‘Damn, that’s a long queue.’
‘Man, it’s not even moving. I swear, it hasn’t moved at all since we got here.’
You give out free delicious BBQ meat and they will come. And early. And they will queue. So it was that the DnBBQ was already pretty packed when I rocked up at 7pm. The balcony of Manning Bar was a throng of those eating, those waiting, and those just sitting about drinking beer in the mild winter air whilst Firehouse let rip with some dub styles.

Inside, Polaris introduced the jungle sounds with a flurry of drums and, err… drums. Throw in some ragga snatches and voila, a sound is defined. You’d think it was simple, but imagine trying to mix that cacophony!
When jungle was just jungle and not a cause for nostalgia, it was a thrilling, high tempo mix of the sounds bubbling away under the ocean of society. With a strong Jamaican element through dancehall, and with ragga somehow tacked on to some high-speed happy hardcore, you’d throw in some breaks, and just dance.
Nowadays it’s hard to imagine something so unsophisticated becoming a sensation, and the fact is that no one really makes it any more. This means that the jungle set DJ is pulling on a finite and unchanging selection of tracks of which, for the non-aficionado, there’s probably an even smaller sample which resonate.

Highly Dubious introduced some insane drum action and quite a technical set, steering clear of the headline classics before giving way to Dave Edwards, the oldest DnB DJ I have ever seen, who ripped it up with solid mixing and good track selection. Then, with the final flick of his wrist, Edwards laid down one of the defining classics of the jungle scene and the first track of the night that really got people going mental. It was Shy FX’s Original Nutter- with full rewind and everything- before handing over to ALF who had MC Ozi Battla in support. Having never seen Ozi MCing on a DnB night I was pleasantly surprised by his astuteness on the mike, knowing when to rap and when to stop, engaging the crowd, and mixing in some mellow vibes.

Meanwhile, out on the balcony (which was a bit smoky, alas, since it sounded good) B. Hopps was laying down some furious beats, breaks and hip hop with a delightful lady singer joining in.

Come midnight, the main event, the legend Kenny Ken takes the stage. This is a man who really doesn’t need any introduction and you got the feeling that the priority for classics had been given to him as he ripped out one after another. With a ragga man MC egging the crowd on, also bizarrely included was a semi-go-go girl on stage just dancing away. The Burial, Terrorist, Champion Sound, Incredible: this was like a best of the early nineties, and every time another classic dropped the crowd lapped it up.
The dark couch area soon started turning in to a bit of a chill out zone, as tired dancing feet forced the body to rest. By the end of Kenny Ken’s set I was feeling the same and dragged myself home, ringing in my ears from the snare overload.

This was a great night with quality DJs throughout, excellent tunes, well engineered sound, a warm, friendly, happy crowd and a reasonably priced bar.