Innovation
"In the Sun" Part 2
Tuesday 21st June - Tuesday 28th June 2005
Lloret de Mar, Barcelona
Spain

Tueday 21st June
(Opening Party 1-Xtra)
Wednesday 22nd June
(V Recordings night)
Thursday 23rd June
(Innovation)
Friday 24th June
(The World of Drum and Bass + Delerium)
Saturday 25th June
(Innovation + Vibealite)
Sunday 26th June
(Ram Recordings + Vibealite)

After the success of last years weekender in the sun, Innovation teamed up with Ravenantion to bring not only drum and bass, but also Hardcore and oldskool to the sun.

Innovation back once again in Lloret de Mar, Barcelona for a week of madness under the sun in conjunction with Ram Records, V Recordings, 1Xtra, The world of Drum and Bass, Vibelaite, Delerium and more bringing a enormous line-up from back home to Lloret de Mar de Mar, with a variety of different styles of music being played.

This year's weekender had the option of either the weekend or a full week of raving. The price for the holiday was good value for money as for an extra £70 (£185) you could do the weeklong package which we opted for. Again the price includes your raving along with accommodation to a 3 star hotel with breakfast and evening meal included in the deal.

We flew from East Midlands Airport with plenty of familiar faces from the midlands on the plane

We arrived in Girona and was welcomed to the baking hot sun of Spain. This year we were staying in the Guitart Central Park hotel, which was located only 10mins from the beach. Once we checked in we made our way to club Colossus to pick up our Innovation wristbands. Finding Colossus was quite easy, as the area got very familiar to me within a few minutes from last year.

What a mess this turned out to be, we arrived at Colossus for 9:30 then told to go to the hotel flamingo across the road, then being told to go back to Colossus. After waiting for over an hour we finally got our wristbands and also a lanyard with all the weeks set times. Last year our wristbands were given to us at arrival on the hotel. But I found out that last year some of the hotel staff was selling them onto locals, hence why this year they had to be collected in person.

Colossus is massive venue holding over 4,000 people in the main arena, with a massive balcony overlooking the main dance floor. It was an amazing site looking on from the balcony and also a great place to take some crowd shots. Watching the crowd go crazy and seeing the MC's hyping up the crowd into a sheer frenzy from here. The sound system wasn't as good as last years, as sometimes the mic would overkill the music. The Front stage in front of the DJ booth got mobbed once again as the dance floor got rammed.

Opening the party was 1Xtra, and it was also Shy FX's birthday too. When we finally got in DJ Bailey was on getting the crowd rolling. It was great to see so many faces from last year, making the trip once again. Eksman and Skibadee was MCin for this set Bailey played some heavy tunes as he played 'Ask Not' and 'Play me'.

After Bailey it was the Birthday boy himself Shy FX, Shy played a wicked set with plenty of new dubs along side some classics as he dropped 'Feelings', 'Muderation', 'Plastic soul' and 'Rah' which sent the dance floor crazy!!!

I found the oldskool room upstairs in Colossus and I can't remember which DJ was on but he was playing a jungle set featuring tunes such as ' Valley of the shadows', and the original mix of 'The Burial'. Brockie was on downstairs though with all the day's activities of flights, transfers and collecting wristbands finally took it's toll as we decided to call it a day and headed back to the hotel room.

Wednesday 22nd June 2005

Today during the day we decided to chill out in the hotel's swimming pool and recuperate ourselves for tonight's madness at Colossus. After yesterdays fiasco with wristbands, entry to Colossus was far easy just flash your wristband a yes your in!!

Tonight saw the legendry V Recordings hosting tonight, I headed through the courtyard and into the main arena of the club and Kool FM's Ruffstuff was finishing up.

The legendary Jumpin Jack Frost was on alongside MC Foxy, I've not seen Jack Frost play in a very long time and was interested to see what he was playing tonight. I didn't recognize many tunes, as I was guessing he was playing a set full of dubs from V but he did play 'All that jazz', 'Follow the vision' and 'Blazin'.

After Frost it was Full Cycle's DJ Die with MC Dynamite, it was interesting to see Die making full use of the CDJ's. Obviously playing plenty of new material. Well after Die it was the turn of Bryan Gee, Bryan played a mixture of a set as he threw in some liquid tunes from the sister label of V, Liquid V. Bryan played a few remixes of some classics such as 'Burial', 'This Style' and 'Champion DJ' along with 'Plastic soul' and 'Outterspace'. I really enjoyed Bryan's set it as it had a variety of different styles and sub genres of drum and bass.

