United Dance @ Stevenage Arts & Leisure Centre, Stevenage 13/10/1995

 

Scott Brown

For the 4th time this year we're at United Dance at Stevenage Arts & Leisure Centre. No album launch this time though, the next United Dance album wouldn't be out until 1996.

The set I've posted for this event is the one from Scott Brown. He was seemingly making the vast majority of hardcore tunes coming out of Scotland but rarely ventured south of the border back then. As far as I remember this the first event featured this year to feature him aside from Rezerection which was in Scotland and where there wasn't a Scott Brown tape.

The burning question is does he stick to the Scottish and Dutch records or is he playing English records too? Well on the tape at least it's 100% Scottish tunes. Further to that, there's only one tune in he set that he had no involvement in making.

On the other side of the Scott Brown tape is Clarkee who's set is predominantly Dutch. 

Elsewhere on the flyer but not on the tapes we have Jason Jay & Mikey B (formerly Top Buzz). Both had moved onto the garage scene by this point whilst Top Buzz quietly disappeared, but this was confirmation they were no more.

There are more hardcore sets than drum & bass sets, but we have an equal number of new for 1995 tunes for each genre, though the number for each was a bit thin on the ground.

These are the new for 1995 hardcore tunes:

Force & Styles - Dancing Through The Night

Edit V - 2 1/2 Hours

DJ Ham - It Would Be

Cytronix - On Your Knees

Terrible Twins - Just Like That

GSI - Let's Rock

The Beatsquad - Miles Of Smiles

Lockjaw - Not Tonight

With no new album to promote there was perhaps less incentive to play newer tunes at this event. The tune that appears most on the tapes is "Harmony" by Force & Styles which was played 3 times, helped by the fact Slipmatt played it twice.

These are the new for 1995 drum & bass tunes:

B-Jam - Show Me

Dead Dred - Come On Baby

Gang Related - Big Time

Mental Power - Red

Shogun - Wind Dancer

Firefox - Buck Rogers

Skool Of Hard Knocks - The Stush

Daz - Identity

For one we don't have "The Lighter" or "Hearing Is Believing" as the most played tune. That honour goes to "This Style" by Shy FX which appears in 3 of the 4 sets.

There would be a further 2 United Dance events in 1995, but neither will feature due to clashes with other events. More on that when the time comes.

United Dance @ Stevenage Arts & Leisure Centre, Stevenage 11/08/1995

 

Ratty

For the 3rd time this year we're at United Dance. This night was for the launch of the 2nd album. The album once again was all happy hardcore but the event once again included drum & bass.

The fact it included drum & bass was a good thing because that meant it included this Ratty set that I've posted which is one of the best sets I've ever heard. It's a bit of a shame that hardcore and drum & bass became so separate which led to Ratty effectively being an old skool DJ because it really sounded like he was onto something here.

Just 4 of the 12 sets were drum & bass but we nearly had as many new for 1995 drum & bass tunes as we did hardcore. These were:

Rude Bwoy Monty - Warp 10

DJ Hype & Ganja Max - Pum Pum Mus Smoke Ganja

Funky Element - Hip Hop Junkies

Gang Related & Mask - Soldier

DJ Biggs - Sunrize

Northern Connexion - Spanish Guitar

The Outsider - Black Remix

The Sentinel - Genesis

Soundcraft - Deep Sub

Once again though it's "Hearing Is Believing" by MA2 which gets the most plays appearing 3 times on the tapes.

Hardcore wise one may expect the tune selection to more or less match the album but it doesn't quite. There are some tunes that appear both at this night and on the album, but there are also several tunes on the album that as far as I can tell were yet to make their rave debut.

The Seduction set begins with "All You Bastards" by fellow United Dance promoter Eruption, but that would be the opening track to the 3rd album at the beginning of 1996.

These are the new for 1995 tunes hardcore wise:

Scott Brown & Omar Santana - Ain't It Wild

Wedlock - Ganjaman

Knightvision - Knight Of Visions

Hixxy & Chuff – Smoogee’s Asleep (Again!!)

Billy Bunter & D-Zyne - Ride like the Wind

Sub-State - Another Day

The Timespan & Krazy Fresh 2 - Shout Now

Eruption - All You Bastards

DJ Seduction - In The Mix

2 Left Feet - Never Let You Go

Sy & Unknown - Report To The Dancefloor

Tom Thumb - Superman 

The tunes "Ride Like the Wind" by Billy Bunter & D-Zyne and "In The Mix" by Seduction would be played at lot at raves following this.

