Breakthru & Broken Minds
presents Valve Sound System and Shogun Assassins Tour
Custard Factory
Birmingham
Friday 19th October 2007

After their successful August Bank holiday event Breakthru and Broken Minds teamed up once again to bring the Valve Sound system in the Custard factory pool. There was a massive line-up spread across the 3 arenas with both Shogun Assassins and Hospital records in attendance.

Got into Digbeth shortly after 11 o’clock, headed towards the venue and was greeted by the thundering sound of drum and bass outside. There was a large queue that spanned from the Custard factory up towards digbeth high street. The queue was moving quickly and didn’t have to wait too long, security greeted us at the door and after a thorough search we were in.

Once again the pool had been emptied with a large marquee erected over the pool to protect the ravers from the elements. The pool was rammed and filled to capacity with ravers, dotted along the perimeter of the pool were numerous speaker stacks and bassbins

At the front was the main stage, with two massive speaker stacks either side and large multicoloured LED screens. There were further bassbins, speaker stacks and tweeters that lined the bottom of the stage

DJ Phase 2 of Broken Minds were finishing off an oldskool drum and bass selection taking the crowd on a history lesson with tracks like ‘Watching windows’, ‘Hearing believing’ and ‘Roll on’. I was gutted as I only managed to catch the tail end of his jungle selection.

Phase 2 ensured the party was in full swing as the Shogun Audio duo of DJ Friction and SP MC graced the decks on this towering rig. Friction and SP MC tore the roof down, Frictions mixing was awesome the energy he posses behind the decks is amazing. His tune selection was spot on spinning tracks such as ‘Raise the roof’, ‘Robocop’, ‘Ladies Night Vip’, ‘Shadow Boxing’ and ‘Be True’.

SP MC hyped up the crowd with his lyrics whilst allowing the music to flow whilst getting the crowd to interact with him. Midway through the set he played a few dubstep tracks like ‘Cockney thug’ and ‘Disco dodo’ which went down well with the crowd. True to Frictions form he was performing numerous teases throughout the set sneaking in tunes like ‘You got me burning, ‘Friday’, ‘Deadline’ and Slipmatts classic ‘Breaking free’ a tune I thought I’d never hear at Valve!

High Contrast was on in the Medicine bar which was being hosted by Hospital records. The Medicine bar was rammed jammed whilst the hospital head honcho was on. Tonight was part of his album tour his set heavily featured many of the tracks from his forthcoming album ‘Tough guys don’t dance’ as he played ‘If we ever’ and ‘Everything’s different’.

High Contrast also played ‘Disco dodo’ and ‘Feelings’. The crowd loved the Hospital vibe in here with the arena being packed out throughout the set.

Back outside and it looked like Bryan Gee was running as Dillinja was on. It’s been sometime since I last saw Dillinja and was impressed to what I heard from him especially on the valve system. Dillinja was playing a lot of bass heavy tracks as he put his system through its paces. Dropping plenty of his own pieces along with others as he played ‘Holla’, ‘Keep moving on’, ‘Who’ remix, ‘Where my money?’ and ‘Beast City’.

Breakthru very own duo of Dan B and Reaction took over with MC Ruthless doing the Mic duties. Ruthless was keeping the crowd rolling with his style that complimented the music. Dan B and Reaction played a number of rollers such as ‘Re-Dial’, ‘Is this real’, and ’Deadline’.

Following up was Bryan Gee, enjoyed Bryan set it was a bit of a contrast to what I heard him he play last weekend. Unfortunately midway through the set the music was stopped as security had to deal with a small matter on the door. Within 10 minutes the music was rolling, Bryan picked up the pace as he dropped ‘Disco Dodo’, ‘Strictly Social’, ‘Be true’ and ‘Music box’

Stepping up after Bryan Gee was DJ Break, Break opened his set with a remix of Shy Fx’s classic ‘Bambatta’ which went down a storm. Manikular was on the mic and hosted the set complimenting the music letting the beats roll throughout. Break played a deep and dark set the crowd went crazy when he dropped ‘The drone’ a definite contender for tune of the year, Break also played ‘Special treat’, ‘Let it happen’ and ‘Talk to frank’ remix too.

Final set of the night came from the Metalheadz legend DJ Randall. Randall ensured the party was continued into the early hours playing plenty of rollers along with bass induced tracks to put the valve sound system through its paces. Randall was dropping rollers such as ‘Dreamworld’, ‘Metropolis’ and ‘Hurt You’. Accapello kept the crowd rocking into the early hours hyping up the party whilst Randall bowed out with a remix of the Doc Scott classic ‘Drumz 9507’.

Great night from the Break Thru and Broken Mindz team once again. It was good to see how quickly the security where able to deal with a small incident on the door, ensuring the peoples inside the venues safety was paramount.

Tonight was a very successful, night with not only the pool being busy all night but the other two arenas were rammed jammed throughout the evening. The atmosphere was spot on nice mix of people in the venue tonight brining a party vibe throughout.

The sound system once again was immense this is really the best venue I’ve heard Valve being played on as with the speakers being strategically placed around the pool you do get to the feel the full effect of this gut wrenching sound system.

Massive shouts to Ric, Dan B, Joe and the Breakthru – Broken minds crew, Friction, SP, Randall, Break, Dillinja, Manikular, Accapello, Algar, Lemon D, Bryan Gee, Ruthless, High Contrast, Stamina, Pace, Jayeye, Skitty, Nolige and Andy (Happy Birthday) and Biggie.

Big Respects to Vicky, Escape, Nursa, Pete Frequency and Charlie, Georgina, Opiate, Flexa, Rah, Tek Prime, Vicky, Rich and Maggie, Andy Witts and Zink, Alice, Kiri, John Jinx, Andy Trackin, Shaak, Jonnie C, Benny, Jay and Jenny, Boogie Dave, Nick X, Munkeh, Sam Caution, TnT, Aries, Phibes, Chris, Bone, Lisa and Darryl, Chris Instinct, Leechy, Brian BK, Jo Jo, Samas, Hitman Bensun, Alicia, Pez, Lee Codes, Will Cow, Josh and Aaron, Steve Phate and everyone else whose names I don't' know but faces I recognize.