Thursday 6 January 2022

Pandemonium @ Mr B's, Willenhall 07/01/1995


Following the Christmas and New Year period, January tends to be the month nothing really happens. Fortunately this wasn't the case as far as raves went in 1995 and even in the weekend after NYE I've managed to find a rave.

Pandemonium quickly made a name for themselves in the early 90s for doing large scale events. At the same time they did smaller more frequent events at a club called J Jay's in Willenhall in 1992. After some time away, they returned to the venue in 1994 which was now called Mr B's which is where this weeks rave takes place.

Before we go any further though, one question that needs answering is where the hell is Willenhall? I'm sure I'd have found it on a map back in 1995, but with the benefit of the internet I've found that it's a little town around half way between Wolverhampton and Walsall.

Pandemonium would continue to hold events at Mr B's until mid-1996. It would appear that the club closed down not long after this and the building would eventually burn down.

There are 2 tapes which exist from this event, one from Top Buzz and one from DJ SY.  It wasn't an all night event, it finished at 2am so therefore these were the headline DJs.

This was one of the last events to feature Top Buzz as we knew them. Top Buzz consisted of DJ's Jason Kaye and Mikee B and MC Mad P. In their current guise at old skool nights it's just Jason Kaye and MC Mad P. 

By the summer of 1995 both Jason Kaye and Mikee B were making garage music with the latter becoming part of the garage collective the Dreem Teem. For this set as Top Buzz though it was purely jungle music in a set that featured the Dreamscape 15 vs 16 favourite "Champion Sound" by Q Project.

If this was the last upfront set from Top Buzz then it's a pretty good final set to have. You could technically say this wasn't an upfront set because there are no new 1995 tunes on there, all have featured in 1994 sets and earlier. We were only a week into the new year though so that's understandable.

The same could be said about the DJ SY set. It's a happy hardcore set from an era where it was still breakbeat. Whilst the difference in style between the Top Buzz and DJ SY set is evident I can see how they can both co-exist as headliners on the same line up.

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