The tune that got the most plays hardcore wise was "Toytown" by Hixxy & Sharkey which appeared in 5 of the 8 sets including a surprise appearance in the Clarkee set.

This event was featured on the TV show BPM on ITV. Much of the footage came from the Vibes set, but not the opening tune "Wonderful Days" by Charly Lownoise & Mental Theo. That was one of my favourites at the time and I had it on a set a mate mixed for me and on "A Nightmare In Rotterdam". It was also a Top 10 hit in Holland, but I think this is the first time I've heard it at any of the raves I've featured so far this year,

The show also has footage of Dougal and Hixxy doing the Essential Platinum live PA where they are playing "Toytown". I'm not convinced they're actually doing anything on the keyboards though. There was also an interview with them and it's weird hearing that Dougal had been DJing just 5 years but made to sound like 5 years was a long time.

Also on the TV footage was an interview with promoters Seduction and Eruption who were referred to as their actual names John and Chris.

United Dance @ Stevenage Arts & Leisure Centre, Stevenage 16/06/1995

 

Swanne

For the 2nd time in 1995 we are at United Dance at the Stevenage Arts & Leisure Centre. This time we're here for the launch of the first in the United Dance compilation series which was released the following Monday.

These compilations were happy hardcore ones and were pretty big in the rave scene at the time. They were even big enough to get advertised on the TV.

The series went up to number 6 in 1997, but by the end of that year Eruption who ran United Dance was clearly losing interest in happy hardcore and started including house DJs like Brandon Block and Alex P on the line up as well as forming Ruff Driverz with Bradley Carter.

Slipmatt would mix a couple of anthems compilations covering 88-92 and 92-97 before United Dance got sold to Slammin Vinyl and become more of a drum & bass and UK garage specialist which included them releasing a UK garage compilation in 2000.

All 5 DJs, Slipmatt, DJ SY, Seduction, Dougal and Vibes who mixed the first compilation appeared on this night. Interestingly though the sets for all these DJs differ a fair bit tune wise to the compilation. The DJ SY set has the biggest overlap of 4 tunes, Seduction has 2, Dougal and Vibes have 1 each and Slipmatt doesn't have any.

There was drum & bass at this night too albeit with few DJs than happy hardcore. The set I have posted is the Swanne set because this has both drum & bass and happy hardcore in it.

The drum & bass tune that appears the most is "The Lighter" by Sound of the Future which appears in every drum & bass set. These are the new for 1995 drum & bass tunes:

Dillinger - Believe The Bass

Lemon D - Jah Love

Xcelle - Why

Solution - What Can I Do?

L Double - All Lighter Massive

Raggadeath - Why Ask Why

Dr Wootang - Original Wootang

The happy hardcore tune which appear the most is "Toy Town" by Hixxy & Sharkey, no doubt I'll be saying this frequently for the rest of the year. These are the new for 1995 tunes:

Alchemist & Fade - Awakening

New Motion - Looking 4 Love

D-Zyne & DJ Fury - The Horny Raver

DJ Supreme & Sunset Regime  - Flying With The Rhythm

DJ Supreme & Sunset Regime - Sky

Force & Styles - All Over

Hardheads - I'm A Gabber Baby

The Director - Digital Revolution

Scott Brown - Turn This Mother Out

Cheddar - Cheddar III

New Motion - Break Release

Vibes & Wishdokta  - Motorway Madness

Seduction & Eruption - Bust The New Jam

Seduction & Eruption - Break It Down

Brothers In Crime - How Deep Is Your Love

M-Jay & Dan-Vee - The Sun Always Shines

DJ Isaac - Happy Hardcore Freak

The Director - Pump Up The Bass

Scott Brown - Systematic

Future Primitive - Ban This

Undercover Elephant - Short Fuser

Bass D & King Matthew - You Are My Destiny

Notable tunes on that list include the New Motion ones. They were the members of Force & the Evolution who weren't Force & Styles and this was the first release on UK Dance record which was owned by Force & Styles. The Force & Styles tune was the 2nd release.

Another one of note is "Motorway Madness" by Vibes & Wishdokta which I believe is the final yet to be heard Wishdokta tune before he went on to pioneer UK garage under his real name Grant Nelson.

