The final leg of my look at Helter Skelter happy hardcore with a huge look at the music from 1999!

This is the year where the scene switched, trance music was huge in the UK during 98/99 with System F, Gouryella and more sweeping the charts and the happy hardcore sound started to reflect this new approach to dance music.

Scott Brown was championing this new sound more than anyone with his fresh productions and Next Gen, Quosh, Essential Platinum and more were also putting this new sound out. Here's my in depth look at happy hardcore played at Skelter in 1999!

Thumpa - This Is The Sound Of Helter Skelter 1999! (Happy Hardcore)

UK Hardcore / Neurofunk DJ from Salisbury, UK

Please feel free to listen to any of my mixes - all feedback is welcome!

Everything I post was recorded live

On one hand I'm an enjoyer of stompin rave tunes and on the other hand I'm a skankin rude boy.

Home of DJ Thumpa 
I AM NOW RETIRED FROM DJ'ING AS AT NOV 2025 AND NOT ON SOCIAL MEDIA
THANK YOU FOR 27+ YEARS OF SUPPORT AND 15 YEARS ON SOUNDCLOUD! IT IS NOW TIME TO JUST BE A RECORD COLLECTOR AND BEDROOM DJ...
IF YOU ARE DESPERATE TO GET IN TOUCH PLEASE EMAIL DJTHUMPA@HOTMAIL.COM


2025 sets (taking limited dates)

01/02/25 Drum & Bass Classics, London
28/02/25 Drum Fusion, Coventry
01/03/25 Birmingham Children's Hospital Fundraiser. Birmingham
15/03/25 Pump, Burton On Trent
22/03/25 Tomorrow’s World, Doncaster
29/03/25 DNB Shellaz, Birmingham
12/04/25 Bassman & Friends, Birmingham 
20/04/25 Crooked House, Shrewsbury
25/04/25 Sumo Beatz, Colchester 
03/05/25 Drum & Bass Classics, London 
07/06/25 Unity (vinyl set), Coventry 
28/06/25 Industrial Drumz, Birmingham 
05/07/25 Formation Records Rooftop party, Leicester 
12/07/25 Bassman Birthday Bash, Birmingham  
12/07/25 Fuse Festival, Lichfield
09/08/25 Bassface, Birmingham 
30/08/25 TBC
04/10/25 TBC
05/10/25 Riverdance, London 
15/11/25 TBC
22/11/25 Tomorrow’s World, Doncaster 

2024 sets:

26/01 Be Happy, Leicester 
27/01 Drum & Bass Classics, London 
27/01 Future Drum & Bass, Milton Keynes
27/01 Raveology Children’s Hospital Fundraiser, Birmingham 
10/02 Paragon, Leicester 
10/02 Darkside, Glasgow
17/02 Happedaze, Sunderland 
24/02 Bassface, Birmingham
02/03 OnlyBass, Birmingham
16/03 Reprobeats, Manchester
29/03 Random Concept, Birmingham
30/03 Bassface, Birmingham 
27/04 Drum & Bass Classics, London 
05/05 Onset Of Bass, Bristol
25/05 Random Concept, Northampton
28/06 Duck D&B, Birmingham
30/06 Basstrap live stream, Birmingham 
13/07 Fuse Festival, Lichfield 
27/07 Basstrap, Oswestry
03/08 Rave Hart, Cannock
23/08 NoughtyCulture, Leicester
24/08 Drum & Bass Classics, London
24/08 Drop The Knife Charity Event, Birmingham
25/08 Crooked House Festival, Lichfield 
31/08 Bassman & Friends, Birmingham
27/09 Dark In The Jungle, Birmingham
28/09 Drum & Bass Classics. Birmingham
18/10 Stimulation, Ripley
20/12 Complex, Burton On Trent


My name is Thumpa and I've been DJ'ing since 1996. I've played at Westfest (the biggest indoor rave in the UK), Pandemonium (Holland), Slammin Vinyl, Breakin Science's 'Drum & Bass Classics', Random Concept, DNB Collective, HTID & HTID In The Sun, Shadow Demon, Hardcore Heaven, Uproar, Hardcore Heaven Weekender, Raver Baby, Ravers Reunited, FINRG (Finland), Codex (Japan), Fantazia, Madness Industry (Holland), Mokum (Holland), Cenobite (Holland), Dimensions Of Darkness (Holland), Hardcore Underground, Freeformation, Vibealite, Uprising, Distruxshon and hundreds more including gigs in Japan, USA, Canada, Spain, Netherlands, Hungary, Finland, Germany and for every major rave promoter in every corner of the UK. I now play D&B, classic D&B / jungle and old skool with the occasional hardcore set.

