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so my post about the rave piano sounds seemed to get some people quite excited. i have always been so interested in the 80s/90s rave culture we had over here in the UK. admittedly i was born in 84, so was too young for the summer of love in 89. however, i have a much older brother, who was right in the thick of it, and at the time was someone i looked up to very much. anyway, i can't really remember much apart from the music and the clothes, but i found a really cool documentary on youtube about the summer of 89. its very entertaining and shows, in my opinion a really cool part of history that the youth should be proud of!
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04/03/08
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jogn
omg jason donovan.
04/03/08
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frnortnr
i didn't start going to raves till '92 (we were late over here), but i remember buying nme and all that in the 90's and seeing photos of the tripped out kids and wanting to be just like them. ha.
04/03/08
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papergoose
I caught the last of it, here in TX. It was pretty lively and fun and good for a couple of years after I was old enough to get out to them. Then all the kids with pacifiers and 15 year old e-tards started showing up and I didn't feel a part of it anymore. Then kids started dying or getting life-flighted to the emergency room and the local parties started getting bad press and that was pretty much that.
It was some of the best times while it lasted though.
That first Rabbit in the Moon show still blows me away when i think about it.
04/03/08
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Zanf
what makes me laugh about that documentary is that it says loads about the dissent in eastern bloc european countries and China but it has said nothing about one of the largest public dissent in the uk, the poll tax demonstration in london march 31st 1989.
link
Im on part 4 and Kevin McKenzie [ex editor of 'the scum' newspaper] has just said that they sold 4.3 million copies every day and it 'was the choice for all the youngsters'. Everyone I knew then hated the fucking rag with a vengeance and thought it was a pile of racist right wing reactionary shit.
04/03/08
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ignatius
zanf: i though the whole tie in to politics was ambitious. in the early 90's the anti yuppie/fashion-ista vibe was real here in the states.. at least in miami. rave clubs/parties provided a sort of a more chill/open environment that didn't revolve around velvet ropes on south beach and going to places where you could still get in if you had sneakers on or a hat.. it was less exclusive but still some kind of secret.
djugel- i don't know if there will ever be a doc like this one about east coast scene of same era. it was so different (and different from state to state) and really kind of exploded and got commercialized and homogenized really quickly. it would be a 3 year time period or something. 90-93 was the meat of it. i guess in other places in florida there was still a nice underground feel to certain events/venues until 95-96 but it was continuously harder to find something that wasn't generic. in 'Modulations' there are a few bits and pieces about the rave scene/rave culture and soem funny quotes by dj spooky.
04/03/08
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Zanf
ignatius said: "zanf: i though the whole tie in to politics was ambitious. in the early 90's the anti yuppie/fashion-ista vibe was real here in the states.. at least in miami. rave clubs/parties provided a sort of a more chill/open environment that didn't revolve around velvet ropes on south beach and going to places where you could still get in if you had sneakers on or a hat.. it was less exclusive but still some kind of secret."
It was the same here: clubs on the high street were shirt, trousers & shoes - if you have anything less, you werent getting in. There was a whole vibe leading upto it that 'greed was good' but all you saw [as they did manage to convey to a degree in that docu] that the only ones reaping it in were a small minority, who in turn, rubbed it into everyone elses faces [flash cars - miami vice tosser style clothes, mobile phones , the 'debutante' balls, newspapers splashed photos of rich kids sprawling about the place getting drunk on alcohol that cost more than you could earn in a week. All the 'IT girls' the newspapers had continually on the frontpages were upper class, rich girls and the only time you saw working class ones were on page 3 with their tits out.
The tie in with politics was ok but not very astute and missed quite a few relevant points: the rave culture came about from boredom, a feeling of disparity and lack of social cohesion. Thatcher had spent quite a few years dismantling the welfare state and cutting back spending on any kind of social services: youth clubs closed, money was diverted away from doing stuff on estates, 'care in the community' was devised to close down long term institutions but with no care network setup for the residents of those places.
Unions had been crippled with legislation, council housing stocks were sold off - people were given the 'right to buy' their house so they were financially tied to a mortgage [in cse they ever thought about industrial action again] but councils were not allowed to build new houses so housing lists grew but noone had much chance of getting a place unless you were pregnant/had a kid.
Others things were: pub culture was generally about getting really drunk and then fighting, the country was still recovering from racial & anti-police/state tensions of the early 80's that culminated in riots across the uk in 81 and again in 85, a complete lack of any kind of spirituality in the 'greed is good' yuppie era [it was all about the physical: money, materialism, consumption. People had a kind of 'spiritual' experience or release on E that was the counter of this].
And then in 88, Thatchers govt, introduced the poll tax that was to go live in april 89 and there was a groundswell of opposition that gradually gained momentum to the critical mass it reached on march 31st.
On the day that Thatcher stepped down, after just over 10 years in power, there was a spontaneous party in Trafalgar Square that lasted long into the night. When she finally croaks, Ill be letting out a loud cheer, even if I stand alone.
04/03/08
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RogerRoger
I grew up in the Houston area, and raves were much less commonplace. Most of the stoners, gays and just general social rejects hung around in clubs in or near the Montrose area. I went to a couple of raves in big half-empty parking lots in Houston in 1990. Nothing special and the turnouts depended mostly on word of mouth. A few I went to in '96 in New Orleans were equally lame and undercrowded. By that time I was already trying to figure out what Aphex Twin was doing to his 303 on the R&S EP's and had mostly lost interest.
