Mattikake
Average Member
United Kingdom
211 posts
Joined: Oct, 2004
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 Posted - 2005/05/18 : 15:06:46
NB: Viewed from the eyes of a seasoned Tidy Weekender veteran of the Hard House scene. Comparisons are made where due. Tidy are gearing up for their 9th weekender this summer, which I am also going to, so you think they'd know what they're doing by now... "Prestatyn" refers to Tidy Weekenders, not far from Southport. And Hard House as we know, is a predominantly gay scene.
Oh my god how good was that? Did you miss it? Haha you FOOL! I bet you'll want to go to the next one...
I'm still feeling mentally numb, but it's got nothing to do with any substances, it's the relentless tunes. What is it about hardcore? The more you listen to it the more you seem to be addicted. Quality tune after quality tune all weekend. Such variety of styles and styles within those styles and so consistently good too.
From hardcore TV to, the decks in the chalet across the way, to the tunes in the main arenas. And just talking the tunes in the arenas, think Bonkers 13. Every single tune on there was played at some point in the arenas. Repeated Bonkers 13 Dougal mix plays are the closest you can get to a 1 mix hardcore weekender nostalgia trip! (now, experienced ravers, think carefully about the consistency and quality of that before you think "not my bag"). Dougal's own set also had a somewhat striking resemblance to his B13 mix... It felt like a hardcore weekender classics set. Scott Brown played a class evolution of his B13 mix, with a full-on (best of!) Gabba trip at the end as ever. Hixxy mainly settled to do whatever was required though - his main set plus various unrequested marathon sets during the day on Sat (B2B with Ramos) and on the Sun giving a 3 hour final solo set for the ravers from midday after he'd just played the 5am morning glory set on the Sun morning. He must've put in 10 hours on the decks in one weekend! Storm and/or Whizzkid were omnipresent at Hixxy's side as well. It was noted how much work these 3 put in over the weekend... A definite Amo & Andy aura (Tidy Boys). Do these 3 sleep? If they push hardcore weekenders to the successes of the Tidy Weekenders, you know who is going to get rich and who deserves to get rich...
I have to say I think MC Storm was particularly excellent throughout the weekend. From commanding hardcore TV to commanding the arenas in typical Storm style. God knows how much MC'ing he must've done over the weekend, but I willing to guess even more time than Hixxy spent on the decks. Top stuff. You wonder what the guy would be up to now if he didn't blatently enjoy his hardcore so much. I guess the same could be said for a lot of people if you listened to the media...
Best set of the weekend: For me, easily Slipmatt's old-skool classics set on the Friday. Yep every single happy and techno classic I can think of from about 1989 to 1996 in one 1 hour set. And apart from a few very welcome very young types, I was one of the youngest there! Lovely. I think that is the set that did physical damage to my legs. An hours worth of hard bouncy old-skool stomping that puts any thoughts you had of trying to pace yourself, right out of the window! Not being the oldest anymore doesn't give you the excuses you may be used to... Ah, sod excuses, just dance 'til you drop! Was there even a slightly sub-standard set to be heard? No. I could sound biased but even the Mystery Set from a Bristol club was solid - didn't catch the DJs name. I expected to need to leave for a wander when this set was on, but nooo000ooo. It was way too good to want to do that.
They could've done with more styles on simultaneously. We had Techno to Hardstyle with Cally & Juice, M-Zone, Scorpio & Producer etc. Scott Brown and Marc smith played the only Gabba I heard, plenty of UK Hardcore and Trancecore forming sets and loads of selected hardcore from '88 to '05 dotted about. I even remember some sets including mental Speedbass-esq speed-ups several times. Yet despite all that, I've got used to there being 3 arenas at the decent hardcore events. And there was only a smattering of bounce-ultimate Nu-skool? Damn!  *
How was old Scummy Southport's Pontins? Just a "tad" better than Prestatyn. The chalets were much better kept and maintained and from what I could tell, even the pikes-ville chalets came with showers as standard. The Queen Vic was easily big enough to accommodate a decent sized dancefloor, which was duly exploited along with a large portion of the outside, unlike two other weekender venues I can think of... Hey even the pub served reasonable Weatherspoons type meals (ok nuked, but again I know of places that don't even do that at all!). So anyway, the arenas; yeah arena 1 was easily up to the size of arena 1 at Prestatyn. Arena 2 a bit smaller than arena 2 at Prestatyn. Arena 3 is much bigger in the Vic than arena 3 at Prestatyn. Generally balancing out to about the same capacity as Prestatyn. Heat was not a problem, not like at Tidy Weekenders or Empire in MK anyway. Lighting was great and unusually, the strobes and lasers were nicely in-time with the music and were spot on. So much so I was going to chat to he person in control of them, but he didn't have breasts, so decided against. Apparent random gayness is what tidy weekenders are for anyway... 
