By 97 hadn't all the 'cool' people invented some sub-genre on a weekly basis? That you were meant to be into? Therefore sucking the joy out of it and making it totally train-spottery in a thoroughly English way?
Yes, in your own mind you're cool as ****. Nobody cares! Can we not just get back to doves-fuelled, crazy ape bonkers, sweaty, not even slightly 'cool', jumping around like a lunatic! That was fun! 😀
Used to love going to Wigan Pier then we started going to Bowlers in Trafford park then driving to the all nighter in Morecambe. We had some seriously twisted times and wouldn't change it for the world!
i still cycle through the odd rave in the woods on an early morning spin 😀
Another Wigan pier regular? Best nights I've ever had in my life!!!! Friday nights there were religious!!!
Grow in up in that area (northwest) we were privvy to the emerging scene (88-94) which was still evolving. I still class one of my best nights ever was in the Downtown club in (Rhyl I know...) when Dave Angel was there, it wasn't techno but more electronica. Favorite DJs were Nipper, Welly, John Kelly. Who were your favorite DJ's?
Who were your favorite DJ's?
No true favourites as such, but Chris Liberator or Surgeon on the list would always attract my attention.
Stopped in '93/'94. drugs became too much of a miss rather than a hit. '93 hastings renaissance was the turning point - woke up the day after and realised I'd already been to the rave, couldnt remember a thing! Gutted.
chewkw, that was my thing. Some Lenny D and some hard Roterdam Gabba, mixed with plenty of class A lol!
Dont regret a thing, great experience (just wish more were recorded!)
There was some stonking madman powder knocking about well after the 90's......
In London at any rate
Rave on
🙂
Still, it was hard to beat Ronson, SOAK, basics and Hard Times all in Leeds c1994
you do realise the drugs didn't get shit , you just got old, dont you ?
🙄
jesus, this place makes me want to give up cycling sometimes
'91 - '93 for me.. Southwest.. Plymouth and Exmouth
We were still pretty young in my circle, so the rave in the woods afterwards was as important as the evening do in the various big old clubs and warehouses in the area.. which was nice, cos our local free party crew was one of the best in the country 😀
I was just the wrong age so that I could fall into the trap of leaving school and raving full time, with drugs all week until the next one, forging a career in this blossoming new marketplace..
I still clearly remember the feeling of unease the first time I heard the scathing tone in an older kids voice as they berated someone younger for not having the right clothes, or dance or attitude.. it all turned upside down for me for a while after that..
and what matey up there says about the drugs being good still..
yup.. I've been back to the old ways a few times after a good few years abstinence, your synapses do recover eventually and people are still very much having fun, if you can get your head around it..
Who mentioned driving around the M25 waiting for instructions?
Lidd Airport 93 anyone?
Two big phases for me: 88-92: hip-hop was my way into dance music but then went to clubs playing acid house. The tunes that real blew me away though was the early warp and network stuff. To me at least, it still sounds fresh. Shelves also stacked with stuff that didn't date so well though 😉 Did Prodigy kill rave? Of course not, but there was a sea change in the early 90s and many of those who had been involved for some time reacted badly and got a little snobbish (IMO). Lots of great nights after but commodity/market logic got its teeth in and things weren't quite as good (for me). I moved down to Cornwall around 1997 and got involved with the free party scene that was as healthy as it has even been. Great times again! Much more techno-led this time and I was probably playing the softer end of the spectrum (although hard by other standards, e.g. Axis, Djax, Purpose Maker and a few Detroit-type labels). Lots of great soundsystems and parties in London at those times too with much twittery cleared out the scene, and with lots of fresh blood too. I'm in North Wales now so if anyone know of anything going-on, email in profile! 8)
TimC - I'll do that.
And whoever says that the drugs haven't changed was presumably not around when they were still £25 a pill... And there's no point even talking about that over rated Columbian crap, as that's real reason the scene changed and people started believing there own hype. From then on folks were more concerned with how they looked than how much fun they were having!
Having said all that, I'm on a stag do tonight in Leeds so bring it on, is Back to Basics still open on Lower Briggate 😉
Ahhhh the days.... 1990 to 1998 Sterns, laserdrone, club UK, Swansea (can't remember the name) and of course the big all nighters - Fantasia, Universe, Tribal Gathering and Helter Skelter to name a few...
This one was particularily superb, even got a pass to dance on stage whilst DJ Gachet was on.... Bloddy amazing when you have several thousand ravers seemingly going with you 😀 😀 😀
Sorry link only... But great tunes!
And whoever says that the drugs haven't changed was presumably not around when they were still £25 a pill..
🙄
there was undoubtedly a ton of dodgy pills that went around.. but discounting that side of things, most of the changes were in yer 'ead son.. 😆
bikebouy - wasn't there myself but : www.worlddance.org.uk/events/wd310793.htm
Mugboo, Basics is at the Warehouse now and it's their 21st birthday party tonight with Basement Jaxx, get yourself there, it will be messy 😯
[img] 
[/img]
Jeff Mills at Atomic Jam playing real techno with drums that actually have some rhythm and not just bouncey boing boing crap
jonah tonto - Memberyou do realise the drugs didn't get shit , you just got old, dont you ?
Nope, the drugs got shit
£15-20 and as said above, even £25 for one pill, that would have you smashed out of your tree for 8 hours plus, to £2.50 for something that would give you a fuzzy head at best for 30 minutes. The drugs changed massively and if you weren't aware of that, then you weren't there pal.
+1 TAFKASTR. They definitely got sh*t. well around the south anyway. Ask1974, I was at Sterns pretty much every week 91-93 🙂 And lots of visits to Lost in Brixton, then various warehouses around London
Jeff Mills at Atomic Jam playing real techno with drums that actually have some rhythm and not just bouncey boing boing crap
I had a great view of the man at work that night, I've never seen someone got through records at such a rate.
