Share your old rave stories

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I'm 24 and wasn't around to attend the early raves of probably my favourite era of jungley music (91/92/93).

But for those of you who were, or even those who were there in the subsequent few years, can you share stories and give an idea as to what it was like?

Also, do you think things could ever be like that again in terms of en-masse attended raves in fields? I know illegal field raves still take place, but what about the big outdoor ones like Fantazia? Could you do something like that? (Remember back then there was no internet and less opportunity for widespread promotion).

I personally remember hearing old rave tunes on the radio. Some of them were probably tunes manufactured to get in the charts, but I'm sure there were a few genuine rave-made tunes that slipped through the net, into the nation's consciousness and into the charts.

I've said it before here, but I hear early 90s hardcore and jungle music and I get nostalgic Baffled It's like I was there, but I'm pretty damn sure that I wasn't.
Apparently [Image: badteethpirate.gif] has a few.
i went to a rave once.
Anything memorable happen?
Utopian Wrote:I've said it before here, but I hear early 90s hardcore and jungle music and I get nostalgic Baffled It's like I was there, but I'm pretty damn sure that I wasn't.

i feel quite the same. love to go to oldskool parties, though started to listen to this music, when it was already oldskool Smile
Sir Loris Of Crowthorne Wrote:Anything memorable happen?

nah...well my mate pete, actually no, pete wasnt there. so no.
once i took drugs and went to a rave.


crazy story but true!
I'm kind of hoping for an idea of what it was like to be there.

Obviously, a lot of people on this forum are jaded wankers, so I'm wondering if you were less cynical back then and enjoyed it, or chin-strokingly analysed the negative aspects of the tunes?

I don't just want drug stories- I want more of an insight into whether, for example, there was actually a genuine excitement about this burgeoning music scene, or if a lot of merely liked it because they were rushing?

Did people call it drum and bass at all? (I heard an MC on a Bukem 1992 set talk about 'the drum and bass', but not really like a genre). Did you discuss where the music was going? etc etc
By the way, don't get offended at the jaded wankers remark Wink
Utopian Wrote:By the way, don't get offended at the jaded wankers remark Wink

I wont you cunt.
Early jungle raves had an edge, moody bad boys and pilled up kids. not a lot has changed.

In general i always enjoyed the vibe but i was young and high as a bastard.

To me it will always be called jungle, because that s what it was. The press etc invented the name drum & bass IMO.

JANGLE JANGLE JANGLE
Quote:I wont you cunt.

Silly billy
The best thing about those times for me was that i didnt own decks.

I hadn't become a neek that new every cat NO and every release schedule. There was still mystery to it.

I had to go to the the raves to hear the tunes and even then rarely new what they were at the time.

There was no internet. - People went out and communicated and made their own opinions of events and tunes rather than reading how many peole got jacked on DNBA

And the music was like nothing you'd heard before.
DUBPLATE (Retired)
yeah dubplate
thats exactly how it was for me, it was literally all about the music...

wow, i wish i could feel like that again, must have been the naivity of youth
Utopian Wrote:I'm kind of hoping for an idea of what it was like to be there.

Obviously, a lot of people on this forum are jaded wankers, so I'm wondering if you were less cynical back then and enjoyed it, or chin-strokingly analysed the negative aspects of the tunes?

I don't just want drug stories- I want more of an insight into whether, for example, there was actually a genuine excitement about this burgeoning music scene, or if a lot of merely liked it because they were rushing?

Did people call it drum and bass at all? (I heard an MC on a Bukem 1992 set talk about 'the drum and bass', but not really like a genre). Did you discuss where the music was going? etc etc


I don't think people thought as much about it as they do now.

You gotta remember that most people just went to dance to new music. Very few people made it or professed to make it or even wnated to make it.

Nowadays every tom,dick and harry is starting to "write some beats", got decks or promoting their own night.

Back then alot more people were happy just to be (clueless) punters LOL myself included.

no doubt there were those who felt it deeper and they are the hosehold names we all know and love i guess.

I was just happy to be 16 and out doing something that none of my school or sporting mates did.
DUBPLATE (Retired)
Utopian Wrote:Obviously, a lot of people on this forum are jaded wankers,

Hahaha
Never went to any big outdoor UK raves myself, but I'm sure a few less cynical cunts on here can provide some idea of the vibes.

Lol

As for the jungle/dnb scene in Ireland, it was very tough going making it happen, but a world without internet (and even mobiles - for the first few years) demanded much more commitment from the people involved - there's no doubt about that. Now it's all on tap, so it means less to people, I think. Plus people over here have much more cash now, so music in general means less to them.

Ecstacy played a huge part in the rise in popularity of dance music over here... maybe a bit less in the case of dnb though, initially at least, as we were all older and more into smoking it up instead.

