I can see the true party vibe lives at this site, but as all this shit normally comes back to.. how to spread PLUR in everyday lives? We can see that these events have created a sense of community that simply isnt present any where else. Why is this? it cannot be defined as just drugs or music coz ive bin to raves with shit tunes or no drugs and they’ve still bin amazing. we need to get over our ego’s and produce real community events that include wider society, to educate them what we’ve found. I challenge the free party crews to do a float at their local festivals, set up workshops in the youth clubs. take that shit over. if you dont use the rigs real name, then where is the risk? Yes it’s hard but if were gonna change the world, it has to be.
My dream is to aquire a massive site. the building will combine free party spaces with workshops on dj, mc, graf, dancing and practical crafts, and in order to enter the building you must walk through interactive exhibitions on ecological and social issues. obviously a bar is essential and a skate park would top it off. this may sound naive and unrealistic, but the create centre in bristol alredy owns the building and has the ecology exhibitions. i’ve spoken to people who work there, and they seem open to my suggestions, so thats a start. the money (1.5mill) could be realistically raised in a year through an intensive sponsorship, fundraising and awarenes campaign and we all know there are nuf people well up for lending their . ive been checking the net and there is loads of cash to be had by the crew witha sick idea that can convey it effectively. Tony Blair is screwing the freeparty scene, but he knows that there is a massive untapped creative culture that could be adding to the gnp, and help make tone look good. the arts council alone has 3 billion quid to giver away by april 2005. mad fundz.
the french have legal raves, the spanish, it is part of our celtic heritage, an ancient tradition we have a right to.there are nuff hedz wiilin to put the skillz and efforts in. I need to finish my art degree this year and continue makin contacts, and gaining “events management” as the squares call it, but this time next year, this project is gettin launched.
if anyone has anything to offer, be it skillz, support,suggestions or money, the world will thank you, and so will i.
contact; use@primalvisions.co.uk
website: http://www.nativebeats.co.uk
(check out the site and our parties if you can get 2 one, where’s my old skool ravers?)
LOVE GOES OUT TO ALL THE FREE PARTY PEOPLE…
Very noble of you mate. Unfortunately, apart from 1 of us, all of our rig members have to work during the week. And the parties take up most of the free time we get.
You have got some fine ideas though. It’d be good for people to see that we are not all about hedonistic adventures and peace breaching.
Respect
i live to damn far…:(
wish more people like you guys lived here
the cali seen is too damn mainstream
i rather just lay back and hit the undergrounds every once in a while:D
come on guys? anyone on a similar tip?
Check out Hedfuk’s website – the link is on this site somewhere!
They do alot of the sort of stuff you are talking about – art exibitions etc etc.
I really like your ideas, a few m8s have tried to do something similar in Reading in a long term squat and it did start to take shape but I think due to various politics it didn’t withstand the test of time – GL you’d kno more about this.
Guildford Ambient picnic which featured the Itsy Bitsy crew and DJ Dark Angel/Barcs was a good example of engaging with the wider community (and it wasnt all psy-trance either!). I still can’t believe they pulled it off, basically an 8000 people festival day bang in the middle of guildford!
Originally posted by Gabba_bitch
I really like your ideas, a few m8s have tried to do something similar in Reading in a long term squat and it did start to take shape but I think due to various politics it didn’t withstand the test of time – GL you’d kno more about this.
I do – sorry for the harsh/depressing stuff which follows.
Look at it this way – we started out with good ideas but there were several personality clashes; several people wanted to be the “alpha male” and run things which led to a lot of fallouts
It seriously damaged a number of long term friendships, there were violent outbursts (some with a nasty misogynistic overtone) on the part of an individual who was “all up for it” at the start but couldn’t handle the stress of dealing with paperwork, deadlines etc which led to people leaving the collective (including two very resourceful and dedicated young ladies who had achieved so much 😡 and the old bill even got involved due to violent incidents.
it was almost as if this person played along as we built everything up only to knock it down as it was getting so far; worse still he didn’t even see what had happened or apologise
the net effect damaged the reading urban party scene for a year or so – and made me personally a lot more cynical and less trusting. Its taken me a lot of time to get over it and even today I’m a different person because of it
One of the girls even left the city eventually partly due to the fallout from this failed venture..
USE – I think what you are plannning is brilliant – but TBH you may find it harder than you think; the enemy is not always cops or tony blair but closer to home sometimes. Make sure you can deal with “group dynamics” or “crew politics”
Yea itsy bitsy smashed it, so i heard, was too stoned and forgot to come back!
I hear ya general, ive been using the dry buisness orientated aspects of my course to come up with a more communist heirarchy, and have seen rows over intellectual ownership and so on at art college, so im trying to sort some kind of document the whole crew signs; saying native beats is everyones, and no ones.
that we can all contribute and benefit, but no one can exclude anyone lse or their ideas, because the sound system is us but it is also beyond us.
hopefully in a couple years time i’ll be selling more banner comisions and websites etc, and the guys ‘ll be selling tunes and playin out every night, but i want us to know noone takes a biiger cut than they are owed, before it gets too important. i recon so long as we all own the idea on paper, and are creatively free to do whtever they want under the name. eg i could do a clubnight and put our logo on the flyer in the absence of the crew- not sayin their playin wen their not, just that the crew is represented….gotta sort it quick fore its too late!
I work in public sector finance – a lot of the procedures there are very similar to those used to fund voluntary organisations.
