Legends of the Dark Black Presents:
‘MC Bassman’s Birthday Bash’
Air Nightclub
Birmingham
Saturday 15th July 2006.

Tonight Legends of the Dark Black presented a unique party centred around MC Bassman as tonight we will be celebrating Bassman’s Birthday in his home town of Birmingham at Air nightclub.

Bassman one of the original Drum and Bass MC’s from back in the day with a mcing career going back to nearly 20 years. Originally mcing at the early raves such as Amnesia, Fantazia, Dance planet, Pandemonium to name just a few. Bassman took the jungle / drum and bass route being booked up and down the UK mcing for many of the large scale events. Bassman has inspired many of today’s mc’s with his own unique style, that many try to emulate today, there is only one Bassman. This was a party to celebrate his colourful mcing career of the past 20 years.

The line-up was compiled by Bassman himself featuring many of his friends from the Drum and Bass world featuring some classic back to back special sets. With this being Bassman’s party the main emphasis of tonight was purely about party vibes, people were advised to keep their attitude at home and celebrate with Bassman to make tonight a party to truly remember.

I arrived at Air just before 10 and their was a strong presence from security with a mobile CCTV unit from the West Midlands Police ensuring that no-one is to spoil tonight’s party fun. The event was ticket only and no entry allowed after midnight so if you don’t have a ticket you’re not coming in!

The security team were firm and fair as I was searched upon entry they were using a marquee tent outside for the cloakroom and was enforcing the dress code of no hoods and caps.

Headed straight upstairs and in time for Glen Aston’s oldskool set, Glen set was mc free. Glen started the set with the R&S classic ‘Dominator’ and moved onto ‘Stratosphere’, Carl Cox’s ‘I want you (forever), ‘LFO’, ‘Take me away’ playing a very bleepy ’91-92 selection. I was glad their was no mc during his set which allowed the music to do all the talking. Even though Glen was playing the warm up set in the 2nd arena it was getting busy in here with fair number of people grooving. Glen carried on with ‘Waremouse’, ‘Uptempo’ and ‘Mentasm’ excellent stuff from Glen as once he finished he hurried to the capital for his booking at Raindance.

Pilgrim was on after Glen, Pilgrim stepped up the years and moved onto a ‘94 jungle set with tunes like ‘Scottie’, ‘Crackman (the return)’, ‘Champion sound’ and ‘Snowman tune’ great stuff from the Flashback resident. Pilgrim was joined midway by another Flashback resident and Birmingham’s very own MC Lenni. Was great hearing Lenni back on the mic as it’s been a long time since I’ve heard him mcin think the last was Raveology end of last year. Lenni was doing a grand job on the mic hyping up the crowd as he does best! Pilgrim continued to play ‘It’s the way’, ‘Warp 9’, ‘Rollidge’ stepping up the pace with ‘Warhead’ and finally finishing with ‘Chopper’

It was fast approaching midnight and Bassman was due to make his massive entrance, headed down to the main arena and DJ Hazard along with MC Acapello were finishing up and ready for Darren Jay and Mickey Finn to step.

The Shadow Demon coalition of Spyda and Juiceman were on keeping the crowd bubbling whilst they were waiting in anticipation for the arrival of the Birthday boy. Mickey Finn and Darren Jay were playing an awesome jump up set plenty of classics being played such as ‘Li Li’, ‘Special dedication’ and ‘Worries in the dance’.

The main stage was decorated with plenty of party balloons with messages wishing Bassman a happy birthday. Bassman finally made his grand appearance dressed in a full emperor’s suit too and was greeted by the crowd singing happy birthday to him. There was an explosion of balloons as they littered the crowd. Bassman made a little speech thanking everyone and shook hands with the crowd before getting on the mic and got down to business.

The arrival of Bassman and Trigga made the Shadow Demon Coalition complete and the party was definitely in full swing. Bassman and Trigga were awesome on the stage rocking the crowd into a frenzy with their chat.
Mickey and Darren continued to play a 97 selection ‘Warhead’, ‘2 Degrees’, ‘Watchin’ windows’, ‘Better than dem’, ‘Pulp fiction’ before finally finishing with Mickey’s dub plate of ‘I got 5 onit’.

Fabio was on after Mickey and Darren and started the set with ‘It’s a jazz thing’ but I decide to head upstairs to catch the remainder of DJ Escape’s oldskool jungle set. Escape was accompanied by his old Kool FM buddy, MC Accepello as they paired up for this oldskool showdown. Really enjoyed Escape’s selection he didn’t include many of the anthems that most DJ’s would draw for. Escape dropped tunes like ‘RIP’, ’Fashion’ and Krome and Time’s ‘Ruffneck Scout’.

