Their first event received excellent reviews from all who attended,
held back in February at Jacks in the London Bridge area of London,
History of Hardcore returned on Saturday 17th June for it's
second helping of hardcore and old skool. There was no way I was
missing this, after all the good things I had heard about the first
one!

Having been to Jacks before I knew what to expect of the venue but I
wasn't sure what to expect of the crowd or the music but I can safely
say I had nothing to worry about.

After stopping off at a local pub for a few beverages that were well
needed, this being one of the hottest days of the year so far a bit of
cool refreshment was welcomed with open arms before a night of raving
took place. We arrived at Jack's at about 11.15pm, to be greeted by
friendly door staff and a brief search we then got into the club, a
short queue for the cloakroom and it was all systems go!

The club itself is of medium size, consisting of 2 rooms, a larger
main room with some seating around the edges and a smaller 2nd room
adjacent to it with an adequately sized dance floor and lots of comfy
chairs to chill out on at the back. Having attended a couple of events
there previously I was interested to see how this compared.

The club was relatively busy when we first arrived but not long after
it started to fill up, the dance floors were busy but not so busy you
didn't have any room to throw a few moves. First of all I checked out
the hardcore arena, which was being held in the larger of the 2 rooms.
There were some quality tunes being played from around 2004/2005 and a
few 2006 new ones thrown in for good measure.

Then I decided to check out the old skool room for a bit and found The
Award winning duo DJ Flashback and MC Strict – these two when they are
together make a fantastic team, working together perfectly and really
getting the crowd hyped up. Flashback played a 90/91 set which was
fantastic a real eye opener for me as I'd never heard him play tunes
from that era before. Strict as usual was fantastic on the Mic and I
really enjoyed their set. This was testament to why they have been
voted Best Nu Era DJ and Best Nu Era MC in the recently held Old Skool
Awards.

One thing I noticed was different from the last event I attended at
Jacks was that the sound system even though not 100%, had improved
greatly, and they had drafted in a few wicked lasers which looked
fantastic in the smaller room as it is slightly darker in there and
could be appreciated more. Banners and posters dotted around the venue
looked good too, it's all these small things that really add to the
final set up of a good event.

By this time it was starting to get slightly hot and it was time to
chill out for a while, so I sat and listened to DJ Jedi's set in the
old skool room which was really good dropping old classics like Way In
My Brain (remix), Sunshine and do you want me,
He seemed to get a good reception from the crowd with plenty of people
dancing throughout his set.

Time to go and take some pictures! Whilst walking round taking
pictures for the review the one thing that I really noticed was how
friendly the crowd were at this event, everyone was smiling and it was
almost like stepping back to an event 10 years ago where everyone was
up for a good night without any attitude. I think was what I liked
most about it was the fact that everybody just seemed to be having
such a great time and really enjoying themselves and the wicked
atmosphere.

Then it was back to the main room next up was Insane & Mixman B2B,
well what can I say, this was by far my favourite set of the night.
Playing tunes such as Groove Control, Sounds of House, Higher Love and
the Breeze & Styles remix of Follow me they had
the crowd singing along and I couldn't stop dancing all the way
through, everytime I went to sit down for a moment they'd stick on
another wicked tune and I'd have to carry on dancing to it. They
played a mixture of94/95 style and nu skool which went down really
well with all the cheese lovers in the house.

Vibes & Livelee played a blinding set too, Livelee was great on the
mic, it's been a while since I've seen these two perform but after
their recent performance on Remaniss Radio I was really looking
forward to seeing them at this event and they didn't disapoint. It is
so good to see two artists who clearly love being up there
entertaining the ravers. They still put on a good show even after all
these years!

Last set of the night was SY & Storm, not being a massive lover of DJ
SY I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with his set. He dropped a
variety of Quosh new releases, he was perfectly accompanied by Storm
who did a great job of hyping up the ravers, even in the heat that had
built up in the venue.

This event was well organised, full of happy friendly people and the
music was fantastic. The only thing I could find at fault was the heat
however this was only to be expected as it was one of the hottest days
of this year, it wasn't unbearable just slightly uncomfortable. The
only other problem I found was that there was so many good DJ's I
wanted to see I couldn't decide which room to be in!

If you like your old skool and you like a good atmosphere then this is
the rave for you. Plans are already underway for History of Hardcore 3
keep an eye on www.historyofhardcore.co.uk for further information.

Thanks going out to all the History of Hardcore crew for a great night, all the
ravers that attended and to all the DJ's & MC's for playing such
fantastic sets – big up yourselves!