Amnesia House
"Valentines Bash"
The Empire
Milton Keynes
12th February 2005

It's been along time since I've been an oldskool all-nighter since Illusion late last year (2004) being the last. Tonight brought me to my first visit to Amnesia House, Amnesia one of the original promoters from back in the day, hosting legendry parties that went down in rave folklore. Hailing from the Midlands hosting events at the Coventry Eclipse and Shelly's in Stoke to name a few. With events such as the Book of Love, which featured the wedding of co-promoter Micky Lynas with the great Grooverider as best man. The Amnesia name has a grand aura behind it

Amnesia House spearheaded with a new promotion team led by Man Parris, with memories of Amnesia past with a line-up featuring many of the Amnesia favourites alongside the new. What will hold in store for us tonight as we welcome them to The Empire in Milton Keynes?

Getting to The Empire Milton Keynes isn't too hard as I boarded the B'ham New Street- Euston Virgin train. It only took an hour as arrived in Milton Keynes Central just after 10. The Empire is situated within 2 minutes from the train station. 'Helter Skelter' has used the Leisure plaza complex as they've hosted 'Energy' and their recent New Years eve event, 'Life' previously at this complex. The Empire nightclub was the hardcore arena that 'Hardcore Til I Die' used at Helter Skelter, so I knew what this venue was about.

A brief walk across the car park and I found The Empire nightclub. Arrived to the nightclub and joined the guest list queue. To be honest there wasn't that much of a queue for ticket holders and for people paying on the door. After my guest list place was confirmed I was given my VIP and Backstage passes and was in.

Headed straight into the main arena and DJ LJ High was warming up in here.
It felt a bit odd seeing this club bare as when I've been here before it's usually rammed with no space to move. As I'd arrived after 10, I'm hoping it'll fill up later. I Found the VIP room and met one of my old mates in there. The VIP room overlooked the dance floor, though it gave us time to have a chance to catch up.

It didn't take us too long to find the oldskool room, Man Parris was in here setting up a few last minute things. Back to the main arena and LJ High was finishing up as he played 'In the Grind', MC Five Alive was on the mic.
The dance floor started to fill up at this point as we saw the arrival from Charge Recordings' Mampi Swift and some very attractive stage dancers too.

Headed to the oldskool room and Flashback's very own Mistress Mo was on. Mo was playing a 90-91 set. The room in here started to fill up with people dancing on the small dance floor and raised platforms. It's been along time since I've heard Mo play out and it looked like she's been digging deep into her record box. As Mo played some old gems such as 'Give it to me baby', Rhythm Section's 'Feel The Rhythm ', 'Music Takes you' along with The Production house classic 'We are Hardcore'. Mo finished up the set with 'Crackman the return'

Headed downstairs for Andy C, as Swift was finishing up, he played ' We want your soul'. To step up next was The Ram Man, The Guvnor - Andy C alongside Juiceman and Bassman. Andy played a fast and furious hectic set to the crowd. Teasing and double dropping tunes as always. Hence why he is voted as the number 1 drum and bass DJ. Te dance floor wasn't too busy but there was plenty of room for people to shock out. Andy teased in a few favourites such as Renegade snares as always along with other tunes as he played 'All that Jazz', 'Mysterons', 'Submarines' and ' Foundation VIP'. He finished the set with 'Black Tarantula' featuring MC Spyda, which went down a treat.

After Andy C it was Virus Recordings Ed Rush, Amnesia old favourites MC's Lenni and Bassman accompanied Ed Rush. Ed Rush played a dark set, as he is known for his techy dark styles. Playing a few favourites such as 'The Nine' and 'Gasmask'.

Headed upstairs and caught Manchester's finest Stu Allen. Stu Allen played an Anthems set playing many classics from 92, though it did keep the crowd happy and jumping, as he played all the regular '92 tunes such as 'Bombscare', 'Edge 1', 'The Bouncer' just to name a few.

After Stu Allen it was the turn of DJ Ratty. It's great to watch DJ Ratty, as he knows how to work the mixer, as I was watching him teasing, switching and scratching tunes into the mix. He played a '93 dark style set as he played tunes such as 'Living in Darkness', 'Valley of the Shadows' and also 'Wot's my Code-Dubplate' which saw MC Lenni having a boogie in this room.

At this point I headed downstairs to catch Randall, another one of the old Amnesia favourites. MCing was Bassman and Juiceman rolling back-to-back Shadow Demon stylee. I enjoyed this set from Randall, as it's not that often I get a chance to hear Randall play. Randall played a dark rolling set his mixing was excellent keeping the tune in the mix when it dropped hence why he is known as 'Daddy Randall'. Randall played some rollers such as 'Outter space' and 'The crossfire-Angel'.

Nicky Blackmarket was on next in the main arena but I decided to catch Pilgrim instead upstairs. Pilgrim played a 90-91 set, though there weren't many people dancing in here. This was one of my favourite sets of the evening as he played 'Kiss The Sky', Charly', 'Come together', Bizarre Inc's 'Playing with knives' He also played two copies of 'Mentasm' and mixed them in and out of each other which I've not hear him do with records for along time! Pilgrim finished the set 'Music take's you' the Seal vocal mix before heading home.

Musically I thought tonight was brilliant the DJ sets were all top notch I couldn't fault a single set. Though unfortunately there wasn't much of a crowd here as I think only a few hundred people walked through the doors. As it really wasn't that busy as I've mentioned before I've seen this club rammed to the rafters with hardly any room to move, this was a totally contrast!

Tonight One Nation were hosting their annual Valentines bash at the Brixton academy, London as I thought that the drum and bass headliners featured tonight at Amnesia weren't going to show up due to other events, but every single DJ and MC that was featured on the flyer actually did turn up making it a full house.

The one thing that the line-up did lack was a stronger MC line-up for the Drum and Bass. As the MC line-up was perfect for the oldskool with MC's such as Lenni, Man Parris and Bassman all known for oldskool but maybe unknown to new people into today's Drum and Bass, as these guys were MCin' for Amnesia back in the day, over 12 years ago!
I felt there wasn't a strong enough MC line-up for the Drum and Bass, had MC's such as Fearless, Eksman IC3, etc.. been billed maybe it could of pulled people away from One Nation tonight.

The crowd that were in the main room seemed to be more locals, though in the oldskool room upstairs I spoke to people who did make an effort and travelled quite far to get here. As some people travelled from Manchester just to catch Stu Allen!

With the name Amnesia associated with parties from back in '91-93 I would of expected oldskool to be in the main room rather than upstairs in the smaller room. I do think that with the low turn that the Amnesia crew are going to have to have a big re-think of what to do next. As nearly a year ago when they held their last party that they held at the Villa Leisure centre (Birmingham), they had a low turn out again and oldskool was featured in the main arena.

I do think that maybe their better off holding events at smaller clubs and building up the Amnesia name back again, rather than holding events at large scale venue's.

Massive shouts to Man Parris and The Amnesia House Crew, Pilgrim, Lenni, Mistress Mo, Stu Allen, Andy C, Loxy, Hazzard, Swift, Randall, Bassman, Nicky BM, Astro, Adam Timless and also to everyone else whose names I don't' know but faces I recognise.