Final set of the evening from the legendry DJ Krust, Krust was playing a dirty banging set with plenty of rollers as he dropped 'Mallice'. The crowd tonight were definitely up for it in comparison to the opening night with loads of people having a great time raving with their mates from last year and meeting new friends this year. I met people from USA, Australia, Germany and also Hungary in here tonight, travelling all this way for Drum and Bass respect!!!

On the way home we stopped off at Burger King, which has it's own vending machine. Definitely need them back home man!!!

Thursday 23rd June 2005

After spending yesterday at the pool, we decided to head down to the beach and soak up some rays and top up my natural tan. The beach was only a short 10min walk from our hotel, whilst on the beach we bumped into a number of Hardcore heads that were already out here. Today was the Knowledge Magazine bikini beach competition during the day but for some reason we didn't see this happen even though we were on the beach all afternoon!

Tonight Innovation was hosting the main arena of Colossus, after leaving the hotel we headed down to zoo bar for a couple of pre drinks I left a bit early, as I wanted to catch Zinc. I arrived at Colossus and found that Zinc wasn't on tonight and had cancelled which I was quite annoyed about as he was one of the DJ's that I was looking forward to hearing tonight. Instead I headed back to catch up with the rest of my mates.

It as just before 12 that I we returned back to Colossus and Logon D (Mickey Finn's son) was finishing up obviously replacing Zinc and he done a good job. Logan had Foxy on the mic, he played 'The Vault',' Trust me' and ' All that jazz' playing a mixture of both new and old tunes which got the crowd going. I've not heard Logan D before and I obviously didn't want to compare him to his dad (Mickey Finn) as it's unfair on him but I really liked what I heard, the boy done well!!!

Next on was Urban Takeover's very own DJ Aphrodite, Det was MCin for Aphrodite working the crowd really hard with his deep voice and rolling lyrics. I notice Aphrodite playing some remixes of some old classics as he played 'Junglist', and he also dropped 'Twist'em' out, 'Night flight' and 'Back to your roots'. The heat really did start to takes it toll so I headed up to the oldskool room in the balcony and was in time for 1Nation's very own DJ Fluid.
Ravenation MC, DR Vibes accompanied DJ Fluid. Fluid played a 95-97 set featuring tunes such as 'Champion sound',' This Style', 'Buck Rodgers' and the classic from V 'Trouble'.

Back downstairs and J-Majik was on with Riddla MCin, J Magik played 'X-Ray', 'Back to your roots', 'The nine', 'Dubplate Killah' and 'Mallice'. With the dance floor being so rammed it was nice to find a little spot at the back bar, it was boiling hot near the front also I found my Hardcore friends dancing including a one DJ Marc Smith shocking out big style.

Friday 24th June 05

Today we thought we'd do something different and travelled out to Barcelona city. The coach station in Lloret de Mar is only a short walk from our hotel. We caught a bus to Barcelona, which took about an hour and cost us 14 Euros for a return, which is about £10, which isn't too bad. Barcelona is a massive city with lots of things to do. We really didn't plan our day, as it was more of a random last minute thing so we missed a lot of the big sites, but it was nice to do something different.

Tonight was the start of the weekend and the arrival of the remaining ravers. Also it was the start of the Hardcore at club Revolution. Seeing as every night we've been raving to drum and bass thought we'd go down to the Hardcore club and check this place out.

You couldn't really miss Revolution is it a massive florescent orange outside located by the bucking bronco and mini golf rang opposite the Casino Royal hotel. The club was quite spacious obviously not to the same scale as Colossus but able to hold under 500 people.

Deliriums DJ Delicious was warming up in here, she played 'Cutting deep', 'Do we have to say goodbye' and 'Kick your legs' remix. MC Spenno was MCin for Delicious along with MC Smiley as they went back to back. No disrespect to Delicious but I was a bit disappointed that Stompy wasn't on as it's been ages since I've seen him play but Delicious done a good job getting the Hardcore weekender under way.

After Delicious it was the turn of Bedlams very own Lee UHF, he played a more harder set throwing in the odd break beat style tune as he played the remix of 'Body slam' and 'Sensory vision' after the set I nipped out and headed to Colossus in time for Kenny Ken.

MC Bassman was MCin for Kenny Ken and what an amazing job he done, it was really hot inside Colossus as the remaining set of ravers arrived and this place was ram jammed and with the heat it was like an oven I mean roasting!!! Kenny played a wicked set though I didn't recognise too many of the tunes, last year he played what was on the best sets and I think he has done the same this year round as he dropped 'Lighter remix', 'Champion DJ with Junlgist' and 'The burial' remix. During the set Navigator and Shabba joined Bassman on the mic.

