Hardcore Til I Die
Event 18
‘MC Whizzkids Birthday’
Air (Formerly Code)
Birmingham
Friday 8th December 2006

Tonight was the final event of 2006 from HTID and also a rather special event too as it was MC Whizzkids Birthday party. The line-up was mind blowing featuring all the best in UK hardcore with a live pa from Whizzkid himself

HTID had completely sold out a week before the event, so you know tonight was going to be a roadblock. Ravers arrived from up and down the UK reaching this event to celebrate this occasion with Whizzkid MC.

Arrived in Digbeth shortly after 10, we were greeted to an enormous queue that spanned down to the bottom of Heath mill lane. There were plenty of eager ravers waiting patiently to get in on this cold winters night.

Was greeted by Hixxy who was once again working on the door making sure things were running in order. After a search from the security team we went straight through the side entrance and into the outdoor courtyard. There was tent out here which was being used as both the merchandise stall and heated chill out arena.

Straight to the main arena and the place was buzzing, Juice and Cally was on with MC Shocker, who were on playing a hard set. Juice and Cally did drop Bodyrox ‘Yeah yeah’ and Pendulums ‘Tarantula’ which got the crowd brocking.

With the event only been open for an hour there was hardly any room to move on the dance floor. The main arena was decorated head to toe with Birthday celebrations including inflatable large bottles of champagne, cakes dotted around the DJ box. There was a net of balloons located above the balcony ready to be let off come Whizzkids arrival!

It was fast approaching 11pm and time for the ‘Kick off set’ featuring Whizzkid MC and Breeze. Whizzkid made his grand appearance on the stage and was greeted by a rapturous roar from the ravers out celebrating with him at his Birthday party. Soon as Breeze opened his set it was only a matter of minutes before Whizzkid was littered with balloons.

Really enjoyed Breeze’s very hard a little darker than the norm and pounding, dropping ‘The beat, The bass’, ‘Only if I had more’, ‘I will be’ remix and a current favourite of mine ‘Gotta believe’ remix, excellent stuff form the Raver baby DJ. Whizzkid was excellent during his Birthday set hyping up the ravers getting things truly underway with his lyrics whilst showing off his football skills kicking the balloons into the crowd.

Headed upstairs and tonight the carbon lounge had a slight change in music policy as they were showcasing nu-skool breaks as opposed to oldskool. DJ Twista was on playing a mixture of oldskool classics with breaks. Twista played remixes of ‘You got the love’, ‘DJ’s take control’, ‘Baptised by dub’ and ‘Never lost his hardcore’. MC Knight of the infamous South coast crew was on the mic here hyping up the crowd and did a great job even when the sound system kept going down.

It seemed that the DJ’s were having trouble with the sounds system here as it kept cutting out but that didn’t stop the ravers. At one point there was no sound in the entire building, the sound engineers quickly took away the mixer from the Carbon arena to replace the mixer in the main arena. This time gave a chance for ravers to mingle and have chat whilst the system and music was being restored throughout the building.

Back downstairs and DJ Hixxy was on with MC Storm. Armed with a new mixer Hixxy was tearing down the crowd. Hixxy played a very upfront set featuring a number of tracks that are to be featured on the forthcoming Clubland X-Treme Hardcore 3 compilation album. Hixxy was dropping the likes of ‘Take me with you’, ‘Overlode’, ‘Sacrifice’ ‘Get hard’, and ‘I'm hardcore, this is what I do’ which features MC Storm on the vocals.

Storm was fantastic on the stage rocking the party controlling the ravers with his infamous style and making sure no-one was slacking on the dance floor during these 45 minutes he was on.

After Hixxy it was the turn of Evolution records Scott Brown with Scottie B doing the mic duties, Scott opened the set with his remix of ‘Caught up in your love’. I didn’t hang around too much here and headed upstairs to the breaks arena. DJ Distortionz was finishing up. Was quite interesting seeing him mix as he was playing directly from his laptop and had a small keyboard hooked up to the mixer.

Following on was DJ Reckless of Unification was on who was accompanied by MC Casper and Dizzyvibe who were both on mic duty. Reckless started the set with a number of 92 favourites such as ‘Ravin im ravin’, ‘Feel the heat’ and ‘2 bad mice’. At this point he started to play a number nu-skool breaks track with remixes of the Prodigy’s ‘Your love’ and ‘Everybody in the place’.

Back downstairs and it was one of the sets that I was looking forward to featuring DJ Squad-E alongside Whizzkid MC. Squad-E is part of the Raver baby crew producing and remixing numerous hits working alongside Re-Con. With tracks that have appeared on various compilation albums including the successful Bonkers series and Clubland Hardcore X-treme albums.

Squad-E didn’t disappoint showcasing plenty of his own material with tracks like ‘My direction’, ‘Perfect dreams (sweetheart)’ remix, ‘Promised land’, ‘Untouchable’, and ‘Lost’. Great tune selection from Squad-E. Whizzkid was rocking the ravers with his lyrics and beat boxing style.

