Hardcore Til I Die
Oldskool Til I Die
"The History of Hardcore"
Air (formerly Code)
24.07.04

After the successful sell out opening night Hardcore Til I Die presents "Oldskool Til I Die" with an array of stars from hardcore's past and present, this was a night definitely not to be missed. Featuring for the first time ever at Air an outdoor stage!

Originally the outdoor stage was subject to licence after knowing 2 weeks before hand that the licence was granted I knew that this was a party definitely not to ignore.

Having arrived into Digbeth for 8 o'clock I headed to pub for a few drinks to meet and catch up with friends. The outdoor stage was to open at 9 and the main room was going to open at 10, we thought it best to get there early.
We were in the advance queue so we didn't have to wait to long but whilst waiting, the outdoor stage was in full flow with Accelerated culture's resident Garry K on the wheels of steel.

After a brief search we were in and we headed straight for the outdoor stage.
The stage rig was situated near the car park, again with Hardcore Til I Die, with the free funfair ride.

This was the first time that I heard Garry K play an oldskool set and I enjoyed his selection, playing a few anthems with a few gems thrown in 'Finest Illusion',' Open your mind', 'Night Flight', 'it's the way', 'Circles' and a favourite of mine 'The Dark Stranger'.

After Garry K it was the turn of the midlands Scratcher mixer DJ Ratty alongside the highlander MC Lenni. It felt good raving outdoors as the sun went down and the night started to settle in. Ratty played a few oldskool favourites such as 'Valley of the shadow's', 'Return to Champion sound' and also 'It's a Jazz thing'.
During this set we decided to have a wander and go on the funfair ride. This ride took you up to see the night sky, even managing to witness the night train go past with all lights on!

Having the arena outdoors, you could use the large stairs to get in the other arenas rather than using the one main entrance to save time and being squashed. Plus with this being in the middle of the summer when we did go in the other arena's it was quite hot and humid. So least it kept a ventilation of fresh air around the venue.

Back to the outdoor stage and Ratty was finishing up with Lenni, next up it was time for the Jungle techno Kings Topbuzz. Well since Mad P has been back I've been out catching these guys and they still pull off a wicked set. Mad P really is the voice of Topbuzz. There were quite a number of older faces in the crowd who would have seen Mad P first time round and enjoying his lyrics.

Jason Kaye played a similar set to what he played back at Flashback a month ago, but having Mad P chatting for this set was just good enough for me and it felt that extra special being outdoors like the old days. As Jason played 'Anastasia', 'Kiss the sky' 'Beyond control', 'Hurt you so', 'Some justice',' Black' well it really isn't Topbuzz with out 'Living in Darkness' being played, as it was music to my ears especially with Mad P chatting over this timeless anthem.

It was quite amusing as Mad P was chatting he noticed a police car outside near the car park so started chatting a rhyme taking the mick out of the old boys in blue.
Slipmatt was supposed to be on along with MC's jay j and Robbie. I saw Robbie Dee here but no Jay J nor Slipmat, as Garry K stepped up and did a 2nd set. Though it was similar to what he had played at the beginning of the night. I was quite surprised that Robbie Dee was here. To be honest I felt that he was a shadow of his former self.

We headed to the main arena to find Darren Styles on along with the mc's Storm and Whizzkid. Styles played a banging hardcore set playing plenty of tunes off the raver baby label including 'Skydivin'. With Storm and Whizzkid doing what they do best with their lyrical and crowd hyping abilities.

Next up was the turn of the Dreamscape duo Dougal and MC Magika, Dougal was playing a classic set with plenty of old happy anthem's being played. At this point we had a wander around the other arenas. We ended up in the Jellybeanz room and one of the people behind HTID was playing, Hixxy was on playing an oldskool set with plenty of the Belgium tunes being played such as by 'My sound' by Beltram.

Returning outside via the entrance from the carbon lounge you could see a sea of ravers having it outdoors in the car park, and what a site it was. Dougal was still on dropping tunes such as 'In complete Darkness',' Love of my life',' Pretty green eyes' and he finished up with another classic from Force and Styles 'Field of Dreams'

Well next up was the Oldskool King's the Ratpack, the Ratpack started off to a smilar set to what I heard at Slammin a few weeks back. So we thought we'd catch Druid and MC Sharkey doing a classic set. The set was bouncy as hell like the old Rhythm Station days, as he played Scott Brown's 'Now is the time' with plenty of other bouncy tunes.

Back outside and Ratpack were finishing up as they played Baby D's 'I need your lovin' to finish off with. Lipmaster Mark stepped up to beat box for the last few minutes, which was quite entertaining, Whizzkid watch out!!!
The small damper on the night was someone collapsed during the beatbox right next to me as I had to get MC Marley's attention to get Lipmaster Mark to called the security to sort things out..

Well it was the turn of the south coast very finest DJ's Ramos and Supreme along side MC Marley. What an awesome set this was, as they played 'Life force Generator',' Incognito', 'I believed' also Paul Elstaks 'Luv you more' and also Supreme played a favourite of mine' Sun always shines' Nice one!

This set was completely mad as they had some fire-eaters on stage and two guys in a boiler suit with an angle grinder shooting sparks off into the crowd. Though at this point it started to spit with rain for a little while, but we carried on raving as they put a cover over the DJ box.

Well it was time for the final set outdoors and to complete the night was Nicky Blackmarket alongside MC Fearless. Nicky played a jungle anthem set. Very similar to what I heard him play at Fruit club last week as he played 'Incredible', 'Champion Sound' and 'Helicopter' in the exact same mix again!! Though he did play some tunes that I've not heard in quite a while such as 'Fire', 'This style' and a favourite of mine from Congo natty 'Champion DJ'. But with Fearless on the mic well that did make the difference, as Fearless is defenatitly one of the best jungle MC's out there at the moment. It seemed as if Nicky is the Ratpack of oldskool jungle these days, as he used to play some awesome oldskool sets as he used to cover 93-94 playing a few hardcore tunes to mix up the set.

Well after the success of the first Hardcore Till I die I thought things couldn't get better but I was proved wrong. I did spend most of the evening outdoors listening to the oldskool. But how often do you get to rave outdoors under the stars?? This is what it must of felt like back in the old days of fantasia, raving outside to 92 classics. The good thing was that it didn't rain much at all and when it did it was quite light as it only rained for the last two sets.

I hardly ventured in the main arena much of the night as it was way too rammed in there. When I was in there the atmosphere was amazing as everyone was having it!!
Hardcore Til I Die seems to get better and better, as after the first event I thought it couldn't get any better, how wrong was I! I just hope it continues this way.

The next event is the 23rd October featuring a UV party so get your whites out!!

Massive shouts to Hixxy and the rest of the HTID crew, Storm, Lenni, Whizzkid MC, Marley, Ramos, Supreme, Mad P, Rude, Robbie Dee, Sharkey, Druid, Nicky BM, Fearless, Ben, and Uplift.

Of course shouts to the ravers, Tina xxx, Leanne and Shaun, My Sis, Jon Xlr-8, Zoë + Colette, Alpha , Craig, Andy, Andy Immz + Bertie and the Bromsgrove crew, Wookie, Emma, Olly Thumpa, Charlie + James, Mark Mervin, Kev, Astraboy, Peter and the rest of the USH.net crew and everyone else whose names I don't' know but faces I recognise.