Raveology
Return of the Q
Q Club
Birmingham
Saturday 1st December 2007

Finally after months of planning and preparation Raveology presented ‘Return of the Q’ this event was the first of many to mark the reopening of one of the UK’s legendary and original rave venues. This was also the 2nd leg of Raveology’s Birmingham tour, visiting various venues around the city.

The Q club is littered with history within the rave scene being the former home to Flashback and Atomic Jam, memorable nights to a past generation of ravers. To mark this special occasion there where a number of guests who where making a special appearance.

Headed down to the Q club and was greeted by a queue that tailed all the way down Cooperation Street as plenty of ravers who were waiting eagerly outside on a cold winters night. There was a turnstile system put in place on the door, this is the first time I’ve ever seen this at a rave resulting in queuing taking longer than usual, after a thorough search from the security headed straight for the main arena.

Entered the main arena and was greeted by Metropolis duo of DJ Steppa and MC Skeez who were getting things warmed up in here. Steppa was playing a number of his own dub plates including remixes of both ‘Champion dj’ and ‘Original nuttah’ alongside ‘Scan Darker’ and ‘Hurt You’.

The main arena was starting to fill up at this point, the stage had been decorated with murals and inflatables. There was 4 giant projector screens set up, plenty of star wars visuals were being played along with the set times across the 3 arenas which came in handy throughout the night.

Stepping up next was Bristols very own DJ Clipz, the Audio Zoo man was playing plenty of his own material throughout the set. Clipz dropped a number of fresh beats including ‘Offline’ and ‘Grimey’ remix. The main arena was bubbling nicely Clipz was joined by Birmingham’s very own MC Accapello. The pair ensured the party was fully underway with Clipz dropping a number of party tracks and throwing in a few old favourites for good measures such as ‘Bonanza Kid’, ‘Ready for Love’, ‘Chopper’ and ‘Raise the roof’.

Following on was one of the set’s I was looking forward to, featuring Metalheadz very own DJ Storm. This was in fact the first time I’ve seen Storm play and was impressed with her tune selection, it was spot on with a number of Metalheadz rollers being dropping including ‘African Descent’, ‘Belleview’ and ‘Phantom force’.

MC Accapello was joined by Music Mafia’s MC Rhymes, the pair went off back to back with Rhymes hyping up the crowd, been very impressed with Rhymes recently with his crowd presence, lyrics and flow. With the main arena filled to the rafters, not just the dance floor but also the balconies it was a great site when Storm dropped ‘Re-Dial’ as the place exploded.

One of the hottest producers currently in drum and bass TC took over where Storm had left. Renowned for creating a number of monster anthems last year TC continued this with the release of his Evolution Album. Juiceman joined Ryhmes on the mic for this set as the pair mc’ed back to back sparring off each other lyrics throughout. TC’s littered his set with dancefloor slammers that included the infamous ‘Jump’ and ‘Game over’ along with ‘Warhead’ remix, ‘Western Riddem’ and ‘Robocop’ remix.

V recordings legend Bryan G took to the decks and laid down a number of slammers including ‘Trust me’, ‘All that jazz’, ‘Music box’ and ‘Disco dodo’. Tonight was being filmed by MTV who where in the house tonight. Fatman D took over from Juiceman and got the ravers bouncing whilst interacting with the ravers.

Midway through this set I headed off to the chapel arena and caught the tail end of Ned Ryder and Birmingham’s finest MC Lenni. There were plenty of jungle classics being played from Ned Ryder as he dropped ‘Pulp fiction’, ‘Fire’, ‘World mash up’, and ‘Babylon’.

The front of the Chapel arena was decorated with various murals and speaker stacks that where towering. From one Quest resident to another as Pilgrim took over from Ned. Pilgrim was joined not only by MC Lenni but also MC Bassman.

The Quest trio were amazing throughout this set, Pilgrim laid down the slammers including ‘RIP’, ‘Dark Soldier’ and Omni Trio’s ‘Feel Good’. Lenni and Bassman working back to back throughout keeping the ravers hyped a great mc combo. Pilgrim dropped ‘Valley of the shadows’ the arena exploded with Lenni rewinding the tune 3 times.

Headed back to the main arena and caught the tail end of Raveology’s Dangerous D, a nice bouncy and grimey set from him with tracks such as ‘Fear of the future’, ‘Mr Happy’ and his remix of the Nebula 2 classic ‘Anthema’. The massive stage was invaded with a set of breakdancers whilst Evil B and Red Bandit rocked the crowd.

