Hardcore Heaven
The Carling Bristol Academy
Bank Holiday Weekend
Saturday 27th August 2006

Hardcore Heaven returns back to the Bristol Academy after 12months. During that time then Hardcore Heaven has gone and toured the other Carling Academy venues dotted across the UK including Liverpool and Birmingham.

The line-up tonight featured over 40 artists spread across 3 arenas showcasing Hardcore its various forms, including an arena with the best talent in the west of England.

Headed down the Bristol on the M4, arrived in Bristol just after 11 and was able to locate the Bristol Academy easily, there is a secure NCP car park next to the venue so we parked up in here.

Walked down to the venue and was greeted by a very large queue even thought the party had been kicking off for the past 2 hours I didn’t expect it to be this big. Earlier today I found out that the event had sold all of its ticket allocations so you know it was going to be jam packed tonight!

The queue was split into 2 one for ticket holders and another for and credit card collections and guest list. Queuing didn’t take too long as it was moving swiftly. Darren from the Slammin Vinyl team greeted us on the door, who was working hard with the security team.

Once through the doors of the venue you could feel the heat of the few thousand ravers inside here straight away, so you know tonight was going to be hot and sticky!

Headed straight for the main arena and was in time for the Quosh showcase featuring DJ’s Sy and Unknown with MC Storm on mic duty. Sy and Unknown were in full swing as they were rocking the party I was surprised they were booked to play early but I guess with various other bookings its one of those things.

For those who haven’t been to the Academy in Bristol before, the Academy is mainly used to host concerts as well as all nighter parties. With this being a concert venue there is a massive stage located at the front of the arena with massive speaker stacker stacks either side on the enormous stage.

The Hardcore heaven production team had changed the venue as there were massive spikey Hardcore Heaven inflatable located above the stage with spectacular laser lighting up the roof. Sy and Unknown dropped plenty of Quosh releases throughout their set which kept the crowd bubbling. Dropping tunes like ‘Angel’, ‘I see the light’ and ‘Lullaby’ remix.

Unknown and Sy were having a scratch battle against each other as they had brought with them some extra slipmats to make sure they were ready and tooled up to do battle with Storm! Storm was hyping up the crowd as the temperature began to reach boiling point in here as it was starting to get really humid.
Sy and Unknown finished up the set with ‘U r my phantasy’ a definite contender for winning best track at this years Hardcore Heaven awards.

After the Quosh showcase it was the turn of Scotland’s number one and Evolution records very own Scott Brown with MC Wotsee on the mic. Scott Brown started off his set playing upfront UK Hardcore with tunes like ‘This is how we do it’, ‘So about you’ and ‘Elysium (I go crazy)’ remixes.

Wotsee was commanding the large stage here with ravers joining with his lyrics, working up the crowd from left to right. In true Scott Brown fashion he played gabba at the end of his set which saw the crowd going crazy to ‘Shotgun’, ‘Murder capital’ and ‘Lets get dirty’. Nasty stuff!

Following on from Scott Brown was the turn of one of the hottest new talents in the hardcore scene, Lethal Theory’s very own Joey Riot. His talents within the studio aswell as behind the turntables has been noticed and Joey is to be featured on the forthcoming Hardcore Heaven compilation album.

Joey was featuring plenty of material from the Mental Theory label starting of his set with ‘Makem bounce’ and carried onto play ‘Every posse’, ‘Infexious’ a remix of the oldskool classic from Xpansions ‘Move ya body’ also a tune featuring the ‘Rocky’ theme, excellent stuff During this set Joey was going mental and got from behind the decks and started to dance on the stage before quickly retuning to mix in his next tune !

I decided to have a wander around the venue midway through Joey’s set. The Bristol Carling Academy’s doubled layered balcony is great to allowing viewing of the madness going on down on the dance floor. It was an awesome sight watching all the ravers going mad from this height a great view !

Up here along the 2nd balcony there was a set of plasma TV’s playing DVD’s from past events. Along the 1st balcony the Hardcore Heaven merchandise stall was setup featuring plenty of merchandise and tape packs at knocked down prices.

