| Author |
Thread |
|
The Rabbi
New Member
Australia
61 posts
Joined: May, 2004
|
 Posted - 2004/07/25 : 19:03:40
A bit of a read but if you've got the time i'd love to hear some feedback.
Thanks guys!
Stuck In The UK
Slammin Vinyl – 10/07/04 – R.I.P The Sanctuary
For those that don’t know me my names Joel and I’ve been in love with the rave scene ever since I was introduced to it in August 2002. I became a regular amongst the crowd of ravers after that for the next 6 months until school stepped in the way and it was time to get a little serious. After some time of absence from the scene it was hard to ignore the fact that it wasn’t the same feeling for me anymore, the buzz of going wild on the dance floor with all of my friends, throwing my hands in the air when an anthem got dropped or the sometimes unbearable excitement waiting for a rave to come around, just didn’t feel the same way as it did when I first stepped into the scene. I had to face the facts I’d grown a little over the year and somewhere along the way I forgot the main reason I loved raves, the unbelievable euphoria one felt being with people who were there for the very same reason you were there, to go crazy, dance till you drop and have an awesome night out.
However this was all about to change when I arrived in the UK the heart, mind, body and soul of the rave scene as we know it. Ever since I became a raver I dreamt of going to a UK rave but unfortunately the closest I could ever get was listening to live sets full volume on my stereo mixed by Hixxy @ Dreamscape, Brisk @ Helter Skelter, Breeze & Styles @ United Dance, or Scott Brown @ Summer Sensation to name a few. Somehow, someway this dream became true when a job offering allowed me to visit the UK. I did some research, checked out a tonne of rave websites and came to the conclusion that Slammin Vinyl was the pick of the litter. But from what I read this wasn’t just your average Slammin Vinyl. The location for this rave would be held at “The Sanctuary”. In case you’ve never heard anything about The Sanctuary before here’s a little background information. Believe it or not raves as we know it didn’t exist until the early 90’s and The Sanctuary was the very first legal rave venue for the UK hardcore scene and proved to be one of the biggest influences in the history of UK hardcore, and as luck would have it (or the way the Brits and Aussies are inseparable) became one of the biggest influences on the Australian scene as well. For 12 years The Sanctuary stood at the centre of the UK rave scene and held countless events from the very beginning. However a decision that would no doubt leave a sick feeling in the pits of any UK raver came about to close the venue forever to make way for a soccer stadium. Slammin Vinyl would therefore hold the last ever hardcore event at The Sanctuary and they were going to leave with a bang and burn a hole into the brains of ravers everywhere that this would be one of the greatest, and as summed up by Mc’s throughout the night “History in the making!”
If you’ve been to a Utopia, Godspeed, Hyperspeed, Helter Skelter, Area 51 you no doubt know the excitement of seeing one UK DJ play. I remember at the start of 2003 when Musical Kloudz 5 had UFO and Anabolic Frolic, while Area 51 the following week had DJ Hixxy. Everyone I knew was in all sorts over which event to go to since for most of us we didn’t have the money to go to both. Let’s say for a minute you didn’t have to make a choice and you felt assured that you could see all 3 in the one night, or how about 5? 10? Or even 20? Getting the picture now? Most of the biggest names in UK hardcore were spinning this night, the most noticeable names missing were Breeze, Styles, Dougal and Brisk who were mixing it up in Sydney that night. Everyone else however was in attendance. Hixxy, Scott Brown, Kevin Energy, Sy, Seduction, Slipmatt, Vibes, The Rat Pack, Marc Smith, Billy Bunter and the who’s who in Mc’s – Storm, Whizz kid, Marley, Smiley. Now if you’re a Sydney raver like me you’re used to events with several arenas held at venues such as The Superdome, The Howie Complex, and The Atrium. But when these venues are compared to The Sanctuary they feel like nursing homes for the elderly. In total there were 5 arenas all pretty much the same in size. You had the Hardcore arena, Drum and Bass arena, Oldskool arena, Techno and Hard house arena, and the outside arena which was renamed the big top when the rain came along to spice things up a little.
