Stealth
Primal Boxing Day Special
Turnmills
London
Tuesday 26th December 2006

After the success of Stealth carnival bank holiday special, the Stealth crew returned back to London at Turnmills to present Primal the Boxing Day special. As it was the festive season this was the perfect way to celebrate in the capital. The line up was colossal consisting of the very best in oldskool, jungle and of course drum and bass, this was a night definitely not worth missing.

Having left Birmingham we arrived in London shortly after midnight, finding the venue wasn’t a problem. After parking up close by, headed straight for the venue and people were still waiting outside in the queue to get in at this time.

A brief search from the security team and we were in the venue, the top floor was a café and for a moment we thought we entered the wrong venue. Security quickly navigated us down a flight of stairs and this were the rest of the arenas were located.

Down here was where the party was gong down and the place was already kicking, I was able to locate the oldskool arena quickly. We arrived just in time to catch one of my favourite DJ and MC combinations in the form of Micky Finn and Birmingham’s legendary MC Lenni.

Micky and Lenni were tearing the roof down in here, plenty of party vibes mixed with a very friendly atmosphere inside this arena with a more mature crowd too. The DJ box was located at the back of the arena with a small raised platform for Lenni to perform on with the rest of arena decked with fairy lights, Christmas trees and other festive ornaments.

The Sound system in here was booming though the decks were a little temperamental as they often skipped, but this didn’t seem to disrupt people’s enjoyment in here. Micky was playing a cross section of tunes with the likes of ‘Warhead’, ‘Lord of the null lines’, ‘The burial’ and ‘Music box’.

Lenni was hyping up the crowd which he does best complimenting the music. Though when Micky dropped the all mighty ‘Terrorist’ the dance floor erupted, Lenni was in his element at this point. Mickey finally finished the set with his dubplate of ‘I got 5 on it’.

I didn’t catch who was playing next as it looked like Topbuzz were running late but was enjoying his selection with the Production house classic and close favourite of mine ‘Superhero (my knight)’. When the DJ played ‘Champion sound’ Mad P jumped out of no where, and grabbed the mic chatting his infectious lyrics.

Well better late than never the jungle Tehcno kings arrived as Topbuzz were in the house. Jason and Patrick flipped the switch to play an early hardcore set, with plenty of tunes from the golden era of ‘92.

It was very busy in here whilst the Topbuzz duo were on, Jason dropped plenty of rave favourites such as ‘Anastasia’, ‘Way in my brain’, ‘Kiss the sky’, ‘Beyond Control’, ‘Far out’, ‘Take me higher’ along with the seal vocal mix of ‘Music takes you’. Patrick was immense with his mcing, with there being a more mature crowd here tonight there were quite a number who were reciting his lyrics with Mad P.

At this point I thought I’d have a wonder around this venue. This was my first visit to Turnmills and it was a bit like a maze, finding it a little hard to navigate myself around here at first as I did get a little lost. The venue was like a rabbits warren lots of pokey holes and chill out areas. I managed to find the drum and bass room and Goldie was on.

The DJ box was inside a little cupboard which was surrounded by festive holly and with more xmas decorations. Goldie’s set in true form was very dark and grimey and he didn’t disappoint at all. MC 2Shy was being very minimal allowing the music to do the talking. The drum and bass room was small and intimate but yet spacious with the crowd being able to have a look into the DJ box and watch closely as he was mixing.

Goldie was playing off both CD’s and vinyl so you had a feeling a lot of his set was very fresh and will be forthcoming on his Metalheadz and also his new label Rufige. His set featured ‘Re-dial’, ‘Murderation’ and Concord dawn’s ‘Fly away’. But it was his oldskool selection that I was impressed with and I was surprised. Goldie played some nasty bits like ‘Angel fell’, ‘Here comes the drumz’ and one of my all time favourites ‘Riders Ghost’

Goldie finished the set with a nasty tune the basline made the room rumble and definitely was stressing out the sound system. Goldie rewound this track 3 times for good measure!

Following on from Goldie was Wolverhampton’s very own DJ Skitty. Skitty was keeping it dark dropping some rollers from the likes of ‘Gridlok’ ‘Kryptic minds’ and of course his own material. Metalheadz and Birmingham’s very own MC Fozz was keeping the crowd bubbling and complimenting the dark beats that Skitty was rolling out.

The legendary godfather of Drum and Bass Grooverider was on in the oldskool arena and was playing a ‘95 and beyond set with MC Flux. Grooverider littered the set with plenty of crowd favourites and forgotten tunes. The tune selection was something else taking the crowd down memory lane playing the all mighty ‘Renegade snares’, Adam F’s sinister ‘Metropolis’ and Doc Scott’s ruthless ‘Shadow boxing’.

Goldie joined us in here raving in the middle of the dancefloor raving to the Rage resident taking him back to his early years whilst he was bouncing off the walls. Grooverider stepped up the tempo and the years as he started to drop John B’s ‘Up all night’, ‘Casino royale’, ‘Hardnoize’ and finally finishing off with ‘Terrorist’ remix.

MC 5-0 complete with fan and torch specs introduced the jungle veteran Nicky Blackmarket next. I didn’t hang around too long in here as Andy C was playing the final set of the evening in the drum and bass arena.

It looked like GQ wasn’t to turn up so MC Fozz was mcing for Andy C, the arena soon filled up and crowded Andy around the DJ box. The ravers were watching him mix enthusiastically.

I enjoyed Andy’s set as it was quite diverse opening his set with ‘Terrorist’ and then onto current dance floor slammers such as ‘Hand grenade’ remix, ‘Game over’ and ‘Rockstar’. It was the 2nd half of Andy C’s set that really stood out as he was dropping an oldskool selection.

Andy normally teases the odd oldskool track in a regular set but this was no regular set as the 2nd half was littered with timeless jungle classics. Andy was drawing out ‘Helicopter’, ‘Shadow boxing’, Dillinja’s ‘Fluid’ and ‘Threshold’. In true Andy C form he was teasing in tracks especially when he dropped ‘Metropolis’ with the track being rewound 3 times there was numerous teases that he was pulling off!

Andy continued to play into the early hours well beyond 6am I guess it’s not that often he regularly plays oldskool and was just enjoying it as much as the crowd were.

Overall it was an excellent night and a great way to dance off your xmas dinner! The atmosphere here tonight was spot on lots of festive vibes especially in the oldskool arena, good to see a number of mature ravers enjoying the tunes just as much as everyone else.

The line-up was definitely value for money as you don’t really get to see all these artists playing under one roof, and it truly lived up to the hype. The DJ’s played great sets and those that stood out for me were Goldie, Grooverider, Topbuzz and of course Andy C especially with Andy playing so many oldskool tunes, wish he’d do this more often !!

Massive shouts to Lee and the Stealth / Primal crew, Vicki, Lenni and Jo, Skitty, Lee and Duncan, Ben, Mad P, Nicky BM, Jason Kaye, Micky Finn, Andy C, Fabio, Conrad, Grooverider, Dillinja, Flux, Shay and Jessica iOkee, Goldie, Heist, Fozz, Benny, G-Magical, Jordan V and also to everyone else whose names I don't' know but faces I recognise.