"Where's my house?" Londons electronic music from 1989 to 2016.
Marc Castello and Nazen Carneiro.Tudo Beats/ Phouse
It was the year of 1989 when my friend asked me if I wanted to go to a party and told me it was a new style of music called Acid House. The party was being held in a disused warehouse, which was the old Wembley Film Studios.
It was the year of 1989 when my friend asked me if I wanted to go to a party and told me it was a new style of music called Acid House. The party was being held in a disused warehouse, which was the old Wembley Film Studios.
We arrived at the party at around twelve in the night. Three or four big burly bouncers on the doors. It was twenty pounds to enter, which was a hell of a lot of money at that time. We payed our entrance and the bouncers slid a big door back. For an instant moment it was like beginning a dream, something I have never experienced before this. Throbbing bassline music and people dancing wildly. I think within thirteen minutes I was hooked to this new sound called House, a mix of Chicago house and Detroit House. Produced by artists such as Lil Louis, Fingers Inc., Frankie Knuckles, Marshall Jefferson and Derrick May
The music soon caught on the youth of London and it was not long before the clubs were playing these sounds and english producers were producing there own style of house music. One of the main clubs at the time was “Shoom”, started by Danny_Rampling and Paul Oakenfold, the Hacienda in Manchester started by Mike Pickering and the Trip Club opened by Nicky Holloway, plus the Astoria Club in Charing Cross Road. Some great DJs played at this Clubs. John Digweed, Dave Angel, Pete Tong, Sasha, Fabio An, Groove Riders, Paul Oakenfold, Carl Cox, these were the DJs that everybody wanted to listen at the time.
As time moved, more Clubs poped up. Turnmills Night Club, The End (club), Plastic People, Bagleys Warehouse, The Fridge... All sadly closed now but these were some of the places where you could hear great underground music and great DJs. The music was also changing when in 1991 Tecno had come onto the scene along with Rap, Hardcore and Progressive House.
Also the free parties were beng held up and down the M25 motorway. This was the “Summer of Love”. Some of the famous party at the time were Raindance and Biology but there were many smaller ones and these parties were mouth to mouth only. You would call a telephone number around 9pm on a Saturday. An answering time would tell you “to drive down the motorway far as much as fifty miles, come off a junction 11 or 6 keep driving down a little country lane and you will come to a farm and the party is there.”
Many times we’ve done this in large groups of ravers, only to be lost driving down country lanes with all the windows down, listening to the sound of distant music. Usually there would be a police car parked in some point, then you would know the party was nearby. These parties were held in fields or in farms and could go as far as three days. Spiral Tribe parties were well-known for this and also the Castlemorton Common Festival held in 1992, which went on for five days. It seems the UK government at the time had had enough of ravers having free parties and enjoying themselves, so ‘they’ passed a bill called The Criminal Justice bill, which became law in 1994. Were one of the laws in this bill that stated “it was ilegal for more than 10 people to be in one place at one time”, so you could be arrested for this. Well... That sort of slowed the free party movement down, but did not end it.
The music soon caught on the youth of London and it was not long before the clubs were playing these sounds and english producers were producing there own style of house music. One of the main clubs at the time was “Shoom”, started by Danny_Rampling and Paul Oakenfold, the Hacienda in Manchester started by Mike Pickering and the Trip Club opened by Nicky Holloway, plus the Astoria Club in Charing Cross Road. Some great DJs played at this Clubs. John Digweed, Dave Angel, Pete Tong, Sasha, Fabio An, Groove Riders, Paul Oakenfold, Carl Cox, these were the DJs that everybody wanted to listen at the time.
As time moved, more Clubs poped up. Turnmills Night Club, The End (club), Plastic People, Bagleys Warehouse, The Fridge... All sadly closed now but these were some of the places where you could hear great underground music and great DJs. The music was also changing when in 1991 Tecno had come onto the scene along with Rap, Hardcore and Progressive House.
Also the free parties were beng held up and down the M25 motorway. This was the “Summer of Love”. Some of the famous party at the time were Raindance and Biology but there were many smaller ones and these parties were mouth to mouth only. You would call a telephone number around 9pm on a Saturday. An answering time would tell you “to drive down the motorway far as much as fifty miles, come off a junction 11 or 6 keep driving down a little country lane and you will come to a farm and the party is there.”
Many times we’ve done this in large groups of ravers, only to be lost driving down country lanes with all the windows down, listening to the sound of distant music. Usually there would be a police car parked in some point, then you would know the party was nearby. These parties were held in fields or in farms and could go as far as three days. Spiral Tribe parties were well-known for this and also the Castlemorton Common Festival held in 1992, which went on for five days. It seems the UK government at the time had had enough of ravers having free parties and enjoying themselves, so ‘they’ passed a bill called The Criminal Justice bill, which became law in 1994. Were one of the laws in this bill that stated “it was ilegal for more than 10 people to be in one place at one time”, so you could be arrested for this. Well... That sort of slowed the free party movement down, but did not end it.
As it was not long before people started doing squat parties in any empty big building. Some of the big ones were the collective parties which were sometimes organized by 30, 40 people, five big sound systems in a big empty mansion playing House, Tecno, Drum And Bass. And lots more on going on, these parties went on from 2 to 3 days and were free to enter. There was also the STonKA party held by Chris Liberator, Julian Liberator and Jerome Hill playing the harder side of tecno.
The Squat Parties went on for a good 22 years untill another law was passed, and you could not go squat anymore. The police came down hard, raiding parties and closing them down or confiscating your sound system. Well, seems the days of the raves, squat parties and good underground clubs are not today in the year 2016. Actually. I think all things were better back then and, as a DJ, I could go through a record shop, listen to ten records and buy them all. Today, I would have to listen to a hundred records to buy ten. It seems quality has gone down the drain as its more about quantity.
I remember reading a magazine with George Harrison saying “Electronic music will be death of music”. I hated him for saying this as I love electronic music but looking back to what he said maybe he had a point. Do I want to go to a club and listen to Rihanna or Beyoncé House mixes, or all this commercial crap? That’s being forced down our throats! Good electronic music was never about this.
Now we have The Economist magazine saying the reason clubs are closing is because People aren’t taking as much Drugs as they used to. I will tell you one thing: People never went to clubs to take drugs, they went to listen to music. Clubs in London are closing due to rising rents, business rates, problems with getting a licence and noise compliants in other words, Gentrification. And this has been going on Far the last 10 years. London is a great city for music and culture. But it is slowly being destroyed by the powers that be.
Wheres my house!
Tradução: Nazen Carneiro / Tudo Beats
