Raveology: ‘Strikes Back’
Air Nightclub
Birmingham
Saturday 2nd December 2006

After the sell out success of the payback event in September Raveology returns back for their final instalment of 2006 with the star wars theme, as they presented ‘Raveology strikes back’.

Arrived at Air just before 9 and the queue was building up nicely there were a few characters from the Star war’s movie, who kept the ravers entertained whilst queuing on this frosty winters night, these characters included Chewbacca, a few Stormtroopers and Luke Skywalker !

Headed straight to arena two and Shauny C of Raver Baby and HTID fame was on showcasing the very best in up front uk hardcore. Starting off with DJ Kurts remix of ‘Space odyssey’ and his new track ‘Love so true’, before moving into a Raver Baby style with ‘Report to the bassline’, ‘Pills’, and ‘Silver waters’.

With the venue opening later than advertised there wasn’t many people in here at the time but those who were seemed to be enjoying the change of music style that is normally featured in arena 2 of Raveology.

Shaun finished his set with a remix of the all time classic ‘Eye opener’, next up was Raveology resident Glenn Aston playing the finest in oldskool. Glenn started off his set with ‘Stratosphere’ playing a ‘91 selection.

There was no mcin for his set which allowed the music to breath and was doing the talking as people started to bust moves on the dance floor. Glenn continued to play ‘Living in darkness’, ‘Upside’ and ‘Bach to basics’ timeless track! Glen finished off with the Ramos and Supreme classic ‘The journey part one’.

Pilgrim took over from Glenn as it was busy now in arena 2 with Pilgrim playing a more darkside 93 set. Pilgrim kicked off his set with ‘The box opened’ the set was littered with darkside classics such as ‘Jonny’, ’Final conflict’ and a favourite of mine from Chaos and Julia set ‘Atmosphere’ awesome track. Pilgrim’s mixing was phenomenal as he was cutting a chopping up his mixes using the mixer to its full potential, pulling off some mad mixes.

Downstairs and Birminghams very own True playa was on, the main arena was completly rammed from back to front. DJ Hazard was joined by Eksman and Accaplello who were mcing and hyping up the crowd. With crowd reciting Eksman’s lyrics and Accapello hyping up his home crowd. Hazards set featured plenty off material from his label dropping the likes of ‘Daywalker’, ‘Gun fingers’, ‘Strike back’ and Hypes ‘Only one life’.

The main arena was decked in Raveology murals with a large banner over hanging the dj box. The projectors above the dj box featured tonight’s set times which was handy and also advertising forthcoming events including the long awaited National drum and bass awards. There was a large stage at the front where Eksman and Accapello were entertaining the crowd.

Next it was PA time from Jenna G, the reception Jenna received was phenomenal with the crowd singing along with her, Jenna was showcasing plenty of tracks from her album ‘For lost friends’. Jenna was singing tracks like ‘Ooo’ and ‘Mic check’, her performance was tremendous with her entertaining the crowd. Jenna finished off her PA with two massive hits ‘Midnight’ from 2002 and more recently ‘In love’, which got the crowd in karaoke mode!

After this breath taking PA it was the turn of one of the original jungle godfathers DJ Randall. This was one of the main sets that I was looking forward to hearing tonight and I wasn’t left disappointed from the AWOL resident. Randall’s mixing and tune selection was superb deep rollers vibrating the Air JBL sound system with the likes of ‘Warhead’ remix, ‘Outerspace’ and ‘Bell tune’.

The Shadow Demon coalition of Juiceman, Spyda and Bassman were on stage mcing for this set, Bassman made his grand entrance dressed as Dark one Darth Vader complete with mask and cloak!

Half way through Randall’s set saw the arrival of the Narni Shakers making an appearance at Air nightclub for the first time. There was quite a spacious stage for the Narni’s to dance on performing their routines together whilst stimulating the male the audience in the crowd.

After Randall it was the turn of BBC 1Xtra’s very DJ Bailey, Bailey was continuing where Randall had left off with some rollers like ‘ Bloodlines’, ‘Tibetan mist’ and ‘Wheres my money’. The Shadow coalition was still up here mcin with the arrival of Trigga and bassman has dressed into his normal clothes.

The crowd were enjoying the Coalition mcin at Air tonight with their various styles a mixture of a raga from Juiceman and Spyda with the hype from Trigga and Bassman just getting nasty and grimy with the crowd.

