Transmission
Alexandra Palace
London
Saturday 26th March 2005

To continue with the Easter weekend activities, tonight brought me back to the capital for Transmission at the prestigious venue the Alexandra Palace London. Transmission in association with 7 other prompters including the mighty Slammin' Vinyl, One Nation, Hardcore Heaven, Raindance to name a few, staging a massive multi arena event catering for various styles of music under one roof.

It's not that often I travel to London for a rave but with a great line-up and an amazing venue I couldn't resist letting this one pass. Having left Birmingham we travelled into London making great time and arrived for after 8, though after an hour of getting lost and many detours we finally found the Alexandra Palace. After locating the Alexandra Palace we parked up in the security patrolled free car park and headed towards the venue.

From outside this venue was huge I didn't realise the scale of this venue at all.
The queue system was like a snake though as we arrived after 9 there wasn't many people outside in the queue, after having my guest list place confirmed I grabbed my backstage pass and was ready to head into the venue.

Once inside there were several tables were security were searching people, after being searched we headed into the main hall. I new this venue was massive but once inside it was colossus! It was it took me a bit of time to get my bearings and locating the various arenas.

Well I found the 1Nation arena kinda easily and staring from the back of the venue it was an amazing sight. The size of this arena was enormous the plasma screen at the big was huge similar to that of a cinema screen. The sound system in hear wasn't as loud as I expected as I thought this arena was sound proofed.

Next to the 1Nation arena was the Raindance room, this room in my opinion had the best production the stage was well kitted with the Raindance Man inflatable's on the stage with the day glow Raindance logo's, with the Raindance crew putting a lot of effort into the production of this arena.

Venturing out of the Raindance room brought you to another exhibition hall, which featured the indoor funfair. With drink token vendors as the bar was only accepting drink vouchers tonight.

At the back of here was the Hardcore Heaven arena. Which took me a bit of time finding as I kept getting lost. I wasn't the only one as I found Whizzkid looking for this arena too! With this being a large exhibition hall the arenas were segregated using large blackout material which didn't help at times as there was not a real way of segregating the music as you could hear all music styles fused together from the different arenas at some points.

Well I headed back to the Raindance room and DJ Squirrel was finishing up alongside MC Strict. Billy Bunter was on next with MC Ice, Billy started the set with 'M&M Please don't stand in my way' heavy tune, and he also played 'Ravin I'M raving'. Half way through this set I ventured to the 1Nation arena.

Maldini of Bad Company was on along with New breed's MC Foxy. The atmosphere in here was wicked with plenty of up for it ravers having a good time. I wasn't expecting Maldini here tonight, as he wasn't on the flyer though there were quite a number of changes to those that were advertised. Maldini played rumbling set, he dropped 'Blacktarantula' along with 'In the grind'.

I headed to the Raindance room and Topbuzz were on, Mad P was as amazing usual but I was a bit disappointed with Jason's tune selection as he played a very similar set to what I heard from the night before at Hardcore Til I Die. Jason played 'Kiss the sky','Anasthisa' and 'Zero B's Lock Up' at this point I headed to the hardcore arena.

Next Generation's DJ Brisk was on with MC Rude on mic duty. I quite enjoyed Brisk's set, quite recently the Next Generation crew have remixed quite a few of old happy tunes as he played 'Here I am remix', 'Higher Love' he also played 'Be happy'

After Brisk it was the turn of Raver Baby's DJ's Breeze and Styles with MC Storm on the mic for the first half of this set and Whizzkid MC'ed for the remaining half. The Raver Baby duo showcased plenty of Raver baby tunes as they stated the set with 'You're my angel' they continued to play 'Heartbeatz', 'Getting better' and 'Making me wanna dance'.

Well it was PA time in the oldskool as N-Joi were on, the front of the Raindance stage was kitted with their equipment with two keyboards. N-Joi played plenty of tunes from the yesteryear off their label 'Deconstruction' such as 'Malfunction'. Their singer came on to perform 'Anthem' which got the crowd rocking. It looks like they've remixed Anthem as they also played a Drum and Bass version of this tune afterwards.