The club music I liked in 1989 stemmed originally from the local Houston radio show broadcasting live from Club 6400, link which burned down not long after I discovered it. Lots of other Houston clubs tried to recreate that atmosphere, with varying levels of success. I spent lots of money on 12 inch records at Record Rack and stopped buying right about the time the music started getting too housey for my tastes. Stuff with the so-called house piano mentioned earlier(anything leaning towards disco in the sampling age) just turned me off. Early Prodigy was as close as I'd go. I much preferred the German techno, Acid, and New-Order type sound. Most anything Razormaid published up until 1990. Dancable Industrial and EBM were also favorites. That sound is what 1989-1990 will always be for me.
04/03/08
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djugel
"commercialized and homogenized really quickly"
commercial? how so? I first went to raves in 96. Didn't notice anything commercial even then... especially compared to what is "indie" now. It was low-key compared to the british massive parties I see from the past and even now... those seem more clubby. Many different genres of dance music... "Rave" music was dead .. and most of us couldn't care less :P It as more of a post-modern take on what happened a few years before. I think Drop Bass Network helped that.. More of a metalhead/punk/goth feel... I gues that means "midwest" :P
I do meet people from the early 90's days and they always seem to be more of an acid-trance ilk... people that "used to party" and now just do graphic design in their room full of bjork posters... while listening to Everything But the Girl in the background. I don't envy that. The most "commercial" thing that was trendy was Ghetto House... even though I wasn't about it.. it was a great backbone. Hard simple music that you can dance to in many different ways. Happy, aggro, sexy, smooth.. no certain feel or bond being pushed.
it's just eventually drum&bass took over and no-one cared anymore... and those pesky rave laws..
04/03/08
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djugel
actually .. we had "rave" music.. by that time it was called Happy Hardcore. I usually stayed away from those parties. It's not fun when the party gets busted to a cover of U2's "With or Without You" at 200 bpm. The cops look at you like a pile of twinks.... Why couldn't they of come when we were blasting "the Bells" or something.. ;)
04/03/08
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ignatius
thanks Zanf. nice concise history lesson. i feel like i should know more about that era in the UK. now i do.
djugel.. LOL. Everything but the girl. as far as the scene.. it was different everywhere.. in san diego they had free parties under big freeway overpasses and the promoters were drug dealers which is why the party was free. they sold everyone drugs. at least that is what my SD friends told me. I missed all that since i didn't move to california from miami until 1997.
it did get homogenized and commercial to the extent (by 1996-8) that a scene still largely attended by a small population of people of a certain age group could be. meaning, it wasn't something everyone did but enough people got into that there was a lot of money to be made by promoters who would bring the same dj's over and over and appeal to the masses and charge stupid amounts of money for parties that were not that good even though a lot of punters attended. there was a formula involved i guess... though there were still good parties here and there.. it all kind of imploded w/media attention and polica crack downs and general sketchiness.
on the other hand... early on before south beach became what it is today there were still hole in the wall clubs (compared to the places that are there now) that would be open until 6am playing good music w/a good mix of people. then one or two places took off.. notably a place called "the edge" in ft lauderdale that would stop serving booze at 2:30 am and start playing techno for an 18+ crowd (since no booze). it became a totally different club at that point in the night and eventually became a hub for club culture and would routinely stay open until noon on sunday. there were a handful of places like this in florida and they were all pretty special for a time then they all became notorius to some degree and people would fall out having seizures or whatever and it all got real sketchy. i was long gone from that scene by then and would only go to the occaisional party here and there... usually in gainesville at a club called simon's. then a sort of lounge/bar scene started happening where you could go hear techno in a bar and hang out and have a drink or two if you didn't want to go deal w/some big club.
south beach was really a great place for a while before all hihgbrow and just too crowded. there were a couple punk clubs down there and a diverse mix of music and people. still is to some degree but it's more like las vegas or something.. not a place you can see nuclear assault or anthrax (1987-1988). the early 90's were great there. lot's of bands.. fugazi, primus etc.. playing in small venues amidst the clubs. then in i think 1991 there was a HUGE rave in the park downtown on the waterfront.. utah saints, 808 state.. all these huge at the time techno acts.. it was crowded. packed! and that was sort of the first big wave of goodness.. there was a place called future shock or something my friend used to go to that may have been the only place for hard techno in miami.. maybe 1990-1. for me.. public enemy led directly to tons of hip hop and to techno.
04/03/08
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AndrewBrewer
just went to a warehouse party last weekend. it was dowp.
04/03/08
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ignatius
AndrewBrewer said: "just went to a warehouse party last weekend. it was dowp."
my friend's doing one here in may and in July so i guess that's 2. full permitted until the morning w/a bar  .stoked.
04/04/08
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Logo
djugel said: " It's not fun when the party gets busted to a cover of U2's "With or Without You" at 200 bpm. The cops look at you like a pile of twinks.... "
Haha, sounds like utopia . I can't wait for a some happy hardcore revival to hit the semi-mainstream coolness radar. It's pretty much the perfect soundtrack for these troubled times. Happy 2 B Hardcore comps 4 life...
04/04/08
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jaysan
race4prize said "the scene is ok, still fun, its just full of psy trance and dreadlocks and drum circles though. ;)"
you should come to that partys me and my mates do in manc (strangeways/daylight robbery) any kind of trance is a no no at these, more dnb, breakcore, jungle and techno.
not dissin trance peeps though, i love the partys they put on just dont dig the tunage.
(how do you all do they cool quoting someone elses text in gray??)
04/04/08
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Zanf
jaysan: type the following [ quote ] the persons bit of quote in here [ /quote ]
Also, if you click the + next to the time/date on the righthand side to their name, you'll see the following: link
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