MC Lenni was up here but rather than mcing he was enjoying the tunes watching his apprentice excel. When Escape played the classic from Dope dragon ‘Concentration’ the crowd went wild calling for the rewind, Escape finally finished the set with ‘Ruffest gun ark’.

The smell of the barbeque was tickling my nose all night so I had to give into temptation and decided to see what was on offer. There was a full on Caribbean barbeque with traditional foods like jerk chicken, rice and peas, patties etc. After tucking into some chicken and cooling off headed back into the main arena and 3D-Mode’s DJ Devise was finishing up.

Next up was one of the sets I was looking forward to featuring Nicky Blackmakret going back to back with Ray Keith. It looked like Ray Keith was running late so Nicky played on his own. Bassman arrived for this set dressed in a full ninja outfit. Bassman had been mcing for most of tonight with the shadow demo coalition his voice begging to break but that didn’t stop Bassman as he soldiered on. Nicky was playing a big party set playing tunes like ‘Bounce’, ‘The beginning’, ‘Trippin’, ‘Where’s my money?’ and a favourite tune of mine at the moment ‘Who you’.

Ray Keith took over as Nicky dropped ‘Dark soldier’, the shadow demon mc’s where hyping up the crowd, Ray Keith played ‘The one’, ‘Ghetto story’, ’Number one’ and the ‘Jamrock’ remix.

Headed upstairs to what was going to be Dr S Gachet and DJ Phantasy only to find that the DJ box was empty people were in here using it as a chill out room. I later found out that there was a problem with the system up here. Annoying as I was looking forward to Dr S Gachet.

Back downstairs and 1Xtra’s and Wolverhampton’s very own DJ Dangerous D was rocking the crowd on the decks. Dangerous D’s was playing a mixture of new and oldskool tunes such as ‘Wolf’, ‘Trouble’, ‘Twist em out’, ‘Li Li’ and ‘Creeper’.

Next up was the turn of V Recordings and oldskool legend Jumping Jack Frost, it looked like Bryan gee was running late so Jack Frost started the set. Frost played ‘It’s a jazz thing’ remix, ‘Duppy man’, ’Li Li’ remix. Bryan Gee finally turned up to play the remaining 30 minutes of tonight party with MC Kid the mic. Bryan started off on a mellow vibe before bashing out some floor fillers like ‘Get closer’, ’Where’s my money’ and finally closing the proceedings with ‘Bounce’.

Tonight was a complete sell out and there was hardly any room to move on the dance floor . The heat didn’t help being in the middle of the summer but with the Caribbean barbeque being on outside, it added that extra touch to tonight and was nice to chill out here and to cool off from the party inside. Air Superclub being state of the air the production was spot on with the lighting, lasers and the JBL sound system, just a shame that the system in room 2 went down half way through the night, as both Phantasy and Gachet had arrived.

There were some outstanding sets from the DJ’s particular Darren Jay and Mickey Finn as I was quite gutted about the lack of oldskool they played on the AWOL night at Innovation a few weeks back but tonight definitely made up for that. Glenn Aston’s set was superb as finally he didn’t have an MC ruining his set as his tune selection was top notch.

Tonight was an amazing night and one to definitely remember, the atmosphere was electric. When this night was first announced back in Easter many people thought that this night would get cancelled or it would be full of attitude, well it was the complete opposite. I personally felt it was one of the best drum and bass nights that Birmingham has seen in a long time. The tune selection from the DJ’s was heavy, atmosphere was 2nd to none and the barbeque was tasty. All the perfect ingredients to a memorable night!

Once again the ravers were on form and made tonight very tremendous bringing pure party vibes as expecting and not forgetting the noise! With the drum and bass fraternity congregating under one roof showing love and respect for Bassman on this special night.

Massive shout to Magika and the Raveology crew, Lenni, Bassman ( Happy Birthday) Escape, Pilgrim, Glen Aston, Eksman, Mickey Finn, Darren Jay, Nicky Blackmarket, Spyda, Mistress Mo, Juiceman, Carasel, Jubilee, Sly, Devise, Hazzard, Jack Frost, Bryan Gee, Esther, Boogieman, Accapello, Hidro, Mark Lambert, Mellow from District and CKB.

Big respects to Zoë, Collette, Helen, Sanjay, Amy, Vicky, Maggie, Rich, Michael Syz, Mairead (Happy Birthday), Elaine, Sam, Mainframe, Lady Legend, Robe$, Astro, and to everyone else whose names I don't' know but faces I recognise.