Thunderdome

For unofficial entries, please use Thunderdome (2). A compilation series regarding an event-concept created by ID&T which – on the contrary of what people might believe – did not start out as a gabber/hardcore event at all, as these subgenres didn't exist those days. It started out as a rave offering party people multiple styles and genres and especially a good vibe. It were Irfan, Duncan & Theo (I. D. & T.) who came up with the idea to throw a massive final exam party on a never-seen-before scale. Hence this rave carried the name "The Final Exam". Its aftermath lead in a split-up between I., D. & T. as Theo didn't pass his final exam. An idea of a follow-up forced its way into the heads of the two remaining core members of ID&T, as they received a phone call concerning the planning of a second event. Three guys from Drachten managed to book Thialf Heereveen, though after this they ran out of money as well as ideas. A collaboration between them and ID&T was suggested in order to make the rave possible. After a visit at Thialf Heereveen, ID&T (Irfan & Duncan) experienced the building overwhelmingly massive compared to the humans inside it, which lead them into brainstorming a name for the upcoming rave... Big hall became "dome" and the music "thunder", which combined lead to: "The Thunder Dome". ID&T wanted to stand out from the rest of the party-organizers, so they decided to change their direction towards the harder sound that was emerging and gaining popularity. Whereas Jaydee (Robin Albers) was part of the Final Exam line-up, they now chose DJ Weirdo (Dennis Doeland; basically an old-school friend of Duncan) and four DJs who were known as The Dreamteam. The Dreamteam was made up of DJ Dano (Daniël Leeflang), DJ Gizmo (Ferry Salee), Buzz Fuzz (Mark Vos) and The Prophet (Dov J. Elkabas). They raised Thunderdome's popularity to new and yet unexplored heights. The Dreamteam also signed a contract with ID&T to release compilation CDs. Although Thunderdome started out as an event-concept and not a sublabel, ID&T saw pretty early the opportunity of selling CDs to its fanbase. Because of this Thunderdome rose to legendary status within no time. As they were making the first Thunderdome CD, Duncan got a call from Buzz Fuzz who was mixing a House Party CD for Arcade. It appeared that Mental Theo (Theo Nabuurs) – who was working for Arcade at the time – wanted to take the name "Thunderdome" and use it for another purposes. Due to these conflicts Thunderdomes I–IV were released over and over on different labels. Eventually ID&T won her concept back and Arcade stayed as the distributor of the compilations, meaning basically free promotion for ID&T. Later distribution was also carried out by labels such as Universal Music/TV and Sony Music Media. All this leads to an impressive catalogue of released material distributed all over the world. Thunderdome achieved success: awards, re-releases, adoration and glorification. On the other hand they also faced claims of plagiarism and even abandoning its fans when renouncing retirement. Friend of foe, this giant remains a legend and one of a kind.