Uproar
Rise of the Ravers
Sanctuary
Birmingham
Saturday 28th April 2007

After the sell out success of ‘The hardcore showdown 3’, Uproar returned back to the Sanctuary to present their 2nd party of 2007. Tonight was also the warm up for the forthcoming Hardcore weekender which sees Uproar hosting the Friday night.

Headed down to the Sanctuary shortly before 10, and there was a large queue that reach down Digbeth high street and onto the back of the Dance Factory. Having received a stringent search from the security grabbed tonight’s set times and headed up to the main arena.

DJ’s Petruccio and Rampant where finishing up in here, the dance floor was filling up nicely with the doors having been opened for just under an hour. True to Uproar form the production team didn’t spare any expenses with the main arena covered in all four corners.

On an elevated platform was a massive lighting rig backed up with a state of the art laser system. The stage was covered with a massive Uproar murals and located either side of the DJ box was 2 massive projector screens showcasing live footage from the crowd.

Raver Baby’s new prodigy Squad-E took to the decks, there was quite a lot of tunes from the Raver Baby label being played along with his own material including a few new remixes too. Squad-E was playing quite a number of his own material along with some new remixes too, with remixes of ‘Perfect dreams (sweetheart), ‘Love comes’ and ‘Life force generator’.

The legendary MC Sharkey was on the mic along with MC Odyssey, was great seeing Sharkey mcing on a massive stage like this. Sharkey was working his magic, the great entertainer that he is. Squad-E rounded off his set with couple of crowd favourites such as ‘Cry’, ‘Lost’, ‘Where do we go’ and ‘Promised land’

Next up was a back to back special featuring Marc Smith and Sharkey, Sharkey resided behind the DJ box to allow Odyssey to MC for this set.

DJ Faydz was on in the oldskool arena playing a mixture of nuskool breakz with some serious oldskool. Faydz was playing tracks such as ‘Found a café’, ‘Everybody in the place’, and ‘Set you free’ which got the crowd to raise their hands in the air! I really enjoyed listening to Faydz especially with his scratching showcase that he is renowned for.

Back to the main arena and it looked like Dougal and Supreme switched sets as Dougal was playing. There were lots of euphoric and vocally tracks being played from the Essential Platinum supremeo with tracks such as ‘When I close my eyes’, ‘Hold me close tonight’, ‘I say I love you’ and ‘Nobody likes the records’. Uproar’s very own MC Rude ensured the party was rocking as he was keeping the ravers alight with his lyrics.

Following up was one of the sets I was looking forward too as it was the turn of the south coast legend DJ Supreme. Supreme has been working hard in the studio alongside Ramos and the Sunset regime as of late and was showcasing plenty of their new material off their new Turbulence Hardcore label.

Supreme opened the set with the RSR remix of ‘Lift me up’, Supreme played a number off THC tracks such as ‘C u on the other side’, ‘Touched by an angel’. MC Odyssey was doing the mic duties and did a grand job with his vocal scratching. The ravers were enjoying his mcing with many reciting his lyrics, Odyssey was later joined by Wotsee midway and the two where sparring off each other worked really well. Supreme continued to play ‘My direction’, ‘Feel the power’ and ‘Down to you’.

DJ Slipmatt was up in the oldskool arena so I headed down there to check out what the godfather of hardcore had on offer. Slipmatt was playing a breakz set, shame as I would have liked him to play oldskool from 92 or even 95. To be fair the crowd where enjoying the breakz was a different set to what I heard him play Alexandra palace earlier in the month as he played ‘Breakin free’ remix, ‘Yeah Yeah’ and ‘Destination Unknown’.

After Slipmat it was the set that I was looking forward to since Uproar released their line up after Januarys event as Vinlygroover and MC Freestyle took centre stage in the oldskool arena. The south coast pair took us on a musical journey through hardcore playing loads of classic tracks that would have been played at the legendary Rhythm Station in Aldershot.

MC Freestyle was great on the mic hyping up the crowd with his classic lyrics whilst Vinylgroover played belters such as ‘In complete darkness’, ‘Sunshine’, ‘Smd#3’ and ‘Higher love’. It’s been along time since I’ve seen the duo play a classics set and it was well worth the wait.

The oldskool arena was rammed whilst these two were on and noticed a number of older ravers enjoying this trip down memory lane and reliving their lost youth. Vinylgroover stepped up the years with classics such as ‘Age of stomp’ and ‘Take me away’, the south coast duo finished off with the classic ‘4am’ remix which went down a treat.

Back to the main arena and Gammer was finishing up with Whizzkid MC, MC Storm took the mic as it was time for DJ’s Hixxy and Sy. The hardcore legends where playing tracks from both of their respective labels, throughout the hour long showcase. Lots of crowd favourites where being dropped as they played ‘Take me with you’, ‘Angels’ and ‘Sacrifice’.