As usual the Clarkee set was geared more towards the Dutch and Scottish records and there was still an overlap with what he was playing and what the happy hardcore DJs were playing. Brisk and Druid were very much happy hardcore but were very much geared towards the Dutch and Scottish records and the rest were more English tunes.

The next United Dance event would be in August ahead of the release of the 2nd compilation. 

United Dance @ Stevenage Arts & Leisure Centre, Stevenage 07/04/1995

 

Seduction

Hardcore Heaven wasn't the only rave that Seduction ran in the 90s. He also ran United Dance with Eruption.

United Dance began in March 1994 and this was event number 7. All the events to this point had been held at Stevenage Arts & Leisure Centre which is the venue United Dance is best remembered for being at. 

We have a mixture of happy hardcore and drum & bass but there was no doubt United Dance was leaning more towards happy hardcore. It was ran by 2 happy hardcore DJs and in 1995 they started putting out happy hardcore compilations.

The 6th and last of these compilations came out in 1997. By the end of that year Eruption started doing house music as part of Ruff Driverz and we had a United Dance event which included house DJs like Brandon Block and Alex P in the line up. By the end of the 90s with both Eruption and Seduction gone from the scene, United Dance was sold to Slammin Vinyl.

In the year 2000 under the ownership of Slammin Vinyl, United Dance released a UK garage compilation and happy hardcore had been pushed to the back room. 

Eruption was a big name in the 90s but I don't ever recall seeing him on a DJ line up. The fact he promoted an event himself and still wasn't on the line up suggests he was probably content with just being a producer and wasn't interested in being a DJ.

Seduction is on the line up though and I've included his set as it has more material we're hearing for the first time on this night. These are the happy hardcore new for 1995 tunes, the first seven appear in the Seduction set:

Vibes & Wishdokta - No More Tears

Rise & Shine - Give It To Me Baby

Rise & Shine - Loosing Control

Rise & Shine - Fire

Pooch & Wivvy - Think

DJs Unknown Vol.5

Eruption - There Goes The Boom!

Hixxy - TailorMade

DJ Red Alert & Mike Slammer - The Ride

Happy Tunes - I Want You Baby

Rave Nation - Going Crazy

Lockjaw - Deep In The Underground

Vibes & Wishdokta - Rave Is A Mystery

JDS - Stomp It Up

Stu J & U.F.O. - 2001 - Space Anthem

Ikon - Love Somebody Else

The Timespan & Bertie - Don't Mess

Scott Brown - Slipstream

Jimmy J & Cru-L-T - DJ's In Full Effect

DJ Slam - Misunderstanding

D-Zyne & DJ Fury - Timez 'R' Changin'

Bush Brothers - Nutta Trax Pt 2

DJ Storm vs Rebel Alliance - Come Together

There is a bit of a UK vs Europe going in in that list. "Going Crazy" by Rave Nation is the Dutch recreating "Six Days" by English DJs Jimmy J & Cru-L-T and "Rave Is A Mystery by Vibes & Wishdokta is the English recreating "Life Is A Mystery" by German DJ Eraserhead. Both of the tunes being cloned also appear in sets that night.

Most of the happy hardcore played was English, with Brisk being the DJ leaning the most towards the Scottish and Dutch tunes.

The most played happy hardcore tune of the night was "Higher Love" by JDS. This was played in 4 of the 7 recorded happy hardcore sets and first made an outing at Slammin Vinyl a month earlier.

Notable DJs on the line up who aren't on the tapes include Force without the Evolution or Styles who we'll no doubt hear on a tape at some point in 1995. We also have Unknown and this isn't the first time we've seen him on the line up but not on the tapes.

It's a short list for the new for 1995 drum & bass records:

Armagedon - Nina's Rinse

J.Pac - Do It

Dillinger - Tear Down

Danny Breaks - Easy Part 1

Ray Keith - Rinse

Source Direct - Different Groove

The Dream Team - Jump Around

Both "Rollidge" by DJ SS and "Hearing Is Believing" by MA2 appear in 4 of the 5 drum & bass sets. It's the latter though which appears the most because Ellis Dee plays it twice in his set. He also plays "The Lighter" by Sound of the Future twice. 

This event more or less represents my tastes back in the day i.e. I love both happy hardcore and drum & bass but had more of a leaning towards happy hardcore. No doubt another United Dance will feature before the end of the year.