More photos
coming soon

Passion Boys vs Frisky Girls 04/10/03
Review by Muzik
Photos by kind permission of Tranceking

First of all I’d like to make one thing straight. As far as reviews go this will be my most biased. I’ll admit it, I'm sorry, but everything you read below must be taken with a pinch of salt, or as if you were reading the tabloids.

See, if there’s one thing you’ll get to know about me and my passion for clubbing, it’s that Rank 1 are my favourite Producers and Dj’s. However good you may think they are, in my eyes, they're a billion times better. Heck they could remix ‘The birdie song’ and do an hour set playing it over and over again and I’d still dance my ass off (although I’d be some what disgruntled)! Rank 1 for indeed Ranked number 1 in my books.

So who cares what the rest of the line up read? Above & Beyond who? Frisky girls? Pffft, not where the action is tonight I'm afraid fellas, I was there for one reason and one reason only.

I walked in reasonably early to catch JFK playing on a funky top… Yep, JFK playing what sounded like Funky House! I was surprised myself and had to double check it was Passion vs. Frisky and not a Redroom Sessions! This set the mood quite nicely whilst I propped up the bar in the white room. The music was both chilled and sexy, heck if it’d gone on any longer I may have just danced. But alas the floaty sounds of trance began to fill the blue room. It was whilst Marc West took to the decks I thought id take a walk around The Emporium. I was surprised to see the blue room as empty as it was. With Above & Beyond and Rank 1 on I expected a few more bodies, mind the night was still young and neither of the main attractions were yet to arrive.

The Red room was heaving. Rammed from wall to wall the place was packed! Those dirty hard dance heads had not only invaded The Emporium but also made their mark on the back room. The decor I have to say was splendid. They’d certainly spent a lot of time making the place look brighter and sexier. Well done guys!

Now if I’d have of been sober enough to have danced I'm sure I would of, only I was quite wishy washy in the head/stomach department so off to the white room for me to sit the next couple of hours out whilst waiting for my hero’s. And that’s exactly what I did.

Leaning on the wall chatting with friends for what seemed like an age I could hear Marc West building the music up nicely for the trio that is Above & Beyond. I spoke with Marc afterwards who said he didn’t play a few tracks he’d like to of however still felt he played a good set, and a good set it was to.

So Above & Beyond took to the decks, playing fluffy euphoric trance. To be fair I didn’t recognise that many tracks so pin pointing the highs and lows of their set proved difficult. I can however remember the white room half emptying when they dropped the Armin mix of ‘Sky Falls Down,’ if I hadn’t been chatting to Piet from Rank 1 at the time, I'm sure id of joined the mad rush!

I took a final walk around the red room prior to Rank 1’s set just to see what was going off. Still rammed solid the crowd were jumping around as if on a bouncy castle! Smiles from ear to ear on every face I looked at, the red room had an atmosphere Frisky should be proud of.

But of course, that’s not what I was there for. After a quick drink in the white room I heard the announcement Rank 1 had taken to the decks and off I trundled to my favourite track of the year, Dave Galan’s Dirty Sticky Floors (Junkie XL vocal mix). What a start, took me by complete surprise. Piet tends to play harder and more pounding but this was the perfect intro to a fantastic set.

So for the next hour and a half (well, nearly two, three last ones!) I refused to budge from the front of the podium. Loosing the plot to tracks like Rank 1 – Symsonic, Motorcycle – As the rush comes, Tiesto – Traffic and Marco V’s latest, Loops and Things Relooped. Oh and not forgetting Mac J - Perfect blend, Mac had accompanied Rank 1 to Passion, as always he was bopping away with the rest of us.

Come the end of the night I was shattered. After the original Airwave I didn’t think I could go on any further. I watched as Piet pulled from his bag a CDR and queued up. Ah well, it wont be Awakening then (my favourite Rank 1 track). Oh dear lord in heaven, the last track of the night would put hairs on your grandmothers chest. Had a kind of lullaby theme to the intro and breakdown which pierced your ears. Heavy as hell this baby was, I was almost in tears! F W – Understand I believe it was, keep an eye out for it, you won’t be disappointed!

So all in all a night much lived up to my expectations. Like I said at the beginning I was there for one reason and one reason only. I honestly cannot comment on the night as a whole because I wasn’t there for the night, only Rank 1. The people I spoke to around me said they thoroughly enjoyed themselves and considering there were still people screaming for one more 5 minutes after they’d switched the lights on I'm guessing the night as a whole was just as good as Rank 1’s set.

They're back again for New Year, guess we know where I’ll be this New Year eve! COME ON RANK 1!