Any mixes you can't find might be at https://hearthis.at/rebuildmusic/ or http://www.mixcloud.com/OllyThumpa

Don't turn your back on the music you love.The music was better on vinyl!

I first started listening to Happy Hardcore in 1996 along with my Twin Brother at the age of 17, it became an obsession pretty quickly due to the euphoric feelings the amazing pianos and vocals would supply. Dougal quickly became my favourite DJ due to his amazing track selections, his sets were full of smile on your face bangers and was always the first tape played out of any new tape pack, indeed I wouldn't even buy a tape pack unless Dougal was on it 😂 I got my first set of decks in 1999 at the age of 20 - Gemini PT1000 MK2 Direct Drive & Numark DM1001X Mixer, I wouldn't say I was a natural by any stretch of the imagination, it was car crash central at first, but I managed to teach myself beat matching and phrasing to an adequate standard within 6 months. Unfortunately around the time I bought my decks Hardcore was on the decline and Trance was getting huge, so Hardcore Vinyl was getting harder to source, so I started playing Trance instead whilst still harbouring my love for Hardcore. 

I've always struggled with my confidence, so I didn't really push myself in any meaningful way to become a DJ, of course I had dreams and I was a decent standard, but I was painfully shy when meeting new people so the idea of talking to promoters put the fear of God in me. In 2001 I went to my First Retro event up in Yarm and this changed my DJing direction totally, I started buying as much Classic House as I could, the Pianos were infectious and the atmosphere at the events was amazing. I managed to purchase some Technics 1200 MK5's in 2004 and got some bookings for some Classic House night's. I was still buying Hardcore Tape/CD Packs as I still loved Hardcore, me and my Twin Brother were the only one's out of our friends still listening to it, Hardcore had evolved to UK Hardcore, and the tracks being produced were phenomenal it was a brilliant time for the Hardcore scene. I wasn't buying any of the new Hardcore releases on Vinyl, as I was getting booked for more House events, and there was an abundance of House records to be bought. It wasn't until 2010 that I actually went digital, so I was finally able to download huge amounts of Hardcore Tracks and mess about with them at home, but I wasn't pushing that sound it was just for my own pleasure at home. In the DJing stakes I'd started playing Tech House and got some good bookings for that, I still love Tech House, there is definitely a brilliant groove to it. 

2013 was an extremely difficult year for me personally. I stopped DJing altogether and just went on my decks sporadically at home. I sold my beloved Technics in 2015 due to personal circumstances, an absolutely horrible day in my life that was (still kept my Vinyl though). I bought a DJ Controller with some of the proceeds which I used very sparingly. In 2017 my life changed massively for the better personally after 4 1/2 years of being in the doldrums when I met my Partner, who is an absolute Star. Unfortunately my controller had to go into storage due to space issues and to be honest I still wasn't ready to jump back into the World of DJing. Fast forward to 2021 after 8 years of hardly doing any DJing my fingers had started to get the itch, I could feel the passion return and I was getting a lot of prompting from my 2 best mates, so room was made for the Controller by my good lady and she was brought out of storage and amazingly enough she still worked. I had no targets when I restarted DJing I just wanted to play the stuff I loved for me, which was naturally Hardcore. Covid had struck though and there was a huge online community growing, I saw an advertisement from Hardcore Vibes Radio for a Guest Slot, so I did a mix for them and then got taken on as a resident which has been absolutely amazing for me both personally and professionally. I've also started playing House again and am now very proud to be one of the residents at a brilliant local Burnley Night called Luv House, onwards and upwards 😊