Raveology
‘May the 25th be with you’
Air Nightclub
Birmingham
25th November 2005

After the success of the previous Raveology event in September Raveology presented their final event of 2005 at Air nightclub, Birmingham, ‘May the 25th be with you’ with a theme based loosely on Star Wars. The main arena was hosted by Dogs on Acid featuring a massive upfront drum and bass line-up and with the oldskool arena hosted by Jungletechno.co.uk.

We arrived at Air just before 11 and there was a massive queue with plenty of ravers waiting eagerly to get in. We were greeted by a few characters from the Star war’s movie as they kept the ravers entertained whilst queuing on this frosty winters night, these characters included the Chewbacca and a few Stormtroopers.

With their being a tight door policy tonight the cloakroom was situated outside to allow people to put there hoods and coats in here as apposed to inside the venue. This didn’t really help on this chilly evening, after a thorough search and emptying our pockets we was in the venue.

The main arena was decked head to toe with Raveology murals dotted around the main arena. The dancefloor was rammed with not much space to move around especially in the main arena. There wasn’t a centre stage for the MC’s like previous events but two small dance podiums for the MC’s to MC on. There was numerous projector screens dotted around the venue playing all 6 Star Wars movies throughout the evening.

Dangerous D was on the decks entertaining the ravers dropping plenty of crowd favourites as he played ‘Creeper’, ‘Ask not’ and ‘Sticky’. What I thought was peculiar is that with Air now having the late drinking licence that they had run out of Red Stripe and there were massive queues at the bars throughout the venue.

Headed to the oldskool room and Flashbacks very own Mistress Mo was finishing up and I was in time for DJ Escape of Kool FM fame. Escape was playing a 98-2000 set with plenty of forgotten tunes being played. Escape played ‘Phantom Force’, ‘Wales’, ‘Clear Skies’, ‘Drop Bear’, ‘Say What’ and a few other rollers from this era.

After Escape it was the turn of Midlands favourite DJ Pilgrim alongside the legendary Robbie Dee. Pilgrim played an awesome classic oldskool jungle set with plenty of gems being played throughout. Robbie was accompanied on the mic by another legend MC Lenni. Pilgrim played ‘Scotty’, ‘Dread Bass’, ‘Helicopter’, ‘Warhead’ and ‘Ganja man’.

At this point I decided to head down to the main arena and Bryan Gee was finishing up. Bryan was playing plenty of new tunes from Dillinja including the new ‘Li Li’ remix from Roni Size. The mighty Grooverider was on after Bryan gee this was a blinding set, I’ve not heard him play out since the Barcelona weekender and was not disappointed. I didn’t know many tunes that Grooverider played but he did drop DJ Hazards - ’Heads must roll’ and Slam’. Bassman was MCing for Grooverider what made this set even better saw the surprise appearance of the award winning MC Fearless MCing back to back with Bassman!

After Grooveirder it was the turn of Fabio but I decided to head back to the oldskool arena as Glenn Aston and MC Carasel were on representing Jungletechno.co.uk. Glenn played a blistering set plenty of tunes to educate the younger raving generation. Carasel doesn’t really MC much to oldskool especially ‘93 stuff but he done a great job. Glenn was playing a 93-94 set as he played ‘Final conflict’, ‘Renegade snares’, ’Hear me’ before ending the set with the timeless classic ‘The Terrorist’

Hazard was on next but I decided to head downstairs to catch Nicky Blackmarket. Birmingham’s MC Biggie was MCing for Nicky keeping the ravers rocking through the final hour tonight. Nicky had also brought down a special guest as MC Foxy was also here tonight. Nicky played the ‘System test’ remix along with ‘Bambatta + Original nuttah’ over ’The One’ and he also sneaked in ‘Ouuterspace’.

Overall tonight was a successful night as it was completely rammed especially in the main arena, but what I didn’t like was the lack of true oldskool tonight. The only real oldskool sets came from both Glenn Aston and Pilgrim. Escape did play a 98-2000 drum and bass set which you don’t get to hear much often. I did feel that the 2nd arena was just a 2nd drum and bass arena, for a majority of the night. Rather than an oldskool jungle arena, as Nicky Blackmarket didn’t end up play in here, as I was looking forward to his oldskool set.

I do think that Raveology is now a drum and bass event as apposed from an oldskool night that it once was at the beginning of the year. It’s a shame but I guess since Accelerated Culture / Random Concept not hosting events here at Air, Raveology have decided to fill in the void that they’ve left behind and decided to host an upfront drum and bass night.

Massive shouts to Magika and the Raveology Crew, Glenn Aston, Lenni, Fearless, Pilgrim, Escape, Foxy, Devise, Bryan Gee, Hazard, Mistress Mo, Boogieman, Robbie Dee, Mark Lambert, Biggie and Carasel.

Big respects to Zoë and Collette, Stanza and the Bristol crew, Faye, Donna, and Jackie, Moley and Ernie, Mandrake, Clair, Alpha, Luke, Robe$, Benny also to all the DNB Arena Midlands crew and to everyone else whose names I don't' know but faces I recognise.