I was in for a rude shock when I arrived to find a queue of people waiting to go in as long as Anzac parade but after much hustle and bustle I found myself walking into a dream when the reality struck me, I was at a UK rave and that euphoria I spoke of earlier hit me like a tonne of bricks. I went on a trek to make myself familiar with the venue and after some perusing I felt it was time to see if the UK scene was everything it’s cracked up to be. Not only did it live up to expectations it left them for dead. There is simply no way to describe how totally insane the UK hardcore scene is. The hardcore arena was about half the size bigger than your average sized arena back home and man do they go all out on decorations. I felt like I was 4 years old walking through a Santa village at Westfield. There was a snow theme all around the arena with ice hanging from the roof creating unreal effects with the lasers. And the music, I thought I knew my stuff when it came to hardcore but I felt like I’d been in space the last 3 years and I was just learning how to walk again. For 2 hours I couldn’t recognise a single tune but that’s not to say the tracks were bad, they were insane! I check the time and remember Hixxy’s due for his second appearance of the night in The Sanctuary arena for what would be the last ever hardcore set in The Sanctuary since The Sanctuary arena was designated for Drum & Bass. I made my way through the huge crowd and found myself in the middle of a Drum & Bass set by DJ Phantasy with Mc’s Elksman & Shabba going off like a frog in a sock. As 11 o’clock comes by I look towards the stage eager to find Hixxy but he’s nowhere to be seen. That was when Mc Smiley announced to the crowd that Hixxy was involved in a car accident and hadn’t arrived yet. He was ok to our relief but wouldn’t be able to make it tonight. It left the crowd a little bummed out not to see him but when Smiley screamed on the mic “make some noise for Hixxy” I swear a layer of paint was stripped from the cheers. So then it was up to DJ Seduction to leave a lasting impression on The Sanctuary with the last ever hardcore set. Alongside him were Mc’s Storm, Whizzkid, & Smiley. Storm and Whizzkid you’ve no doubt heard of before, if you’ve never heard of Mc Smiley, remember the name because he’s going to be one of the greats, or as he would put it “Better remember my name cause it will be there one day, on Arrhythmic letters in the Hardcore hall of fame”.
I can some up the atmosphere like this, take Team Rocket, put them in the main arena of the Superdome, add another Mc, take their speed and times it by 2 and mix it in with the emotion New Years Eve. That’s the best I can do to describe how totally amazing this set was. Mostly Newskool hardcore such as “Round and Round” and “Drop the Beats” with a hint of some Oldskool classics but if there was ever a dull moment the Mc’s wouldn’t let you stop for a second. When one finished a rhyme, the other one snatched the mic to continue and they did not let up the entire set. The emotion was only doubled when Seduction stopped the music to play a recording telling everyone the news about The Sanctuary closing. There was not a body in that arena that wasn’t dancing their legs off for the rest of his set. After a mere 3 hours at this rave I felt and experienced more than 18 months of raving back home. As Seduction’s set was approaching its end, “Sail Away” by Bang! put a smile on everyone’s face, had everyone in the arena singing with one another, and having hugs all round. It was one of the best sets I’ve been lucky enough to see.
Next up Kevin Energy. To be honest I’ve never been the biggest freeform fan, until now. My night seemed to go from one height to the other. Kevin Energy’s set seemed to have the speed of Gabber yet flow like Trance, bounce like Hardcore and go off like Hardstyle. I’m not sure whether it was out of excitement or just having an awesome time that I completely forgot Scott Brown was due up next. I know there seems to be a lot of speculation over Scott Brown, every time he comes down under people always comment about him being “past his prime” or “they should bring someone else to tour for once”, well to them I say there’s a reason for it, and its simply because he’s the worlds #1 Hardcore DJ and if the ravers out there truly didn’t want to see his sets anymore they wouldn’t pack the arena whenever his sets are about to begin. I’ve seen Scott Brown play twice in Sydney and both times he hasn’t let me down and the thought did strike me what could make a Scott Brown UK set different from an Oz set? The answer became crystal clear when he began his set and the reception he was given when he stepped up on stage. Say you’re a world famous rock star and you do a concert overseas, everything’s great it all went well the fans were happy to see you, reviews were great but let’s say you did that in front of your home crowd. Wouldn’t that make a hell of a difference? Of course it would and out of the 3 Scott Brown sets I’ve seen this was by far the best. It wasn’t the best because he played better tracks or the sound equipment was better than average it was simply the atmosphere that made it the best. Some of the new tracks included in his set were “This Is How We Do It”, “All About You”, and “Heartbeatz”. As well as some oldies such as “Rock You Softly” and “Turn Up The Music”.
