It is an exciting prospect to come back to Liverpool and review Chibuku after last visiting the club on Saturday 3rd April 2004 at the Barfly venue. I will always remember the night, for reasons I will be glad for (the Giles Peterson performance amongst many others) and for reasons I will always regret (personal ones: no further comment). My experience of Liverpudlians is of them moaning about the state of their night-time economy and how the clubs have grown too big and lost their value in the process, so it will be interesting to see whether any of this true, or whether the truth lies in a prefixed dire outlook.

The queue was huge for those with tickets and those without luckily we were straight in on the guezy. The first thing we notice is a new lick of paint since my last visit in 2000, but what did I expect, something worse actually, which I later find in the overspill from the urinals. The second thing to catch my attention is the lack of Carl Craig and no explanation - unfortunately he was the DJ I was most looking forward to seeing. So on the way to get comfy and bang the coats in the cloakroom we caught Goose; playing a techno electronic rock sound as an interesting alternative remedy to pop-punk rock boy bands (who they could have passed for in the dress department). Wandering around the place there is all the hustle and bustle feeling in being akin to pigs in a pen, but I suppose when the line up is as impressive as here, everyone will want a piece of the action.

Pretty soon I am oblivious to the faults and out dancing with the angels in my head to Mr Scruff’s rolling grooves and here I stay for sometime in a heavenly state of appreciation. There is some fun rave novelty moment when a girl provides me with an armpit smell test as I stumble by with me hands in the air and says: ‘No, they’ll pass fine’.

Remembering the importance in reviewing a selection of guests I head to check on DJ Ease. Sadly I find a collection of obvious reggae followed by a session of uninspiring drum and bass from Futurebound, though everyone else seems to be loving it. 2manydj’s managed to rock their show, though Henrik Schwatz failed to impress and succeeded in clearing the floor.

All in all, not many cities have scope and innovation promotions like Chibuku bring, so enjoy it now while you’re still young enough, cause I fell too old for this lark now.