[ CTW Meet-up ] Gatecrasher Weekender (13th - 13th April 2002)

[Lia]

Thats no probs! I will have to meet you all again soon, properly! My photos could take longer to get as they have taken i little tour round Manchester, my mates took my camera by accident.

[Freano]

Alright again everyone, have not been on for a few days.

Big up to Creamy me and him did last all night.

Scot project was out of this world too, it was like a proper rave at like 5 in the morning thanks to him, what a banger. Picotto was almost to hard and technoey for me. Was a truely great night, big up Tara and Soph , great to meet you guys and Dinger, Sorry i missed lia & JAne etc... Cheers James and Kev speak soon

And no i dont think dave pearce did do my shouts, any one here anything like clubthe world crew which i asked him to big it up for.

[CreamyC]

I haven't had much time to write a full review about Gatecrasher, not because I've been busy, just because I've been a lazy shite piece the last few days! I've also got this stinking [censored] headache that hasn't pissed off since I nearly died in James's car on the way home coz he nearly fell asleep at the wheel! Cheerz James, they were brand new Calvin Kleins I was wearing and you certainly made me christen them, they are now buried somewhere!!

Anyway, what happened to Dave Pearce and our shouts?? As soon as I got the text from Rob I was straight on the radio, admittedly I fell asleep in the bath so I would've missed it anyway but thats not the point, he never did it and because of that I may not go to see him at Camden on Friday just out of principle! Coz I'm like that!

GATECRASHER - Superb!

THE NEWLY FORMED CLUBTHEWORLD CREW - Even Superber

Okay, I'm going to take my 500th pill (anadins Tara, not what you think /images/icons/wink.gif ) and see if this bastard headache will do one!

Bite me!

[Freano]

Nice oen Chedda - Scot Project did kick it hard and i was dancing the whole way through too. So Good!

[James]

Review by @Chedda - chedda@ush.net

I arrived there at about 9:30 and walked round to the venue from the station. The security had set up two queues, one for ticket holders and one for non-ticket holders. I had my ticket so I joined the ticket queue which wasn't that long, and I was inside within ten minutes. I was given a reasonable search and I headed into the arena.

The first arena that I went in was pretty big (roughly the size of the sanctuary), and this wasn't even the main arena! On the decks was new Gatecrasher resident Nick Riley. I still had my bag and so I joined the cloakroom queue which went straight through the middle of the arena. The great thing about this was that everyone was dancing in the queue while they were waiting to put their coats in, so it wasn't really like queuing up at all.

Once I had dropped my bag off I went into the main arena for a bit (near the front in the middle of course) to listen to Matt Hardwick's set. He was playing it a little bit weak but it was still good to listen to. I reckon the main arena must hold at least 8000, as it's bigger than any indoor arena I've ever been in, even Bowlers.

I then met up my mates Jake, Sam and Pete and we headed off into one of the other two arenas. I checked the lineup times and was well chuffed to see that the three DJs who I really wanted to see on this night didn't clash so I could see them all. We then went off to one of the other arenas to see Talla 2XLC play. I'd never see him play before this but I'd seen his name on loads of Gatecrasher lineups in the past. He did a decent set and played a remix of "Catch" by Kosheen and he also played the wicked new "X ray (follow me)" by Spacefrog.

I then went to meet up Smithers and his mate Russell and we went back into the same arena to see Tiesto play. He started off playing it quite soft with a lot of floaty type vocals, but then got going in the second half of his set. He played his brilliant new tune "Lethal Industry" and finished off with "Gatex" by Umek, possibly the scariest and most atmospheric tune EVER.

The DJ who I most wanted to see was Mr BXR, the Lizard man Mauro Picotto and he came next at 2am. Mauro doesn't play that often in the UK so his sets really are worth seeing. I'm a massive fan of his but the main reason I love his stuff is because it's so unpredictable and ground breaking. Hard house, trance, hardcore, in fact most styles of dance music follow a set formula (not that this is necessarily a bad thing) but Mauro just seems to throw the rule book right out of the window. His tunes and sets have no pre-defined structure, and he's one of the only DJs I know where I can genuinely say I don't know what's coming next.

His set was dark all the way through, with breakdowns that came in out of nowhere, and had some wicked sounds and percussion in. I hadn't really heard any of it before because Picotto is consistently making new stuff. One of the best tunes that he played was one with a long breakdown and loads of South Park samples in. He also played "Gatex" for his last tune.

The final set of the night was Scot Project and he was even better than Mauro was. He played some brilliant hard trance with unbelievable breakdowns and some of the most powerful and amazing riffs I have ever heard. He kept rolling out tune after tune and I was dancing right up until the end.

The line up here was obviously impressive, and another thing which made this night was the production. When Mauro came on there were loads of fireworks and flames let off above the stage, and there were ticker tapes explosions throughout the night as well.

There were projection screens behind the stages in all the rooms, and green lasers too. The sound system in the main arena was very good, and I couldn't stand too close to the front because it was that loud it made my ears ache. /images/icons/smile.gif

The people here were great too. There were loads of cool UV and cyber outfits, and at Birmingham International station the next morning I saw one girl in pink fluffy cyber gear and roller blades, and she was skating around the station. How cool is that? /images/icons/smile.gif

Mauro Picotto said in an interview recently that the Gatecrasher NEC events are the best indoor events the UK and he was spot on. Indoor events don't come any bigger than this, in terms of lineups and production, and these events really do have a huge event feel to them. The NEC is the best dance venue I've ever been to, even better than Fantasy Island, and I think Gatecrasher will be here for a long time to come.

Shouts to Smithers, Russell, Jake, Sam, Pete and Rachael.

@Chedda 😄

 

[CreamyC]

Now thats how you write a review!!!!!!

 

[club monkeys]

why arent there any pics on here from the NEC??

[Tara]

Coz James wasn't allowed to bring his digital camera in!

Me and Soph got some photo's but as we're pretty shite at using computers we're still trying to work out how to email them!

[club monkeys]

o ok yeh i think i remember seeing a sign about no digital cameras, i've got some but they didnt turn out very well, let me know when you get your up coz i would really like to c them

 

thanx x

[Sophie]

yeh cool! i will try and sort them out and send them to james but not shure how to e mial them!!!

[James]

At the end of the day it's GateCrashers loss - we will always be able to get more photos of us, the members, on LOADS more nights out - I was just fecked off that so many people had made such an effort to dress up and I have no record of it. I guess I was mainly fecking annoyed cause some people WERE allowed digis in and it make a mockery of the rule.

 

There's always next time... (possibly?)

 

James

[jane]

Hey hey!! I'm back, for the moment anyway (just sneaked on the internet between doin coursework!) Gatecrasher was unreal! I had 1 of the best nights in my whole clubbing lifetime, ok, its fair to say that by the end of the night i was fcuked out of my little face but i loved every minute! Im gutted that i didn't actually get to meet any of you after speakin to Creamy and James on the way down but theres always next time!

Tiesto played a blinder but the funniest moment was when Sanchez just came on and started playin the song (sing along with me now)........ "Music is the answer to your problem....." and the speakers blew! He looked gutted! Even world class djs can have nightmare sets not just us beginners!

Anyways, i just wanted to say that i had a blinder and i can't wait til next time! I'll see you all there