Slammin Vinyl presents
‘Tranz-mission 2006’
Alexandra Palace
London
Saturday 15th April 2006

This was my first trip back to the capital since December last year and I was quite looking forward to my return to London. What a better way to visit the capital by checking out London’s premier venue the Alexandra Palace. The Alexandra Palace in engulfed in history, built in Victorian England the building itself is spectacular, surrounded in acres of parkland.

Like last years event Slammin Vinyl teamed up alongside London’s premier promoters 1Nation , Hardcore Heaven, Raindance to name, who were all here tonight hosting various arenas across the venue. Tranz-Mission featured a star studded event with the who’s who of the underground dance scene. There was plenty on offer, to cater for people’s various musical tastes from Drum and Bass, Hardcore, Hard Dance and Oldskool to take people back on journey to the yesteryears.

I experienced the first Transmission event at the Alexandra Palace last year and really enjoyed the night especially the venue and definitely didn’t want to miss an event at this premier venue.

Having left Birmingham we arrived in London shortly after 9.30, headed to the north of the city for Wood Green and found the Alexandra Palace easily. Parked up in the security patrolled car park and a quick stroll though the surrounding parkland, we approached the entrance and was greeted by Grant from the Slammin vinyl team.

The queue was enormous but fast moving, we didn’t have to wait too long, once inside the venue there was numerous searching teams with plenty of tables which shortened the searching time, after a brief search from the security team we was in.

The party was truly underway headed for the 1Nation arena this was situated in the West Hall of the Palace, I caught the tail end of Goldie’s set with MC GQ. I was quite shocked to see Goldie on so early but I guess with other events going on around the bank holiday, things like this were to happen.

Through the 1Nation arena led to the Raindance arena which was at the back of the West hall, I managed to get in here just in time for Birmingham’s’ very own DJ Glenn Aston. Glenn was playing a ’93 darkside set throwing in some rarities along with favourites like ‘Ruff beats’, ‘Darkage, and ‘Dark Stranger’. Near the end of Glenn’s set saw the arrival of the MC legend, the Original Detonator, Robbie Dee ready to get the party into action. Glenn finished the set with Rap and Aston’s ‘Vertigo EP’.

Back to the 1Nation arena and headliners DJ Hype and Andy C were on along with MC Fearless. You could feel the heat in here as the arena was completely rammed whilst these two were on. Fearless was rocking the crowd throughout this set, getting the crowd hyped up with his lyrics. Really enjoyed watching Hype and Andy C on the decks, with the scratching and mixing going on throughout this set, it was not worth missing! Hype bursting into scratch and Andy C manipulating the mixer to its full potential whilst teasing in a few classics like’ Spaced invader’ ‘Selector’ and ‘True romance’, which kept the crowd jumping.

The Hardcore Heaven arena was situated within the mighty Great Hall which was split into three sections. The left hand side was being used to accommodate for the Frantic arena the middle was used as an entertainment arena as there was various funfair rides on offer along with refreshments and of course the Slammin vinyl merchandise stall, offering many tape packs from various past events at bargain prices. Slammin vinyl was implementing a voucher system at the bars as it was 4 tokens for a beer and 2 tokens for a Lucozade or Ribena.

At the right of the Great Hall was the Hardcore Heaven arena, the layout was far better than last year. The production in here was magnificent, the DJ box was situation on the main stage at the front of the arena, with a massive lighting rig surrounding the DJ box along with a pair of high profile projector screens either side of the stage. The lasers were truly magnificent lighting up the arena’s ceiling panning through the sea of ravers.

Raver Baby’s DJ Breeze was on with mc duo of Storm and Whizzkid working the stage, Breeze’s set featured plenty of material from the Raver Baby label as he dropped in ‘Connections 2006’, ‘Hardcore DJ’, ‘Believe in me’ and ‘Nessaja’. Storm and Whizzkid were magnificent on this massive stage working the crowd, really using the stage to its full potential, bouncing from left to right.

Time for the first PA of the night in the Raindance arena as oldskool legends from the mighty Moving Shadow were on as 2BadMice where in the house! The duo took to the stage with there keyboards and other bits of paraphernalia, 2BadMice started off with probably biggest oldskool anthem ever, to have feature on vast oldskool rave compilations and various sets from the past the mighty ‘Bombscare’. The crowd went ballistic as the tune dropped with the infamous scratch and thunder sample, they continued to play other material they produced like ’Hold it down’ and ‘Waremouse. Throughout the PA they were giving out a few freebies as they threw into the crowd various stickers and t-shirts.

Back in the Hardcore Heaven arena and the 2nd PA of the night from Essential Platinum, Dougal and Gammer took to the stage with MC Smiley introducing the PA. Vocalist Lisa Marie started the PA by singing live ‘Tell me story’, her voice is definitely something! Dougal and Gammer were on stage with their keyboard’s playing along with Smiley mcing and Lisa singing. She also sang ‘How did I get here’, ‘Open UR Eyes’ her voice is impressive especially when live! Lisa was joined by legendary vocalist Jenna who sang ‘Through the darkness’ to finish off the Essential Platinum PA.

