Cultural Enrichment for schools : Is Everybody In The Place ? Free Party Folk History and the roots of Rave from Traveller scene

I’m over the moon! I finally get to talk about rave culture / raving and the social impact it has had on our society. I’m going to be running a short course on djing and rave culture for my own school where I attended and collected many tapes and flyers ( personal Thanks sam blay , Matt Carter, James Hutchins , Theo ,Richy Blitz , Jords, Gareth w, The Hall twins , Lucy , Al Harrison , Morgan egg lord and countless other ravers who all shaped my young raver mind ) and i’ll be able to invite some heroes ( warm agency – Mickey , Andy who was at Castlemorton ) , Jenny Twenty ( death by stereo / mixology ) to talk about what they have experienced… i’m literally agogo and assembling many pieces of essential info to present a brief history of the greatest cultural movement we have still going…

I know its anti outlaw to work with da man ( insert jez from peepshow voice ) but we need the next generation to keep the acid house supported and spreading the spirit, fuck trap, fuck mumble rap I know I sound like rave grandad when I say that but nothing pains me more to hear that sound coming out of a boom box on the beach , where are the pounding beats my lord !! ….but they need less Xanax and more XTC ….and TLC waterfalls is OK 😉 btw anyway sorry this is a rambling blog ill get my verbal diaherea out the way now and try and be more cohesive…

Writing for schools is difficult …. what to leave in what to leave out !! My heads wrecked !

here’s the rough text for the presentation of Jeremy Deller’s totemic film Everybody in the place and other important docs I’ll be showing to the students.

Everybody in the place – Jeremy Deller – an incomplete history of Britain 1984 -1992 – Free Party Folk History & Tales of a Traveller docs

Course Notes 

Jeremy Deller is a Turner Prize winning  multi media artist that focuses on history and postmodern culture to look at the way Britain has evolved through music and youth culture. He traces the links and social historical background of cultural events and movements, he’s not so much an artist more of a historian that makes visually interesting work. 

His film Everybody In The Place very accurately tells the story of how Rave culture made a huge impact to our society, we the British took and re made a sound and culture from many different elements  the throbbing hypnotic music of gay chicago clubs like Ron Hardy’s music box where EBM, Belgium New beat and other types of early electronic music and disco music were fused leading to inspired remakes and a completely new type of music was born using the newly available roland music devices such as the 303 drum machine and 808 and 909 drum machines , the beginnings of the Detroit techno sound was growing at the same time in the early 80s and the industrial sound that sprung from the deindulstialized zone of the former motor city was fused with the trance elements of Belgium New Beat and the roots of New York Disco from Clubs like Larry Levan’s Garage (we’ll be looking at these scenes through the course to see the parallels and similarities and learn about them and these societies and what created their specific cultures )  

Today there are a multitude of different sounds and scenes that grew from the rave scene in the late 80s and early 90s. outsider Societies mirrored societies and took elements and remade and created incredible mutations of sound and vision, from the collapse of the Berlin Wall leading to the amazing German rave scene we see that Rave and Techno powered amazing social shifts in societies globally.

from a UK perspective With the above mentioned music we took elements and added our own love of hip hop and reggae and created Hardcore and this sound exploded in fields and abandoned warehouses and clubs across the country.

Industrial spaces that had been abandoned since the de industrialisation of the UK  in the Thatcher reigning years 1979- 90. Where a steady decline in production as the UK moved to being a service and finance based economy leaving many parts of the UK in ruin and without recompense for the loss of jobs and effects it had on communities…however

We ( the generation that embraced rave culture )   re purposed spaces and sounds from the past that led to the creation of a wholly new sub culture that led to Moral panic and questions being asked in the house of commons about the future of our nations youth, this panic basically amounted to fear of a society out of control and living with its own codes and outside normal Conservative values. Where the travellers and hippies were shunned from the spaces they had seen and quite rightly used as common land they formed alliances and assimilated into ravers who organised free parties all over the country , a great website with accounts of these can be found here , free party people.org culminating in the event that undoubtedly changed society – Castlemorton which led to the Criminal Justice Bill – no gatherings allowed with repetitive beats and police having powers to break up parties and take away sound systems.Painted as folk demons the travellers had been moved away from stone henge and other sites as the police cracked down on the New Age traveller movement that had developed since the late 60s.

