I'd never been to any of the AWESOME 101 nights before but  they must be doing something right, after all prior to this event the promoters had put on 12 all-night events at this venue and the Royal  Highland Centre in Edinburgh. "yeah, I'll go" I tell him " see you at 10, he replies!

10 o'clock comes round in a flash ,and I get picked up for the 45 minute  journey up the M8 to Livingston. As we approach the venue the event has been in full swing for around 3 hours and still they is a huge queue out side the forum! As I join the queue I decide to have a pill, I got the pills off one of the guys I was travelling up in the car with. Never seen pills like this  before, large purple ones, just like smarties! The time was now approaching 11.30 and the queue didn't seem to be going down much, the ticket stated "no entry after 12" things weren't looking good for us,5 minutes later however this  was the least of my worries. The pill was kicking in....BIG TIME.....HEAD BACK, CHIN OUT, EYES ROLLING....FUCK.   I could barely stand let alone talk!!! Just before the 12 o'clock curfew the queue seem to start moving forward ...quickly....the security had decided to let everyone in the queue in without a search, nice one!

Once inside we made our way through the crowds into the arena. I'd been to  this venue a few times before at STEETRAVE series of parties the previous summer, the layout was a lot different thought, the stage was running long ways rather than across with a huge projection screen above it. The sound was loud, though I'd heard louder!

The night seemed to be flying in already 2 pa's had been on, M.A.N.I.C. and  MESSIAH and still the main one to come! THE PRODIGY!!! I'd never seen them live before!! Just at that looking up onto the stage area you could see about a dozen police at the back of the DJ area, the music was then cut as two of the police seem to arrest the MC!!! The crowd seemed to be going wild!!!**now you've got to remember, I was still pretty fucked at this stage of the  evening** just at that another policeman grabbed the mic at turned to the DJ and said "DJ...BRING THAT BEAT BACK" again the crowd went wild as the music blasted out....though i was a bit confused at the sight of a dozen policemen dancing on the stage all with there white gloves on!!! Doh!! Shortly after this there was another PA that wasn't on the flyer...SUBURBAN DELAY...seen  them before, top pa,  time was now marching on and yet another PA from Glasgow based trance outfit HAVANNA, it was now becoming clear that there  would be no PA from the PRODIGY! What a fuckin bummer....I hate when this happens, it takes the gloss off what would have been a great party!

After this event AWESOME 101 would have another 4 events at this venue  before all but disappearing from the scene ,although they would later reappear and hold smaller all-nighters at the likes of Glasgows Plaza ballroom and East Lothian's Bunker venue.

FASTBUCK