Desire
The Xmas Special
The Scala
London
Saturday 17th December 2005

After the success of the previous ‘Old Skool Jungle b2b Special’ back in September, Desire presented the final event of 2005 ‘The Xmas Special’ back once at the Scala in London. Having experienced such a great time at the previous Desire event I definitely wanted to check out the next instalment from Desire.

Unlike the previous event from Desire, this featured an upfront line-up featuring the top names in the Drum and Bass scene and with advance tickets going for £10 this was definitely value for money.

Headed down to London and arrived in Victoria, jumped on the tube and arrived at Kings Cross station. The Scala nightclub is located very close to Kings Cross station, so finding the venue wasn’t a problem.

Arrived at the club around 11.30 and was greeted by a short queue, it didn’t take too long to get into the club, as I you don’t want to be hanging around outside, especially on this cold winters night. Having emptied my pockets and a brief search from the door staff, I headed directly to the main arena.

The party was in full swing as the main arena was quite busy, DJ’s Phantasy and Probe were on playing back to back. The production was spot on in the main arena as the place was decked out with a festive theme. The engineer’s box at the back was decorated in fairy lights and there were illuminated Xmas trees hanging from the ceiling of the main arena.

On stage was located the DJ platform along with the MC’s though there seemed to be about 4 MCs passing the mic around who I’ve not heard of before. I caught the tail end of Phantasy and Probe’s set, they seemed to be doing a good job as they dropped ‘Echo box’ and ‘Warhead’, ‘Dreadlock’ remixes, which went down well.

Next up was Andy C alongside MC IC3, the place was full to capacity at this point with hardly any space to move around down on the dance floor. Andy was amazing on the decks teasing tune’s left right and centre. Dropping ‘Slew dem’, ’Everyday’, ‘Voodoo people’, ‘Recharge’, ‘Still in love’ and ‘Feelings’. Whilst teasing in ‘The Nine’, ’Nosher’, ’Dreadbass’ before finishing the set with his oldskool classic ‘Nightflight’. It seems Andy tries to tease in more tune’s than he actually plays, his mixing and timing is awesome. IC3 was hyping up the crowd as he didn’t bother MCing on the stage as it was too busy and MCed on the dance floor with the ravers.

After Andy C it was turn of DJ TC from Valve recordings. I’ve never heard him play out before but I’ve heard about his production work as he’s responsible for the new remix of ‘Warhead’ and few other bits and pieces. TC had MC Lowqui for his set who was doing a decent job on the mic, taking over where IC3 left off. I enjoyed TC’s set lots of good tunes being played. TC dropped his ‘Warhead’ remix along with ‘Slew dem’, ‘Girls’, ‘Look to the future’ along with his remix of Amerie’s ‘One Thing’.

Right then next was one of the set’s I was looking forward to as Bad Company where here to play a 1998-2001. DJ Maldini was here to represent Bad Company with MC GQ. GQ was amazing on the mic showing that he can rip up the dance floor, his presence on stage was immense. He demonstrated that you don’t need to chat 1,000mph to get the crowd raving.

GQ was later joined by Riko, making his return after proving very successful at the previous Desire event. For a majority of this set Maldini did play oldskool as he dropped ‘Spaced invader’, ‘Planet dust’ , ‘The nine’, ‘China cup’. Though for the latter part of the set he ended up playing more upfront stuff as he dropped ‘Voodoo people’, ‘X-Factor’ and ‘The Vault’.

During this set saw the arrival of the newly married MC Fearless, straight from his wedding reception still in his suit along with his wife in her white wedding dress!

After Bad Company the Tru playa DJ Hype took stage on the decks along with MC’s Eksman, Herbsman and Riko. This also saw the arrival of the Narni Shakers dressed in xmas outfits strutting their thang live on stage. Hype played ‘Everyday’ and ‘Warhead’ remix though I didn’t hang around too long for this set and decide to venture to the jungle arena.

The jungle arena was located by the back bar as you enter the venue, Kenny Ken was on tearing it down back here with Five-0 on mic duty. I really enjoyed watching Kenny mix, he was keeping his mixes rolling. Kenny dropped his ‘Arsonist VIP’ with ‘Ready or not’, ‘Dual voltage’ classic tune, ‘Trouble’, before finishing the set with ‘Chopper’.

Back to the main arena and Blackmarket’s DJ Ash Attack was finishing up as he was covering for Brockie, Fearless was on stage MCing in his wedding suit hyping up the crowd with them reciting his lyrics back to him.

Kool FM’s Ruffstuff was on after Ash Attack I really enjoyed Ruffstuff’s set definitely one my favourite sets of the night from the Kool FM veteran. It was a shame as I noticed the crowd numbers starting to dwindle down, then again this was the final set of the evening. Ruffstuff played ‘Everyday’, ’Warhead’ remix, ’Feelings’, ‘Thunder’, ‘Dubplate killah’, ‘Slew dem’ and ‘Turbulence’.

This was an awesome night from the Desire team really enjoyed myself again in the capital, to be honest the atmosphere is better here than what I’ve experienced at raves back in Birmingham. The crowd was up for it all night didn’t notice any trouble nor any bad vibes throughout the night. It was busier compared to the previous event though did filter out near the end of the night.

I enjoyed the sets from all the DJ’s, I was slightly disappointed that Bad Company didn’t stick to playing a pure 98-01, but the first half of Maldini’s set was marvellous. It took me down memory lane, as these were the drum and bass tunes I was originally raving to back at the Que club in Birmingham.

Massive shouts to John and the Desire team, Zoë and Collette, Fearless Congratulations, GQ, Eksman, IC3, Andy C, Zinc, Kenny Ken, Shortston, Five-0, Jessi, Stamina, Brian BK and the DNBA forum crew.