Uproar
"All Systems Go"
The Emporium, Coalville
28.08.04

This was the last bank holiday weekend of the year and what a way to finish off the summer. With the Sanctuary Milton Keynes closing back in July the Uproar team have managed to find itself a venue to host the evening's entertainment. The Emporium located in the centre of the country, Leicester already home to Passion.

Originally I intended to go to Accelerated Culture at Air over the Bank holiday weekend but with a last minute change of plans, I chose to go to Uproar.

Since Uproar has started I've heard good reports from all the hardcore heads. Not only have they used The Sanctuary, Milton Keynes but also the Brunel Rooms, Swindon. Well I thought that it was about time I go to Uproar to judge for myself what the Uproar hysteria was all about.

Well arriving in Coalville after 9 after some funny directions and detours along the M1 we found the Emporium and parked at the car park at the back of the venue.
Headed to the venue and was greeted by an enormous queue with many ravers waiting patiently, some ravers had been waiting already 30-40 minutes before we arrived.

When the doors finally opened just before 10. MC Rude was on the door personally apologising about the late opening. Upon entry we were given set times printed on small pieces of card for free which I thought was really good.

Having arrived in the venue we headed directly for the main room and was greeted by Next Generation's Robbie Long.

The main arena is split into various sections. There is a balcony, which over looks the DJ box. At the bottom of the DJ box was a platform for the MC's and Dancers. The main arena wasn't as spacious as I thought it would be and at time it just got a bit too crowded meaning there wasn't much space to dance around.
The sound system is here was booming really loud, the lighting was good but at times I did feel that the strobes were over used.

It's been along time since I last saw Robbie Long play out. One of the old Kinetic favourites Odyssey MC'ed for this set. Robbie was playing a break beat set, which he's well known for. I didn't recognise many of the tune but I really liked what I was hearing as I do enjoy my breaks beat hardcore.

After Robbie long it was the turn of the Scotsman Marc Smith playing a harder style of hardcore with MC's Storm and Whizzkid on mic duty. Though I didn't expect him to play the DJ Error Dido rip.

I'm not a big fan of Marc Smith and decided to check out the other arenas. Well I found the techno room and Deathmachine was on. There is a reason why this blokes name is Deathmachiine, what he played was just extraordinary, not really my cup of tea, a bit crazy, defiantly not for the faint hearted!!!!
Well I finally found the oldskool room, which was also a chill out area. Anyway the midlands scratcher mixer was on deck duty DJ Ratty. He played a wicked set with a mixture of jungle and hardcore. He played "Tales from the Darkside" along with "Valley of the Shadows" and also "Return to Champion sound". Near the end of his set MC Energy of Illusion fame was on the mic. Ratty finished the set with the moving shadow classic "Terrorist". After Ratty it was DJ Producer, he was playing a techno set, but I just couldn't get into it and left the arena.

Returning to the main room and Essential Platinum's Gamma was on. He played a remix of an old Dougal and Vibes classic "Really Love you.", sounds good but you can never better the original.

After Gammer it was Raver Baby's DJ Styles along side MC' Storm and Whizzkid. Styles played a really uplifting set playing various tunes from the Raver Baby label such as the "Cutting Deep" remix, "Angel eyes", with the MC2 duo on stage hyping up the crowd into a frenzy it was unbelievable! Storm was having it so much that he tripped and fell in the crowd, though he didn't hurt himself.

After Styles and it was another of Raver Baby's DJ's DJ Breeze, Breeze was paying an oldskool 98 classic's set, which went down really well probably my favourite set. He played a monster of a set with tunes such as "Equation Part 9" (DJ Supreme), "Power of Love", "U R everything"," Don't go Away"," Body Slam "and "Now is the Time". Near the end of his set he went on to play a few more recent tunes such as "Future set" and "Pilgrim". This was amazing, playing a lot of tunes that I listened to just before I actually started go to raves.

After Breeze it was DJ Sharkey, he was playing a freeform set with a few break beat tracks thrown in, Odyssey was mcin' for Sharkey.

Halfway thought his set we decided to abscond, as we were leaving we ended up having a natter to Hixxy, Storm and Sy before heading home.

Overall I thought that the main arena was a bit too small for this event. At times it got too crowded and there wasn't much space to dance around. It did attract quite a large number of people seeing as this was the first Uproar event since the closure of the Sanctuary. Uproar didn't just attract local people but people from across the UK,
clearly showing that it's wise to have a large-scale event of this size placed within the Midlands to continue being successful.

As I originally planned to go to Accelerated I'm glad I decided to change my evening's plan at the last minute, it worked well in my favour. I had an amazing night, the atmosphere here was brilliant, plus I had a chance to visit a new venue. Set of the night has to be Breeze!

I will definitely be coming to another Uproar in the near future!

Massive shouts to Storm and Sarah, Whizzkid, Alex Energy and Stacie,
Rude (I said that I'll finally come to Uproar!!!) Breeze, Styles, Ratty, Ben, Hixxy and Sy.

Respects to Shaun and Leanne, Cruze, Oli G, Thumpa, Bobby hill (Sawyer), Pricey, Hiney and the other people from Lichfield, Gammer, Astraboy, Immz + Bertie and the Bromsgrove Wet patters, Craig and Andy and the rest of the USH.net crew and everyone else whose names I don't' know but faces I recognise.