Nex Level@The Que Club, Birmingham (Suggested Items...)

Member Name: CIDDJO

Product:	Suggested Items...
Date:	09/10/01 (56 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: drum and bass music

Disadvantages: no chill-out room, false advertising, lazy DJs

Nex Level@The Que Club, Birmingham - 22/09/01

It looked to be an absolutely awesome night of drum and bass with a list as long as your arm of legendary DNB DJs like Ray Keith, Andy C, Brockie and so it goes on. It was to be all nighter (10pm-6am) in celebration of my best friend's 21st birthday and as it got closer there was an almighty build up of excitement and enthusiasm, I thought someone was going to explode, namely myself (ok, a bit of an exaggeration). Being a regular at Flashback, an underground dance event also held at the legendary Que Club, I was sure that Nex Level would prove to be just as good, if not better. The venue is superb containing:

- One massive main arena with a stage and balconies that is always well decorated in neon designs
- Two smaller arenas for slightly smaller name DJs and the less popular genres of dance music
- An enormous seated chill-out area with a juice bar
- A cafe selling fast food, a range of fruit and snacks
- Lots of flushing toilets that actually have...drumroll....toilet paper
- A number of bars selling alcohol until 2am
- Tight security and paramedics should anything go wrong.

When we arrived in Birmingham at about 11.30pm after a 50 mile drive, it was a surprise to be able to park right outside of the club - normally the closest available parking is about ten minutes walk away. There wasn't a queue so we went straight in for the vigorous frisking from security and then up the stairs into the body of the venue. Weirdly enough the two smaller arenas were closed off with temporary metal fencing and there wasn't the usual traffic jam of ecstatic giggling ravers in the foyer area. It was eerily quiet except for the skeleton rattling sub bass that was emitting from the main arena, which was where we all raced like ants to our queen.

Drum and Bass God, Ray Keith, was halfway through his set and there were about fifty people in a room with a capaci
ty of just under a thousand (it appeared that most of that fifty were on the guest list). It was pretty bare to say the least although it provided the opportunity to dance without jumping on anyone's toes, which I suppose was a bonus. For the last twenty five minutes of the set Ray Keith was barely visible - he seemed to be spending most of his time chatting to the crew at the side of the stage rather than mixing records. Quite a few times he beat mixed one record into another and then left that record spinning, there was no sign of his trade mark mixing genius. The set, or what I saw of it, seemed really lazy and i'd guess that the poor turn out wasn't exactly encouraging him to do better.

According to the line-up on the door outside the main arena, Ray Keith was supposed to be mixing back to back with Andy C but I certainly didn't see anything like that unless it happened at the beginning of Ray Keith's set (which would be a bit unusual, back to back normally happens all the way through the set or towards the end). Ray Keith redeemed himself slightly by finishing in style with Renegade Terrorist, track one on his Vintage Dread CD. The enormous stack spewed out the filthy bass underneath that well known just in tune piano motif, and everyone drowned in waves of musical exultation.

Next in line was Andy C (not back to back!) and he seemed even more unenthused than Ray Keith, he spent way too long choosing his records and not enough time mixing and manipulating them. By this time the complete lack of energy from the DJs was rubbing off onto us so we went for a wander around the Que Club, heading for the chill-out room (I wondered if that was where everyone was hiding themselves!) but alas it was shut and padlocked. So much for the seated chill-out area advertised on the flyer!

Arena Two was even more of a joke being situated on the back of the main arena in a spacious bar. The sounds from the main arena we
re bleeding through into arena two (where the sound system was about a quater of the size of that in the main arena) and caused a nasty collision between beats and bass that was indistinguishable as any kind of tune. Arena three which was just off the corridor that runs alongside the main arena wasn't as bad, although i certainly wouldn't call it an arena as was advertised - I've seen bigger toilets. The tunes were audible and there was more energy in there than anywhere else in the building. We had finally found out where everyone else was hiding - all five of them!

I realise that this opinion seems extremely negative and cynical but when one has paid £16 plus booking fee for a ticket, £20 on petrol and wasted time travelling up there and back, it does tend to make one extremely bitter. The night wasn't as advertised:

- There wasn't a seated chill-out area - there was a cafe with seats but it was more chilly zone than chill-out (there were loads of drafts!)
- There was one arena and two rooms playing music, not three arenas as advertised
- The music in one of the rooms was inaudible due to bad positioning so really there was one arena and one room playing what was audible as music.

£16 plus booking fee isn't easy to get hold of when you're a student like myself and the rest of my group of ravers. It was also a major disappointment to the birthday girl (you're only 21 once) and I was ashamed to have suggested that we go there. We ended up leaving about two hours after arriving because it was that bad - so much for an all nighter.

I did actually e-mail the organisers of the event alerting them to the fact that I was really disappointed with the whole affair and that they falsely advertised as I have written above. Unfortunately they didn't seem particularly bothered as they haven't replied. This event was particularly badly organised and gives the Drum and Bass scene a dyi
ng reputation but DRUM AND BASS LIVES ON.

Summary: