It’s 5 seconds from midnight, during the last moments of what will be the year 2007: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and the crowd erupts high on emotion as the fireworks are rocketed into the night sky. HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Well for many in South East Queensland this sadly isn’t how the New Year 2008 was welcomed; with the unusually dismal and cyclonic conditions of squalling rain and erratic wind patterns, many an outdoor NYE festive celebration was unfortunately canceled, forcing people to stay indoors.

But alas, with the Ten Pound Crew putting on their BBQ Breaks New Years Day event, many would-be NYE party-goers weren’t deterred by the doings of Mother Nature, simply because of the promise of ‘Beats, Bass, Beers, and the best view in Brisbane’. Held at the Riverside Complex in the heart of Brisbane’s CBD, what’s been hailed as ‘QLD’s most beautiful boutique festival event’, the 5th annual BBQ Breaks with its pre-sold 3,500 capacity, was sure to be one helluva way to celebrate the start of 2008. With Headline artists such as M.A.N.D.Y., Tom Neville, Blackalicious, and Vanilla Ice, as well as a mix of Australia’s best talent, BBQ Breaks was sure to create its very own musical storm with a constant tuneage onslaught being delivered from midday for a solid 11 hours.

Finding out at the 12th hour that I was fortunate to have secured possibly the last possible means of gaining entry to join the Brisbane massive shenanigans, I journeyed up from the Gold Coast and with a skip in my step, and was very excited upon arrival at the Riverside Complex. I could hear the end of what was scheduled to have been the Surecut Kids emanating from the Outdoors Cityside stage, happy that the Translink services allowed me the opportunity of entering the establishment just in time for Vanilla Ice to take to the stage.

Quickly gaining my bearing of where the stages were, I hastily made my way toward where the soon to grace the stage Ice-Man would be, foregoing any thought of an arrival heart-starter beverage. There was a lull of about 10 minutes from the previous act, where the crowd entering into the bottle-necked area of the Outdoors Cityside area seemed to be far greater than the slow stream of people slowly making their way out. It was a difficult task trying to gain passage when there was no clearway enabling entry with any sort of ease; in fact it was near impossible to put one foot in front of the other at the point. That was until a taller well-built guy started to move in the direction that I wanted to go; slipping in his path I too was able to break free into the balcony area on the rim of the Indoors glass wall. A great vantage point, I could see everything when Vanilla Ice took to the stage, but unfortunately could not hear very well. At this point despite having no idea what lyrics he was belting out through the mic, I was happy to have made it this far – for the task of being able to at least report on something of Vanilla Ice. The crowd toward the front of which I was probably about 20 rows back, seemed to be getting amongst it – as would be expected, but after just a couple tracks, in keeping with Newton’s ‘Law of Motion’, the force seemed to be unrelenting with bodies pushing forth to get closer to the stage, now moving in the opposite direction with many eager to get out of the area. Many people were getting crushed, and after a while of bracing myself with outstretched arms against the glass wall with a person in between me and the secured fixture, the force was just too great; I decided that risking my safety and both my original shoulder joints whilst waiting to hear Ice, Ice Baby at my so-called vantage point was worth nothing! At this point it would have been much easier to vacate the area, witht eh crowd pushing me i nevery which direction. All these words describing my account of Vanilla Ice, yet no substance of a true media account to report on his performance whatsoever – Damnit!

Now a little more free with some atomic space separating me and the nearest human, I was able to refer to my set times card to quickly make a decision of where I could get settled and attempt to get into some sort of my own groove. Approaching a quarter to five, Scott Walker had already warmed up the Indoors Cityside room, with the DJ booth set up in the dome-like alcove of the room. Finally with the comfort of being greeted by fellow ITMers, and other friends I was immediately settled, more so when the first of the nasty Smirnoff liquid made its way into my system. Perhaps a little too over-prepared with my small backpack containing an umbrella and full-length rain poncho, as well as a zip-up light jacket, I was at first a little restricted to cut loose my dance moves as I would be normally, but given the event type and all walks of life crowd, wasn’t going to risk putting the pack down, even if in my line of vision. Nevertheless Brisbane’s ‘prog-bomb’ king Mr Walker belted out a solid banging set, which sounded especially excellent emitting out of the new Funktion-1 sound system. An hour set – which many of the artists on the line-up were only allocated – didn’t allow the luxury of a slow progressive build into their musical journeys. By the time I walked into Scott’s set, he was well and truly into his groove, and the crowd were appreciating this New Year’s delight, that’s for sure; with tracks such as Ame Rej, and Jack Obsolete Vs Renee Dela Seya Just Perception (Jack Obsolete Mix), the mutual celebration of DJ and punter was great to be part of.