After Kenny Ken it was the turn of Formation's very on D J SS he started the set with a new remix of 'lighter' though with the heat being very unbearable I had to nip out to cool off and decided to head back to Revolution.

Raver baby's Darren Styles was on along with MC² in action rocking the crowd. It was quite hot in Revolution, but they had this mad dry ice system, which cooled down the club as it fell on the dance floor. Something that Colossus could definitely do with!!! Styles played a Raver baby set playing plenty of tunes as he played 'Dark like Vader' which features MC Storm, (I used to think this was called Futuristic entertainer but obviously not). He continued to play 'Perfect Dreams rmx', 'So Real', 'Come with me' remix. Styles was DJin' for nearly 2 hours as Seduction was not here as he along with MC Rude and Uproar decided to pull out a few weeks before the event. Styles closed the set with 'Getting better', and 'Cry'

After Styles it was the turn of Quosh's very own DJ Unknown, I would of loved for SY to been out here unfortunately he wasn't booked even when Seduction decided to pull out. I personally thought SY would have been the perfect replacement considering that Unknown was out here as well.

Unknown played a good set I enjoyed his selection and scratching to. Storm was MCin for the beginning of this set, Unknown played a new remix of 'Ravin I'm ravin', along with 'Making me wanna dance', 'Open your eyes to love' and the Quosh remix of 'Slide away'. At this point I thought I'd head back to Colossus.

Twisted individual was finishing up and Valve's very own DJ Friction was up next. Friction played an awesome set one of my favourite DJ's at the moment. Fearless was MCin for this set, and setting the place a light with his amazing crowd presence. Friction played 'Rah', and a new remix of 'Papua nu guinea' and also 'Style baby'.

For the last 30minutes I decided to go and catch Vibes and Livelee at the Hardcore club. Well with Livelee living out in Spain you'd thought he'd be here but alas he wasn't instead Spenno was MCin for Vibes's set. I didn't know what to make of Vibe's set as he was playing upfront but it was mainly remix of old tunes. Vibes played ' I know' and remixes of 'Music so wonderful',' Rainy day' and 'Love u more'.

Saturday 25th June

Today we were going to go and make use of the go-karting on offer, after finally getting up we headed up to the coach station and had to wait over 40mins as the driver decide to have an long extended break. Once the driver finally arrived he took us to the go karting track, an ambulance greeted us hummm nice. Apparently the go-karts are quite powerful and some girl another Innovation raver broke her leg, just before we arrived. We later found out that she had her leg in a cast and was flown home that night. Our holiday insurance doesn't cover for stuff like this and thought it wasn't really worth the risk. Instead we just spent the afternoon back at the beach.

Tonight saw the turn of Vibealite hosting the Hardcore venue featuring Marc smith and Gammer playing a back-to-back set for nearly 3 hours. We got to the club quite late as the whole week started to catch up on us and we were feeling really tired. When we got to Revolution Wotsee was up MCin for this set, Marc Smith and Gammer were playing a hard set and mashing up the mixer with their crazy mixing style, so crazy that the club owner got quite worried and apparently kicked Gammer of the decks.

After this set it was the turn of the godfather Slipmatt, Slipamtt started the set off playing oldskool Hardcore as he played tune such as 'In effect, 'Panic', 'Crowd Control', 'Now is the time', 'Disco land' which got the crowd bouncing as I've been eagerly wanting to hear some happy Hardcore on this holiday. Thank you Slipmatt, Slipmatt started to play upfront Hardcore at this pint I headed down to Colossus to check out what Innovation had on offer tonight.

Mickey Finn was on in here with Bassman and Shabba on mic duty, Mickey played 'Black tarantula', 'Spaced invader' he also played a new tune which featured MC Eksman's 'Semi automatic' vocal.

After Mickey it was the turn of Charge recordings Mampi Swift, Swift played an awesome set with Fatman D on the mic. Swfit dropped 'Outterspace', 'Trust me',' Tombraider','Screamer', 'The one' and 'Dubplate' remix. I always enjoy Mampi's set as there really energetic and fast paced I've said it before and I'll say it again Swift would make a wicked gabba DJ!!

I nipped out during this set to catch the Raver baby trio of Hixxy, Breeze and Styles playing a back-to-back set. What another awesome set this was tonight playing plenty of new and old tunes as they played tune after tune 'End of Time','Baby I know your mine', 'All about you', 'Find your way', 'Heartbeatz' with the MC² duo of Storm and Whizzkid hyping up the crowd you can't go wrong.

