astraboy

I weren't meant to be going to this event. After 5 weeks of non stop double event weekenders and bonkers road trips, I was all set for a rave free weekend where I could recharge my batteries before the christmas raves finally arrived. Then the phone calls started. Predictably, the inquiries were lift related and after the third one I made the fatal mistake of looking at the lineup, thinking "Well it must be fairly good if that many people want a lift".

Anybody who knows me will know from then on it was a slippery slope which would eventually lead to my presence on the dancefloor. I have the backbone of a freshly filleted haddock when it comes to staying away from raves, particularly when they are this well put together and at a relatively close venue. I knew the score with the Brunel Rooms from a previous encounter. Its crisp and seriously loud systems coupled with a multiroom environment, turbocharged aircon and revolving bar meant I wouldnt go away disapointed in that department.

Then I looked at the lineup. Big mistake. From that moment on, the little devil in the dayglo vest on my left shoulder wouldn't shut up.
"Phwoar, look at that lineup, you really should go to this rave, it will be one hell of a party"
"Shut up, I'm not going, I need a rest"
"And? Call yourself Hardcore do you? Look at the lineup, just look at it!"
"NO!"
"You know its a blinding lineup and so do I. Oh look, Slam is playing in the Old Skool room, you've never seen him play out before have you?"
"No, you're right there."
"And theres Sharkey, Hixxy, Sy & Storm, Vibes & Livelee and Cakes in the main arena. You're always going on about lack of variety at raves, and here is one with Upfront, Happy, Freeform, Bouncy and underbooked talent in one night, in the same arena and more besides as well. You're not seriously planning on staying away for a "Tech house raver" sleep are you?"
"....."
"Didn't think so. Now get your raving clothes on, pick up your friends from Uxbridge and get your boney *** down there. And less of the backtalk in future"

So that was me going to the party then I didnt really mind too much, I was a bit tired, but that evaporated as soon as I pointed the car down the M4 and headed towards Swindon. The journey, despite being delayed because of a few friends turning up late, took just over an hour and after a short diversion round the town's one way system we found where the club was and parked in the nearby carpark. It was a little after 10pm when we arrived and with the event only just opening, the small queue quickly dissapeared into the club, taking us with it. No search presented itself and as soon as we were past the friendly people on the door, we were in.

Having been to the Brunel rooms before, I knew exactly where to go for what I came for. The venue is normally a commercial nightclub, but the Fruit club promoters are trusted by the management to kick the RnB and Hip Hop in the head for one night and bring in friendlier clientel in the form of lots and lots of Hardcore Ravers. When I got to the Main arena, the first Dj of the night was none other than everybodies favourite, Cakes, AKA DJ Flyin'. He'd landed on his feet on this occasion as he had been given a 2 hour "Warmup" set, which meant he controlled the party from 10pm till midnight. I know a lot of DJs who would give their right arm for a set like that at an event like this and Cakes was taking full advantage of the opportunity.

From the outset, Mr. Flyin' pushed the popular upfront sound, dropping only the biggest tunes of the moment like "3000 Cycles", "Died Oh R.I.P" and a nice remix of "Fly Away". These were tunes that were designed to get the ravers raving and along with the surprise early appearence of MC Charlie B, did the job nicely, with the early party crew in the place going for it from the moment I entered the place.

However his real worth was proved in his second hour, having got the party on its feet, the DJ decided to push the limits with a showcase of his new material. To ease the ravers into the fresh material he dropped one of my favourite tunes, the sublime "Walking on the moon", before showing the ravers what he was capable of in the studio with "Midas touch", "Energy Rush", "Live for the moment" and a tasty remix of "Come and Follow me" to finish off his time.

With the party well and truly up and running, the next set could only take things another step higher. Luckily Seduction and Rude were next up and were more than capable of coming up with the goods. Another one to not stick to the same structure throughout the set, Seduction made full use of the full spectrum of Hardcore by playing varied styles and interpretations. It was my appreciation and full on stomping to the tunes that is my only excuse for not IDing more tunes, But I always prefer to rave rather than ID and Sedders and Rude did more than enough to get me moving, including "Crazy Love" and the remix of "love you when you love me" in their set.

