The Ministry Of Sound Annual Tour @ QBH, Melbourne (4/11/02)
On a lively cup eve, full of events around Melbourne, QBH was set to rock the night away with headliners Tall Paul and Ferry Corsten behind the wheels of steel in an MOS special!
Over the past year, MOS and Future Entertainment have had an unsuccessful turnout with their partnered events, ranging from last year’s annual that sparked only a couple hundred people to a very small crowd at Two Tribes just past. This year however came as a shock when I bought my ticket, to find that one of the many locations selling them had almost sold out.
Originally expecting a repeat of last year, I arrived at QBH in a different mood, and into a folly of shy dancers along the outskirts of the dance floor. Once again gathering my bearings on the place, I was struck by the huge blow-up turntable behind the main stage decks, glowing in a fluoro yellow and imprinted with the Ministry logo. The QBH laser remained at the left side, and most people were disappointed that there were no extras, however I thought that in replace of that were the many multi-coloured lights surrounding strategic points in the room. The red drapes hanging above I remembered from a previous ‘Lights Out’, but they were placed much lower this time around, only high enough for the ravers to miss from pulling them down. I knew that the decorations were not the main attraction, and until the time for the real party to begin, I watched Scott Alert nearing the final half hour of his set.
Surrounded with only a few dancers, pumping themselves up for the next 8 hours, Alert was dropping some good quality trance, pumping one moment, uplifting the next. It wasn’t until the last minutes of his playtime that he decided to drop a hot favourite at the moment, Exposure’s (aka Push / M.I.K.E.) ‘Magic Impulse’. In a quick response, newcomers made their way onto the shiny floor to swing their bodies in rhythmic motion. The party had begun.
Concluding a delicate beginning, Scott made way for the Sydney based and returning MOS Annual mixer, Mark Dynamix. Starting out nice and easy, he traced his way around the room with deep synth tunes, mixing from dancer to dancer, the feeling relished by all. Although my friends meeting and greeting preoccupied me, I channelled back to the crowd and music, and saw that Mark loved to add his own touch to his songs. For those of you that have the Australian 2002 annual, you will understand what I mean. For those of you that haven’t, or have yet to pick it up, Dynamix loves to add in lots of vocal accapellas! Not so much melodic voices, but speeches, small quotes and various other mumblings that only the hard listeners would know what’s being said.
By about 1:30 in the night, a good-sized crowd were in attendance, far more than the total number reached at last year’s annual! I was sure the promoters were quite happy (I certainly was for sure!), as the rush of more and more excited listeners began their step-to-step parade. By then, a hefty amount of trance had been played, with still so much more to go, and I was in a true euphoric environment, everyone with hands in the air, front to back, cheers from left to right and smiles all around. Not realising it until it was just about over, Magic Impulse was played again, and people were certainly in the mood to have it played again. With only 15 minutes to go, Dynamix went all out, refusing to let go of a happy audience that were ready to fly all the way to the end with him.
Not anywhere near exhausted, the numbers had risen enough for the second floor edge to be opened. It was a shame the centre podium was still closed, as I’m sure a lot of punters would have loved to seen the upcoming DJs from up high (Certainly, at least, in one of the DJ’s cases!). Fortunately, the amount opened up left punters with more options to rest, especially with only half the night complete.
With another hour and forty-five minutes past, Future extraordinaire, Mark James introduced the recent line-up addition, and all-Australian live newcomers, Ultrasun. Under the MOS label, they were more than happy to introduce their new hit to the Melbourne trance collective, ‘Love Me More’. With great female vocals equal to that of the song, the ears of many were tantalised by the sheer sound, and the burst of excitement rushed through to the duo to create a more vibrant performance! After around 5 minutes of intense support, Ultrasun finished up their live set with another revved up track that I’m sure will be released in the near future!
Whilst all this new commotion was happening however, a figure twice my size walked onto the decks… I swear my neck hurt when I was up at the front row!
With a little introduction (As I know, that just about everyone knows who this guy is) that was returned with much praise, Tall Paul stepped out in fashion, towering over the decks and crowd. Now it makes me wonder how on earth he can manage to mix, but however he does it, it’s with style.