Back to the 1Nation arena and DJ Friction was finishing up with MC Shabba. Friction dropped ‘Fruit X’, ‘X Factor’, ‘Beginning’ remix and ‘Style Baby’, was impressive stuff from Friction for the short duration I caught. I was a bit gutted it clashed with PA in the Hardcore Arena, but was still good to catch Friction tearing down the 1Nation arena!

Time for Charge recordings Mampi Swift along side New Breed’s MC Foxy what a breathtaking set this was from the word go. Swift started the set with ‘Voodoo people’ remix then went onto playing the new ‘Follow the vision’ remix, ‘Deep’ and ‘Style baby’. Foxy was on the mic hyping up the crowd with his infamous lines, Foxy was also joined by a few sexy stage dancers who were strutting their thing on stage naughty minxes.

Swfit continued to play ‘Warhead’ remix whilst double dropping the 2003 remix of ‘Chopper’ over it, impressive stuff! Swfit in true fashion continued to tease and double drop various other tracks with ‘26 Bass’ ‘Tombraider’, ‘Jaws’, ’Screamer’ and of course ‘The one’. This set was definitely not for the faint hearted!

Back to the Great Hall and the Hardcore Heaven B2B2B special was taking place featuring DJ’s Hixxy, Scott Brown and Sy with MC’s Storm and Whizzkid taking charge on the mic. Hixxy started the proceedings for this back to back special as he started off with ‘All night long’ remix they continued to play ‘This is how we do it’, ‘On fire’, ’Love comes’, Inspiration’ and ‘Elysium remix’. Was a great show with the trio showcasing material from all 3 respective labels within the one set.

Nipped out of Hardcore Heaven arena to find Nicky Blackmarket playing in the Raindance arena. Nicky was playing a classic set he rocked the Raindance arena with rumblers like ‘Badass’, ‘Dual voltage’, ‘Warp ten’( rocky tune) and also the Bad Company remix of ‘Champion sound’. Nicky was playing a more 96-97 set with MC Five Alive on the mic.

Back in the Hardcore Heaven arena and DJ Re-Con stepped up after the B2B2B special to close the night, both MC’s Storm and Whizzkid were still on stage mcing for the final hour.

Re-con opened the set with ‘1,000 kisses’ and continued to play his remix of ’24-7’, ‘Pull Over’ ,’Never Too Late’, ‘I Adore’ and ‘Electric’. Re-Con has been raising a few eyebrows since becoming part of the hardcore scene, making a huge positive impact which led to him being signed to the mighty Raver Baby label, his production work has been very impressive truly deserving his title as best break through DJ at the Hardcore Heaven awards 2005.

What shocked me more than anything was the fact both MC’s Storm and Whizzkid had been on stage for 3 hours mcing non stop, true professionalism and dedicated hardcore soldiers! I do not know where these two get their energy or stamina but the way these guys were on stage you couldn’t tell they had been on for the past 3 hours!

The early morning light was shining through the large windows of the Alexandra Palace and with the event planned for a 6am finish this didn’t stop Re-con playing beyond the 6am licence. Re-con finished the night with the new remix of ‘Heartbeatz’.

This was an amazing night really enjoyed my visit to the capital especially at the Alexandra Palace , the production was amazing in all the arenas I visited,the Hardcore Heaven arena stood out for me the most! The layout was definitely better compared to last year as there was quite a lot of sound leakage from the other arenas last year but this wasn’t the case tonight. It was fair to say that the 3 major arenas 1Nation, Hardcore Heaven and Frantic were represented evenly and fairly across the venue.

Only gripe was probably that it was quite hot in both the 1Nation Arena and the Hardcore Heaven Arena but halfway through the night you could feel a cold breeze sweeping through the venue.

Tonight it would be said that Slammin vinyl have set a standard for the rest of the year, especially in the terms of production, they learnt from last years event as many people complained about the layout esp with the sound leakage. Whenever promoter’s go to a new venue there are going to teething problems first time round but these seemed to have been sorted for the 2nd visit. With this setting a standard being Slammin Vinyl’s first event of 2006, what will the rest of 2006 have in store for us?????

Massive Shouts to Grant and Michael at Slammin, Storm, Whizzkid, Fearless, Hixxy, Sy, Breeze, Glenn Aston, Foxy, Eksman, Evenson Allen, IC3, Ben and Katie at Upthe Cut, Re-Con, Nicky Blackmarket, Knight and D-Ice.

Big Respects to Sara, Andy Legs, Caddy, Sallie and Lolly, Nikki, Ronni, Charles and Chris, Charlie and James, Mat KoR, Danny Smithers, Izzy, John Buzz-B, Gillian, Gareth, Ciarra, Sharl, Annabelle and Julie Delicious, Compulsion, Foggy and Turkish, Sezzy Spencer, Jacqui and Leanne, Vic, Ekcsta-C and Overlode, Damo and Hatty, C-Kay, Doc-E, Sykee, Rob from True hardcore, Fish-Geffo, Astraboy and everyone else whose names I don't' know but faces I recognize.