The 2nd arena was located upstairs was showcasing the harder style of hardcore as DJ’s such as Scorpio and Producer were playing gabba. Downstairs featured the 3rd arena with best of the up and coming talent located in the west. It was quite busy in here too with plenty of ravers supporting DJ’s from the local area.

Back to the main arena and Joey Riot was finishing up with Odyssey and Ribbz on the mic, Joey finished his set with ‘Hardcore to the bone’. Stepping up was Essential Platinum and hardcore legend DJ Dougal with Whizzkid MC.

Dougal’s set was one of my favourite sets of the night he played some forthcoming new material from Essential platinum he was also mixing up the set with various other tunes. Playing tracks like ‘I need you’, ‘All the tears I cried’, ‘My direction’, ‘Open ur eyes’ and ‘Don’t want this night to end’ featuring Whizzkid MC on the vocals !

Whizzkid MC was awesome during this set getting the crowd hyped up with his lyrics and beatboxing, working the massive stage from left to right. At the moment I really like the teaming of both Dougal and Whizzkid, they definitely know how to work the crowd! Whilst Dougal was playing the lasers were going off lighting up the crowd a marvellous sight!

Following on from Dougal was the turn of Darren Styles and MC Storm. Storm and Styles tore the roof down at the Academy with this amazing set. Darren Styles was playing a blinder of a set. Darren opened his set with ‘Space odyssey 2001’ remix, continuing to play ‘Perfect dreams (sweetheart) remix’ and ‘Only if I had one more’.

Storm was tremendous throughout this set getting the ravers involved with his lyrics he was also busted out some new lyrics too testing them out on the crowd which went down well. Darren continued to play ‘Save me’, ‘Back to the oldskool’ and ‘Dark like vader’ remixes

Final set of the night came from the boss man himself Raver Baby’s head honcho DJ Hixxy. With Darren styles playing just before I was expecting a very similar set but Hixxy played a very more upfront set with plenty of variation in tunes. Hixxy dropped ‘C u on the otherside’, ‘R u ready?’ and ‘I can’t wait’

Whizzkid MC was mcing for the first half of this set and was joined by MC Storm who took over for the final 30 minutes. Storm and Whizzkid had been keeping the ravers rocking right till the final seconds of tonight and worked hard especially under this heat!

Hixxy continued to play ‘Angel’ a remix of ‘Blue sky day’ and ‘Just accept it’. Well it was that time as it approached 4am and with one final tune left to play the end the ravers home Hixxy decides to drop a remix of the oldskool classic from Orca ‘4am’ a fitting way to finish the night.

Was good to return back to the Bristol Carling Academy for Hardcore Heaven, I was here only two weeks ago for a drum and bass night and it didn’t feel the same as it was lacking in the production part. Tonight I was very impressed with the production compared to that of the drum and bass night with the lasers inflatable just made the highlight of my night.

With the event being in august it does get quite humid in here tho there are various air conditioning point located around the balconies it’s just a matter of fidning them to cool yourself down for 5 minutes.

The DJ’s tonight played some cracking sets in the mian arena really enjoyed mainly Dougal, Hixxy, and Styles. I did think it was a bit odd having Sy and Unknown early but I guess with various other events happening over the bank holiday it was going to be hard to please everyone.

Overall it was great to return back to the Academy for Hardcore Heaven!

Respect to Grant, Darren and the Hardcore Heaven team, Storm, Whizzkid, Styles, Hixxy, Scott Brown, Sy and Unknown, Odyssey, Rude, Wotsee, Dougal, Joey Riot, Tony Res, D-Ice and Ribbz.

Massive shouts to Shaun, Lisa, Arwen, Andy Legs, Mat KoR, Paul Compulsion, Julie Delicious, Sara, John Buzz-B, Gareth, Izzy, Kev Pikey and Laura, Jacqui and Leanne, Gemma, Cat and Chelsea, Annabelle, Sketchy, Hiney, Katie, Foggy, Turkish, Jane and Chris Outburst, Charlie and James, Jutt, Spuddy, Mental Raver, Overlode and Ecksta-C, Jimmy Whiz, Emma and everyone else whose names I don't' know but faces I recognise.

 
Written by Nitesh JungleTechno / Xtra-C Flashbackin' & Rewindin'
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