SubTub Manchester Music Box It was the eve of the Queens Jubilee and England had drawn with Sweden the very same day so the streets were packed with drunk people enjoying themselves. The atmosphere was set for this night, this was potentially one of the greatest hip hop nights to come to Manchester. New Flesh were going to bring excitement in hip hop form with that techno tip, Ty was going to bring his skills that have kept him on the hip hop scene for years. Then there was DJ Vadim who has been producing class beats for artists world-wide. Yet there was one main attraction that night; two of the worlds greatest DJs who go by the name of Plus One(the DMC champion) and Prime Cut(of the world famous Scratch Perverts) were going to pair up on four turntables. When we went into the music box everything seemed well prepared, good visual displays and four rooms to go around and check out the entertainment that was on offer. Firstly we had to check out the paring of Prime Cuts and Plus One where we waited for an hour to hear these world class DJs kick off properly, it didn’t happen while we were there. A few scratches, some nice reggae rhythms, a couple of catchy tunes but nothing special. After seeing an avereage performance from two great DJs we moved upstairs to catch that UK hip hop legend Ty; who spat a single verse now and again and then said 'yeah' a few times over rapper’s delight and his grand finale was to get his DJ to spin a verse from House of Pain's jump around. The poor performance could have been due to the tiny crowd but I was feeling a little cheated for money then but I still had New Flesh and DJ Vadim to see. New Flesh were first up who you could tell had rehearsed their show. They came out with Toasty Taylor building the crowd up by singing a little and showing his vocal skills. This was followed with a great show which finished on a high note with their most famous song stick and move. New Flesh had made up for Ty's lack-luster performance. Finally DJ Vadim arrived on stage with a reggae MC called Demolition Man. Vadim span some well known beats that the crowd were really getting into and Demolition Man's flow was on point. It was then break time for Demolition Man as vadim played span some nice tunes from Dilated Peoples to Mr Vegas, even a little drum n bass was on the schedule which pleased the 'chemically enhanced' members of the crowd. DJ Vadim was the untouchable DJ that night, his mixing was flawless and definitely made it worth staying through the whole show. The Sub Tub night had as many highs as it did lows and maybe Sammy Pepper who organises the Sub Tub shows should think about not splitting the crowd into different rooms next time because there was no atmosphere until everyone went into one room for Vadim’s performance. - Marcus © ukhh.com 1999 - 2002