For their 8th Birthday, Gatecrasher had a theme where everyone who came had to wear a hat. There were some crazy hats of all kind, and even Armin joined in and wore one that a few fans had made.
WOW! What an amazing night. We arrived at around 10.30pm to be greeted by a top class Gatecrasher sound system. As we walked in the atmosphere was absolutely amazing and I could tell straight away this was going to be one fantastic night. The theme for The lineup:
Nick Riley 8pm - 10pm Eddie Halliwell 10pm - 11.30pm Armin van Buuren 11.30pm - 1.00am Judge Jules 1am - 2.30am Fergie 2.30am - 4.00am Paul van Dyk 4.00am - 6.00am Scott Bond & Matt Hardwick - Back 2 Back 6.00am - 8am (hehe.. they didn’t want to stop and carried on till 8.30)
Eddie Halliwell played a rather funky set to get the crowd going. He set a great atmosphere, and got the crowd ready for some serious clubbing! It was fantastic when he grabbed the microphone and shouted: 'we got 300 students moved in next door, all wanting to go to sleep, make some noise Gatecrasher and wake em up !' Which was followed by some more fantastic, what can only be described as tech-house tunes. At this time we were meeting and greeting people in the foyer. Above the stairs that leads to the main stage, there is a huge screen above where the camera is on the DJ booth.
As Armin came on stage the atmosphere was immense. More and more fans were arriving, and it was time we left the foyer and made our way to the main dance floor. Armins set was pure uplifting from the word go, and there were huge cheers as he started off his set.. playing tracks such as Prime Mover - The Weapon (Grinder Mix), Armin van Buuren - Yet Another Day, Cosmic gate feat. Jan Johnston – Raging. Absolute moments of pure euphoria as he brought in Gouryella – Ligaya. Everyone with arms raised in the air dancing as hard as they could to this amazing tune. Hearing a DJ spin a track such as Gouryella - Ligaya on a system such as Gatecrasher's is incredible. He also played a track called Nitromethane - Time to Die (Seraque Mix), which received a great response earlier this week on his radio show ASOT. And towards the end Pulser - Cloudwalking was played. His mixing was spot on throughout the whole set, and it was great too see that he was having just as good a time as we all were.
The dance floor was packed with trance lovers, lots of which were sitting on the rails of the podiums dancing away. The lasers and lights at Gatecrasher are absolutely amazing. The DJ booth was high off the ground so the DJ can see far across the dance floor. The dance floor was surrounded with balconies filled with dancers. I had to take a minute to look around and really appreciate it all. To sum up, Gatecrasher is one fantastic club!
It was Judge Jules who stepped up next. The first half of his set was excellent. He dropped some super tunes such as Drugface – cuntmaster (uberdruck remix), Umek - Gatex, DJ Elite - Fuct Camera. Towards the end of his set though I felt the tracks he were playing started to bring the great mood down that he had created, and he lost the flow of the set. But... Umek - Gatex on a loud system sounds mint! ;)
As it approached 2.30am Fergie entered the DJ Booth, and before you knew it Gatecrasher was filled with Hard Techno that he has been so fond of recently. I have to say I was quite disappointed with Fergie. His mixing was off, and the tracks he were playing did not do justice to the great reputation that techno has built up. Some of the friends I was with labeled his style for this night as "fake techno." Nevertheless, the music was still hard and everyone still danced, and he did play Chemical Bros – Hoops, which if you remember got huge applauds at Loveparade earlier this year when Sasha played it.
