In my opinion Slammin Vinyl is second in the rave scene only to Helter Skelter and here was another one of their events to show why we all love it. I drove down with Time and we picked Smithers up on the way. After meeting up with virtually everyone else from USH NET at Kev's about 20 or 30 of us set off for Bagleys. Unlike the September event this one was only a bit late in opening the doors and we were in for about 10:45. It seemed pretty busy inside and there were plenty of people there that I knew. Brisk and Vinylgroover must have swapped their sets over at the start because I didn't see Brisk but Vinylgroover did a good set which wasn't excessively trancey. Next up was Vibes. It was his birthday which Whizzkid announced a few times in the set. He seemed to be enjoying himself even more than usual and at the end he even went on the mike to thank the crowd for their support. He played another set of happy, bouncy tunes which the crowd loved. After this came Slipmatt and he played one of the best sets of the night. With so many hardcore DJ's playing trance at the moment it was good to hear a set that included plenty of happy cheesey anthems. Force and Styles were on next and completely out of character for them they played a trance set which must be said was quite poor. The tunes they played were too slow to properly dance to and most people I spoke to agreed this was a poor set. Hixxy followed and while he played some better tunes it was also a bit too slow, although unusually for him he threw in a few cheesier tunes at the end. I think that trance is good to a certain degree but at the minute there is too much of it being played at the expense of happy tunes that really get the crowd going. Last but one set of the night was Sy and Unknown with MC Storm and they did a great set as usual. Sy is one of my favourite DJ's and he is pretty popular with the ravers. The final set was Dougal but I only saw a small part of this as I was sitting down and resting after a hard nights raving. This was a very good night overall but for me it was let down slightly by the usual aspect that lets raves down and that's the Birkenhead crew. During the night I saw two of them try to snatch a whistle from round someone's neck. When he stepped away they both proceeded to hit him about the head whilst laughing. His face was cut and I told him straight afterwards that he should tell the security but he refused as he obviously feared any retribution. This will surely put him off raving in the future so this will add his name to the long list of ravers who the Birkenhead have drove from the scene. Our big hope is that the closure of the Sanctuary will eliminate the Birkenhead from our scene and I hope this doesn't mean they are going to start causing trouble at Bagley's instead. This issue has been raised a few times before with promoters but none of them have bothered to take any action over it. What made this rave great though was that there were so many people there that I knew. Shouts to Time, Kev, Smithers, Slammin Sam, Andrew and Jo, Rich and Jo, Eleanor, Katie, Doug, Chris, Ben, Conrad, Peter, Emma, Caine, Steffi, Tina, Vince, Billy Bass, Joe Retro and Jamie, Paul, Craig, Rich, Happy Bounce, Sash, Bridie, Cris E Manic, MC Whizzkid, and especially to MC Storm. He's an all round top bloke who now has my mobile number. :) Biggest shout of all though goes to Kev for letting us all meet up at his house before and all day afterwards, when we just generally messed up the place and stunk it out with rave sweat. :) Make sure you all try to make it to Addicted to Dance on Nov 27th. Apart from Sy and MC Storm there are no big names there but that's not what the event is all about. It's about supporting the scene and seeing some new up and coming talent. See you all there, Chedda