Next up was the Quosh supremo’s s DJ’s Sy and Unknown with MC Storm. The Quosh duo were showcasing plenty of new material from their label along with plenty of crowd favourites. This was a typical Quosh set with some powerful vocally tunes backed up by some bouncing beats dropping the likes of ‘Be with you’, ‘Make it bounce’, ‘Dangerzone’ and ‘Caught up in your love’

Both Sy and Unknown were battling out with MC Storm having a scratching square off, Storm complimented their scratching with his vocal scratching whilst hyping up the crowd, Storm was also showcasing a number of his new lyrics alongside some classic lines. Sy and Unknown continued to play ‘See the light’, ‘Angels’ and Passion’ remix.

Following on from this set was hardcore triple award winner Darren Styles with Whizzkid MC, Styles opened the set with ‘I need you’ and then ‘ Lost the plot’. I decided to head back upstairs and was in time for DJ Phantasy.

Phantasy was playing an oldskool jungle set playing yesterdays anthems such as ‘Set speed’, ‘Chopper’, ‘Lighter’ and ‘The 1’. Phantasy stepped up the pace and started to play some 99-02 tunes dropping the likes of ‘The nine’, ‘Wolf’ Dillinja remix ‘Pac-man’ and ‘LK’.

Back down stairs and it was the Birthday boy’s live PA, MC Storm presented Whizzkid with a Birthday and gigantic Birthday card signed by numerous people from within the hardcore community.

Gammer was on the decks as Whizzkid presented this PA, the Birthday boy was showing off his vocal talents, singing live many of his tracks that his vocasl have appeared on. Whizzkid sang tracks such as ‘Back to the oldskool’, ‘Don’t want this night to end’, ‘Nightmare’ before finishing with ‘Free at last’.

After the PA it was the turn of another Birthday boy as it was the turn of Notorious vinyl’s Marc smith with MC Wotsee. I enjoyed what Marc was playing first half of his set was very fast, hard and bouncy as Marc dropped ‘Gravity’, ‘Twighlight zone’ getting the ravers jumping and bouncing.

Wotsee was entertaining the crowd getting the ravers involved with his lyrics and keeping the party going for throughout the penultimate hour. Marc turned up the tempo with ‘Ruffride provider’ and finished off with some gabba with ‘Break free’ as his last tune.

Final set of the night was from Raver baby’s Re-Con and MC Storm and this was a blinding set. Re-Con opened the set with ‘Techno wonderland’ remix a classic tune and then went onto playing ‘never too late’, ‘keep on trying’ remix and ‘1000 kisses’.

Storm was magnificent for the final 60 minutes keeping the ravers stomping into the early hours of Saturday morning, making sure no-one was sitting down for the HTID at Air in 2006.

There was a bit of a technical problem during this set as one of the CDJ’s broke down and Re-Con had to play off one deck whilst another replacement was brought to the main arena. Once this was sorted Re-Con carried onto play ‘Angel eyes’ and ‘Gotta belive’ remixes along with ‘Dance’. Re-Con gave the ravers a special xmas present as he sang ‘Love Hits’ live at the end of his set.

What an outstanding party that HTID put on for Whizzkid MC and what way to say goodbye to 2006 with. The production was totally out of this world with the main arena dressed head to toe with a big party theme going on. Apart from the various technical difficulties with the CDJ’s and the mixer in the main arena it was a good night.

Would never have thought no sound would be running through the club for 15 minutes especially as it’s a superclub, never witnessed this in my time of going to Code / Air since my first visit in 2002. It didn’t bother me too much as it gave me a chance to catch up with people inside rather than having to shout at each other through the music.

The atmosphere from the crowd was 2nd to none which can only be found at hardcore raves, with everyone in full party spirit plenty of ravers dressed up in festive outfits. The club was ram jammed as it was once again a full house, the artists tonight performed extremely well some outstanding sets especially from Squad-E, Hixxy, Re-Conand the PA from Whizzkid’s, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

2006 has been a fantastic year for HTID at Air. With every event selling out in advance as tonight was a sell out at the beginning of the week. HTID have gone from strength to strength as next year HTID will be uprooting form the UK as they take the ravers on holiday to Spain next summer to present HTID in Sun 2007. Job well done and roll on 2007!

Massive shouts to Hixxy, Joe, Chris / Mark Lambert and HTID team, Storm(Big up), Whizzkid (Happy Birthday), Knight, Sy, Unknown, Breeze, Styles, Marc Smith (Happy Birthday), Twista, Reckless, Mallice, Enzyme, Wotsee, Re-Con, Squad-E, Garry K, Sprucey, Ben, Katie , Sam and the Up the Cut Crew, Scottie B, Phantasy, The Doctor, Squidgy B, Ribbz, Gammer, Chit Chat, Kaylene and Uplift.

Big Respects to Shaun, Lisa Jo and Phil, Sallie, Lozzy (Happy Birthday), Lou Lou, Lisa and Arwen, John Buzz B, Izzy, Andy legs, Caddy, Mat KoR, Danny Smithers, Emma, Sarah, Vinny, Gareth, Niki, Ronni and Jonny G, Cat, Lea, Aidan, Emma, Smithy, Boo, Charlie and James, Rude Boy Rob, Ms Bell, Katie, Maggie, Foggy, Gsus, Becky B and Abbie, Clodhopper, JBC, Michelle, Mr and Mrs E, Saz, Wayne Dizzyvibe, Chris Mental, Mark Pleasure dome, Lana, Emma Quadrasonic, Sketchy, Staci, DSI crew, and everyone else whose names I don't' know but faces I recognise.