Uproar
‘Atmosphere’
Saturday 19th August 2006
Sanctuary
Birmingham

Uproar back at the Sanctuary in Birmingham after celebrating their 3rd Birthday in June, tonight they presented Atmosphere. Atmosphere was the Hardcore Nation 3 album launch, which features DJ’s Seduction, Stu Allan and Robbie Long. With Robbie Long to play a ‘Hardcore Nation’ set alongside the best DJ’s in the UK hardcore scene. There was also a special oldskool arena featuring the past masters from the South Coast playing classic Rhythm Station and Fusion style sets.

It was raining tonight so I decided to head to the Sanctuary a little later and arrived well after 10 o’clock. To my surprise I was greeted with a short queue so queuing took no time at all.
After being checked by the Sanctuary’s security team, grabbed tonight’s set times and headed straight for the main arena, the arena was already busy as the crowd were bouncing away to Robbie Long and MC Keyes.

As usual the main arena of the Sanctuary was decked head to toe, there was massive spikey inflatable’s hanging form the ceiling. The balcony of the Sanctuary was draped with an Uproar banner along with the front of the DJ box .Once again I was impressed by the work of Uproar’s production team. The sound system in the main arena wasn’t up to standard to be honest, very bassy and distorted at times

Robbie Long the Club Kinetic legend played plenty of crowd favourites along with tracks form the Hardcore Nation album. His set contained ‘Getting better’, ‘21st century rush‘ and ‘I got the pills’ an awesome track from Re-Con which got the crowd bouncing! Half way through the set MC Wotsee took over from Keyes getting the party bubbling with his lyrics.

Headed upstairs to find the oldskool arena had been closed which I was quite disappointed about. The line-up for tonight’s oldskool was outstanding especially as Sharkey was to play a classic bonkers set. Was a real shame that the arena was closed, but this was due to an electrical fault with the system.

Back downstairs and Robbie Long was finishing up, next up was a surprise back to back set as Raver Baby and Essential Platinum went head to head. Hardcore legends Dougal and Hixxy took to the decks with the MC² duo of Storm and Whizzkid who were doing the business on stage.

I really enjoyed Dougal and Hixxy’s tune selection, they were featuring plenty of material from both respective labels. The duo played ‘I can’t wait’, ‘C u on the other side’, ‘More and more’ and ‘All the tears I cried’.

Storm and Whizzkid were immense on the stage mcing back to back and hyping up the crowd. Whizzkid’s presence was definitely missed at HTID a few weeks back and it was great to see him again on stage with Storm. The pair was working up the crowd tonight hyping up the ravers. Taking control of the ravers with their lyrics and battling it out against each other on the mic.

Hixxy and Dougal carried on to play a new remix of Kosheen’s ‘Catch’ along with ‘1,000 kisses’ before finally finishing off with ‘Fires in the sky’.

Next up was Raver Baby’s DJ Breeze, originally Breeze was to play back to back with UFO but instead Breeze played the set alone. I’m guessing as Hixxy played back to back with Dougal earlier, UFO was to play at Hixxy’s original set time later tonight instead.

Breeze dropped ‘Made to invade’, ‘Free your mind’ and ‘Report to the bassline’, Uproar’s very own MC Rude was on mic duty keeping the crowd rocking. Midway through this set MC Storm presented Breeze with his Triple Platinum Discs for his part in the ‘Clubland X-Treme Hardcore 2’ compilation album which has sold over 100,000 copies since its release at the beginning of this year!

Storm took over from Rude on the mic for the remainder of this set. After the short interval, Breeze opened up with a rumbler from Goldies’ Metalheadz label ‘Broken eyes’ by Concord Dawn which has fantastic male vocal. Breeze carried on with his hardcore selection of ‘Only if I had more’ and ‘Never too late’.

Following on from Breeze was the man responsible behind tonight the legendry DJ Seduction. Seduction’s set featured a number of tracks off the new Hardcore Nation 3 album as he opened with ‘Out of the blue’ and continued to play ‘U r my phantasy’, ‘Hardcore time’ and ‘Sunlight’. Whizzkid MC was on the mic for the beginning of this set hyping up the crowd with his beat boxing and lyrics, MC Rude took over from Whizzkid near the end of his set.

Near the end of Seductions set I decided to have a wander around the venue and with the closure of the oldskool arena I ventured upstairs to the Dragon Bar. This was where the techno arena was located and DJ Stormtrooper from Holland was on. The arena was really dark and dingy which suited the style of music.

After Stormtrooper, Simon Underground was on with MC Squidgy B, I really enjoyed Simon Undergrounds set it was a hybrid between gabba and drum and bass, similar stuff you’d find on Renegade Hardware really dark, dirty and grimey. The system in here was a massive improvement compared to the main arena, and the production was good too as this arena also featured one of the state of the art lasers that was being used in the main arena.

