Haze 2000

by Dj Haze

After waking up on Dec 31st with plans in place for a party at our DJ castle in Basingstoke things took a downward turn. Mental phoned to say she had split up with Duncan (also known as Gordon to a select few) the night before so would not be attending. Her friends obviously wouldn't be coming either so the numbers had dropped significantly. Bugger!! About an hour later Duncan phoned. Pretty much a re-run of the earlier conversation with Mental.

People dropping like flies! Time to take drastic action!! What were the Haze's to do this Millenium Eve now that the party had been reduced to tatters in a very short space of time?

There was the possibility of a set at Free State's wharehouse affair (see Reading Y2K review), but the prospect of hanging around waiting to play a set didn't sit well. The solution presented itself shortly when Gid, an old friend and would be promoter, phoned to say that the AMP NYE bash was in desperate need of another dj and that well...say no more. So that settled it. I was to play from 2am to 3:30am. Bargain! Happy Haze's. Now all we had to do was find somewhere to send Lois. Thus followed a phonecall along the lines of...

(globule's) "Hi Mum, you know we were supposed to be having a party...blah, blah, blah.."

(globule's mum) "No problem".

Hurrah!

Well to cut a long story short we dutifully turned up at the wharehouse which happened to be just round the corner from Free State's studios. Small world. Illusion from Ooops! Sound System was already there and the 4K of sound was setup in a cliff like arrangement some 20 feet from the turntables. Facing back at the DJ! The thought of all that sound running full speed with hard as you like jungle flooding out was enough to make me go week at the knees!!

The party kicked off rather strangely with The Chemical Brothers performing their latest album from the safe confines of the cd player! First DJ up was an old friend of mine, Plenty, mixing up and ecclectic selection of styles including Hip Hop, Big Beat, Drum n Bass and the totally splendid Fool's Gold - Original version!

Next up, and to take us up to midnight, where two guys from London town whose names escape me. The selection of tunes was superb with some of the best old skool hardcore tunes from 92 cranking out of the system. The crowd were seriously jumping and grins were most definitely on display! As midnight approached the sound was cut and the countdown was delivered by Mat, one of the promoters. On the count of 0 the sound went back up amid cheers, popping champagne corks and party poppers. Half of cuba went up in smoke and the partying started seriously!

Hello year 2000!!!

Goodbye eardrums!

Next up was supposed to be another one of the London crew but they appeared to vanish into thin air. Never to be seen again. Wierd. So up stepped Illusion with a set that got me going almost as much as the hardcore. Whacking great chunks of bassline washing over the crowd. Lovely! With the dissapearance of our friends from the big city my set got moved up to start 1:30am and extended to to cover two hours. Yippee! The night was getting better and better!

I started with Nu Skool but only played two tunes due to the serious tempo drop from the previous set. So onto the hardcore I went. Basically filling the gaps that the earlier guys left. After about 1 hour it was onto the jungle. Racking out the tunes like it was going out of fashion. As the night went by the music just got harder and harder and the bass seemed to get louder and louder. Hmmmmmm :) All told I ended playing for 2 1/2 hours until I said enough was enough and that a replacement had to be sought.

So on went Gid continuing the jungle feel that had pretty much dominated the start of this new year. Su-fuckin-perb! At around 5 o'clock I had to go home as I just wanted to sit down with a cup of tea and relax. Besides my ears were ringing so much that it was stoopid. It was so loud that one image that will stay with me for a long time is that of my friend Steve O stood on the dancefloor, whilst I was playing a new RAM Trilogy track, with his fingers in his ears!! My ears continued ringing for about 4 days after!

Now that's what I call music!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Haze ;p