It is important that people see that there are alternative ways to live outside of society and especially now that the cost of living has become untenable , looking back over history like this there were moments when it seemed possible to live without intervention from the state, alternative worlds and ways to be are still possible and we can take inspiration from the peak era of raves and free parties, it is also a huge industry ( think of what is termed EDM and techno blandness with Instagram djs and paid for followers and ghost producers …. ) with all the downsides to what we have today but there are also many pluses and links to the travellers and ravers groups like Extinction Rebellion whatever your view on direct action and groups like this have links to these scenes and are necessary for the protection of our planet

Hippy ramblings ? Make of it what you will, films like Aaron Trinder’s doc show us and give voice to many who were intrinsic in this radical movement that arguably means more than Punk ever did and has had many more positive effects on society – DIY culture, autonomous societies and independence is something that needs encouraging, applauding, examining and talking about now more than ever as a the world gets crazier and more unbalanced.

a really touching and essential book that has inspired myself and friends to go back to free parties and make our own was the gift of Dreaming In Yellow by Harry Harrison l by Velocity Press , my true love gave me this Bookman its the greatest present ever to get a book about something I really enjoy and feel passionate about …….DIY is the sound system I respect the most as they simply had the best music, digs and whoosh almost played in alum chine in bournemouth but the party was shut down within twenty minutes … boohoo I was too young to get to their parties so reading about them is a joy , thanks LUCY xx

another great eye witness account of the roots of the rave scene and parallel lives with links to the free festival and traveller circuit can be seen here in this film about Rodger a traveller who ended up djing at Spectrum at Heaven …

Fevered Fiction – Inside the PARADOX Southampton / October 1998

Inside the Paradox

 

I’m a big fan of rave recollections and short stories, I’m currently reading and will be reviewing State Of Bass by Martin James

https://velocitypress.uk/product/state-of-bass/. buy direct from the publisher

Its an excellent tome on the developement of Hardcore To Jungle and Drum and Bass and all of the nodes and stems that shoot off from the greatest british export

 

Ive also been inspired by Joe Europe whos writing some feverish tales here

 

 

so heres some fever dream stream of conciousness fluff from the back of my mind and an attempt at thinking in the flow of Det, Skibba, Stevie Hyper D or IC3  ( def not moose or shabba , lol bone man ) If those names mean nothing to you,  you’re dead , fam, you probably wore Dunlops, d e a d .

In 2 deep, the speckled dove is not having the effect I want , feeling wavy but my breath is escaping me, not fusing with me, Brockie is spinning ,Ic3 is chatting , his bark louder hey Hey Hey, hur, hur,hur Muhahahaha ,

I’m feeling not so steady, steady are you ready, what’s going on , that’s the PARa para , para paradox , something is changing in me my stomach flips I want to puke but it fades … then …feeling good, feeling great but soon you know that its going to fade , but then it starts to all fit , the waves calm a little, I’m over the hill and far away, the feet feel lighter and now im stepping, steppin, DJ Die Autumn cuts in ,98 2 99  and we feel FINE ,

 

 

 

yeah yeah what’s this new old sound, hey you coming thru with the new sound , it’s a stepper, it’s a roller it’s a Bristol rockers 2 rockers , sound of the Autumn streets , light dappling thru trees, still a warm breeze , and I’m turning through the pages of my life , I’m after new Kreps, addict for sneakers used to have a beeper ,   not a care about a council tax bill, steady on this grade pill , mersh nah … we will see , never put pen to paper on the dotted line , pay in cash or get on tick , flip a brick a week , the plug come deliver, up southern corridor and m4 / m25 , one above, lieutenant before county lines burners were not even a thing then , nokia Erickson, don’t be bait , don’t talk bait on the phone , you got that ting yeah…… , more dub rush come save me , just 4 u ,   soon about to come crushing down like it always does someone chat bare rubbish , 1 year later the prick in a lowered escort he’ll turn witness, informer, end up in fuengirola cleaning swimming pools ,greased down curtains and Lizzie Duke sovvies n chain , (bonkerz not ruffneck n chain) but he’s alright jack , he wont catch more than 2 years inside whilst trouble trouble trouble you bring , TROUBLE ON VINYL

 

 

 

cos away goes trouble…..Scorpio……. rising ….. ….. DOWN THE DRAIN …..