Finally... at exactly 4.01am Paul van Dyk emerged. The place erupted with cheers, and arena was filled with an air of expectancy... And let me tell you now... he delivered!!! Paul van Dyk started his set as he meant to go on with Nu-NRG - Butterfly, a very uplifting track. Going by his standards, his set was hard, and he turned the bass up high, which sounded amazing on the Gatecrasher sound system. Quite early on in his set he dropped Sasha - Wavy Gravy (Paul van Dyk Edit) a track that has brought about a lot of talk amongst Paul van Dyk fans. This is my second time of hearing Paul play this track, and hear it from me.. It's total quality. In fact, he was going to play it on his radio show at Radio Fritz a week back but had actually left the cdr at a club called Slinky in Bournemouth :-( A little bit further into his set he played Paul van Dyk - Nothing But You (aka Arctic) this for me was tune of the night. As i looked around, the fans were just as amazed as I was that we had the privilege of hearing this masterpiece. The vocals, which are from Hemstock & Jennigs tune called Arctic, are fantastic. He pitched it up high, and cranked up the bass, and the buildup is like no other. As it kicked lights were flashing all over at us and people were dancing like this was the last night in clubbing history. This tune is the reason I was aching all over the next day :-) As if this wasn't enough, this was followed by Sun Decade - I'm Alone (Ronski Speed Dub) which i'm sure everyone has heard by now and knows how uplifting this is. A little further into the set, for a second I thought I heard for an angel. A few tracks later and he bought it in, I established that he must have been teasing us by sampling it a few tracks back. However.. then the lyrics from Delerium - Silence came in and we all quickly realised that it was PvD vs. Delerium - For An Angel vs. Silence (Bootleg). Paul also went onto play Rapid Eye - Circa Forever (Rapid Eye`s R.E.Mix), and Nu-NRG - Supersonic. My next big surprise was when I thought I heard the intro to Nu-NRG - Dreamland. I all of a sudden became very excited. I shouted to a few random people dancing with me as loud as I could "DREAMLAND" and they too became very excited. And that was it... out of nowhere Paul just slammed the fader across and brought it in. This was also one of best moments of my night. I looked at my watch and it was nearly time for Paul van Dyk to leave. He played MMDC - No More Rain followed by his set finisher Ghostland feat. Sinead O'Connor - Guide Me God (Paul Van Dyk Remix). This track was played to finish of his Radio Fritz set last week, which is another tune that has caused a lot of talk amongst Paul’s fans. His set in one word was MINT! His mixing was spot on and the tracks he played were of top quality. As Scott Bond entered the booth Paul van Dyk did his classic little wave and quickly departed.
I thought to myself as i’m sure others did too, how are Scott Bond & Matt Hardwick going to follow an act like that. Well I won’t keep you in suspense. They did it. And with style to! They followed Paul’s set with some rather hard trancers as to not ruin the flow, one of which I remember was Marco V - Atlanta 020202. There mixing was absolutely perfect, and they started to play some uplifters that I had never heard before. They supplied the crowd with tunes that made us able to find the energy to keep dancing. I was amazed by there set. They combined new with old, hard with uplifting, and amazing epics such as BT - Flaming June. And for the second time that night, we got to hear Gouryella - Ligaya again :-) Other tracks played included Armin van Buuren - Yet Another Day, Three drives – Carrera 2, Miss Shiva - Dreams, Oceanlab ft Justine Suissa - Sky Falls Down (Armin Mix). Another track I’d like to point out in more detail is Svenson & Gielen – answer the question (Svesnon & Gielen remix). I was amazed how great this sounded with such high bass and such fast pitch. Crazy tune! As the set came to a finish I just didn’t want it to end.. EVER! People were starting to leave now. But I think it was Hardwick who jumped on the microphone wanting more. They put Push – universal nation (ferry corsten remix) on. I have not heard this track for so long, and I got goosebumps. Once again the set came to an end and I wanted to cry :-( But wait.. There was still more to come. They played Planet Perfecto feat. Grace - Not Over Yet (Matt Darey Remix), a classic and memorable tune of 1999. By this time I had been awake for over 36 hours, but just couldn't stop dancing. I think it was at this point that Hardwick grabbed the microphone and shouted out: "f**k it we're going on till 9." haha :-) This was followed by Energy 52 - Cafe Del Mar (Marco V Remix), Rank 1 – airwave, Ayla - Ayla, and to finish off this amazing night played Chicane - Autumn Tactics. They wanted to go on, and left the crowd literally shouting for "one more, one more, one more," but Gatecrasher pulled the plug on them. haha.
After recovering from this, me and some friends were discussing what we had just experienced, and agreed that this goes down as the best night in clubbing history. The night was just fantastic. The club was awesome; the DJ's were fantastic, the lights, the system... all incredible!!!
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