I always love going to Helter Skelter but this one gave me even more reason to look forward to it than most because it was on the night of the last of my end of year exams at uni. This event started off a little bit badly for me and took a little while to get going for me but once it did it was a wicked night. We got there at about 9:30 and I was more than a little annoyed when the security guard doing my search threatened to take me away to a separate tent and make me do a strip search. Now I know for a fact that strip searches are illegal and I am very tempted to grass those wankers up. However I couldn't have said anything at the time because it is R.O.A.R. so they would have just not let me in. I was in for 10:00 and I was walking around outside when I saw Clubavision interviewing people. I queued up with two girls who I had came with and we were interviewed. Someone told me it is being screened on 18th June so make sure you watch it. I went into the Rollers after that to see Vinylgroover and he played a good hard set. Then I saw about 10 minutes of Zinc and headed off to the meet up. A big hello to Michelle, Smithers, Bug, Caine, Maxim, Jamie, Peter, Kev, Adidas Matt and Mike Evans. After the meet up I went into Hixxy in The Sanctuary and he played a good set. Then I went into the new talent room upstairs in the Rollers to see Caine playing. He was playing various different styles of hardcore and I was impressed by his mixing skills. A potential star of the future? We at USH NET all hope so. I stopped there till 12:15 and then went downstairs to see Vibes. Before the event I wasn't sure whether Live Lee would be there but I was delighted to find out that he was. Vibes and Live Lee absolutely rocked. They have the ability to get the crowd going in a way that no-one else can and for me they are number one by a mile. I just hope that Live Lee doesn't miss any more events. After that I went over to see Seduction in the Sabctuary and he was very good. Seduction is one of my favourites so I always enjoy his set. During this set I was pleased to see my old friend Sophia who I haven't seen in a while. I then stopped to see Dougal's old skool set. Although I'm not that big an old skool fan I still enjoyed it and there were plenty of tunes that I recognised. This skelter was a bit different from others that I've been to because I saw a lot more drum and bass than I normally would do. I saw the Rush Hour who were pretty good although there was no MC MC. I then saw an hour of Fabio and Grooverider who were also very good and they had the Sanctuary packed out. My friend Stu who is a junglist reckons that I'm slowly turning into a junglist but I keep telling him that hardcore is my first love. I then went over to the Rollers and saw about 15 minutes of Slipmatt. I then met Bug outside who was supposed to be meeting up with Vibes but Vibes didn't show up when he said he would do. Then we sat outside for a bit with Michelle and some girl who'd clipped pegs into her hair (!) The time was now 5:30 so I went inside to see Sy. He played a flawless set as usual, although MCing were Storm and Man Parris back to back which I thought was quite strange. Suddenly last set arrived, leaving me wandering where the night had gone. It was Force and Styles along with Junior and to be honest I wasn't sure what to make of this set. I think they've definitely improved since the return of Junior but they still have their faults. Some of the tunes they played like Eye Opener, Rave Heart and I think it's called Simply Electric were really good. However some of the tunes like Pretty Green Eyes and Higher Ground were awful. Overall it was a reasonable set though. At the start of I bought a disposable camera and I got some great photos. Michelle took photos of Vibes and Live Lee when they were on stage and I managed to talk to Hixxy and Seduction and get photos of them both. The Birkenhead didn't behave particularly badly except for their constant habit of jumping on stage. However there were a big group of them being filmed on Clubavision all shouting "Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerkin'ed" which is not really the image you want to give people of our scene. It was great to be back at skelter again and this event was everything I'd come to expect from these rave masters. I can't wait until the next one.
