Forever Sanctuary

20 years ago The Sanctuary in Milton Keynes closed its door for the last time after 13 years of hosting rave and was demolished to make way for a new Ikea. Part of that same development was the MK Dons football stadium.

An event was put on this year by MC Magika in the Marshall Arena which is next to the football stadium called Forever Sanctuary. It's line up was DJs and MCs who played at The Sanctuary and the music policy was music from the Sanctuary years of 1991-2004. Once I heard about this it had sold out, but a 2nd date was added which I went to yesterday. 

Originally it was supposed to be 12pm - 11pm which for me meant just missing the last 10 minutes or so to make my train back to London. Then it changed to 2pm - 1am which meant missing a larger chunk of the event. Still plenty of hours there though.

One has to go back longer than 20 years since I last made the walk from Bletchley Station to The Sanctuary but I recall it taking around 20 minutes. There was a train getting in at 13:38 which seemed perfect for getting there for 2pm.

The train was slightly delayed and walk was much longer than expected. From the point of seeing Ikea to getting to the venue was 20 minutes in itself, a combination of navigating the Milton Keynes walkways to then getting past Ikea to then walk through the car park of a huge Asda and then through the stadium car park. 

We arrived just in time for Vibes and Live Lee to start playing in the main arena. Not too many people had arrived yet but it was still early. It was exactly the sort of set you'd expect from them and great fun. There was a bit of sad news though when Live Lee said that DJ Magical has passed away this week before playing "Rush Hour".

Next up was Ray Keith with just one of the Ragga Twins, the other was in hospital. The rave scene clearly not being the youthful scene it once was. Only caught the first part of his set but liked what I heard.

It was then up to the Technodrome to see Mark EG and M-Zone wih MC Ribbz. I loved those sets at Helter Skelter and anticipated the room to be busy. It was hot, but had enough space for everyone who wanted to see it. Mark EG is still as mad as ever and was a truly entertaining set.

Back down to the main arena to see DJ SS. He was playing The Prodigy when we entered the room but then went onto jungle and playing a lot of the tunes you'd expect such was "The Lighter". Slipmatt came on next, starting off in 1992 and then making his way up to around 1996. He inevitably played "On A Ragga Tip" and his SMD tunes, but later he played "Sunshine" which I'd forgot he'd made. All the DJs played that at the time, but I never liked it.

Next up was The Top Buzz Experience. The original Top Buzz was DJs Jason Jay, Mikee B and MC Mad P. Mikee B never returned to Top Buzz when they returned to the old skool circuit and Jason Jay sadly passed away recently. Behind the decks was Ratty, it was a great jungle techno set and Ratty was playing vinyl.

Then came Swan E with MC Magika who started with "Lock Up" by Zero B which got the crowd going. The set was a decent mix of anthems and more obscure records and it was quite possibly the set of the night.

As we were yet to go to room 2 we decided to go there next to see Dillinja playing jungle. I was thinking how good it was to hear jungle out loud without fearing for my safety given the trouble you used to get at jungle events.

Conscious that we'd have to leave earlier than first anticipated to catch our train we knew we'd miss the bulk of Mickey Finn and Aphrodite. The question was do we leave now or do we see Dougal & Hixxy before we go.

This depended on whether they were going to play 90s tunes or 00s tunes. From what I'd gathered, both were playing 90s the previous week. 

They began with "Elysium", a 1999 tune but was played a lot in the early 21st century. Then came "Fly Away" by Visa, another 90s record so I went to the bar to buy another beer. The moment I bought my beer was the moment they played a 21st century tune. Fortunately it was "24-7" by Eclipse, which is one of the tunes I like from that era.

Sadly they stuck to the 21st century from then on. Having paid £7 for my beer I was going to at least stay until I'd drunk that. The tunes I was hearing were a good illustration of why hardcore went shit in the 21st century. I did notice the room getting emptier too so I wasn't the only one who thought that. 

