Issue 50 – Ravescene

FEATURED ARTICLE – GOLDEN TIMES

Well, here it is, the fiftieth issue of Ravescene. It seems so long ago that we produced the very first copy and this seems as good an opportunity as any to look back on nearly three mental years. The scene has changed an awful lot since we stared and we are forever getting letters harking back to the ‘good old days’. but were raves any better then? I don’t think so. The scene today, although different is flourishing and very much alive. The music keeps changing and moving forward and is still the true sound of the underground. We first started raving at house parties and the first club we went to was Orange at Camden Palace on a Friday. That place kicked, total respect to The Orange for making those nights ones to remember.

At the beginning of ‘91 loftgroover was playing there and memories of going up to him for the name of Djum Djum spring to mind. That was also the summer that Raindance at Jenkins Lane were the ultimate events. They held two parties in May, the first one smaller as World Party were at the Essex showground the same night (their fences fell down) and all night the MC (Hardcore General) was hyping up the rave. For the rest of the summer Raindance was huge and we didn’t miss one! DJ’s at that time were Slipmatt, Face, Eddie Richards, Fabio & Carl Cox to name a few. Remember the best Raindance in Cambridge – the one when it rained so instead of  one big tent there were three or four smaller ones? And everyone was dancing up to their knees in mud?

Then there were the Dance ’91 at Pickets Lock promoted by Pure. Huge events, over 4,000 indoors until they got stopped by complaints about the noise levels from nearby residents. There’s a twelve screen cinema just opened on the site recently. And talking of Pure, they were of course responsible for the long running Rage at Heaven every Thursday night, always at the forefront of the new music. Rage was the place where you went every week and met everyone and there were always DJ’s running around with the newest tunes under there arms, just hot off the press and given to them by the record companies who knew that they’d find all the major DJ’s there, every week. Who remembers the Rage Halloween party where some poor sod spent the night in a bathful of maggots? Or the beach party towards the end where the floor of the whole venue was covered in sand and the stage opened up to reveal a swimming pool! ’91 was also the heyday of the Wonderland Arena in East London, hot, sweaty and disgusting facilities but what raves! Elevation in particular I remember, one absolutely rammed with the MC telling us all how the tent at Raindance that night had become unsafe – it did, I was there and everyone was sent home early.

PA’s at that time were The Prodigy and Shades of Rhythm and of course, N-Joi. Moby ‘Go!’ was a huge tune played in the main hardcore rooms of every rave, but raves in those days didn’t have alternative rooms, they didn’t need it as all the DJ’s had their own styles and the music didn’t start to get maniacally fast with  breakbeats until ’92 and after that of course drum and bass came in which has radically split the scene, some would say almost killing it off during the dark days of 93.

But back to the past, and no retrospective would be complete without a mention of the truly huge triumphs (and disasters) such as Vision at Popham (40,000 people and not a single dry place to stand and Keith from Prodigy rolling in the mud) Fantazia at Donnington (spending all night looking for your friends and trying to work out why the sound was so low), the Universe parties before they got too big, the Perceptions, the T2 hangars, having to get your car towed from muddy car parks, the police checks on the way to Wisbech, the arrests at Wisbech. Watching the sun come up over the sea at all the raves at the seaside like Reincarnation in Kent, Storm at Hastings, Destiny at Clacton. Remember the queues at Telepathy, Marshgate Lane every week? And what about that Fantazia at Bournemouth with all the television coverage of everyone sitting on the beach afterwards? Sterns has to be mentioned, still sorely missed, in memory of Mensa who died in a car accident last month.

Best memory has to be The Living Dream in East London in June ‘91. Worst – I don’t know as the good moments (and there have been many) tend to blot out the bad. Yes, the scene has changed but as long as the people and the vibe stays the same it lives on!

ADVERTS

• Thunder & Joy – The Easter Smash @ Raw Club
• Elevation & Double Dipped Together
• Thunder & Joy Rhapsody @ The New London Astoria
• Helter Skelter @ The Sanctuary
• Desert Storm & The A Team present The Lick Part 2
• Thunder & Joy – Once Upon A Time
• Strictly Hardcore / Strictly Underground compilations
• Double Dipped Sky High @ Bagleys
• NWD Promotions
• One Nation @ Roller Express
• Jungle Fever!

RAVE LISTINGS

Good Friday 1st April

• Jungle Splash The Rocket, Holloway Road, London N7
• Eurotrance LA2, 157 Charing Cross Road, London WC2
• Delirious Rhythm Station, 35 Station Road, Aldershot, Hants
• Foam Party The Paradise, Parkfield Street, Islington, London N1
• The Final Frontier Club Uk, Buckhold Road, Wandsworth, London SW18
• Telepathy The Wax Club, Temple Mills Lane, Stratford, London E15
• The Realm The Laserdrome, 267 Rye Lane, Peckham, London, SE15

Easter Saturday 2nd April

• Dance Trance The Que Club, Corporation Street, Birmingham, West Midlands
• Roast The Astoria, 157 Charing Cross Road, London WC1
• World Dance Lydd International Airport, Lydd, Kent
• Life Utopia The Ravedome, Southall Lane, Hounslow, Middlesex
• Destiny Rise & Shine The Pier, Clacton, Essex
• Innersense The Lazerdrome, 267 Rye Lane, Peckham, London SE15
• The Power The Rocket, Holloway Road, London N7

Easter Sunday 3rd April

• Mindwarp Colchester Hippodrome, High Street, Colchester, Essex
• Orange The Hippodrome, Leicester Square, London W1
• Screamadelica Central London Studio
• Pandemonium The Institute, Digbeth, Birmingham
• Thunder & Joy Raw, 112a Great Russell Street, London W1
• Institute Of Goa The Dome, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5
• V.I.P. Equinox, Empire. Leicester Square, London W1
• Immortality The Island, High Road, Ilford, Essex

• The Morning After Monday 4th April (All Dayer) The Gardening Club, Convent Garden, London W1
• Rhapsody Friday 8th April. Busbys, 157 Charing Cross Road, WC2
• Double Dipped ‘Sky High’ Saturday 9th April. Bagleys Film Studios, Goods Yard, Off York Way, Kings Cross, London N1
• One Nation Saturday 9th April. Roller Express, Lea Valley Trading Estate, Edmonton N18
• Club Together (Elevation & Double Dipped) Every Friday From 15th April, Turnmills, 63b Clerkenwell Road, London EC1
• Black & White Ball Saturday 16th April. The Royal Albert Hall, London
• Desert Storm Saturday 16th April, The Sanctuary, Denbigh Leisure, Milton Keynes, Bucks
• Once Upon A Time Saturday 16th April. Central London Studio
• Pure Saturday 16th April. Que Club, Corporation Street, Birmingham
• Elevation & Reincarnation Saturday 23rd April. Crystal Palace Sports Centre, London
• Astrology Part II Saturday 23rd April. The Rocket, Holloway Road, London N7
• Helter Skelter Friday 29th April. The Sanctuary, Denbigh Leisure, Milton Keynes, Bucks
• Reincarnation Saturday 30th April. Kings Hall, Herne Bay, Kent
• Mysticism Sunday Ist May (All Dayer) The Lido Complex, Marine Terrace, Margate, Kent
• Double Dipped With Destiny/The Cream Saturday 14th May. Bagleys Studios, York Way, Kings Cross, London N1