A drum 'n' bass tinged outing at the premiere oldskool night

Another Flashback, another great set from resident GLEN ASTON. Despite all the hype surrounding it, it's actually quite rare and thus a treat to hear "Mr Kirk's Nightmare" getting played out, and it was a crying shame that this guy has to be stuck on at the beginning when he regularly outperforms his 'superiors'.

Yet if Pilgrim is regularly uplifting, it's amazing how RATTY can continue to play the same sort of rubbish time in, time out that can only be adequately described as 'shit'. Sorry, but for all the time he was on the sounds coming out of the speakers were half d'n'b, half white noise. The crowd were not up for it (and I'll tell you that for nothing) and despite playing the same sort of depressing dirge last time with minimal crowd enjoyment, he continued to pursue the same musical style this time, obviously not having learnt from previous mistakes. I would urge Flashback not to book this guy again for an oldskool room. Please.

I also blame him for ruining the NEBULA II set for me; after 90 mins of mind-numbing tedium, what was quite a good P.A.by the 'peacemakers' was made more difficult to listen to as I had grown mentally tired. Still, I can't complain about the live set itself, filled with the tracks you'd have expected them to play. It's always nice to see a lesser-known oldskool outfit still parading their wares! :-)

MICKEY FINN's a cheeky blighter, innit? Throws in the odd well-known classic and then chooses to ally these with stuff like Kemet Crew's 1995 "The Box Re-opens"  ('Flashback - the ultimate oldskool revival 1989-93'...hmm). Good set though, as the beats, bass and rhymes were well-picked, and it moved along 1,000,000 times faster than The Rodent Boy. It would have been nice if he dropped something by Urban Shakedown, though. Otherwise, not bad.

Finally, we had Ellis Dee, and no, he didn't play "Roughneck Business" either! Starting with an obviously well-worn copy of "Lock Up" he pursued a d'n'b / oldskool hybrid of a theme, with various classics interwoven with obviously post-'93 cuts. He did, at least, mix it up well, and that he ended with "Euphoria (Nino's Dream)" shows that he had more respect for the people than most of his peers this night.

To sum up: not the best FB so far for me, though certainly not the worst. Ratty should be replaced with someone like Sy (if possible) and DJs must not be allowed to play d'n'b which contravenes the whole ethos of 'oldskool hardcore'. See you next time!