Hardcore Til I Die
New Years Eve Afterparty
at Lashtonbury
Air Superrclub
Birmingham
01.01.06

In recent years new years day events are ever popular as this year I was split between whether to head down to London for jungle fever or to stay local and visit HTID at Lashtonbury Having heard how popular and successful previous HTID at Lashtonbury/ Mashtonbury events at Air have been I decided to stay local and headed to Air.

I arrived in digbeth just before 6 there wasn’t much of queue at Air, you could hear the noise from inside pumping outside. After a brief search I was in and was greeted to hardhouse. With there being no set times announced before hand I headed to the Nitrogen room as this was the HTID arena for tonights afterparty and to find that the arena wasn’t to open till 8 o’clock.

Luckily there was some set times located on the entrance to the arena and to my disappointment I found that Ramos and Supreme were not to show tonight which I was a bit gutted about. I was also quite surprised to see Hixxy appearing on the line-up considering he didn’t show up at Slammin Vinyl the previous night at the NEC due to his shoulder. Let’s hope he turns up….

To be honest I’m not a big fan of hardhouse luckily I bumped into a few eager ravers and had a good chinwag with them to pass the time. It was quite interesting to watch the hardhouse ravers dance as this kept me and my friends entertained.

It was approaching 8o’clock and there were plenty of eager hardcore ravers waiting for the arena to open up. Chris Henry was on the decks playing some scouse house to get things rolling. There was no MC for this set but the Nitrogen room as busy.
It’s nice to listen to some scouse house as it’s been ages since I last heard Chris Henry play. A lot of scouse house tunes are old hardcore tunes remixed and played at a slower tempo. To be fair in the past year I’ve also noticed some scouse house tunes being remixed and being played at hardcore raves as it seems to get ever popular.

There was some interesting tracks being played from Chris as he played remixes of ‘Getting better’, ‘Sweet harmony’,’ You’re my angel’ very popular hardcore tracks He also played the Moby vs Enimen tune, which has the vocal 'nobody listens to techno' with the 'GO' sample behind it along with ‘Tooti fruiti’. Ratpack were suppose to be on after Chris Henry but he played for an extra 30 minutes.

As it looked like the Ratpack weren’t turning up so Darren styles decided to grace the decks along with MC Storm, I didn’t catch Darren the previous night so I was looking forward to his set tonight.

Storm was looking slightly tired from the previous night at the NEC but was spot on hyping up the crowd, Storm was MCing from behind the dj booth. Styles played ‘Dropzone’, ’See the light’ ,’ We can do this’, ‘Jealous’ and Save me’ .plenty of material featured on the current bonkers compilation Half way through the set the Ratpack arrived but Darren Styles carried on playing as I guess that Hixxy wasn’t going to show tonight so the Ratpack will fill in for him.

Time for the Oldskool legends the mighty Ratpack, they started off with a Drum and bass remix of their number one hit ‘Searchin for my rizla’ which didn’t impress me too much but was definitely different after that they continued to play plenty of oldskool classics. Such as ‘ 40 miles’, ’Closer to your dreams’, ‘Found a café’, ‘Brother and sisters’ nothing to different from what I’ve heard them play in the past to be honest. Everson was looking extremely exhausted through out the set but I guess him and Mark partying up and down the Country the previous night tonight was taking it’s toll!

After the Ratpack it was the turn of the Scotsman, Scott Brown with Whizzkid MC. This was a better set than what I heard the previous night when him and Sy played back to back. As Scott was given the freedom of the decks to play what he wanted he played ‘Be happy’, ‘Fly with you’ the new ‘Elysium’ remix and ‘So about you’. In true Scott Brown form he decide to end his set with some gabba beats as he played ‘Have it you way’ I was shocked to see the amount of people dabncing away considering many had been raving the previous night.

I was quite knackered so I decided to head outside with a few other ravers and had a go on the funfair. Seeing as this was a Pollysexual event as opposed to HTID, the funfair wasn’t free but at £2 it weren’t too bad, Was nice to chill out here for a while, before returning to the madness back inside.

Back in the Nitrogen room and DJ Sy was gracing the decks along with MC Storm again this was a totally different set to what Sy had played the previous night with Storm seeing as the mic was in full working order too !

Sy started the set with the ‘Just a Feelin’ remix and continued to play, the new ‘Skydivin’ remix, ’Inspiration’,’ Cry’,’ See the light’ , ‘Hold me forever’ ,before ending the set with ‘Let me be your fantasy’ remix. Even tho Storm was slightly worn out he still was doing an amazing job like a true professional that he is, keeping the crowd bouncing I noticed that Storm was spitting a few new lyrics for 2006 interesting stuff.

Penultimate set of the night came from Raver Baby’s DJ Breeze and Whizkid MC, Breeze’s set was slightly different o what I heard him play 24 hours ago at the NEC, as tonight he played a remicx of his own classic ‘Jump a little higher’ which I though went down really well, was about time this tune got a facelift !

He played a plenty of new remixes of some recent hardcore classic such as ‘Dark like vader’, ’Connections’, ’Your shining’ and ‘Skydivin’, all these new tunes getting a fresh facelift for the new year. Whizzkid was tremendous on the mic again like Storm he was looking a little worse for wear, but was keeping the crowd raving and hyped for the penultimate hour. Breeze continued to play ‘So Real’ and ended the set with ‘I will be’.

Well it looked like Mark EG wasn’t going to show so Bedlams very own DJ Lee UHF graced the decks, we decide to head home after two nights of complete madness.

I really enjoyed myself tonight as I’ve not been to a Lashton / Mashtonbury event before so I didn’t really now what to expect. With HTID hosting the 2nd arena I guess you know your gonna have that party vibe and atmosphere that HTID always bring to air. I was shocked to see how many people were hear seeing as it was new years eve the previous night, The Nitrogen room as it was busy but not overly packed. There were plenty y of ravers here just catching up with each as many people were at either the NEC or HTID for New Years Eve.

Big shouts to Storm, Whizzkid, Styles, Breeze, Sy, Scott Brown, Everson Allen and Lipmaster Mark.

Massive respects to Sharl and Toni, , Dave Quavers ands Mike, Lisa-Jo and Phill, Sara and Sallie, Legs, Mat KOR The Doctor, Kev Pikey Jay Nixxy, Lee UHF, Compulsion, Julie Delicious, Annabelle, Lucy, Rob from True Hardcore, Scott Womble, Juicy and the Shrewsbury crew, Caddy, Andy Gareth, John Buzz B, and Gillian, Izzy, Andrea and John MCguiness, Ciarra, Lou Lou, Maz, Strike also to everyone else whose names I don't' know but faces I recognise.