In the years 94-95 the Northern Hardcore scene was emptier than a Saharan supermarket shelf, with only the odd jar of Vibealite or Kinetic bar to feed our Hardcore hunger. But no Longer! In the last year or so, nights such Ardshokk, Uprising, Origin, Asylum and Reality, to name but a few, have meant that you don’t have to travel half way round the Country to go out any more. “Can’t be bad” thinks I, so off I trots to the opening night of Club Ardshokk at Heaven in Burnley, little knowing what a treat I had in store......

We arrived in Burnley around 8.30 and spent the next fifteen minutes driving around in circles in the towns incredible raver unfriendly one way system. After about three laps we found the club, ,and after a not too bad search by the bastard big, badly beastly, burley Burnley bouncers, (wayhey!) we went in.

“Heaven” or Angels as it is still called by absolutely everyone in Burnley and everywhere else, is a fuckin’ cool venue, it looks like it was designed by a little kid with a giant set of black Lego bricks. Absolutely everything is on a different level to everything else, with a sunken dance floor, a raised stage, raised seating areas and dance platforms, which makes the club look really good when it’s full, and offer plenty of scope for falling over and breaking your neck when you’re fucked. The whole club is focused towards the centre where the dance floor is, even upstairs, where there’s a balcony where the lightweights can watch the rest show them how it’s done.

When I arrived I could hear the sounds of the Menace cheezin’ it up with some high energy Hardcore vibes, which came as a bit of a surprise ‘cos Brisk was meant to be on, but I couldn’t complain as Menace played at least as good as Brisk would have.

After fifteen minutes Jay Prescott stepped up to the decks. The last couple of times I have head Jay play he has played an absolute blinder, (what the fuck was going on?) and this was no exception, starting off on the hard an’ lively Techno vibe, with one of my personal favourite tunes Ha-Ha-Ha Hardcore Morther fucka he once again showed why he is finally getting some recognition.

By the end of Jay’s set the club was beginning to full up, and it was time for one of the Ardshokk residents, Dodger to show what he was made of. He kept the vibe nice and lively, ably assisted by the crowd hyping expertise of MC’s Double Zero, Jester and Impact Massive respect definitely has to go out to the resident MC’s on the night, who were as good as I have heard anywhere. Midway through the Dodgers set I decided to go and get a drink (and the piss taken out of me by the USD) all the people I met, and the crowd generally were really friendly, not an unhappy face or bad attitude anywhere. Even the piss heads were friendly including Gary the promoter who was on a bar tab and was looking very merry indeed!

Then, my spider senses tingling. A change from the four-four time of the Hardcore kick drum to the wall shaking sound of bassline could mean only one thing, someone somewhere had dropped some Drum n Bass. So in a bar-to-dancefloor time that Linford Christie would have been proud of, I raced to the dance floor to commence some serious hardstep appreciation/. Techno, Hardcore and Drum n Bass in same place in the space of an house; what more could a man want for?

After the Dodger it was time for Slipmatt to grace the decks. There can not possibly be only one of this man, as he seems to be on just about ever flyer you ever get at the same time as being involved in dozens of quality Hardcore tunes. I’m convinced that there must be an army of Slipmatt clones, who travel the country playing his sets for him, making the money to finance his plans for world domination, or, er something … (lets not get carried away). If this is trued (don’t quote me, I’ve got a fuckin good lawyer) I’ve got to get me one, cos’yet again he turned in the highest quality playing more on the lyrical, piano tip he totally set the crowd alight, turning the dance floor into a sea of raised hands and lights sticks.

After Slipmatts hour of aural delight, I left the dance floor, and journeyed over to one of the clubs three bars for a bit of a smoke, a drink and a chill.

The sound system in Angels is nice and loud, but it’s only loud in the places it needs to be, which is cool cos’ it means that you can loose yourself in the music on the dance floor, but you don’t have to shout your fead off at people you’re stood next to at the bar.

After one of those sit off and chat type experiences where I lost about an hour somewhere (don’t you just hate it when that happens?) I returned to the main room where Dougal was just finishing off, I can't say what his set was like, but judging by the crowd reaction at the end, and the way nearly everyone at the club was crammed onto the dance floor, it was probably pretty fuckin good.

Next up was fat Brisk, or the Menace as he likes to be called, for the set was actually booked to play. This for me was one of, if not the, best set of the night. Playing slightly different to everyone else he laid it down more on the Technoid, Trance-Core tip, banging to fuck but not quite as hard as Jay had played earlier, he sent the crowd through the roof, proving once again that Scourse-core rules! As is often the case when you’re having a good time, the last hour and a hal flew by, with Menace leaving the crowd baying for more and DJ Sy stepping up and giving them what they wanted.

Sy played a bit more in the normal Hardcore style, a bit slower with more hands in the air moments and piano breakdowns, while all the time treating the crowd to some totally blindin’ scratching.

Just about everywhere you go nowadays it’s the same story, the very minute the end of the night come around, that’s it, end of, fuck off, that’s your lot. We’ve all experienced it, stopped in full flow in the middle of the last tune by some bastard sound engineer pulling the plug. That’s what made the end of this night so special. As the night drew to a closed, everybody steamed onto the dance floor for the last tune, to give it their all before staggering to their cars for a well earned smoke. “Do you want one more?” shouts MC Double -Zero, “What the fuck do you think!” screams the crowd, Sy drops ‘Heart of Gold’ and the crowd go absolutely ballistic. There seemed to be no sign of the tunes being turned off, so obviously feeling a bit cheeky, Sy decides to sneak another one...and another....and another! In total I counted six last tunes and the night overran by over twenty minutes! How often does that happen?

With the night over, I strolled back to the car for another few laps of Burnley town centre, having had one of the best nights I’ve had in ages, safe in the knowledge that the supermarket shelf, that is the Northern Hardcore scene, is well stocked once again.

Review by Giles Roe ((DJ Epsilon)