Their early raves were held at the Aston Villa Leisure Centre.    They went dark/jungly for a while, holding some excellent events at the Plymouth Warehouse during 93, before moving to the Cornwall Coliseum in early 94 to hold The Detonator, where they began playing stompy techno which over a few events turned to nosebleed Gabba.

Dance Planet The Hummingbird Event Review

19th March 1993

We had been looking forward to this night for several months after hearing the reputation that Dance Planet had, the club they had been running in Birmingham had kicked off well but quickly gone down hill after there was a cock up with the flyers not being put out so people thought it had finished.  After a few week of making a loss the organiser quickly decided to pull out and concentrate on the big All-Nighters and we knew it had to do a good one to get back his reputation.  We sold out of tickets and so did everyone else, not surprising as everywhere you looked you saw Dance Planets flyers and advertisements.  This was set to be the bollocks of a night.

We reached Birmingham and started the Magical Mystery Tour Part II,  after Pandemonium's event at  the Hummingbird Centre we should have learned our lesson and set off a bit earlier to find the gaff - anyway after going past the Bull Ring Shopping Centre 15 times we found the right road and found the Hummingbird Centre, we also found a queue that went right back to the end of the road and was at least 5 people deep.  We stopped to chat to several people who were sitting around and had travelled without tickets hoping to get in,  after seeing the queue we thought they had no chance but then saw a gang of people going around the back - perhaps their luck was in - it seamed like the security was letting people in through the back entrance for back handers (apparently though this was not due to Top Guard but another security company).

Anyway we made our way in to find a totally different set up to the last visit we made to the Hummingbird Centre - it had been done to make the place look totally different and a full 10 out of 10 must be given for the set up inside.  The place was covered with good backdrops, the stage was excellent with a lighting system sure to blow your mind and a sound system sure to blow your ears.  DJ Stu Allen was on when we arrived and was playing some excellent sounds - as we have said before he plays to the crowd and the crowd was kicking.

As the night went on the place filled up but it never seemed to stop it got more and more packed and more and more hot, until you could hardly move.  People were trying to get into the corridor to chill out but the security (Top Guard) were very rude and arrogant and want to get their act together, the ravers are their bread and butter - if they don't want to be there they should find another job.  As it seems they contributed to the place being totally over filled they have got a lot to answer for.

The music through the night was excellent from every single DJ that was on playing from Jungleism to breakbeat techno, keeping everyone happy including the MCs who helped to see what was going on because it was so packed it was difficult, dancing was difficult as the dance  floor was so packed.  As people started to overheat they started to leave and around 5.00am it was a bit easier to move around.

Unfortunately a few people didn't leave soon enough and the excessive temperature inside had seriously got too much.  Three people ended up in hospital and the whole night was ruined when we found out one of them had passed away.  The whole thing could have been avoided by a little common sense.

The Hummingbird Centre does not have the air conditioning to cope with temperatures like this and the amount of people in there would of had problems getting into the NEC.    To sumurise this review of Dance lanets event it can be said that if it wasn't so packed it would have been one of the best events we had been to, hopefully other organisers will learn from a mistake that caused so many problems.  Perhaps an organisation as good as Dance Planet for production and overall entertainment should consider an outdoor event, which would surely be a huge success!

Dance Planet Events

Dance Planet (23 Aug 91) 
Dance Planet - Ultimate Show (6 Mar 92)
Dance Planet (31 Dec 92)
Dance Planet - Pleasure Zone (8 Jan 93)
Dance Planet - The Detonator (19 Mar 93)
Dance Planet - Detonator III (19 Mar 94)
Dance Planet - Detonator VIII (29 Jul 95)