{"id":2990,"date":"1994-03-25T09:00:14","date_gmt":"1994-03-25T09:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dankew.me\/?p=2990"},"modified":"2026-01-26T13:56:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T13:56:18","slug":"issue-50-ravescene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dankew.me\/index.php\/1994\/03\/25\/issue-50-ravescene\/","title":{"rendered":"Issue 50 \u2013 Ravescene"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"Ravescene\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Published<\/strong>
25th March 1994 (approx)

Pages<\/strong>
8 (A5 B&W)

Strapline<\/strong>
TRY-BALLISTIC<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

FEATURED ARTICLE – GOLDEN TIMES<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2018good old days\u2019. but were raves any better then? I don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the beginning of \u201891 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\u2019t miss one! DJ\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019d find all the major DJ\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PA\u2019s at that time were The Prodigy and Shades of Rhythm and of course, N-Joi. Moby \u2018Go!\u2019 was a huge tune played in the main hardcore rooms of every rave, but raves in those days didn\u2019t have alternative rooms, they didn\u2019t need it as all the DJ’s had their own styles and the music didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best memory has to be The Living Dream in East London in June \u201891. Worst – I don\u2019t 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!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ADVERTS<\/h3>\n\n\n\n