say the least. Speaking of enhancement, MC Whizzkid was in FULL effect for this one, doing what he does best, effortlessly hyping the crowd and loving his work while he's going about it too. Dropping only his most well honed lyrics during the set such as "Ateam" and "Pump pump". It was like having one of your mates up there Mcing like the professional he is. Fantastic. If that weren't enough, then it was the turn of the RBC to get on stage and perform. With Hixxy, Styles and MCSquared in the place, you know that it was going to be something special and so did I . However the obvious interaction between MCs and DJs was easily the best part of the set. Dont get me wrong, the music was all there as you'd expect, with a full on remix of "Free your mind" and "Dido R.I.P" all getting chacked, but the well oiled machine which was the back and forth between the jock gracing the decks and the micman working the crowd was definitely something to write home about. Hixxy's newest trick of blindsiding Storm as he is building up to chucking out a lyric was very funny to watch too. I am no DJ, but even I know it must be difficult to mix in a section of a tune which is difficult to MC to (hence the blindside) yet do it in such a way that the MC don't see it coming (so he cant avoid it). However whats even more impressive is that Storm can get caught out yet still manage to pick up the pieces and get back on form within a few bars of it happening. I don't want to start off a trend of enjoying seeing the MCs or DJs have a difficult time, but in terms of technical ability, it was definitely interesting to watch. After Hixxy and Styles had packed up, it was time for the unusual part of the night to come forward. Nicky Blackmarket and MC Fivealive were a little late in arriving, but what he lacked in timekeeping, he made up for in tune selection. I cut my teeth in the raves listening to DnB and I still like it. I dont like the knobs you find in some of the raves though, so the chance to rave to DnB and not get started on every five minutes was more than appreciated. What was even more appreciated was the choice of MC. MC Five alive actively made room for the music instead of dominated it. He shut up for minutes at a time and best of all he actually made sense when he did get on it. It was a defnite additon to Blackmarkets set which was in itself something special. Playing a set which saw memories of my time as a DnB raver come flooding back, it consisted of tunes old and not so old. Despite it getting cut chort by some wag setting off the fire alarm halfway through, it was defintely enjoyable, with the night getting broken up nicely with "Chopper", "Valley of the Shadows", "6 million ways", "Bodyrock" and my personal favourite "Asonist" all getting dropped. With the end of Blackmarket and Five Alive's set, it was back to the Hardcore with avengence and who else better to take us there than Scott Brown and a very welcome appearence from MC Odyssey. Both of them got the party back into what the ravers were used to with a solid performance from well trusted DJ and MC who I havent seen for too long. True to form, Scott played to the style that mmost of us are familiar with, going all fluffy and euphoric in his first half with upront tunes galore such as "This is how we do it", "Angel eyes" and "I Adore", before biting the head off said fluffyness and bringing on the gabba. The latter selection I didn't recognise at all, apart from his classic finisher, a remix of "Boomstick", but I always enjoy going for it to the second half of Scott's set, and especially so in this case where Odyssey was in thr zone from start to finish with "Day Dreamer" and "Vision" being the most notable of his lyrics. For the final set of the night, there was never going to be any messing about, Sy and Storm took centre stage and sent the ravers on their way in the best fashion possible. Storm is always at his best during the closing hour of a rave, his motivational skills are sometimes needed and sometimes not, but his stubborn refusal to even give the notion that he even appears tired animates the ravers and keeps them going till the final tune. This, of course, brings us to the other half of this symbiotic relationship. Sy and Storm are one of the best partnerships in the Hardcore world and it shows. Storm's energy on the mic is further amplified with Sy's energy on the decks, with plenty of stompy, pounding tunes which is focussed on one thing and one thing only, getting the ravers to go for it till the final tune. This is easily done when the guts of the set is full to the brim with tunes like "Take Control", "Raveheart", "Free your mind", "Set you Free", "Sound without a name", "Discoland" and the best finisher I could think of "Making me wanna dance". Sy's furious mixing and Storms micwork even managed to pul, the wool over the venue owners eyes as to the finishing time, but it couldnt last forever. Eventually the bloke behind the scenes realised that Sy had snuck in as many tunes as he had gotten away with and asked the pair on stage to bring things to a close. Things I liked: Lineup - A healthy mix of headliners, lesser known talent and unusual additions. It kept me flitting between arenas throughout the night. Music - A healthy mix of Djs meant a good variety of music was played from start to finish. . Upfront, Freeform, Bouncy Techno and of course the Drum & Bass to break up the night. Speaking of which.... Nicky Blackmarket - Its not often I see a lineup that genuinely raises an eyebrow. The inclusion of Nicky Blackmarket might have upset those with a closed mind, but those who were there to expand their musical horizions didn't go away dissapointed. As well as that, MC Five Alive is a rare breed of DnB MCs, one that knows when to shut up. Did a good job as well. Attendance - A notable mark up from their previous ventures, it was a brave step to go to a 1000 capacity venue when their previous biggest draw had been a mere 300. Having said that, it paid dividends on the night, with a solid showing from the Hardcore faithful and no shortage of those willing to stomp till the final tune. And while we're on the subject.... Final tune - Not sure how many others noticed it, but there was definitely a liberal attitude towards the closing time of the rave. Needless to say, Sy took full advantage. Things I liked less: Fire alarm - One of the more random occurances of the night was the fire alarm going off, halfway through Nicky Blackmarkets set. Weren't too much of a problem though, as soon as it was found to be a false alarm, the decks were powered up and we were back in a rave once more. Good night out, really good night out, with plenty of things to distinguish itself from the pack, Natural Born Ravers proved to be a big success when things could have gone spectacularly wrong. Believe me I've seen it happen, many a night has tried to bridge the gap between big and small, but only a few have succeeded. Parties with far bigger followings have gone belly up in the light of the differences associated with promoting a small and a big night, but thanks to the Jellybeanz' solid backing, reliable organisational skills and keen eye for putting together a night which would pull in the ravers, the belly was not forthcoming all night. All I did see was a backbone of the event, lots and lots of ravers on the dancefloor, going for it from the start of the event till the end. I know they were there cos I spent most of my time in amongst them going for it throughout the night. This was the best part of the night for me, with only the friendliest Hardcore ravers in the place and lots of em to boot. It made a good night better and its all the justification I need to get myself back to the next one when it arrives. I always have a good time at Jellybeanz and This time I did exactly that AND Stomped till 6am. Fantastic. astraboy.