IIRC he had a 909 on the go as well 🙂
Well I went to Slammin Vinyl 'Westfest' last weekend and still had an amazing night.
Best lasers I've ever seen, amazing venue, etc.
Pretty sure people just get old and think it's all gone rubbish when really they have just been left behind.
I think I love that Doncaster video - except for how nostalgic it makes me feel. I miss some of those times + people 🙁
Do love the fact it was taken from security video footage - those two girls must've been seen as the key threat to a peaceful event!
Favourite DJ's of the time were Carl Cox, Stu Allen, Daz Willot, M-Zone to name a few
I seem to remember it being acid and beers on a Friday night planning the Saturday night, and then Saturday night being spent driving around the M25 and stopping at random phoneboxes (this being the early 90's) before ending up in a field somewhere, glorious days.
Pretty sure I went to some rave weekend in north Wales at a butlins camp (Starworld?)as well, 3 days of being very Doved up, maybe in 91 or 92.
Kind of stopped it all around 95 when it all got a bit clubby.
Favourite DJ's of the time were Carl Cox, Stu Allen, [b]Daz Willot[/b], M-Zone to name a few
Heh, I played at a thing he was on at - christ was that 2004. 😯
http://feelthebass.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=5616
which one's you then grum..?
I was too big time to get on the official lineup - I was actually just scratching with an extra deck/mixer over the set of the wonderfully named CHEEKY MUNKY & MR ED.
While that was a pretty big gig with a good few thousand people it was also one of the shittest I did as we were on first when there were precisely no people there. 🙂
It was around that time that I started DJing out, we ended up having a little crew between the three of us - did some pretty good gigs and it was a lot of fun while it lasted.
Cheers for the heads up Ben
Many happy memories of Basics. And Soak in the Corn Exchange, which was possibly the best venue ever. Happy days! 😀
If you make it there Mugboo I hope you have a good time; I last went to Basics in 2005 at the ripe age of 32 having pretty much spent 14 years there, I enjoy these nostalgic threads but I really couldn't cope with the mornings after anymore
Well, tis been an afternoon of Old Skool here today whilst decorating....
After last night it got me thinking again and have managed to dig up these gems:
John Kelly & Derrick May Obsession 93)
Snipet of he John Kelly Set one of the best sets ever!
Most of the Derrick May set
http://www.mixcloud.com/minesh-surti/derrick-may-john-kelly-obsession-3rd-dimension-311092/
LTJ Bukem - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6L1rpt8Xnc&feature=fvwrel
The complete Nipper set from NYE 94 in Bowlers, we were there and we rocked it. I seem to remember one of the lads cars windscreen wipers had broken and the lad in the front was leaning out cleaning the screen as we went!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwVV_b0z46k&feature=related
Corn Exchange was awesome, a few top nights in there but the Arks in the old Leeds poly were better (Gary Norman - whatever happened to him??)
I'll be reliving the old techno days in a couple of weeks at Orbit Reloaded. Should be a messy middle aged affair. Dave Angel and Huggy are playing. Be interesting to see if I can still make it through till 6am even with (ahem) assistance!
Some good venues listed they guys!
When i bought my first house the girl next door was in the Stoke Drug Squad. I used to meet her and her colleagues in Kinetic and Golden. They were so crap and undercover work, we used to have a right laugh with/at them!!
Hacienda is also a place i'll never forget.
As other have mentioned it was a special time in the early 90's. The musice and culture was new and most had a great time....and lived to tell the tale! 😀
That's a properly crap line up for the orbit reloaded thing. I bet nige walker hasn't touched the decks in 10 yrs and Dave angel and marco zefferano were always pretty average. Could have been so much better.
True Ian, but you're never gonna get the big guns playing Wakefield no matter how much it pricks the nostalgia.
Saw Sven Vath at the Orbit a good while ago. Cool club but techno was never my bag really.
John Kelly and Derrick May. Reminds me of the time me and few friends took acid. Synced up our Walkmans all playing the same JK & DM tape and went on a bit of a mad one for the night. Happy days!
Ended up on a mission to a 24hr petrol station (glowing like a space ship) and Ray Reardon was in there paying for petrol. He was so cool, especially considering the 4 acid casulaties who were totally freaked out at meeting a snooker legend in the middle nowhere.
Needs more piano.
Late 80's early 90's was the best years!
Legends Warrington with Woody on the decks!
That's when e's were e's!
None of his Techno crap!
TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsSTR - MemberRaving was only any good in the early 90's - the drugs became crap in the late 90's.
Best times of my life
Shelleys
Kinetic
Eclipse
Donny Warehouse
I got taken to the eclipse and given my first pill by a guy that now designs clothes for a quite well known MTB company. 😆
I can still remember walking into the main room and being blown away at just how mental it all seemed.
Also met Mrsssstu on a night out in Shelleys.
Shelleys was that in Stoke?
me and a couple of mates were living in a caravan in '93.. travelling with and working for an Irish gypsy family.. I took two tabs of strong acid and a massive hit of MDMA powder minutes before climbing into the back of their van on the night that we left town to go and live with them..
We listened to a John Kelly tape on a constant loop that week.. It featured Annie Lennox's 'Little Bird' and an awesome instrumental mix of the Stone Roses 'Fools Gold' with a spoken vocal looped over the top of a guy whispering 'Ice, Coke, Crack, Speed, Smack'
any ideas on this tape or if that fools gold track was ever available..?
Shelleys was that in Stoke?
Yep.
Longton, Stoke.
