Straight into the sounds of the Jumping Jack Frost rolling his Jazzy and SWV vocals mix, which the crowd seemed to appreciate when they kick in together – a fat sound.

Moving on, we located the bar which was on our right, and that’s where we decided to stay until everybody was safely in. From the bar you could see the whole picture and it didn’t look bad.

The DJ box was at the far end in the middle of the arena with a stage behind where the MC and Dancers performed. There was not much to say about the physical set up or the lighting and the prices at the bar were average for an event like this. The atmosphere inside was mostly friendly and there were no problems as far as I could see, but a few people were intimidated by the Manchester and Birmingham boys.

From what I heard of Frost he kept it tight on the mixing front, it was a very experience and structured set which kept the crowd lively and included bits such as War Head and the mix I mentioned earlier. In my opinion, Jumping Jack Frost can never fail to please a crowd due to his experience with people, producers, and labels around him who always represent proper and that is why he and his corner carry so much weight in this scene.

Andy C, moving on to the mixing professional himself who behind him has a whole load of mixes under his belt, both producing and on the wheels of steel with his influential and trend setting label, Ram. As per usual, Andy kept everything sweet and tight on the night, he also like all the sets that night played for the crowd, whilst adding a few quality up to date tunes. He also drew for the old classic Roll On and the crowd went mental and this most definitely suited the situation perfectly. As Andy C dropped his last tune that was a signal to Envy, 88, and myself to get a well deserved drink so we could catch the opening of Kenny Ken. The crowd really took to Kenny because he kept the beats rolling with a lot of his tunes breaking into a quest, play it for me type of B-line, which the crowd loved. Kenny was one of those DJs that slightly shyed away from the safe line playing a few tunes I hadn’t heard.

After Kenny’s set, the crowd were really alert and had singled out the tunes they like and were not letting them get past the 8th break. Randall is another DJ who is renowned for his rolling mixes, using full pitch control. He is first and foremost known as a consistently excellent DJ, producing fat sets every time with access to most of the top producers material. Randall also kept it tight rolling and continued from where Kenny had left the crowd begging. He tried to mix it up with some hard beats but the crowd didn’t really respond, so he kept it cruising in the middle lane.

Ray Keith took his stance behind the decks knowing exactly what the crowd wanted and continued to deliver what they were getting all night. He was another DJ who drew for a few classics plus one of the Dictation Remixes. Ray, who is involved with Dread and Penny Black Recordings, did not play any new bits from the previous labels to my knowledge.

I personally haven’t heard SS for sometime but I’ve heard tapes of him from several different events, so I had an open mind. SS was one of the more versatile DJs there, playing tunes such as Shadow Boxing Remix, Inexplored Terrain, Champion Sound Remix and Mission Impossible etc… while keeping it rolling, the crowd pleased and myself interested. Overall I was most impressed with SS as he showed me a side of him I had not heard, where others had done well but not impressed.

Nicky Blackmarket is another DJ the crowd took well to, maybe this is because they can catch up relate with him on Kool FM along with his MC Hyper D who did not accompany him, or maybe because he is currently busting up the circuit. This was the perfect situation for Nicky to come in and put his crowd pleasing talent into use. With his constant smile he stepped up to an instant rewind from his first and from that moment on he had the crowd around his little finger, playing some stepping beats with some Hyped up Shadow Boxing B-line sounds and a lot of remixes of popular tunes. He also pulled out the Art of Fighting without fighting which the crowd seemed to enjoy immensely. I was relived and impressed how Blackmarket kept the crowd on their toes so late in the night, while playing completely different tunes from the rest and for me it definitely needed that.

I did not really hear much of the great Grooverider due to him playing last which was a major disappointment along with Kemistry & Storm and Bryan G, personal favourites by the way, not turning up. These were the main people who I went to Milton Keynes to hear, firstly because I knew if they had played there would have been more versatility to the night and would have definitely have heard some fresh beats. I did not spend too much time in arena 2, but I did manage to catch Spinback playing some Old Skool beats, such as The Theme, which brought back all sorts of memories. Also, many thanks to Joe for sorting me out big time.

On the night there were certain tunes which did not get the response they should have done, such as Andy’s remix of Circles, Shadow Boxing Remix, Unexplored Terrain and Away Through Trouble Down the Drain. Hi Potential was one of those tunes that I could see the crowd did not immediately react to, but I was not going to let it go by without a fight and then the crowd went off and how they let off!

Overall, Pure – X seemed to be a good night for the crowd, but they were very tame and did not want to let the DJ know what they wanted – they just waited for someone to set them off. I firmly believe that we need to move forward to survive, no get caught up in one form for too long otherwise it becomes boring, but at the same time there is no harm in playing older tunes. As long as they are running and kept in moderation they can add variety to your set. I also believe the way Drum and Bass Jungle evolves is like technology, we strike to move forwards, explore what has not been explored, do things different from the rest thereby keeping it original and we always want what’s new and what is the best.