Whizzkid beat boxing over the mic and Storm hyping up the crowd with his lyrics and vocal scratch The Raver baby trio finished the set with 'Come with me ', 'Lost boys' remix and finally 'Pretty green eyes'.

Dougal was on next but I didn't much fancy listening to his set and carried onto Colossus to catch Nicky Blackmarket. Nicky as always never disappoints as he played a first-class set. Nicky played 'Fire in the hole', 'Warp speed', 'Plastic soul' and ended the night with the Stevie Hyper tribute track, 'Buffalo soldier'. Unfortunately this set was marred by a few acts of violence which to be honest did put a downer on my night. The crowd in here was a totally different to that of what was here earlier in the week. With there being far too many people in here with the place baking hot as well didn't help things too much. As I noticed a lot of agitated people, some being quite aggressive, but I didn't really want it to ruin my night till I saw the fighting right in front of me, which was not a nice sight.

Sunday 26th June 2005

Today we decided to visit the Water park in Lloret de Mar, which is short distance away, again you can get a free bus to the water park from the coach station entry to the water park was only 17euros, which works out about over £10 if you arrive after 2pm. £10 isn't too bad and quite good value for money with plenty of rides and places to chill out on too. Whilst at the park we bumped into more of our Hardcore friends and a few DJ's and a certain MC.

The Water Park is situation on a mountain, which meant walking up and down a steep hill all day. There was some great ides on offer and didn't have to queue too much I was a it worried abut my contact lenses but they were fine on the rides even on the Kamikaze ride. On the way back we decided to walk back as it was a short distance and a way to dry our selves off with the baking sun shining down on us.

Tonight was the finishing night for the weekender, which was hosted by the Ram crew in Colossus. When we arrived Red One was on, though I didn't really want to hang around in here for too long as I did feel a bit uncomfortable in here and headed to the oldskool club next aptly named club ' XTRA'.

Darren Jay was on in here rinsing out some heavy oldskool playing a variety of years as he played 'Pulp fiction', 'P Funk Era', 'Champion sound'. MC Riddla D was MCin for Darren for this set.

I popped out of the oldskool room and caught some of Shimon, I quite enjoyed Shimon's set the atmosphere was different than the previous night as it felt a bit subdued. Though Shimon did liven things up with the help of the great GQ along with Skibba. GQ knows how to rock a party without having to chat 100mph. Shimon dropped 'All that jazz', 'X-Ray', 'Dubplate killah' 'Mysterons' and even 'Body rock'.

Back to the oldskool room and Darren was on with Riddla and IC3, Darren ended the set with a more 96-97 jump up style as he played 'Stand and deliver', 'Tekken 3','Chopper', 'Arsonist' and 'No diggity' similar to what he played at AWOL earlier this year.

After Darren it was the turn of Nicky Blackmarket and Mickey Finn on the decks back to back with Bassman, Riddla and IC3 on the mic. I really enjoyed this set from these two as they played a more 97 onwards set, they played '2 Degrees','6 Millions ways to die', 'LK' and 'Rah'.

When they started to play more upfront stuff I decided to head over to the Hardcore club and catch Evolutions very own Scott Brown. Scott Brown played a banging set with the MC² duo of Storm and Whizzkid hyping up the crowd. Whizzkid was MCin for his old sparring chum Scott brown. Scott played plenty of tunes from Evolution as he dropped 'Bassline of the centruy', 'Pro to plasm', 'Elysium' and 'Only your love'. I found out that Brisk had cancelled as Marc Smith replaced him. I was a bit gutted that Brisk weren't out here as this was another set that I was looking forward to.

With no Brisk I decided to head back to Colossus and see the Ram man, the Guvnor Andy C. Andy played an amazing set as he played 'Planet dust', 'Ask not' 'Spread love' and 'The Burial'. He ended the set with a new remix of the Prodigy classic 'Voodoo people' which went down a storm. Unfortunately at the end of his set some more spurts of violence erupted and they stopped the music with 5-O telling everyone to calm down, as the scene doesn't really need this. The attitude is definitely not welcomed.

Finally once everyone calmed down Fresh of BC fame was on he played ' Original jungle sound', 'The nine', 'Fruits' he played a tune with a new Skibadee vocal on the top' Deal with the dappa', something different than 'Deal with the matter'.

The Sunday night was the last night for me as we decided to spend the final night drinking with some of our Hardcore friends and not staying out to late, as we didn't want to miss our flight in the morning.

Well overall what was better 2004 or 2005??