The crowd where entertained by MC Storm as he worked them into a frenzy with his crowd hyping skills. Hixxy sneaked in a current drum and bass anthem from one of the hottest new producers TC as he dropped ‘Rockstar’, this was given a positive response from the hardcore crowd. SY in true fashion was scratching on the 1210’s with MC Storm emulating his renowned scratch patterns. Sy and Hixxy carried onto playing ‘See the light’, ‘Sacrifice’ and ‘Overlode’.

Next up was two of Scotlands finest DJ’s the legendary Scott Brown alongside one of hottest new talents in the hardcore circuit Joey Riot. This was a high octane set from start to finish as Joey Riots bouncy style compliments the harder style that Scott Brown tends to play.

Whizzkid MC was awesome throughout the crowd where enjoying his performance as he was getting the crowd involved with his lyrics whilst he was beatboxing. Whizzkid and Scott Brown work very well together and he was thoroughly enjoying working alongside Joey Riot too.

There where lots of banging tunes throughout the set such as ‘Wakey wakey’, ‘Go bezerk’ and ‘Rock the nation’. The duo stepped up the tempo and played some hard hitting gabba which set the crowd stomping especially when they played ‘Twist’.

Final set of the night came from Raver Baby’s DJ Re-Con, originally he was billed to perform back to back with Darren Styles but tonight Re-Con was going to play alone. This was a great set from the Raver Baby DJ and what a say to see the night off with.

There were plenty of dancefloor slammers with bouncy numbers for good measure as Re-Con dropped ‘Only you’, ‘Power of Love’ and ‘Overlode’. Storm was magnificent for the final 60 minutes ensuring no-one was left standing with his energetic style of mcing running from left to right on the stage.

Re-Con continued to play ‘Good to me’, ‘Perfect dreams (Sweetheart)’ remix and ‘I say I love you’ and ‘Come running’ which got the crowd singing and Storm got the crowd to sway their arms in the air. Security arrived dead on 6 and allowed Re-Con to play a final tune as he ended the night with ‘Died oh’.

Tonight was a great night from the Uproar crew the atmosphere was spot on with the crowd being up for it all night and a really friendly vibe that you can guarantee when you attend a hardcore rave.

Once again the production was mind blowing plenty of visuals in the mian arena along with an impressive state of the art laser system. The sound system was spot nice and loud especially down at the front and the mic’s weren’t too loud to drown out the music. Uproar is renowned for its production and has consistently impressed me especially at the Sanctuary and is definitely setting standards.

All the arena’s tonight where busy the Techno arena init it’s self has a strong following with people who purely come to Uproar for the harder style, but I was impressed to how busy the oldskool arena was as past events this room hasn’t been quite full but when both Slipmatt and Vinylgroover was on the arena was rammed.

There were some impressive set being played tonight I particular enjoyed Vinlygroover’s trip down memory lane with MC Freestyle its good to see people haven’t forgotten about these two. Another favourite of mine was from another of the oldskool hero’s DJ Supreme, the new stuff that he is making these days is very impressive to say the least and that he still hasn’t lost any of that magic in the studio! The final set of the night from Re-Con set was top notch and played a blinder to send the ravers home with a smile on their face!

Once again job well done from the Uproar crew after the negative comments from the previous event with the attitude and the manner of the security it would be fair to say the security improved massivly in their attitude and manner this time round making the night even so more enjoyable by many of the ravers!

Massive shouts to Seduction, Rude and the Uproar crew, Storm, Whizzkid, Hixxy, Re-con, Sy, Vinylgroover, Freestyle, Supreme, Sunset Regime, Marc Smith, Joey Riot, Dougal, Lisa Marie, Scott Brown, Squad-E, Gammer, Wotsee, Odyssey, Sharkey, Lou Lou, Slipmatt, Twista, Faydz and Brookzy, Ribbz, Ben at Up the Cut, Tony Res, Flying and Charmy, Kaylene and Uplift.

Big respects to Phil and Lisa Jo, Andy Legs, John Buzz-B and Jen, Matt KoR, Lozzy, Lisa, Arwen and Sarah, , Rudeboy Rob, Nick Xero and Fi, Izzy, Sarah, Emma, Hanna and Annabelle Lucy, Cat, Kelly and Kate, Caddy, Olly Thumpa and Tansy, Stacie, Michelle, Mr and Mrs-E and Obie, Daz Rampant and Petrucio, Upfront, Becky and Abbie, Kat and Chelsea, Kev Pikey, Tess, Hardcore Mark, Chitchat, Wilfee-C, Jaime, James and Charlie, Mark, Tessa, Pleasuredome Mark, Chris Mental, Emma, Izzy and John Sketchy, Kev and Astraboy, Gsus DSI crew, and everyone else whose names I don't' know but faces I recognise.