Next up was the seasoned though still young TyDi, quite obviously one of Brisbane’s beloved DJs and now international-classed producer, his welcoming reception was seemingly all he needed to get his groove on and immediately become comfortable at the helm. If there were lasers in the room, many a hand or two would be reaching for them, but since this wasn’t the case, TyDi’s beautiful melodic trance set allowed each punter to find their own little euphoric state devoid of visual stimulation to heighten the experience. Pryda’s Shadow went down a treat, but not as much as his recent Armada-signed production Meet Me In Kyoto. With TyDi due to handover the decks to one of theiInternational guests, it seemed as though he was winding down with the mood created close to 6:30pm, but with a no-show yet of Mr Neville, TyDi manipulated the gears allowing the trance-dance lovers to continue in the comfort of their own cruise control. Half an hour later though, I felt his set waning a little; it was time to venture outside to catch the start of SEQ’s stalwart DJ in Mark Briais.

The Outdoors Riverside was without doubt the most chilled out and relaxed stage of the whole event. The weather had really calmed down with wind significantly subsided, and a nice break in heavy precipitation from all directions; the sight of the lights from the water and CBD were really quite beautiful. The intensity of messiness that was clearly evident amongst many punters earlier seemed to have dwindled – at this point it’s a shame this can’t be said about some of the bar staff! Maybe not so intelligent, but in the outdoor balcony area where Mark B was creating a wonderful ambience, many a conversation at normal speaking volume was taking place; it had a real nice ‘chillaxed’ atmosphere out there that continued on for the rest of the evening.

Curiosity got the better of me and with one of the Headliners already half an hour late since I vacated the Indoors Cityside room, went back to see if he’d arrived at all, or rather as yet to meet his advertised timeslot. Sure enough UK electro DJ/producer Tom Neville who was in the midst of a relentless tour, playing 3 gigs in literally the previous 24 hours from Sydney, Melbourne and back to Brisbane, whilst obviously very tired didn’t disappoint the many fans of his electro-house style. With a lengthy hour and half time allocation, of which he missed the first half, I didn’t stay around long enough to see if he cut into the Kid’s timeslot. It was now 8pm and with M.A.N.D.Y about to commence following Mark B outside, there was seemingly only enough time for a quick re-fuel of the liquid kind.

Well whoever took over from Mark B, it certainly wasn’t the German duo of M.A.N.D.Y; with only one guy gracing the decks, many weren’t even sure if it was either one of Philipp or Patrick! At this time, conversations were held with a lot more ease – not necessarily of meaningful content, but of the audible kind – clearly the max volume level had been lowered from earlier, so much so that many punters had kindly informed the DJ of how low the level was. It was only when we heard the German accent of the DJ apologise for not being able to increase the music volume any greater, that there was comfort in knowing that we were actually listening to either Philipp or Patrick representing M.A.N.D.Y in solo mode. Hearing one of ther Get Physical label’s biggest and most popular tunes in Body Language further confirmed we were listening to the German delight that closed the Outdoors Riverside stage.

From this point, whilethe 2 indoor stages were kicking on for another hour with Brisbane’s Rudebwoyz and the Gold Coast’s Stafford Brothers, the crowd outside started to depart, calling the long day and for some a continuation of the previous evening, a night. All in all, the quality of the line-up was superb, whilst I didn’t catch many artists nor attempt to head back into the vicinity of the Outdoors Cityside area, I did venture through the Indoors Riverside a few times, and whilst it had the stench of wet vomit & urine-soaked carpet near the bar area toward the toilet line, the crowd that filled the room in front of the DJ booth was absolutely going off on each occasion. With such a capacity crowd, especially for the female contingent, the biggest line-up was that of the toilets; rather than waste precious time and strain the bladder, it was a smart option to head to the neighbouring waterhole for rapid and more hygienic relief.

Just on a final note, the bar staff were all having their own little parties too, so it seemed, with many of them behaving like some punters on the other side of the counter; can’t complain about the service though, they were speedy, on the ball, and for some who were ordering mixers may have got a little more bang for their buck! What a way to celebrate the first day of 2008: Happy New Year peoples!!