Take an aveage University student with a passion for good music, give him 2x free entries to the North-East's best promotion's event, and mix gently, Cook in the Oven for 4-10 hours, and you have a guy ready to bring you a report! Here's one courtesy of Mike!

Promise Vs Goodgrief - 30th May 2004 @ Ikon, Newcastle. 2pm – 2am

Line-up:

Anton Fielding
Richard Tulip
Adam Sheridan
Ferry Corsten
Scott Bond (Absent)
Nu-Nrg - Live
Scot Project
Eddie Halliwell
Anne Savage
Rob Tissera
Alex Kidd

As I entered Ikon to the sublime as always progressive groove from Promise resident Richard Tulip the first thing that shocked me was the spectacularly impressive light show that Promise & GG had set up. A huge multicoloured laser scattered light across the whole dance floor while at least 6 strobe lights flickered on and off to the beat. After adjusting my eyes to this array of visual treats I listened to Tulip kick start the night with his own brand of progressive house and trance that had the already ample crowd despite it being 3 o’clock in the afternoon simmering nicely.

Next up was Adam Sheridan, and as the crowd cheered for the Paul van Dyk backed youngster he carried on where Tulip had left off with some progressive trance that was being kicked out by the massive sound system that had been set up especially for the night. As the line up for this night was primarily of a harder edged nature Adam didn’t stick around with the prog for long and within a few tracks of starting was already dropped Ronski Speed – E.O.S. and Paul van Dyk’s Crush which broke down to rapturous applause and cheers. He then continued on a more energetic tip showing his hand with a techier vibe with tracks from Mark Norman, Sam Sharp before showing off the new Jesper Dahlbäck track which every1 recognised due to the similar style as Murder Was The Bass.

With the now sizeable crowd well and truly warmed, it was time for the headline DJ, Ferry Corsten. As his name was announced by the Goodgrief promoter the crowd cheered and Ferry dropped Kyoto. He continued with his new remix of Synaesthesia which had everyone cheering, although I personally found it a little uninspiring if not well made. His Force Of Gravity bootleg again went down well as well as a few other tracks off his album, right before hitting everyone with his legendary Barber’s Adagio For Strings remix. The crowd was a mass of waving hands as the still awe inspiring strings kicked in. After that Ferry had the crowd in the palm of his hand continuing with all his own tracks bar 2, one of which being the new Marco V track Automanual which sounded absolutely amazing on the huge sound system there. Everyone seemed to enjoy the Dutch trance don’s set, although it seemed to me as Ferry is trying to follow Tiesto down the self promotion line of tracklists. Ending with Punk which as ever had the crowd singing.

After Ferry had been cheered off (after which he spent quite some time meeting his fans, signing autographs and having pictures taken) it was next time for Nu-Nrg to take to the stage for their live PA. To be honest I wasn’t expecting much as in the past my experience from live PA’s have been very uninspiring, largely staged and often lacklustre when compared to the original tracks, but as they started their first track is was obvious that this would be different. Although not as much of it was actually “live” as first appeared they still obviously knew what they were doing and delivered a good performance. Mixing up some of their classics such as Supersonic, Dreamland & Connective with some new material and a couple of more chilled tracks they kept the crowd pumping and were very entertaining to watch.

As they departed the stage the hard trance master Scot Project was introduced and he started with the hard techy beat of Cosmic Gate’s remix of the 92 classic Age Of Love. He then continued to bombard the crowd with hard trance reworks of classic tunes, next up was what seemed like a Scot Project/Arome remix of Planet Perfecto’s huge Not Over Yet and followed that up with a hard trance work over of The Orange Theme. He finally ended the classics remixes with a brand new bootleg of Prodigy’s seminal classic Smack My Bitch Up teamed together with his own Arome branded Hands Up! Which had that exact effect on the crowd with the now close to 2000 strong crowd reaching for the red and green laser that was circling above them. Frank Zenker continued on with his heart pounding hard trance showcasing the new as yet untitled Arome track as well as the unreleased remix of FM (Feelin’ Me) and his latest remix of Cockroaches. Ending on Rock and not Overdrive was a rather disappointing surprise to myself although I know a lot of people are now sick of hearing it in everyone of his sets, but despite this it was still my favourite set of the night.

As the dreadlocked hard trance favourite was winding down Rock the crowd were already emphatically shouting Eddie, Eddie, Eddie. In anticipation of the king of Bosh, Eddie Halliwell next up on the decks. As he was announced as being the new Radio 1 DJ the smile on his face was as big as on the hoards of girls who had run to the front to see him. As he fired up the crowd with some pounding techno and his usual jaw dropping turntablism there was an electric atmosphere in the club. A few tracks into his set and he dropped the Tiesto remix of Barber’s Adagio For Strings, and as the track started to pick up from the breakdown he made full use of the pioneer cdj1000’s sampling function, stretching out the build up for an extra minute or so which had the crowd in an absolute frenzy when it finally kicked in. The stomping kick and bassline was really put on show by the huge rack of speakers either side of the DJ booth. As his set continued he kept the crowd at fever pitch with his usual blend of techno, hard trance and hard house with more tricks than up a wizard’s sleeve.

With Eddie finished the temperature of the club at a near unbearable heat, there was definitely a decent air conditioning system missing from Ikon. Up next to finish out the night were Anne Savage, Rob Tissera and Alex Kidd and although hard dance isn’t my thing at all, they all had the crowd moving right till the very end.

All in all this was a hugely successful night for both Promise & Goodgrief. The lighting and sound system were awesome and there wasn’t a weak link in the line up all night. A decent turn out that nearly had the club at capacity enjoyed a plethora of styles and genres mixed together that left everyone I saw with a smile on their face. The only minus points that spring to mind are the absence of Scott Bond, although I guess he was just too busy with the opening of his new night in Sheffield, and also the serious lack of air conditioning. Apart from that though I congratulate Promise & Goodgrief on an excellent afternoon and evening and look forward to their next planned party!

Huge thanks to Lee from Promise for making this possible, top stuff mate :)