Hardcore Heaven
The Valentines Day Special
14th February 2004

Well it's been a long time since I've been to a hardcore rave over 2 months and it was well worth the wait.

The queue was quite massive tonight as this was the first big hardcore rave of 2004 with many anticipated ravers ready and eager to get inside the sanctuary.
Didn't have a long wait to get in and after a brief search headed straight to the sanctuary and was greeted to the sounds of Mark EG.

The production truly tonight wasn't amazing the main stage had 2 massive projection screens on either side of the stage, the stage was situated opposite the balcony and in the centre of the ceiling were some love hearts, but I didn't rate the production highly.

Mark EG was playing a hard set to warm up the ravers for tonight's entertainment Smiley was mcin for Mark EG's set. Well after Mark EG was the set that I've been waiting for Slipmatt,

Slipmatt was on 95 duty, he started off with edge 1 and moved up the pace playing some anthems such as In effect along with the infamous Toytown. When Toytown dropped it all the ravers blowing whistles in unison, which sounded amazing in the main arena of the Sanctuary. Slipmatt started to move away from 95 and played tunes such as Heart of Gold, Simply Electric and Shooting Star, he finished the set with the '99 anthem from Scott Brown Healing mind, which went down a treat. I've not heard this tune for a very long time.

I expected Slipmatt to stick to 95 and hoped he played tunes such as Breaking free or even Champion sound, well maybe not tonight. After Slipmatt I thought I'd check out the 2nd arena, Breeze was on alongside Whizzkid mc. This room was rammed like a sweatbox that it is, breeze was playing stuff off the raver baby label.

Back to the main arena and it looked like that Bass-D and King Matthew decided not to show as DJ Uplift was on. This is the 2nd time that they've decided not to show up and I think they wont get booked in the UK again. Uplift played a good set with a mixture of the new break beat sound from CLSM he also played Have you ever.

After Uplift it was the turn of Darren Styles he was accompanied by Storm, soon as Storm got on stage the crowd were going ballistic.

Well after Styles it was the turn of Next Generations DJ Brisk. The first 5-10minutes of the set the sound system went quiet and through out the whole of his it seemed that one of lighting rigs went down as it quiet dark during this set. Brisk played an amazing bouncy set playing a mixture of old and new to get the crowd rocking playing some Dutch classics from 96 including the ruffneck classic Jiiieeehaaa, Luv u more, I want your love along with some new material including angel eyes.

Next up was Kevin Energy I only a bit of his set as he played his remix of Ready or not, as I decided to check out the up and coming room and DJ Mozz of camel records fame was on. I didn't recognise any of the tunes as he was playing hard Gabba but found out he was playing stuff mainly off camel records.

Evolution's Scott Brown was on in the main arena accompanied by Whizzkid MC. Scott played a bouncy set playing his remix of Heartbeats along with Do it like we do, Blue anthem and he finished the set off in true Scott Brown style by playing some gabba.

After Scott Brown it was Essential Platinum's, DJ Dougal he was accompanied for the first half of his set by Storm and then Smiley took over. Dougal played a vocally set playing some hard tunes as well. He played Star Tonite which went down really well as it got the crowd singing, he also played a new remix of the oldskool classic 4-hero's Mr Kirks nitemare.

Well the last hour can only mean one thing the Power Hour with the Sy and Storm mission, this was one of my favourites sets of the evening. Playing some quality bouncy tunes such as the Techno Harmony, bring me round to love. With storm on the mic keeping the ravers hyped, it seemed that people saved their energy for the last hour as load of people were bouncing for this set. Sy finished the set with the Force and Styles classic Follow me, which got the ravers buzzing with the sing along and hands in the air.

Overall it was a good night just a shame about the no show of Bass D and King Matthew, the music was brilliant cant wait for the rest of the year as it can only get better!

Massive respects to Storm + Sarah, Whizzkid, Scott Brown, Smiley, Jason Spinback and the rest of the IMO crew.
Also massive shouts to Shaun, Leanne and all the USH.net crew
Massive shouts to all the individuals I met too many to mentions but you know who you are.