Belfast Nye 2004 - 31.12.2004

New Years Eve, it's about your friends, not over priced DJ's and thousands of people packed into a sardine can. This year, it was also about Oliver Lieb! That's why we went to Belfast.

The tradition continues, Belfast returned yet again for a night of classic techno, trance & house music. Hardware has been at the forefront of Melbourne rave movement since word go in 1990. The demise of the ravers play ground 'Shed 14' may have left the old school rockers in a bit of a spin, although Hardware continue the tradition of hosting parties that make us remember why we did it in the first place. It's about the music, friends and the vibe.

After pushing my way through the crowds at Southbank for nearly an hour to get to QBH, I finally arrived at 12.45am. Just in time to see trance master Oliver Lieb prepare for what was to be the probably the only time you will here Oliver play an 100% old school set in sequence, ever.

As I walked in the venue, I was relieved to walk into the main room which was not packed full of drunken hobos which stood only meters outside the venue near the casino. But smiley ravers, who were up for a great night of choons, and the night had only just began…

It was straight onto the dance floor, immediate flash back, it may have been the acid but to see Richie Rich and Will E tell once again driving the boat into the Belfast sun, was something I have missed. Many mornings were spent in front of these two pioneers of the Melbourne rave scene dancing my little ass off. What better way to spend the coming of the New Year.

Although this time it was not the Melbourne Old Skool rockers that were going to kick off my new year it was Oliver Lieb.

The light dimmed, the blue back light hit the trance master, and the sound of rolling synths were slowly building in the background, it was the dubby sound the of LSG filtering throughout QBH, the sound was perfect, clear, it sent tingles up my spine.

This is REAL trance. He moved into some more upbeat flavors and continued the 'journey' with Blueprint, Netherworld, Fragile, My Time Is Yours winding up each track ever so slowly with the magnificent interludes of LSG, mixing into the beat of a classic tune. Perfect.

The sound was awesome; the set was not nearly long enough. I was a little disappointed with the lack of analogue midis and hardware which was not used. Looked like he was compiling everything from a PC. For the new kids on the block, it may not have been the up and go dance your ass off set of the year, but for myself and my friends. Incredible.

I had seen Oliver Lieb. My New Years was complete. New School rocker Andrew Marsh continued with and the old school anthems, and dished out a lot of the tracks you would find on the classic Hardware 3 CD, Richie would have been pleased.

The sound seemed to diminish throughout the night after Oliver played his set, the echo escaped back into QBH and was hard to hear what was going on if you were not standing in front of the speakers.

The middle 'Hard Kandy' type room, seemed a little out of place, played the tunes of future rather than the past So I headed back down to 'Techno City' where Dallas Raft and Dave Rankine, delivered some goodness.

It was there my journey ended. We headed off back to another house party.

I have been told Jeff Tylers infamous closing set (one to never disappoint) pulled out delights. We should have gone back! What a magnificent New Years eve… If anyone was interested I would share the rest of it with you all. :)

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