Helter Skelter
Life ' NYE 2K4/5'
31st December New Years Eve 2004
Leisure Plaza Complex
Milton Keynes

After an amazing year in the rave scene for both Hardcore and Drum and Bass, this was an event to definitely see out 2004 and bring in 2005.

Helter Skelter have been renowned for staging amazing New Years Eve parties in the past, events such as Imagination, Progression to name a few. The last party held by Helter Skelter was exactly 5 years ago on Millennium night a Friday night too, also my first New Years Eve night out.

Helter Skelter collaborated with 9 other party promoters including Accelerated Culture, Hardcore Til I Die, Raindance to name a few to bring 'Life'.
After the success of Energy '04, Helter Skelter once again back at the Leisure Plaza Complex Milton Keynes.

We arrived in Milton Keynes just before 8 and we were greeted by an enormous queue of eager party people waiting to get in to celebrate New Year. Whilst heading to the queue we were given an event brochure which featured a map of the complex along with set times.

Luckily we had our reservations and joined the guest list queue. We didn't have to wait more than 10mins and after a brief a search we were in. The music complexes didn't open till 9pm. So whilst waiting for the music arenas to open we had a wander around the nocturnal village. They had tape packs on sale they were quite cheap including the recent Drum and Bass awards pack knocked down to £15, with many other packs as well, going for cheap.

Having found a nice spot to sit down we bumped into Uproar's co-promoter and MC, MC Rude having a good chinwag with him. Having a chat on our expectations of tonight's event and other events happening tonight.

It seems to be the trend with most events using a voucher system for the bar, the main ticket office queue was heaving and we didn't really want to wait in this queue to buy vouchers. We found out that you could also buy vouchers at the end of the bar. Which was quite handy as when the doors finally did open we headed to the bar to find virtually no queue for the vouchers.

Party time. In the Hardcore arena DJ's Robbie Long and Ham were up first playing a break beat set. I really enjoy what these guys play, as it's a crossover between Drum and Bass and Hardcore really bouncy and bassy. The sound system in hear was good though at certain times you really couldn't hear the mic which was a bit disappointing.
The décor in here was good with loads of inflatables and nice lighting. There was a projection screen above the DJ box showing DVD's from past HTID events including the Summer gathering event, one of my favourite events of this year.

Headed to the Drum and Bass room and caught the end of Zinc and Dynamite, Zinc played 'Brown Paper Bag' along with a couple of upfront tunes such as 'Fruitella' and also 'Tunstyle'.

After Zinc it was the turn of Bryan gee accompanied by resident MC and best newcomer, MC Presha. The Drum and Bass arena is a massive ice rink, unlike the previous Energy event the floor wasn't carpeted. This time round the floor was covered in wooden panels, which kept the ice off your feet! There were two massive video screens on either side of the stage with some nice lighting, they don't tend to use much of the smoke machine in here, which is good.
The sound system was better than Energy as it seemed that they sorted it out in here and the mic's were crisp as you could hear Dynamite very clear.

Wandered to the Raindance room for some Oldskool beats. Raindance resident DJ, DJ Squirrel was on along with MC Strict, Squirrel was playing a 91-92. Strict was hyping up the party in its early stages as Squirrel played a mixture of anthems from 92 with a few rarer tunes, as he played 'Get down' the break beat remix of Altern-8's 'Infiltrate 202', 'Closer to all your dreams' and 'Uptempo'. In each of the arenas next to the DJ box was located a stopwatch counting down to the vital time of 12 o'clock. The Raindance crew brought their spectacular green laser that lit up the whole room.

As we left this side of the complex there was a massive queue to get into the Drum and Bass arena as it was fast approaching midnight.

We headed to the Hardcore arena Seduction and MC Rude were on. This was the last set of 2004. Seduction played a mixture of his own stuff from Maximum impact along with others as he played 'Put your hands up in the air'.
I headed to the bar to get my free drink just before the rush started to build up. The last Hardcore tune of 2004 from Seduction was Clear vu 'I adore', which is currently a favourite tune of mine, as some of you may know from a certain DVD.

Marley did the countdown 10.9.8.7.6.5.4.3.2…1 Happy new year!!!
Hixxy brought in 2005 with the new remix of 'Fly away'

Well it reached 12 o'clock and the place went electric with canons firing confetti into the crowd and the lights and strobes going off. With people hugging their friends and others were kissing their partners as they greeted in the New Year.
Hixxy played a vocally upfront Raver Baby set playing tunes such as 'Still the one', 'Eye opener' remix.

Half way through this set we decided to check out the Drum and Bass room. We got there for the end of Mampi Swift's set and Fearless was MCing for this set. 1 Xtra's DJ Bailey stepped up next as Fearless and Bassman went back to back, Bailey played a rolling dark set as you would expect from him, as he played 'Tombraider', 'In the grind' along with other rollers. I didn't expect to see Bassman here so early as he was scheduled to MC till later on in the evening.

Back to the Hardcore room and Quosh records supremos DJ's Sy and Unknown were on, playing their familiar sound. It wouldn't be Sy and Unknown with out hosting a scratching showcase. MC Casper from the south coast was MCin, as it seemed that Odyssey was running late, and was doing a good job. Sy and Unknown set featured plenty of material from Quosh including 'Bring me round to love', 'Dreadland' remix, 'Rock that body' and 'Only your love'.

With every Helter Skelter event they provide a free funfair, so we thought we'd take full advantage of this and had a wander around the nocturnal village and have a go on a couple of the free funfair rides on offer, this also gave us a chance to cool off.

Back to the Hardcore room and Next Generations DJ Brisk was on along side MC Wotsee. Brisk played a banging hard set, Brisk played 'Happy', 'Crazy love' and also 'Punch drunk', which got the place stomping. Then again you know that when Brisk is on you don't dance you stomp!!

After Brisk it was supposed to have been K Complex instead Essential Platinum's DJ Dougal was on which also saw the late arrival of MC Odyssey. Dougal played a party set to keep us going as the last few hours started to draw in. As he played 'Really love you',' Getting better' and 'Xtreme'.

After Dougal it was the turn of Re-con, at this point I headed to the Oldskool room to catch Undiluted's DJ Brockie. With the Oldskool room situated at the back of the Drum and Bass room, I found out that the speakers at the back of the Accelerated room actually broke. The system couldn't obviously handle Mick Finn, Nicky Blackmarket and the New Breed crew.
Brockie was playing an Oldskool jungle set playing many favourites such as 'Champion sound', 'R-Type' and 'Ready or not'. Another of the Raindance resident's MC's MC Ice accompanied him.

After Brockie, Billy Bunter was on along side MC Strict. Bunter played a 92 set as he played Rachel Wallace 'Tell me why'. Headed back to the Hardcore room for the last hour for the 'Morning glory' set featuring Raver Baby's Breeze and Styles.
Breeze and Styles were playing a history of all their classic tunes from the Raver Baby label, as they played 'Home', 'Follow me', 'Heartbeatz',' Your Shining' plus many more of their classics.

Tonight's event was virtually a sell out as on the last day there were just less than 500 tickets left making LIFE another successful event from Helter Skelter since their return this summer.

I didn't see any trouble any moody vibes what's so ever tonight, as with most new years eve events its all about having a good time with your mates and brining in the new year together. The event itself was amazing with all the free stuff on offer such as the mega bowl and the laser quest. Though I did not venture in to those complexes but still made the ticket money worth every penny, in comparison to other events that were being held tonight.

I did think tonight was organised really well as many people didn't have to endure an enormous queue and nor had to celebrate midnight queuing in comparison to last years fiasco at Slammin' Vinyl at last years event..

2004 was a memorable year for both Hardcore and Drum and Bass, Helter Skelter did a job of seeing it out. Well the future does look bright for the scene big up to all those keeping the scene alive and roll on 2005.

The only quibble I did have, was, (no disrespect to the other Hardcore MC's) I did feel the lack of presence with MC's Storm and Whizzkid tonight. It did lose that extra edge in the Hardcore arena. As Storm and Whizzkid were booked exclusive at Slammin tonight, to be honest they are the kings of crowd hype today and know how to rock a party!

Massive shouts to Hixxy, Mark Lambert and the crew, Fearless, IC3, Marley, Casper, Robbie Dee, Dougal, Bassman, Wotsee, Brisk, Easygroove, Vibes and Liveleee, Eksman, Strict, Rude, Seduction, Ben and Katie, Smiley, Re Con, G Spencer, Breeze and Styles.

Big respects to the raving crew, Shaun and Leanne, Astro, Brian BK, Chris and the flyering crew, Andy Immz, Bertie and the Bromsgove crew, Astraboy, Lee UHF and Lisa, GT, Marcus and all the crew from USH.net and BacktotheOldskool.co.uk crew and also to everyone else whose names I don't' know but faces I recognise.
Look forward to seeing you all in 2005 and Happy New Year to you all.