Last night’s Top 100 DJs party at London’s SEOne club was mobbed when we arrived, and for 9pm on a miserable Wednesday night that’s no mean feat.

Having said that, the DJ talent on display was world class, including techno from Umek, the warped One + One beats of Nic Fanciulli and James Zabiela, a wickedly eclectic set from Danny Howells and the ever dominant trance sounds from Sander van Doorn.

Despite the fact that the full results leaked onto the internet as early as Tuesday afternoon(!) it was still exciting to see the countdown unfold, even if many of the names merely shuffle positions these days.

After 3 years in number 2 position, it was good to see the fresh faced Armin van Buuren finally rise to the top slot and play a victory set to the UKs trance devotees in one of the huge arches. The last couple of year’s he’s been at the party, playing warm-up to Paul van Dyk, which is a bit awkward for someone accustomed to selling out arenas on his own. He’s always been very good natured about the whole thing so this was a deserved win, whatever you may think about the persistence of trance at the top of this poll.

Awards presenter Beardyman actually stole the show, first up by beatboxing into Sander van Doorn’s final trance record (yes, beatboxing trance!) and then by referring to Armin as “Armand van Helden”, which caused much hilarity. Look out for highlights on YouTube shortly no doubt.

Later on his management were telling us that 2 wildly different DJs were so impressed with his performance they had just asked to get into the studio with him, and they are merely joining a queue of hot potential collaborators – so watch this space.

Ibiza legend Alfredo received a special award and then played a set with Danny Rampling and Nicky Holloway dancing up the front like it was Amnesia in the 80s!

Meanwhile one of the shmooziest nights in the dance music calendar rolled on – it’s not everyday you see David Guetta rubbing shoulders with Andy C, Chris Liebing and Graham Gold at the bar.

Toni Tamborine from Defected was telling us about his swim across the sea to the Isle of Wight for Bestival, which was a “piece of piss” apparently – hardcore! Then Demi from SOS started to reveal his single hairy shoulder and we knew it was time to head for the afterparty…

Outside, a purple double decker rave bus was laid on to transport us to a dodgy strip club in Old St which was a pretty bumpy ride as Spencer Parker regaled us with unrepeatable stories about nightmare DJ gigs.

The afters was packed through the early hours, with much talk about the controversy surrounding the cheating on this year’s Top 100 by those who could still string a sentence together. Whatever becomes of this strange popularity contest, it’s notched up another classic awards party night.