When the Transmission announced that September’s event would be their final ever party, ravers began sobbing into their fluffies. Legendary Sydney promoter Simon Coffey has been putting on solid Transmission brand for close to 15 years, starting out with an event at the old Sublime venue back on Pitt Street in the mid 90s, shifting to The Metro for several legendary events at the end of the decade before finally moving to its home of the Olympic Sports Centre in Homebush in 2002 where it’s remained ever since, hosting as many as 7,000 people. Some of the different Transmission events we enjoyed included White, aRed, Magic City, Camo, Black Magic, Aloha and many more, and they’ve been pivotal events in Sydney’s hard dance and trance scene since the very beginning. There was no way we were going to miss Transmission’s final hurrah!

Arriving at the State Sport Centre prior to midnight, we swiftly entered the venue and checked out the spectacular setup in the main room. As expected, the production was amazing! Towering LED screens lit up the room from behind the stage, with a massive circular DJ box dominating the middle of the stage that was also flanked by two suspended video screens on both sides. The room simply felt huge, and while the lasers weren’t on yet, we knew they would be pumping out fairly soon. Another cracking job by Matt Chromatic (who is currently flying out to the Defqon.1 Festival in Holland… … Jealous!).

The sound was crystal clear from the back of the venue, and arrived to Amber Savage and Nik Fish playing their last Transmission back-to-back set. As soon as we heard the first song, we knew it was going to be a cracking night. Anthemic to the extreme! Amber dropped Thomas Trouble Echoes and Yoji Biomekanica Ding a Ling, but unfortunately struggled a little with her mixing and basic beatmatching. Nik followed with DJ Pavo & Blutonium Boy Floorkilla and a very interesting mash up of DJ Dean Ballanation and Murphy Brown Energizer.

Next up were the Ferris brothers, John and Pee Wee of course, and I hadn’t heard these two play together for years. Naturally, they played a set of hard house and hard trance classics, and throwing in some eternal tunes like Public Domain Operation Blade, remix of DJ Skorp & DJ Pila Mindcontroller, Cosmic Gate Exploration of Space and DJ Zany Pure. Archie and Bexta stepped up next to play some long forgotten hard trance classics, which the crowd certainly hadn’t forget as the massive choons kept coming. Wicked scratching and sampling by Archie saw him dropping in Daft Punk Technologic over Fragma Toca’s Miracle, while Bexta turned up the notch a little harder with Kid Chaos Devastating and Technoboy Oh My God (complete with visuals on the LED screens repeating the “Oh My God” refrain), before finishing up with Silver Machine- Walt

A quick speech from DJ Nervous AKA Simon Coffey saw him thank the 5000 people that signed the “Save Transmission” petition, and he even hinted at another party in the future. Stading on stage bathed in light, Nervous was the man of the moment, and it was warmup for the Sydney mainstay’s last DJ set ever. It was the highlight of the party for many, and he played a peaktime set that delivered, dropping classics from his sets over the years including the epic starter that was Ms Shiva’s late 90s classic Dreams, as well as Space Frog & The Grim Reaper _Follow Me*, Tiesto’s Traffic, Alex Fakey Paint It Black before ending his final set with one of my all time favourite songs with Walt Expansion (Ghost Remix).

Moving front and centre to get ready for some hardstyle, our group braced ourselves for one of our favourite acts… and oh boy, Project One didn’t disappoint! Made up of the young Netherlands wunderduo Headhunterz and Wildstylez, they opened in their set in trademark black tuxedos, dropping many new edits and remixes of some their best known hits including Life Beyond Earth, Rate Reducer and The Story Unfolds.

Headhunterz was up next for a solo set, opening with his new bomb Muzical Revolution. His mixing through the one-hour was tight, dropping in samples and using the mixer to its full extent. He dropped the brand new *Defqon.1 * anthem Scrap Attack, as well as and tracks by Noisecontrollers The KGB’s Channel KGB. But of course, he couldn’t finish his set without dropping the Rock Civilisation/Subsonic mashup

I’d heard that Wildstylez wasn’t that crash hot in Brisbane, and was pleasantly surprised that he smashed it out in Sydney; his first time in Australia and he had the crowd going nuts! Playing a mix of brand new remixes and his own tunes, I was thrilled to hear him play the new remix of Noisecontrollers Venom (Wildstylez Remix) and old classics like Brennan Heart One Blade. As expected he played many of his own hits including Music & Noize, Pleasure and Revenge. The last set of the night ended up being a surprise verses set by Headhunterz and Wildstylez, pumping out a set of some of their most popular songs.

It’s a sad day when Transmission hangs up its raving boots, especially when the brand has played such a pivotal role in the Sydney scene, but oh boy… but what a way to end a party! It was the first time they’d ever completely sold out the massive Olympic Sports Centre, and the atmosphere was suitably electric. The punters both young and old were out in force, and it was simply one of the most positive raves I have ever been too. DJ Nervous we salute you, and Transmission we will miss you!