2004 the atmosphere was amazing the vibes was immense something I've not experienced in a long time as I classed that as probably one of the best raves I've been to bar my first rave. 2005 was good until everyone else came out, with the club being overcrowded it did make things a bit more intense, with the amount of bodies and the heat didn't help either. I think the V night was amazing and so was The world of drum and bass night too but come the Saturday it went crazy, maybe a week of raving is too much for people?

I did witness some nasty attitude that I've never even witnessed back home. I don't understand why a minority of people have to ruin it for a majority of other people. The other thing that annoyed me is people trashing up their hotels rooms!! What's the point, I mean do you really want to get chucked out so that next year none of the hotels want to take on any Innovation ravers.

Were do these type of people want to sleep? In a tent on the campsite, or the beach? It's not worth it, do you think these same hotels want to put up with the Innovation crowd for another year running. I think not! Some of the hotel that got trashed were accommodating for people with their families and kids.

With so many ravers coming to Lloret de Mart this year it must have been a logistical nightmare for the Innovation crew to take on board. Mickey, Lloyd and Gavin handled the situation very well under circumstances but hopefully this should be a massive learning curve. With people not receiving confirmations or hotels destinations until very late, I mean last minute. The wristbands should have been sent out with confirmation letters to make life easier, but I guess with people not getting confirmation letters this would have been a tad impossible.

The transfers to and from the airport weren't really organised properly having to wait ages and also people getting on coaches who haven't even paid for transfers either. Though I found out that Innovation have used a different tour operator than last year, which may be down to some of the hassle that the ravers were induced with.

I did mention last year about the lack of searches and metal detectors, as this is something that they must enforce as in the souvenir shops or any were within the resort you could pick up knives and I don't mean a poxy flick knife I mean knives on par with Crocodile Dundee.

Though this is a total contrast to what I saw in the Hardcore club as he atmosphere was electric everyone up for it having a good time. Ok there wasn't a great turn out in comparison to the amount of jungle heads just fewer than 100 hardcore heads. With so much going on back home, as the Hardcore haven weekender was only a month ago in may and two massive events in July, maybe flying out to Spain was just too much.

But the vibe and atmosphere was right nice and cosy with plenty of smiley faces, everyone heaving a great time and with the dry ice machine that cooled down the club kept everyone cool and safe, under these extreme temperatures.

These temperatures didn't help as in Colossus it got extremely hot and made people more agitated and contributed to some of the attitude. Even 5-0 had to get on the mic to warn people about people apologetic if you accidentally step on sometimes toes, as it's a ravers code to apologise and say sorry. I don't think it was anyone's intention to go out and cause trouble, just one thing after another and drinking some people just got carried away.

Best sets of the holiday Friction, Andy C, Swift, Raver baby back to back, Kenny Ken, Darren jay oldskool, and Slipmats 95-96 set. These were the best sets of the holiday for me. Highlight of the week having a club named after you :D

Well I hope that the Innovation team take note from what happened this year and try and sort things out if Lloret de Mar will take Innovation back for 2006, as 2004 ran so smooth it was untrue one of the main reasons why I recommended people to come out for 2005.

Will I come out again?

Yes I will as well during the day and most nights the party was on fire just a shame a small minority ruined it for a few, but hopefully these idiots will not be allowed to return to future Innovation events. There are far more positives than negatives but the negatives tend to stand out more unfortunately.

Massive shouts to: (in no order)

Gav, Mickey, Lloyd and the Innovation / Ravenation team, Storm, Whizzkid, Fearless, GQ, Kenny Ken, Hixxy, Styles, Dougal, Breeze, Hype, Swift, Logan D, Nicky BM, Everson and Mark, Krust, Die, Total Science, Foxy, Shy FX, Navigator, Wotsee, Marc Smith, Shortston, IC3, Brockie, Slipmatt, Vibes, Ben and Katie, Bianca and Vicky (Narni crew), Gammer, Scott Brown, Odyssey, M-Zone, Chrissy Chris, Smiley and Gary from Vibealite

Shauny, Satin @ Kool, Zoë and Collette, Jon Xlr-8 and James, Lisa-Jo and Phill, Faye and Donna, Wookie and Emma, Mani, Adam, Allan, Lisa and Lee, Alpha, Carly and Ben, Kieran, Vic, Arwen, Andy Legs, Sallie, Niki, Mat, Escape, MR Joseph, Kate Buzzcat, Julie Delicious, Lucy, Damo @ UKScene, Markit, Francis, Michelle, Karen G and the Stourbridge crew, Obie, Sykee, Choons.net crew, Rob and Stace @ True Hardcore, Spenno, and also to everyone else whose names I don't' know but faces I recognise.