For the 1am set there was only one place for me to be and that was downstairs listening to Slam. Never seen him play out before and I weren't missing him this time. So you can imagine my dissapointment when I got in and not only disconvered he'd already started, but he was just about finished as well! Slipmatt and Slam had apparantly swapped sets and neglected to tell anyone. *****.
Still I did enjoy the final few minutes of his set, especially the bassline which sucked the air out of my lungs proving the second arena's system had lost none of its potency. Rather than go off for a sulk, I decided to stick around for Slipmatt's set cos I needed some Old Skool to break up the night. Not that I was expecting any surprises, but at least I'd be able to slow myself down before turning up the heat with more Hardcore later on.

How wrong could I be? Not only did Slipmatt, abley assisted by MC Spenno and an other apearence from MC Charlie B, drop all his usual favourites such as "Can you feel it", "Closer to all your dreams" and "Let me be your fantasy", he also made an unexpected trip into clubland with commercial mixes of Josh Wink's "Higher State of Consciousness" and best of all "I wanna show you what I'm capable of". I was dancing my **** off to that one, let me tell you. However, the set took a downturn with slower remixes of "Sweet Harmony" and "Out of Space". I would have been more than happy with the originals, but these were too slow for me, so I voted with my feet and left to find something upward of 150bpm.

Fortunately, in the main arena, Dougal and Whizzkid were finishing off their hour and were more than happy to take my BPM related worries away from me. They were right at the end of their hour, but with their last tunes, "You're my angel" and the awesome remix of "Discoland" they made me feel better in a flash. As well as that, the tunes felt breakneck in BPM, all that Old Skool must have done something then, its a pity they only had a few tunes to go as I could have done with more of that.

As Dougal and Whizzkid vacated the stage, the one and only Hixxy took their place, alongside MC Storm. The award winning duo were in their element with a hyped up mass of ravers in front of them and a mic and a bag of top notch vinyl to hand. Together they got to work doing what they (and this is official) do best.

I'm really enjoying Hixxy's sets at the moment. A few years ago, I would have treated it as an opportunity to rest, but these days you dont know what to expect and as such my **** is kept of the seat and my feet on the dancefloor. With good reason as well, cos this set was another which kept me entertained, not least for the tune selection, but for the way Storm took control of the party as well. The first tune was a mystery to me, but it was very dancable as me and the rest of the ravers got on it as Storm opened up his set with "Why oh why?" and together, he and Hixxy didnt let up for the next 60 minutes.

Dropping a quality mix, including "24-7", "Crazy Love", "Rock this party" and the utterly awesome "Angel" (my personal favourite), he finished the set with another tune which is growing on me, "State of emergency". Nice finish to a nicer hour which saw me rushing uncontrollably when "Angel" came on. God I love that tune.

I was thinking that was the highlight to my night, but then it just got better and better in the form of Vibes and Livelee taking centre stage to hype the ravers. Occasional is the best way to go with these sets. If we had em every week then they would get dull, but with Livelee's home where it is, it keeps them infrequent and all the more special. I know I make the effort to dance when they are playing.

From the way the other ravers went for it, I werent the only one either. This was nothing out of the ordinary for these two, another cheese set to be proud of though, with lots of tunes which got my hands up in the air and even more that had me singing along to the the tune's and livelee's lyrics. Even though the system took a bit of a nosedive at one point, the ravers were patient cos they knew the rewards were worth it. Soon after it was running again and the dancing resumed like it had never stopped. Very easy with the happy tune selection such as "Techno wonderland", "A Dream away", "Fly like an angel" and "Rainbow high in the sky", the place was a sea of happy ravers and I was in my element too.

However when it all stopped and the next DJ replaced him, the party crew were in for a shock. Not one for cheese, but definitely one for some roughneck Freeform stompers, Sharkey took residents and grabbed the rave by the scruff of the neck and tore the place apart. It was a little sadistic to drop hard as nails freeform at 4am, but the crowd just didnt care. No thinning out here, thank you very much indeed, more the exact opposite as the freeformers descended on the dancefloor and stomped their guts out as Sharkz and Spenno got to work.