Once I'd finished my beer they were playing "Eye Opener", a 90s tune but what sounded like a 21st century remix. We then left. I guess you can't fault them for playing what they did, it was part of the history of The Sanctuary. It's just not my thing and the reason why I stopped going to upfront hardcore events in the first place.

Overall it was a good event and whilst the world has changed too much to truly recreate the 90s, it was as good as can be expected. 

The Sanctuary Milton Keynes

This summer marks 20 years since The Sanctuary in Milton Keynes closed its doors for good. The actual anniversary has now passed as it was in July, but I thought it would still be an idea to write about it.

The story of The Sanctuary begins in December 1991 when ESP needed a bigger venue than Milwaukee's to hold their raves as they were getting more popular. The Sanctuary had just been built for industrial purposes but fell victim to the recession. ESP owner Murray Beetson found a use for it by putting on raves there and Dreamscape was born.

In 1993 Helter Skelter started holding raves there too having also previously held raves at Milwaukee's. Several other promotors started using The Sanctuary too and it quickly became known as the raving capital of the UK. On New Years Eve 1994 Dreamscape 15 vs 16 was held and it was named like that because they also opened up the Rollers Warehouse next door to expand the rave even further. Helter Skelter followed suit in 1996.

As someone who wasn't quite old enough to go out to the raves at the time I started building up this idealistic view of the place. I'd get the flyers, listen to the tapes when I'd hear the whistles and horns and wished I was there. I also heard the MCs shout out to the Birkenhead crew many times, sounded like it was a great raving community.

When I was almost 18 I finally went to The Sanctuary. All I had to go off was a small snippet of a map on the flyer to find it. First thing I established is you don't got to Milton Keynes train station, you go to Bletchley. Once I got off the train I felt a lot more confident about finding it because pretty much everyone else who got off the train seemed to be going there.

One thing the flyers always said was "friendly security". Shortly after arriving in the queue I thought I dread to think what unfriendly security would be like. What stood out was a bouncer who looked like MC Magika barking orders at everyone.

Once inside I did find a few reasons why it lived up to its hype. Hearing the music out loud, having the DJs and MCs there in front of you, shaking hands with DJ Brisk once he'd finished his set (have since shook many DJs hands). Downstairs was big, upstairs was compact and each had their own charm.

One other thing that gave The Sanctuary it's character though was the fact it was a complete shit hole. At the end of the night I probably had just as much dirt on my trousers as I would have in a muddy field on a rainy night. There were also bits of ceiling that would fall down on you. 

When Helter Skelter held the Millennium Jam, all attendees got a free video about the history of Helter Skelter. On it, DJ Hype says how Milton Keynes is conveniently in the middle of the country which means its convenient for people from all over the country to get to, all the way from Manchester to London and that. Not so convenient when you move to Newcastle like I did.

It wasn't very convenient public transport wise when I lived much closer to Milton Keynes though. As I've mentioned, it was near Bletchley station. The trains from there go to London, but northbound they only go as far as Northampton. There was also quite a gap between the rave ending and the first train leaving in the morning. It was during one of these long waits that I once found myself in one of the waiting rooms with the Birkenhead crew. It wasn't a pleasant experience.

I did drive there once. The flyers did say secure parking available. Fortunately by this point there was plenty of information on the internet that taught me that cars got broke into pretty much every time there was a rave. It would also happen to cars in the B&Q car park across the road and to a lesser extent in the Tesco car park a bit further along. I therefore turned off one of the many roundabouts nearby and went into a residential area to park. On leaving the rave I saw some smashed car windows in the B&Q car park, but my car was fine so was the right decision.

By the time The Sanctuary closed in 2004 it had been some time since I'd last attended. A combination of not being into the newer music and moving to Newcastle being the main reason. I was still in my early 20s which felt too young to be strictly old skool. When I did go to The Sanctuary though, many of the other ravers there clearly weren't old enough to have gone when it first opened in 1991. 

Quite how many people there were who attended both the first and last event I'll probably never know. There were however 11 DJs and the first event and 6 of those played at the last one.