Zinc was on in the Drum and Bass arena along with GQ. It's not that often I get to hear GQ and boy did he tear the roof off. Zinc was playing plenty of upfront material mixed in with some crowd favourites as he played 'All that jazz', 'Steppin stones'

Back to the oldskool room and the set that I was waiting for Kenny 'MixandBlend' Ken. This was one of my favourite sets of the evening though I would of thought Fearless would have been MCin for this set instead Ice was filling in instead. Kenny took us through a history of jungle, it seems that the London crowd tend to get a better selection of tunes as he played quite a lot of early ragga jungle as he dropped 'Ride the Punnany' along with others that I didn't recognise. Kenny also played 'The Burial','MA2', 'Renegade Snares', 'P-Funk Era' also 'Trouble' Kenny is such an amazing DJ. Listening to his set you learn how he got the title 'mix and blend'. Leaving the two records to roll even after they've dropped.

Friction was on in the Drum and Bass room, though I was expecting Hype as he was supposed to have been on, but Friction was tearing down the house as he dropped 'Original Foundation', 'Back to your roots' and 'Slippery slope'. The MCin was off the hook as MC's Fearless, Skibba and Det were MCin together at one stage working off each other and passing the mic around.

In the Hardcore arena Seduction and SY were on back to back with MC Storm. The sound in here was all over the place, the front speakers and stage monitors went really quiet and all you could hear was Storm through the speakers. The DJ's were having a dreadful time trying to mix through this chaos until the sound engineer turned up.

The Ratpack were on in the Raindance room veterans to the London scene. In true fashion Ratpack played a typical 92 set with their own tunes thrown in as they played 'Brothers and sisters', 'Feel the heat',' Don't go' and finished the set with 'Far out'.
After the Ratpack it as the turn of the godfather DJ Slipmatt he played 'Take me away'.

Well I thought I'd catch the last half hour in the hardcore room and yes the Boss was on DJ Hixxy along with MC Storm, everyone in here was having it during the final hour. Hixxy played 'Beats bass and melody', 'Heaven's above HTID remix' and last tune he played was 'Slide away' Storm was having it large on the mic getting the crowd buzzing and keeping them dancing. With The Alexandra Palace being a glass building the daylight started to leak through the glass roof meaning it was time to go home.

Well I had a great time back in the capital after 12 months of not being in London. The only thing I don't like is the drink tokens system, as you have to use them up before the bar shuts and you can't use them at other Slammin events.

The Alexandra Palace is such a massive venue and I really enjoyed my time here, I would like to visit this venue again but not too frequently maybe once every 6 months. This venue is nothing like I've visited before though it sort of reminded me of Global gathering and all the arenas were on a huge scale normally at these types of events the oldskool room would be stuffed in a little sweatbox but each arena could hold at least 1,000 people at time.

Since the closure of the Sanctuary there hasn't been many multi arena events, Slammin did use the Bath and West showground but I think that didn't capture many people as anticipated. The atmosphere in the three arena's that I visited was brilliant lots of people having a great time in this venue plus there was mixture of people here tonight not only for hardcore, oldskool Drum and Bass and but also for hard house and trance. Making it like a mini festival in that essence.

Well I think the night was a success and I hope that Slammin will carry on after tonight. As this venue has great potential to be used once gain bringing ravers not only from the London surrounding areas but also across the country.

Massive shouts to Grant, Michael and the Slammin team, Storm and Sarah, Whizzkid, Fearless, Hixxy, Brisk, Sy, Seduciton, Mad P, MC Rude, Odyssey, Lipmaster Mark, Scott Brown, Breeze and Styles, Jason Spinback, MC Strict (Happy Birthday mate), Uplift, Rob from True Hardcore and DJ Spinner.

Big respects to the ravers, Quavers and Mike at Bornhardcore, Brian BK, Little miss Bounce, Ellen at Kool, Lee UHF, Clare, Compulsion, Niki, Legs, Gallagher, Pricey, Kaylene, Obie, Lisa-Jo and the rest of the USH.net crew also to everyone else whose names I don't' know but faces I recognise.