Ok ok OK! Sorry sorry sorry! I am sorry I missed the meetup at 1am. God next time I'll definately be there! Let me warn you now reader, if you say you'll be at a meetup, definately turn up and do NOT stay dancing because it's such a good set. Peter and the crew will track you down and tear you to shreds! Ha ha only joking.. here's the review:

Seeing as this was only my second time at Bagleys, the first being at Ravenation last summer, I had a lot to expect from an organiser as established as Slammin Vinyl is. I have heard excellent things about the raves at Bagleys and was looking forward to this. All in all, I have to say I was only very slightly disappointed, but it seems now that at Bagleys I seem to chill out more than do anything else (hello Joe Retro??!).

Got to London from Oxford around seven pm, ready to meet my friends who were coming down from Gloucester, half an hour late at eight they finally arrived.. it had taken them four hours to get to london! Anyway, I had an idea to get to slammin by half past nine at the latest as there would probably be a big queue. "Don't worry" they said, it's only really a big club, and it only took you about half an hour to get into Ravenation! We don't need to get there till ten!".

We got there eventually at five to ten, we would have been earlier but me, being the fool I am and never having been on the Tube in living memory, tore my ticket and threw if after getting off the tube thinking I wouldn't need it anymore. Silly me. Yes I can hear you all laughing. STOP IT!!

And here the nightmare started.. look at that queue!! It was huge! In the end it took us an hour and a half to get in.. the second longest I've ever waited for a rave, and I've heard that people only just behind us weren't in until an hour after us. The queue situation actually started to get less funny and more frustrating the longer we waited, it seemed we would never move.

After a quick search we dived up the outside stairs, which was different as I thought we'd go in the front door like RaveNation we were straight into the chillout area, which basically ran all the way along the outside as always. Had a bit of a lookaround, got a drink (which I was pleased to see wasn't too expensive - two quid for a bottle of fosters ics and one fifty for water - this being london I expected higher prices) and ended up in the technodrome bit downstairs for a while. Trying to find the old skool room early on proved unsuccessful as they were actually playing trance / techno in there, which meant there were actually three house / trance rooms for the start of the night! More on that later. Back upstairs where dougal was playing lots of happy bouncy hardcore, it wasn't too busy or hot which was nice - actually I'm glad we managed to dance a lot before it got too hot. God the heat later on - it was like an oven. On gas mark six! We tried dancing in the jungle room later and gave up after about thirty seconds as the heat just whacked you in the face just walking into the room. The only place I have ever been hotter is in the technodrome at the helter skelter vs slammin back in may.

So there you go basically, most of the night was spent walking from room to room and chilling out. I danced to the whole of Clarkee in the techno room downstairs, which was cool due to the fact they had a door wide open which chilled the place nicely, and yes because of clarkee I did miss the 1am meetup which I say again I am sorry!! Luckily Joe and Peter and crew saw me down there and I got a couple pictures taken of me gurning away as ever. Happy set of the night for me had to go to whoever was on 3 till 4 - vinyltrixta with someone back to back.. I couldn't catch the other dj's name as I was having too much fun - once Brisks "Airhead" dropped I was on another planet.. and so seemed joe retro. Whenever I see him he's bumbling along round the chillout. And to quote the god himself "I've just bumbled over there, now I've bumbled back again. Bumble Bumble Bumble!".

Eventually outside the smell of vomit got too bad and we had to find somewhere to chill out elsewhere.. why do so many people throw up at Bagleys? Arrrghhh!! Also while I'm thinking about it security seemed a bit gloomy as ever, at least not as bad as at the sanctuary I'm pleased to report. I did see a lot of busts being made though - they were good, I'll give them that. Anyway back to the chill out.. we saw loads of signs outside saying "House arena downstairs".. thinking this meant just going back to the old skool arena the outside way we went down and found ourselves in a new arena which I'd never been in before. It was practically empty, but we were happy once we went behind here and found another chillout! Comfy seats for everyone! A nice floor! Soft lighting!! A chillout the way it should be, not sitting outside on concrete. I know this sounds selfish but I'm glad not many people found it. We know where to go next time!!

All in all a wicked night out.. only bad thing was that I didn't get to bed until 10pm saturday night due to a day out sightseeing in london and getting my first acetate cut at Music House. I'll have to go to slammin more often methinks!

Shouts to Joe, Peeeeter, Charmin, MC Cheddar, Happy Bounce and all the other people I know but have forgotten the names to.

And I'll leave you with a quote from 1.20am in the techno room: "Oy!" "Peeeeeeterrr!!" "Who are you? I know you!" "It's me. RAVER DAVE!!!" "WHY WEREN'T YOU AT THE MEETUP?!" oops. Busted.

- Raver Dave (dave.curran@connectfree.co.uk)