 

 

 

Im doing rates, ticks , half an oz vaccum pack for 100 , 10 for £50, g of peng rerock for 50 , they say its look like fishscale , but its repress , but not as stepped on as u might find , the scouse plug is legit , people lap it up , half the bar snorting my Charlie …unggggg , covered like a portion of chips , ungggh ,

 

…. now they say bits , doing bits, of this and that bits of what ? fucking fart gak selling off fucking snap chat , but back to my chat , don’t watch that , mates are on my watch, we control camellia , yeah yeah camellia house ground floor you know you get more for your score we do the henry at 4s not 3.5 , we are generous to a fault , we are independent , but back to the front to the front to the back wall to wall all the creatures great and small yeah Sharkey BONKERSZZZ was he a bone man ? The SPLIT BETWEEN HaRDCORE and Jungle that old chesnut   THOSE THAT Wanted to feel like they were in a fucking toytown and with one colour rocking to the bass , get pasty faced and sucking on a fucking dummy …that lyric though sharkey .. gold, wall to wll all the creatures great and small , we’re martians from Mars comin g to kick your arse ………So whats coming through now as we get thru til 2 …its another war head about to blow up

 

 

 

fuck 2…. these raves close so early.  2 am …. its a joke ,  Soton is missing the whole UKAY is missing on those relaxed laws .. whats that sonar beam calling thru yeah it’s the Ed Rush and Optical those crazy bald heads its Funktion the remix , is it gonna get pulled up , yep yep dj brooooocccckieeeeee inside , so we get to hear that intro again I look around me as we are sent onto the cold face of uncharted planets and its just us all the stepper in the place no one fighting noone bogging each other out , but that feeling grows and grows the 2 , the number, the regulation , I’m a stepper not a sleeper, I don’t want to stop stepping, change up rearrange my brain , don’t think i’ll feel the same , every weekend do the same , fuck a narrow lane , this feelin cant contain or complain, for that matter , deal with the matter , deal with it proper !   Skibba and IC3 ,HEY HEY , hosting and sending , sending us through , I see Anil the promoter screwing at the venue manager , who’s trying to shut SHIT DOWN, fuck your license, there’s still 600 people here no officers can take us but Anil aint no pussy claart , he’s  waving his hand across the night , across the floor the rAvers are still gagging for more ,he wants his customers going home happy talking about this ONE for years …. AND they will , we do , we cant forget it or get close to all those dreams

 

and we will we do we keep harking back to those days , those tape packs now fly through the air , youtube comments, fat bad cunts on fart gak in basements, medium size halls trying to relive the dream , sad ? No , AWOL  A way of life  that lives on , I was there , I bought the tape pack,and the panels rattled  , planet v becomes the sound of the new era , we get lighter , the pads soothe as the tents get bigger the lazers strafe the air the smoke gets thicker and bam those stabs get through and that riff hits you every time HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY , WHA U GONNA DO, , WHA U GONNA DO, , WHA U GONNA DO are you down with Lemon D , have you heard the champion sound and have you still got nasty habits ? did you party at the Startford rex , bone men , maybe you made a helter skelter of your life maybe serotonin got all burnt out , you didn’t know about 5htp , running down the corridors of your life , every Tuesday Wednesday feeling like hollow hollow man , chasing some fucking SKET who ordered vodka lemon but only liked garage … and didn’t like to ping …different tastes were coming … things never stay the same … it gets moodier … you don’t feel like a junglist soldier , junglists are you reeeeeeeaaddyyy ? Yes certainly they are… here to report to the floor for duty we are now ready for take off…

 

 

 

, but you are apart , girl gets to you says why you always with your crew they don’t support you , smoking too much , sniffin Charlie , all the people in the party getting edgy , someone wants to cook up , in your kitchen things are getting too sketchy too bait ,  and u get para ,think you want to change it up , breakbeats still come and things turn to the Marine Parade , that’s ll good but something is missing … you fall in and out with Bad Company …..

 

 

 

 

Bad Company, the crazy bald head scene, less girls, more man dem but skinnier and more prone to start,  you start to feel itchy, Plaistow 1999 … the rain hits hard on the ‘crete , you walk through Saturday hammers crowds and make trips to paddington via Hayes TOX is everywhere hes out to B O M B,  now is the time of drawing back , now is the time of Iceberg and Mosch, Wookie and Sundayz, cartoon characters on shady lanes, phone keeps ringing,  things aint been the same since …..has it come 2 this,  Original Pirate Materials kool Fm  and  something else turns your head… the twisiting and turning through the canals and the serotonin levels are burnt out….battle over