Many were disappointed at first, thinking that Paul’s sound hadn’t changed from last year, but I thought that it was only the beginning, and from the look of his face (he hardly wanted to be disturbed), everyone was sure to be in for some good banging sounds! With progressive sounds one moment, to hard trance another, and the fury of lights flashing all over the place, people couldn’t stop for a breath, as Tall Paul unleashed track after track, if it were as easy as boiling eggs at home (And I tell you, that can be hard). Hearing Magic Impulse again was a little weary on listeners, but with an added taste of scratching here and there, the song sounded much different and made a whole new look on things.
Tall Paul’s ability to scratch was elegant, and was perfectly placed at the right moments, that it made me wonder why so many other DJs don’t really do it that much. Maybe it’s hard in trance. Who knows? I continued to listen in and realised that the giant used various samples, from bass lines to vocals and synths. He even used it to mix into other songs!
After a good hour passed of trance, the banging sounds hit the floor, with great songs like Who Da Funk’s ‘Shiny Disco Balls’ (What catchy lyrics it has!) and his own ‘Let Me Show You’ under the Camisra name. He even included a remix of a track with Nirvana in it, that no one is actually sure of (I’m not even sure if he scratched it in), but when that fell, everyone was bouncing all over the place!
One track that everyone also enjoyed that was played at his Gatecrasher performance last year was one I would love to get my hands on. All I know is that it had some midi sound that was very similar to the start of the tunnel levels in the original Super Mario Bros! He played that as one of his final pieces before letting only half sized (but still great!), Ferry Corsten, take to the turntables.
What was thought by some to that experienced Armin and Tiesto in the last few months, that maybe we have had enough trance of this sort, were wrong. This year’s DJ Mag 9th best DJ in the world showed that he does sound different, and proved to all that his set was to be one of the best sets of the year!
Starting slower at first as most Dutch trance DJs do, Corsten took the crowds initial disappointment well. It took a half and hour though, that the tracks began to hit peak after peak, with Ferry’s technical ability to blend smooth synths and bass lines together looking like child’s play.
The security guards were on closer watch at this point, as hordes of fans dashed to the front in hope of a photo, signature or quick word. Some managed to scrape through at points, but those that had to wait near the end were in for some shock surprises as Corsten decided to throw out most of his own collection!
Before the first hour was even up, the new Gouryella Track, ‘Ligaya’ was dropped without warning, and set the crowd for the first wave of raised hands. Corsten looked ready to do anything new, and pushed the volume up to it’s loudest as the euphoric music reached its highest point. The crowd instantaneously jumped in unison, moving in whatever space they could.
But that wasn’t all…
Within the second half of the second hour, Ferry had played most of his popular hits, including Veracocha’s ‘Carte Blanche’, The System F hit Dance Valley Theme, and the partnered up Gouryella fave – ‘Tenshi’. If that wasn’t enough, the audience was just crazy when he played his first hit, ‘Out Of The Blue’ and his latest hit, ‘Punk’. No one knew where to go to take a break, stuck in a huge confusion of shock, surprise, and excitement.
By the end of the second hour, so many people had gotten anything signed. Cigarette packets, flyers, CDs, you name it. But one person was smart, he brought along one vinyl, not to be signed (I think) but to played. And played it was…
The third last song, and undoubtedly the most anticipated song, well into a half hour past Ferry’s playing time, was the one and only ‘Gouryella’. People were cramming in to hear every little sound. I swear I haven’t seen so many people happy, and I even saw the owner of the record looking like a child as Corsten walked out to return the vinyl. To top it all off, a final song to keep everyone up there was played. Paul van Dyk’s ‘Another Way’ echoed a very weary crowd, too tired to go on after 2 and a half hours of non stop trance.
Approaching the 6:30 mark, Jason Midro took over from Ferry’s perfect set, getting straight into some hard NRG (including Scott Project’s Mix of Cosmic Gate’s ‘Fire Wire’), but unfortunately playing to half the crowd, whilst the rest left to hit the sack. Before I decided to leave, I checked to see Ferry taking part in many group photos and talking with so many fans. I decided to add my two cents in to him before heading out into the bright light. Leaving QBH at 7:00am, I was well satisfied that a whole night of trance had corrupted my small mind, and that both Future Entertainment and Ministry Of Sound had something to celebrate about!
