Slammin Vinyl
Last Ever Event at the Sanctuary
10th July 2004

Since the beginning of the year rumours of the Sanctuary closing were true, with a few promoters to host the remaining events at the Sanctuary it self. Slammin Vinyl was given the huge but prestigious task to host the final ever event at the Sanctuary Milton Keynes. As this venue is to be knocked down to make way for new development programme within this area of Milton Keynes.

This was the last ever event to be hosted at this legendry venue having stood tall in the centre of the UK for the past 12 years. Promoters such as Fantazia, Dreamscape, Helter Skelter, Hardcore Heaven, Accelerated Culture along with Slammin Vinyl to name a few have hosted many events here. It was time to close a chapter in the raving history book.

At the beginning of the week I found out that this event had sold out, which wasn't a surprise to me, leading to a few friends being disappointed. I turn up at New Street, met a few friends and we boarded the train to Bletchley, arriving just before 5, and made the final walk to the venue.

We were greeted by an enormous queue which stretched all the way to the car park, which was longer than new years but yet it moved really quick as we only queued for 40 minutes which wasn't too bad.

Due to the bad weather a huge outdoor tent replaced the outdoor stage, similar to that of Global Gathering. As we all know electricity and water don't really mix!

As we got to the end of the queue we saw the Ratpack arriving, Mark Eg was on in the big top. We headed directly to the tent, to see the mighty Ratpack step up for one last time here. The Ratpack played a typical set with some new skool breakz thrown in with the classics such as the Outta space new skool breaks remix, Found a Cafe and of course it wouldn't be the Ratpack without playing Lord of the dance.

After the Ratpack it was Andy Farley who played a hard house set. We thought we would wander around the rest of the venue, as were not big fans of hardhouse. First thing we encountered was you had to buy drinks vouchers which you had to queue up for and then again for the bar, also the price of the some drink's had gone up due to this silly system.

Inside the Rollers was not just only the oldskool room but also the cloakroom was situated inside here too. It's been along time since I've visited the Rollers, as I also spent my first rave in the Rollers, this arena has always a special place in my heart.

Back to the tent and Andy Farley was still on it seemed that Hixxy wasn't going to show, but I later found out that Hixxy was involved in a car crash on his journey here. But he was safe as he did turn up later on in the evening.

We headed to the Sanctuary and DJ Friction was on getting the ravers warmed up. He was accompanied by SP:MC. The décor in here was amazing, there were two massive plasma screens on the stage and the Fastrack was kitted with loads of hanging things above the arena.

We headed back to the tent as DJ Zinc was going to be on in here, he was accompanied by Dynamite MC. Zinc played a heavy set playing one of my favourites True Romance, Jump'n'Shout remix, and also Ready or Not 2004.

After Zinc it was the turn of the scratch master DJ SY along side his partner in crime with the rhymes, Storm. Sy played an up front set with a few classics as he played Dreadland, which got the crowd singing.

Next was the set I had been looking forward to since seeing the line-up, Andy C b2b with Hype. What an awesome set this was, as it seemed that whilst Andy C was mixing Hype would be scratching. As Skibadee was running late Whizzkid MC was on the mic and what an excellent job that he done! Skibadee turned up bout 15-20 minutes later and soon as he got on the stage the crowd went mental!! Fearless and Shabba later accompanied Skibba. After Andy C and Hype, we headed to the Sanctuary to carry on the raving festivities.

Not only was this the last event at the Sanctuary 1-Xtra were also here too, recording some of tonight set live to those back home. As Leicester's and Formations very own SS was on as his set was being broadcasted. Shabba was on MIC duty for this set, it seems that there's a new remix of Topbuzz's Living in Darkness as this was played during this set and it went down a treat.

Having spent most of my first rave in the Roller's I headed back there to find one of my favourite dj's Ramos accompanied by MC's Marley and also Rude. This was another of my favourite sets of the evening. Ramos was playing plenty of classics from 95-96 taking you back to the yesteryear. Playing tunes off Hectic and also Hecttech, tunes such as Broken Wings and The Journey Part 1. Ramos started to play a few jungle tunes as well, Valley of the shadows and Champion Sound. It wouldn't be Ramos without playing Incognito he finished up with I Believe, and that went down a storm.

After Ramos it was the turn of the Ravers Choice DJ Vibes. We headed back to the Sanctuary and 1-Xtra's Dj Bailey was on playing some dark rolling tunes like Capone's Friday. We decided to nip out of here and head to the Sanctuary seeing as I spent most of the night in the Sanctuary and Marc Smith and Wotsee was on playing a bit of gabba, which I really didn't fancy.

Well during this point we decided to chill out for a bit considering that this rave was on for 11 hours. We went on one of the funfair rides and had a cold drink to recuperate ourselves.

Heading back to the Sanctuary and Nicky Blackmarket was on along with Fearless and Five-0, Nicky played a typical set from him with tunes such as Dual voltage, Outerspace, Champion deejay remix. He finished the set with the new Living in Darkness Rmx.

Well to play the final set ever in the Sanctuary was the one and only the godfather Grooverider, and in the Fastrack you had the godfathers of Hardcore DJ's SY, Slipmatt and Seduction playing in there. I caught the first half of the Fastrack and Slipmatt was playing the classics such as Take me away as Storm was on mic duty. Headed to see the Sanctuary off in style as Grooverider saw the night out in here with Skibadee. As he played a new remix of Trust me, and he also played The Odyssey.

Having spent the past five years at the venue, which was a short time, compared to others I know I'm going to miss this venue. There was good atmosphere here tonight as plenty of people were up for it and there were also quite a number of mature ravers here visiting the Sanctuary for old time sake.

Seeing how the Rollers was used I don't know why they never used the Rollers like this before oh well. To be honest the hardcore really didn't appeal to me much of the night as some of the dj's I was looking forward to seeing such as Dougal, Styles and Breeze had cancelled as they were playing abroad, reason why I spent more time in the drum and bass arena. Best sets of the evening for me were probably Andy C b2b with Hype and Ramos.

Well as we close one chapter we start another as Slammin vinyl are to be moving to Shepton Mallett, which used to be the former home of Dreamscape. Considering that it took 7 hours to get home from Bletchly to New Street (replacement bus services) I think I'll be giving that some serious thought before making any rash decisions.

Big respects to Storm, Whizzkid MC, Ratpack, IC3, Fearless, Jason Spinback, Ben, Mistress Mo, Marley, MC Rude, Ramos, Vibes

A masive shout to the ravers: Tina xxx (my naughty iccle minx), Leanne, Ed, Zoë + Collette, Astro, Faye, Wookie, Ajay, Immz, Curly, Bertie and the Bromsgrove crew, Brian, Lisa from Innovation also to the nice lady from 1-Xtra who gave us a free Bailey mix cd, to the few peeps on the replacement coach back to new street also to everyone else whose names I don't know but faces I recognise.