Masters of the Past
Q Club
Birmingham
Saturday 13th September 2008

MC Lenni and Masters of the Past return back to the Q Club for another oldskool extravaganza. This 3rd instalment promises to bigger and better after a few teething problems from the previous event.

The line-up has gone for a more jungle direction in comparison to the previous event with the likes of Micky Finn, Fearless, Fabio headlining the bill.

After a few pre party drinks I headed down the Q club and was greeted by a swiftly moving queue. After a brief search from the security team headed straight to the main arena and just in time for hardcore legend DJ Seduction.

It’s been sometime since I last seen Seduction play an oldskool set even with him running Uproar he’s never quite made it into the oldskool arena over the years. So I was intrigued to see what the hardcore legend will conjure up tonight.

Well I wasn’t disappointed to say the least and definitely well worth the wait! Seduction opted for a more 93 selection dropping the likes of ‘Dirty Games’ along with a few of his own tracks such as ‘Sub dub’, ‘Come on’ and the infamous ‘Hardcore heaven’. Ranski was doing the mic duties and was keeping the crowd lively as the main arena started to fill up.

Following on from Seduction was the turn of Micky Finn. There was a surprise addition to tonight’s line-up as MC Bassman was to join his long time partner Lenni on stage during this set.

Micky Finn is a firm favourite in Birmingham with his infamous jungle sets that always go down a treat and tonight was no exception from the rule with him dropping plenty of slammers including ‘No Diggity’, ‘Ready or Not’, ‘Warhead’ and ‘Trust me’.

Bassman was well received by the crowd with the ravers giving him a one figure salute in appreciation with him and Lenni tearing down the stage like the old Quest days. When Micky dropped ‘Bass 2 dark’ the dance floor exploded with crowd calling for the rewind.

Mickey carried onto with a ragga jungle selection with tracks such as ‘Limb by limb’, ‘Champion DJ’ and ‘Special Dedication’.

Up next was the turn of Lipmaster Mark and Everson Allen better known as the Ratpack. The Ratpack are no strangers to the stage of the legendary Q club having performed here over the past 15 years on numerous occasions.

Ratpack in true style had the crowd dancing with Lipmaster starting the set with a remix of ‘Searching for my rizla’. Mark continued to play ‘Closer to all your dreams’, ‘Can you feel it’ and ’40 miles’

The crowd were reciting alongside Everson Allen who was dropping his infamous sing-along lyrics complimenting the tunes with his own style throughout. Lipmaster continued to play ‘Out of space’, ‘Born slippy’ and ‘Don’t go.’

The turntable psycho DJ SS was on after the Ratpack and SS flipped the switch with a jungle selection. SS rolled out with some heavy slammers including ‘Black’ ‘Dark Soldier’, ‘Pulp Fiction’ and ‘Chopper’

Accompanying the Formation head honcho was Warren G who was controlling the crowd with deep reverberating voice that echoed through the main arena of the Q club. SS continued with his drum and bass selection and threw in some more recent tracks including ’26 bass’ along with ‘Friday’ and ‘Warning’.

Penultimate set of the night came from the drum and legend that is Fabio, joining Fabio was AWOL resident MC Fearless. Fabio was playing a rather deep oldskool jungle set as expected with Fearless hyping up the lethargic crowd into the early hours of Sunday morning.

Tonight was a massive improvement in comparison to the previous event in the middle of the summer with regards to the sound system and the production. What I did notice that there was quite a more mature crowd out tonight quite a lot of older ravers in comparison to the previous event.

Unfortunately there were still not enough people here tonight to open up the balconies of the Q club tonight.

By all means this did not reflect on the quality of the performances of the artists performing tonight. Being true professionals that they are they all put on a good show.

The night does have potential as it’s one of the newest brands to hit Birmingham and is starting to grow a reputation hence the increase in numbers, but it still has a lot of nurturing to do.

Massive shouts to Lenni and Jo,Tek Prime, Escape, Billy and the Masters of the Past team, Vicki (Happy Birthday), Nike, Jade, Fearless, Micky Finn, Bassman, Seduction, Lipmaster Mark & Everson Allen, Fabio, Tango & Ratty, SS, Man Parris, Robbie Dee, Gemma, G-Child, Opiate (happy Birthday), Georgie, Nursa, Dizasta, Rachel, Ace, Rapid, TnT, Astro, Lee UHF, Sarah & Colette, Capital P, Maggie, Aries, Accapello, Tabz, Andy Witts, Kaz, Faye, Glitch and everyone else whose names I don't' know but faces I recognize.