Dance music at its most rave-like mixed up the classes in Ireland quite a lot at first, but the early hardcore scene that emerged from Rave soon faded from view (around 93)... so drum n bass was largely a middle-class thing in Ireland by the time the dnb scene kicked off proper..(96-99) and largely white too, as Ireland had yet to experience an influx of economic migrants.

So not many badboys in the Irish dnb scene - the hardest gangstas all preferred cheesy prog house or hard house. Anything not 4-2-the-floor was seen as alien, and Jungle was regarded as something for black people only.
Keep JUMPin ya Bastids
Hearing Terminator for the first time Grin
Then again and again and again Baffled
As a Midlander it was all about Doc Scott / Keith Suckling / Fabio / Jack Frost at do's like Amnesia House / Nemesis / Starlight / Dance Planet etc. Many messy nights at Coast 2 Coast, The Institute in Digbeth, Aston Villa Leisure Centre and The Hummingbird (Dance Planet closed the venue by ramming it to about 5x over capacity. I was ill and went home early. The heat in the venue was ridiculous, paint on the walls was 'melting' with the heat and humidity. Combined with dodgy class A's this led to at least 3 people dying that night Icon_sad )

I know I'm lucky to have witnessed the music I love so much now as an adult developing from it's roots in house/electro/hiphop in the early 90s when I was a yoot. The speed at which things moved was unreal - you can easily tell the difference from one year to the next, especially 91-93.
One tune sums up the golden era best for me..
A Guy Called Gerald - 28 Gun Badboy

I really could go on forever on this subject.. I need to go and dismantle my bed now cos I'm on the move!
Quote:The speed at which things moved was unreal - you can easily tell the difference from one year to the next, especially 91-93.

Yes, it seems to me that in 93 the music was significantly faster than in 92. It gave a rhythm to tunes much more like more modern jungle.

By mentioning this, it may seem that I'm moving the discussion more into the territory of the music itself rather than the events, but you can't talk about one without the other I guess.

I'm actually listeing to Dr S Gachet from The Edge n Coventry in 1993 right now, a venue that eventually became The Institute, which was where at the turn of the century I experienced much of my early drum and bass events. I lived near to that place all that time, so for me it's funny hearing this seminal music right now thinking how at the time I was not many miles away in bed asleep as a kid, while these great moments were occurring!
dubplate Wrote:There was no internet. - People went out and communicated and made their own opinions of events and tunes rather than reading how many peole got jacked on DNBA

And the music was like nothing you'd heard before.

That pretty much sums it up for me. There is no "mystery" about it anymore. Forums have single handedly taken that away from raving.

The music was better in raves back in the day and that's a fact. That's why I loved it so much. Used to get anxious before going so I could hear new tunes. Now I've heard 95% of them on mixes on the internet. Some of the reason I rarely go out now.
Utopian Wrote:The Edge in Coventry

'The Eclipse' Yeah that club saw it all! My favourite early tape is Mickey Finn and Carl Cox from Energy at the Eclipse (early 91) hardcore business! I may even have to upload it for you when I get time. It seemed at one point like everybody in Birmingham was listening to that tape!
strike Wrote:To me it will always be called jungle, because that s what it was. The press etc invented the name drum & bass IMO.

JANGLE JANGLE JANGLE

amen, brother........ Cool

@ Utpoian: will probably up a very mediocre addition to this thread later - prematurely packing my shit up into boxes, ready to move house (in 6-8 weeks haha, talk about chicken-counting) and already have got a bit excited with the beer/breakage on the stereo and thus am an emotional wreck. so talkin about the heyday is prob not a good idea at the mo Lol

much love mate Grin
gutted i didn't attend any of the biggies in 92..universe, fantazia etc but i simply wasn't old enough Icon_sad had to make do with mixtapes and plastering my room with flyers Lovesmilie started going to free parties about 94 i think...one good thing about living out in the sticks in wales was there was always mental parties going on, some of the bigger ones were mind blowing for me such good vibes and music Falcon
I still go to free parties sometimes where some mates rinse out some hardcore ragga jungle action + a bit of choppage here and there. Great hearing that stuff echoing round a valley or out in some woods. I went to one that was in an old quarry on the side of a hill and it was so high up on the moors that in the morning we watched the run rise from the sea. Beautiful, not to mention climbing trees after doing some beans at 7 in the morning and drinking tequila as it started to get light. They had lasers lights on the trees, it was just up the road from a small festival which people were leaving to come to the rave. They even had a tea tent with a well sound couple running it. The pigs didn't turn up til til about 1 in the afternoon the next day and got it shut down but didn't confiscate anything thankfully...
beats are there to be broken http://musicindevon.org/
Funny, it's probably easier than ever to organise a large-scale illegal rave, yet hardly anyone does it anymore...

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