The last track was dropped by Scott Brown and the crowd started preparing to see Breeze, Styles and Dougal direct from Sydney but there was a familiar face behind the decks and my suspicions were confirmed when MC Storm announced to the crowd despite his car accident Hixxy had made it to the Sanctuary to play one last set and my god! I’ll hold it in my head as one of the best sets I’ve ever heard a hardcore DJ play. It was unbelievable. It may have been the crowd, the music or everything in general that made it so memorable but whatever it was it definitely made this night one to remember.
The “Close Your Eyes remix” and “The Theme” hardcore mix were well received by the crowd and by the end of Hixxy’s set it was time for me to leave having work in less than 4 hours time. As I walked out of the venue with my voice almost gone from shouting so much, legs that were about to collapse, and a head full of lifelong memories, despite there being some controversy over how the event was managed (many people saying they were out to make a buck this time round and security being a little rough) all I could do was smile knowing that I just witnessed something out of this world. I finally had a picture to go with those live set CD’s I listen to day in, day out. All the Utopia’s, Hyperspeed’s, Godspeed’s, Eclipse’s, MK’s, Flashback’s, Fantasia’s, Thrillseeker’s, Area 51’s, Electric’s, Happy Snax’s, and all the other Rave series we have down under couldn’t prepare me for this night.
For someone coming from a “dead” or “dieing” scene it was a nice change to go to a rave that felt exactly the same way my first Godspeed or Eclipse felt but one of the evident things about it was the fact that there weren’t any people there trying to make themselves out to be better than anybody, there weren’t any bitter faces muttering words such as “it’s not as good as it used to be”, there wasn’t people who’d roll their eyes when offered a chuppa-chup, there weren’t people pushing others away when they went for a hug, everyone was there for the same reason, to have an awesome night and the result of these reasons simply added to the already overwhelming second to none sound, lights, lasers, stages and Dj’s to make an extraordinary event. In closing from a raver in the “dieing” Sydney scene in my eyes our scene is not dead, its far from dead, the only thing “dieing” from our scene are those people who were once there dancing next to you at one of your early raves telling you about how they’ve been in the scene for X amount of years but for every person who leaves there’s always going to be somebody to fill their shoes. The day when raves are illegal and no one in their right mind would think of attending one is when our scene is “dead” until that day comes let’s leave this term for other acts that are of lesser value to us than our beloved scene. In the words of Hixxy “Don’t forget the cry, Hardcore will never Die”
By Joel “Rabbi” Newman
P.S. It would be great to hear some feedback, don’t hesitate to email me or pm me with your thoughts, Thanks for reading!
"But our shenanigans are kooky and funny, his shenanigans are cruel and unusual, which makes his shenanigans not shenanigans at all, evil shenanigans!"
Alert moderator 
|
The Rabbi
New Member
Australia
61 posts
Joined: May, 2004
|
Posted - 2004/07/27 : 17:04:16
bump :p
"But our shenanigans are kooky and funny, his shenanigans are cruel and unusual, which makes his shenanigans not shenanigans at all, evil shenanigans!"
__________________________________
"I'd say it's like a wax museum with a pulse"
Alert moderator
|
capone13
Advanced Member
United Kingdom
1,302 posts
Joined: Mar, 2004
|
 Posted - 2004/07/28 : 12:18:16
A good review there mate, must of taken you a lot of time.
DJ J-me
Alert moderator
|
Chris B
Advanced Member
United Kingdom
3,964 posts
Joined: Dec, 2003
|
Posted - 2004/07/28 : 12:44:01
Sums things up nicely shame you couldnt stay til the end.
Venga la familia makineros
__________________________________
once again back is the incredible, rhyme animal, incredible
Alert moderator
|
cycrow
New Member
United Kingdom
30 posts
Joined: Dec, 2002
|
Posted - 2004/07/28 : 18:14:07
i wish i was there
its the first slammin vinyl i've missed in ages
but i didn't have the money to go :(
Alert moderator
|
|
Moved: 
Printer friendly