Spenno deserves a particular mention here, I dont think I've seen him MC to a freeform set, but this was a definite job well done as he did what a lot of MCs overlook and kept it minimal for the music, yet still dropped some quality lyrics when needed. Sharkz was, of course, just as hardworking with his contribution to the hour and with tunes like "Addagio", "Hitman" and "Transmission to Mars" he ensured the dancefloor was given a solid pounding by all the hard steppers in the place.

Last set is usually something special, but really and truely there is only one way to PROPERLY finish off a Hardcore rave. Sharkey vacated the DJ stand and Sy took his place, alongside Storm on the mic. With only an hour left before kicking time, These two wasted no time and got on with delivering the Hardcore Coup de Grace in a combined knock out punch. Once again, a killer combination of the bounciest tunes of the moment, Top notch remixes of classic tunes and the scratch battles that have made these two notoriously crowdpleasing.

Tune selection was particularly good on this occasion, with "You're my angel" giving a slow start to the set, before the heat was turned up with "Into the sound", "Rock ya Hardcore", "Only your Love", "Making me wanna Dance"(which was accompanied by a wicked scratchathon btw), "Neckbreaker" all making a welcome appearence Finally the night was brought to a close in the best way possible, the remix of "Free your mind". Wicked.

Things I liked:

Music - Very nice variety in all three arenas all night long. The crowd was appreciative as the music was varied and seemed to like the changes of style as the night wore on. Speaking of which....

Ravers - It was a strange mix of people in the place tbh. There were the usual Hardcore family you see week in week out at every rave, but there were a lot of people who just looked like they were on a normal night out and came to the club not knowing what to expect. The best bit was even they were not typical Hardcore ravers, they conducted themselves like the best of them with no trouble that I saw.

Sound system - Very loud in the second arena and just as good in the main arena too. I know a lot of DJs and MCs were complaining about the setup, but from a ravers point of view I couldnt complain with the the mic being especially perfect. You could pick out the MCs lyrics when you wanted, but you could concentrate easily on the music when the mood took you.

Decor - Mushroom! Mushroom! and that was just on stage as well. Lots of thought had gone into the decor, it had to be said

Drinks prices - I only got water from the bar, but it was 2 quid a go. Cheaper than last time I was there.

Heat - Didnt overheat all night. weren't too hot and it werent too cold. Perfect in fact

Things I liked less -

Slam - Really wanted to see him so I made it down to the old skool room in plenty of time to see him, to discover he was just finishing up! I discovered he'd swapped with Slipmatt at the last minute. Totally gutted to miss him as you dont see him out much these days *sulk*

Security - Just the one geezer spoiled it for me. The rest of them were all okay with me not noticing them all night. Then this one meathead decided to personally enforce the "dresscode" with one of my mates and not back down when he was blatently in the wrong. At least he wont be doing it anymore though @P45

For a party I weren't going to attend until two days before it was on, I enjoyed this rave enormously. As soon as I looked at the lineup, I knew I was going to be well looked after in the musical department and boy was I proved right. IIRC just about every DJ played different definitions of Hardcore during their set. You don't get that sort of variation at every rave these days, but this rave seemed to encourage and reward diversity and was all the better for it. The smile I left the dancefloor with at the end of the night was all the proof I needed.

I also liked the way it was all put together with no song and dance as well. No hype was needed, the promoters just announced the event, announced the lineup and waited for the party people to turn up like they knew they would. And turn up they did. From the casual clubbers, to the bar propping drinkers. From the diehard Oldskoolers, to the Hardcore faithful.

Walking round the place at 1am and seeing every arena full of all kinds of people was another nice aspect to the party. It was one of the best aspects of the event, people from every walk of life came to the party to have a good time. The only place I can compare it to is a Hardcore version of London's Drum and Bass night, "Fabric".

On this basis, as well as the musical variety and the well thought out lineup, I went away from my first Fruitclub with yet another weekly dose of my Hardcore under my belt and much more besides. In all honesty, the name of the party seemed downplay its importance compared to the more sensationalist names on the circuit, however, after this party I can appreciate that a name was only a tiny aspect of this party, especially when there is so much to offer on so many levels once you get inside. If nothing else, its taught me to get to the next one when its announced.
astraboy.