Kool FM’s very own Brockie alongside his long standing partner, MC Det were up next in here enjoyed hearing the Kool FM duo. Det with his massive stage presence he really took full advantage of the Q club stage. Brockie rolled out a grimey set with tracks such as ‘Scan darker’, ‘Battlefield’, ‘Medicine’ and Hazard’s current dance floor slammer ‘Machete’.

Back to the jungle arena and the legendary Kenny ‘mix’n’blen’ Ken was on with the mighty Ragga twins. His set was welcomed by the ravers in here what I really liked was hearing MC Spyda going back to back with the Ragga Twins. Spyda known for his ragga style of mcing worked with the twins. Kenny true to form kept the mixes rolling, with a number of timeless classics thrown in including ‘Crackman’, ‘ Renegade Snares’, ‘Yes yes’ and ‘Set Speed’.

It looked like Jack Frost was not going to show so decided to head back to the main arena and Randall took to the decks in here. MC Dynamite was doing the mic duties and did a grand job of keeping the ravers on their toes with his crowd hyping abilities whilst chatting his catchy lyrics.

Randall rolled out with the rollers with tracks like ‘Disco dodo’, ‘Dark soldier’ remix, ‘No reality’, ‘Panties’ remix and ‘All I ever’. Dynamite was joined by Spyda on stage and the two worked very well together as they mc’ed back to back . Randall finished his set with a remix of the 4-hero classic ‘Mr Kirk’s nightmare’ which went down a treat.

Calibre was up next up making his Raveology debut, Calibre flipped the switched bringing the deep liquid vibes something definitely different for the Raveology regulars. Sypda was joined by Trigga and Bassman as the shadow demon trio took over. The trio were given a rapturous welcome on the stage, with Bassman getting dirty lyrics, Trigga hyperactive and Spyda Ragga chat which worked perfectly well.

Final set of the night came from Ram records very own and award winning DJ, Andy C. Andy C was joined not only by the legendary GQ but also Eksman, the oldskool versus the new skool. Andy took the ravers on a high octane ride for the final hour in true fashion with his amazing mixing and selection of party tunes dropping the likes of ‘Jump’, ‘Mr Happy’, ‘Echo box’ and ‘Selector’, when Andy dropped ‘Messiah the place went electric.

GQ and Eksman were awesome working together taking full advantage of this incredible stage and hearing the rammed out arena recite Eksman’s infamous ‘Semi automatic lyric’ was tremendous!

True to Andy C form he performed a number of teases for good measure that included ‘Music box’, ‘Rah’ and ‘Warhead’ remix. Birmingham’s MC Biggie joined GQ and Eksman for the final 10 minutes, Andy closed the evening with Chase and Status’s massive anthem ‘In love’ whilst teasing in the Ram classic ‘Night flight’.

Fantastic night from the Raveology crew one of my favourite Raveology nights since I’ve been attending. All the artists were on form and performed great sets throughout the evening, I was impressed particularly with DJ Storm’s set with her rollers along with Andy C and Pilgrims journey back to the old Quest days.

It’s good to see a number of changes being made since my last visit to the Q club, but there is still room for improvement. There wasn’t enough staff working on the bars to deal with the amount of people in here as it took an absolute age to get served! The production across the arenas could have been better especially the lighting in the Chapel arena.

Atmosphere tonight was spot on with plenty of people being excited about visiting the Q club for the first time whilst the veterans came out of the woodwork tonight. Tonight was a massive success for the Ravelogy crew, the main arena as full to the brim throughout the evening. The view overlooking the dancefloor was fantastic, to watch a sea of ravers whilst people took up the spaces on the sides and around the balconies.

Massive shouts to Magika, Jo and the Raveology crew, Lenni and Jo, Eksman, GQ, Pilgrim, Glen Aston, Spyda, Juiceman, Ned Ryder, Hazzard, Dangerous D, Red Bandit, Clipz, Bassman, Kenny Ken, Brockie, Accapello, Biggie, Rhymes, Trigga, Fatman D, Evil B, Storm, Randall, Ragga Twins, Shock C, Longjohn, Lloydy Classic and the Eternal music crew, Fozz, Hades, Bryan Gee, TC, Clipz, Sly, Profile, Steppa, Skeeze, TNT and PM

Big respects to Helen, Jessi, Escape, Michelle, Josh, Aaron, Tom, Foggy, Andy Trackin, Chris Blunt, Manny, Gem, Wez and Sue, Alpha, Barry, Benny, Duncan, Dan Hickyn, Missy, Leechy, Darryl and Coleen, Mairead, Rickey and Martine Danielle, Neil Badboy and Charly Robes, Hydro, Richard, Ian F and everyone else whose names I don't' know but faces I recognize.