Packedness: Difficult to say but of about 3,000 weekend places I'd say they sold about 2,000? Better than I expected for the first one, but for now it will rely on word of mouth from people like me. There were enough for the 2 arenas to be full but not too packed on both nights. Interestingly the arenas were just as packed, if not more so, on the 2nd night compared to the 1st. Proof that the mongy drugs like Ket and GB that are killing hard house, are not used to the same capacity here - I would even hazard a guess at "not at all"? One would assume people primarily enjoy hardcore for the dancefloor experience - which imo is better produced, faster, more varied tunes and a deafening atmosphere with a crowd at the mercy of the MCs whim - funny that!
Stamina : I'm fuct. No, I do mean seriously fuct. I was fighting cramp in my calves on the sat at the end. Stomping will do this, however, what I didn't expect was that to even stand there, tap a foot and bop your head (a la hard house I'm-fuct-on-drugs-but-you-would-never-guess, yeah right [:$]) was hard work. So my quads and hamstrings still are fuct from that too. If you wanted to stand you had to do it at 160-200bpm, not 130-150, and I'm sorry to report that gravity simply isn't strong enough to do this without spending energy on the "down" motion as well at the "up".
Event production: Not up to the standard of Tidy of course. They could've done with a director at times, but the DJs and MCs were hyper enough on TV. This was their first one afterall and they don't have footage from earlier weekends to use. It didn't take them long to convert the live recorded stuff into TV footage though. How do I know? Well, we had some scantily clad whip-brandishing visitors to our chalet (They were women! This is not a hard house event, remember!). In short, it gave one of my mates the perfect excuse to get his rse out in public again... 10 minutes later we were watching it on hardcore TV...
People: seemed friendly enough. I didn't get chatting to anyone really, not even many randoms and yeah I did miss this a bit. IMO you need a good chill-out area, and while this had them, most seemed too preoccupied with the dancefloor! Unlike certain other clubbers certain other events attract , here everyone just seems to want to bounce. I didn't see any "chavs" either. Yeah I saw people with beers in their hand or a wearing a hardcore-branded hoody, but what makes a "chav" is basic lack of money and a need to rebel against all authority figures. I didn't see any of that at all. Age-wise I was much more at home. People my age and older - I guess the youngest a true old-skool hardcore raver is going to be is about 33 by now. Yet there was still the new generation that any decent scene will be attracting too. Where Hard House's average age must be 21, this event would've been 26. (personally I simply say wisdom comes with age... )
Deaths: Well there were two collapsers at the end of the Sat night. No idea if drug related or not. It could easily have been exertion. One girl was on her own two feet in 10 mins the other collapsed right at the very end of the raving, with Storm typically quick on the mic to command his ravers to make room for the paramedics.
Yep. It really is official now. Hardcore is back! Even the Djs were excited by this fact. It'll be here to stay for another 10 years, maybe even indefinitely. It's survived a low from about 96'-'00 where all the DJs and producers could've understandably quit, but perserverance has paid off and now it's back and even stronger than it used to be. I could put this down to the attitude of hardcore - accepting anyone, with the focus being on the music (not drugs or that it's fashionable to be gay, or even that it's just plain fashionable!) - or the attitude of the people, or even the willingness and obvious personal satisfaction from the DJs and MCs, but hardcore's revival is really down to the massive mixable variety and consistent quality of the music, pure and simple. This is why it has survived. Hardcore is the ultimate form of dance music. There is a class of people who like this stuff and for them there is no substitute. Like a rocker liking rock; it wasn't just a fad. They will always exist and that's all a quality scene needs, the rest will tend to itself...
Will I be going again? This is a man who knows the true meaning of the words "fuk it"!
Boom tsh Boom tsh Boom tsh baaass
* I missed Sy & Unknowns set in favour of Slipmatt's. Criminal I know! So I could be wrong about missing out on nu-skool or bouncecore... tbh I was aiming to get there but then got lured in by the tunes of whoever was playing before Slipmatt. 2 hours later... 
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Old old old-skool
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Edited by - Mattikake on 2005/06/30 20:25:49 |
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