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It’s the 22nd of June, by now I should be walking
around half naked sipping a beer and applying the
baby oil. But this is England, so what I’m really
doing is scraping the ice off my windscreen and
straining to put on my eight sweater. Let’s hope
that the four hour journey that I am about to embark
on will cheer up this otherwise gloomy Saturday.
Destination World Dance at the infamous Lydd Airport
in Kent. Advertised as a celebration of summer I can
only hope that we will achieve to bring the sun upon
us with a modern day equivalent of a sundance!!
Weather aside, all was looking good for the first
W.D. this year. Some said the line up was not the
best that they’d seen from the W.D. crew, but I
begged to differ. With ten top class Drum & Bass DJs
and House line up not to be messed with. I was
finding it hard to spot anything that was wrong with
the flyer in front of me. World Dance’s flawless
track record also ensures a good turn out of top
Jungalists from around the country. Finding the
venue is no problem, simply follow any car with
people under 30 in it from the M23 and you can’t go
wrong! Entry was smooth and swift and the punters
were flowing in thick and fast.
The outside area was most impressive with
fair-ground rides for those that felt brave, a large
chill out area, a large bar area for the thirsty. I
was a bit dismayed to find that there was no alcohol
on sale inside the venue, this left beer-lovers like
myself a bit lost. I’ll just have to find another
poison to help me through the night. Swan-E was
dropping it rough to a fast filling room and this
was a good way of guessing the direction of things
to come. The House area was also filling up quick,
the sound systems in both areas promised quality
sound all night, so no problem there. World Dance
have a regulation for being the UK’s No. 1 Jungle
promoters, this is obviously common knowledge as
when Vibes dropped his first tune, within thirty
seconds the venue half emptied. This was no fault of
the DJs as the music was quality Hardcore, I just
got the impression that the World Dance massive
couldn’t give two shits how good the Hardcore was
they were there for Jungle and only Jungle. This is
not to say that they are narrow minded, more that
they are serious music lovers and come to hear some
up-front tunes, and perhaps the Hardcore was not to
their preference. I say ‘them’ as I myself am quite
partial to a bit of 4Beat, and enjoyed it to the
max.
Mickey Finn was next to grace the turntables, and
delivered the goods, nice to see some enthusiasm
from the DJ. By now the venue was full and the MCs
were rolling it. It is at this point that I would
like to mention the obvious link between the crowd
and the MC, the reaction to some of the things they
said was quite remarkable, maximum respect to MC MC,
Hyper D and Fearless who did a first class job all
night, superb sets were also delivered by DJs Rap,
Ellis Dee and Grooverider. With faultless mixing and
top tunes being supplied by all of the above. It was
soon becoming difficult to decide who should be
credited with ‘top DJ’. I made my mind up about five
minutes before the end of Grooverider’s set when I
heard the unmistakable sound of the DJ Hype
scratching over Groove’s last tune. To say the
reaction was healthy is an understatement and an
hour of jump up business was well received by every
one.
Before ever going to a World Dance event I had heard
rumours of unbeatable production. I admit that I
doubted whether anyone could better the likes of
Helter Skelter or Dreamscape, but I was proven
wrong. The laser show tonight was unbelievable, this
was a Technicians dream. Possibly the best Lighting
show I have ever seen, ever! I often found that I
had actually stopped dancing because I was so amazed
by what I saw in front of me, top class production
throughout. While all this was going on the House
arena was going for it with banging music all night.
Respect to the nutter who stood of the dance
platform in this room all night and shouted 1, 2, 3,
4 every time the beat kicked in, and if he wasn’t
shouting it he would count it in with his fingers,
strange. Back in room 1 Slipmatt was delivering the
second dose of Happy Hardcore, MC MC told us that
the World Dance Organisation was committed to all
forms of dance music, probably true, but still the
area was thinner than normal. Fabio kicked off the
last hour with some dream intelligent Drum & Bass,
which was just what the doctor ordered at this time
in the morning. A beautiful selection to finish the
night with. The rumours were true. The top class
production along with the most up front music
around, provided a first class night in warehouse
entertainment. Don’t miss the next one, it’s the big
one!!
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