Bailey set included a remix of a classic which features Bassman’s classic lyric ‘Da bass too dark’ which went down with the Birmingham crowd.

Following on from Bailey representing Bristol’s Full cycle records was DJ Clipz, the shadow demon crew were still in effect keeping the crowd bubbling.

Next up was another of the sets I was looking forward to as it was the turn of another of the AWOL residents the one and only mix’n’blen Kenny Ken. Kenny didn’t fail to disappoint playing a classic jungle tear down session.

Kenny was taking the Raveology crowd on a journey through jungle / drum and bass, going through the years. Kenny was giving the ravers an education into drum and bass. The first half of Kenny’s featured plenty of 94/5 classics such as the Moving shadow classic ‘Helicopter’ moving onto ‘Champion sound’, ‘Set speed’ and DJ Rap’s ‘Intelligent woman’.

The Ragga Twins were mcing for Kenny and doing a grand job on stage with their infectious raga style and mcing back to back. MC Fun also joined the Twin’s on stage and hyped up the crowd was good to see these guys booked in Birmingham as it’s been a very long time since these guys came up here.

Kenny stepped up the years moving onto 96-99 era with ‘2 Degrees’, ‘Friday’, ‘Dual Voltage’ and ‘Turbulence’. It was when Kenny dropped ‘Phantom force’ a classic from Digital Spirit that sent the crowd wild, darkside business! Kenny’s mixing was phenomenal his wizardry on the 1210’s is amazing keeping the tunes rolling even once the tune had dropped excellent stuff!

After this education from Kenny Ken, DJ Hype was to play next but with him running late DJ Escape filled in for Hype and what a superb job he done. The Ragga twins and fun were still mcin and were joined by New breeds Fatman D. Really enjoyed hearing Fatman D its been along time since he last visited Birmingham and Fatman was tremendous on the stage hyping up the crowd with his lyrics.

Escape’s tune selection was something dropping plenty of crowd favourites such as ‘Bounce’,’ Download’ and ‘Kyrme watch’, but when he dropped ‘Oi(who)’ this sent the crowd ballistic ! It was material on Escape’s new label Musik hertz that raised a number of eye brows, particular from the mc’s. Numerous mc’s were calling Escape for the rewind on a number of his own tunes, but more importantly his home crowd were shocking out hard throughout his set.

Final set of the night came from V recordings head honcho Bryan Gee, Birminghams very own Biggie along with Ranski and Trigga closed the proceedings hyping up the ravers for the final 60minutes keeping the party people on their toes. Bryan started off with a liquid selection before turning up the tempo as he dropped a remix of ‘Li li’, ‘Dumpling’, ‘Game over’ and ‘Hand grenade’ remix towards the end of his set.

Tonight finally came to end and have to say that this was my favourite Raveology of the year. The atmosphere from the ravers was awesome really good friendly vibes there was a bit more of a more mature crowd compared to normal, with the likes of with of Randall, Kenny Ken and Hype being featured in the main arena, geared more for the older ravers.

The artists tonight performed really well but those that stood out for me were Pilgrim, Kenny Ken, Randall and Escape. Just a shame that Hype never turned up but that opened the door for Escape to play at a more sensible time and well the crowd enjoyed what they were hearing. Was also good to see Raveology bringing up front hardcore too hopefully this will be the first of many!

The main arena was rammed all night with hardly any room to move another successful night from the Raveology team!

Respects to Magika, Jo and the Raveology crew, Eksman, Glen Aston, Pilgrim, Devise, Hazard, Escape, Shauny C, Biggie, Accapello, Jenna G, Kenny Ken, Randall, Dangerous D, Bassman, Juiceman, Spyda, Fozz, Robbie Dee, Pace, Maikular Garry K, Rippa, Kirstie and the Narni Shakers, Ragga Twins, Fun, Trigga, Alpha, CKB, Ranski and Daddy Dread

Massive shouts to Zoë and Collette, Jessi, Charlotte, Gemma, Leechy, Kayleigh, Sam, Taz, Sanjay, Amy, Michael Syz, Tom Nocturnal, Alice, Kirri, Max, Tree and the Stourbridge Crew, Welly and the covnetry crew Hi-Dro, Vicky, Magz, Rich, Danielle, Elaine, Sam, those from Drum and Bass arena and DSi.