Back to the main arena and Notorious Vinyl’s Marc Smith was finishing up playing ‘Radio rocker’ and ‘Ruff right provider’. Next up was DJ UFO, someone who I’ve not seen in quite along time hailing from the south coast and a legendary producer, producing tracks on the infamous Raver Baby label and legendary Hectic and RSR records.

The arena had filled up once again for this set but as Hixxy had already played earlier UFO filled in for him instead. UFO played ‘Take your time’, ‘Listen to your heart’, ‘Tears’ and ‘Won’t forget these days’.

Penultimate set of the night came from Darren Styles with Whizzkid MC taking control on the mic. Darren Styles was also awarded his Triple Platinum discs for ‘Clubland X-Treme Hardcore 2’ at the beginning of his set and carried out a small speech to thank the ravers for their continuing support! After collecting his award from MC Storm, Styles opened the set with ‘Save me’ and continued to play ‘Back to the oldskool’, ‘Cokane’ and ‘My direction’.

Whizzkid MC was on stage for the whole of this set and definitely made the stage his own. The ravers were enjoying his mcing hyping up the crowd into a mad frenzy with his lyrics whilst interacting with the crowd who were reciting his rhymes with him.

Styles continued to smash the dance floor with ‘Insane’, ‘Cutting deep’ and ‘Sky diving’ remixes, before finally finishing with a new remix of Scott browns ‘So about you’

It was that time in the evening as we approached the final 60 minutes, time for the Power Hour featuring the legendary DJ Sy alongside the Essential Platinum prodigy Gammer. MC Storm was refereeing on stage as Sy and Gammer battled it out on the decks. SY opened the set with ‘Space odyssey 2001’ remix and scratched his way through the opener with Storm battle scratching with him.

Sy continued to play ‘U r my phantasy’, ‘caught up in your love’, whilst Gammer dropped a few Essential Platinum bits like ‘all the tears I cried’ and ‘21st Century rush’ which saw Storm getting the crowd to sing along with him mcing.

Storm’s energy was 2nd to none on the stage for the final hour showing no signs of fatigue throughout the final 60minutes. Storm introduced the final tune of the evening which was ‘Raveheart’ remix, hands in the air and perfect way to bow out tonight!

Tonight I had mixed opinions as I really was looking forward to the DJ’s playing in the oldskool arena, as many of my personal favourite DJ’s such as Druid, Sharkey, Ramos and Supreme, who all had to be cancelled especially at the distance that these guys would have to travel.

This arena was closed due to an electrical fault within the arena, as the last Uproar they were having problems with the sound system, it seems that this arena can be doomed sometimes!

Myself and others were disappointed about this but I don’t think they would of swapped the techno arena around for oldskool. The techno arena at Uproar has a massive following in comparison to the oldskool so it was the minority against the majority.

The sound system in the main arena was a let down too as at previous events it was top notch but tonight it was somewhat undesirable. The bass was way too high and it was hard to hear the vocals on the tracks in here. The system in the techno room was a different story and was spot on and crisp in comparison.

The previous Uproar event many people had complained about the heavy handedness of the security but tonight there was a massive improvement. Good to know that Uproar do take note of what the ravers say to make improvements for future events!

Other than those two main gripes tonight I didn’t let that ruin my night, as I ended up spending some time in the techno arena, which I rarely do. The atmosphere from the ravers overcame my disappointment of the oldskool arena being closed, as the party people were well behaved and up for it all night. The production once again from the Uproar team was impressive and you can’t beat those lasers that they use!

Rumour has it Uproar are on the move soon so watch this space for further info.

Massive shouts to Seduction , MC Rude, Smithy, and the Uproar team, Storm , Whizzkid, Breeze, Styles, Marc Smith, Hixxy, Dougal, Sy, Wotsee, Gammer, Flyin, Charmy and Sparky, UFO, Tony Res and Joe from HTID.

Big respects to Shaun, Mike Fraggle, Sara, Emma, Annabelle, Julie Delicious, Juicy, Rooney, Scott Womble, Sharl, Caddy and the Shrewsbury crew, Zara, Kelly and Kate, Cat, Leanne, Andy Legs, Mat KoTR, Hana and Kat, Foggy and Turkish.Gareth Gsus, H100, Andrea ( happy birthday), John McGuiness, Daz Rampant and Al Storm, Noizee B, Saz, Kev Pikey, Laura, Nick Xero and Fiona, Clodhopper, Becky, Marky, Sawyer, Gallagher, Wayne Dizzyvibe, Elle, Mad Maz, Hardcore Paul, Dave the Rave, and also to everyone else whose names I don't' know but faces I recognise.