Ironically, the more “socialist” you try to make an organisation, the more you have to ensure the financial and budget controls are robust and effective!
This means you need to keep track of where the money is going, and be open and transparent to all stakeholders (everyone from crew to punters and backers) what happens to it. You will need to create financial reports that can be understood by those who are not accountants, and ensure that certain jobs are rotated both for security and skills transfer (in case someone has to leave the collective for any reason). If this is doen well ir should put paid to one issue that divides and often destroys many collectives – the constant paranoia that someone is making more money than someone else!
are we talking about a multimedia space that is available to all to use, USE? or a collectiv / squat that is more than a living space / party spot? or something else?
The arts council have plenty £££ to give away, but tapping into it usually means more than having a great idea; it needs to appeal to the middle class idea of ‘art’ in my experience (not right, but true). Although the nearest art centre to me has some excellent gigs, this only happens for economic reasons.
I dunno if I’m doing it all wrong, but Fat Baby have never even made enough cash from an event to cover our costs (although it’s long overdue as new hardware is needed). I guess our view is let’s just pool what we have, use it, invite everyone to enjoy it and let karma do the rest 🙂
but that’s just us.
I think large cities are in far greater need of the kind of free spaces that i think you’re getting at than a mainly rural area like devon.
We have a new centre in Exeter that, after years of wrangling, is almost ready to open. After so much confusion, noone really knows what form it’s going to take and those decisions are being left up to a consultation of young people (and this is in good hands 😉 )
i guess all we can do now is whisper in young ears and hope that some of it gets through.
And, BTW, I think you’ll go far, USE. Share and enjoy.
one thing I think is really needed in British cities is a place for “young” people (by that I potentially mean age 14-35+) to take part in creative arts projects.
A day doesn’t go past without some complaint about “graffiti” everywhere and to be fair when every private wall and telecoms companies street furniture is tagged up I can understand this;
but I’ve learnt from speaking to people in their late teens and early 20s that after I left sixth form (senior high school) that many teenagers no longer have art lessons in school as they are encouraged to study merely for exams in “business friendly subjects” and art provision in many schools is being run down. Of course people can study art in college and university but not every can afford this route or gain the entry qualifications!
I myself had some talent in art but had to abandon this at age 14 due to the “options” system in school during the 1980s so I could learn about computers; this may have paid off in terms of employability but I feel the creative side of me has been neglected over the years.
I would also like to see a British art scene that isn’t the pile of élitist, pretentious crap spewed out by the art establishment which also dictates kids who did not go to uni do not get a look in (not dissing USE for studying hard but there is a lot of talent out there which gets overlooked because those who produce it aren’t graduatea)
And whilst I understand the anger of business owners whose property is damaged, I feel some sadness that kids now feel that to do art they have to commit burglary and even risk their lives from trains and live rails to express their creativity – of course some of them enjoy the criminal angle of the scene but I reckon a lot of these kids would prefer to do things with a bit more stablity and safety…
wel, mr loon, what i’m on about is multi media spaces open to joe public, a proper community centre, with a cafe run by a local sound company, say dysfunctional in bristol, with a space attatched with community news, events, art work and examples of how to conduct a more sustainable existence. that would be the fist floor, suspende above the skate park. above that would be a venue thart is subsidised to local acts/ groups and available to national / international acts too. it could function as dance/ dj art workshops in the day, and above this on the third floor would be a series of studio spaces for animators/ musicians/ artists etc. the roof would have a cool garden, natch and probably a cafe/ banstand for summer parties. phatnes incarnate, you might say….
as for monseir illumination
, you are dead right, mate. the art scene in general is fucked by the encroachment of capitalism (nowhere is safe) in that the worth of a peice of ar is its price tag, which in the case of modern art, is bought almost exclusively by rich folks looking to launder money. orfor an isurance scam, or as an investmenrt. so the worth of art in todays society has nothing at all with its real value, it is abitrarily decided by tory fucks like saatchi and his dodgy mates. not only that, but art education is dominated by pigeon holes and buzz words and it seems to be the entire purpose of art education to cram yopurself in a box and learn the appropiate buzz words. creativity, especially when politically motivated is notably discouraged and side lined. there are a milliion things wrong with the art world and i could go on forever, but it remains the duty of every true artist not to let the man get to you and keep on keepin on in the faith that one day the truth will out. there is amazing art in this country that actually is exhibited, but whio wants to go to a fucking gallery? theres nowhere to sit, theres no tunes and you get coughed at by the help for looking at the works properly. imall about creating alternaives to galleruy spaces, ansd part of this is the grafff………
ive been writing for about five years, mainly little bright interventions that i stencilabout the place, but ive also bust quite a few large pecies and a couple of collaborations, and inorder to get the can control and to establish links and respect in the bristol graff scene, i went out on a few tagging missions over the whole city, puttin these little meditating dudes in hoodies evrywhur. i obviously dont hav eto do this to get my art seen, but do it out of respect and participation in the great hiphop community communication devce that is graff, and to claim back the city which has been stolen from the people by councils and corprations. there are some amazing graff sucess stories from bristol, where graff is moderately tolerated, from the infamous banksy http://www.banksy.co.uk to the sublime sickboy http://www.sickboy.uk.com and his crew tcf http://www.tcfcrew.co.uk who i had the pleasure of writing with once. twas lush. these guys were just graff heads who now make a livin doing designs an makin murals and exhibitions.
there are nuff rubbiush little taggers out there, the majority of which never do anything more positive and beautiful, but they have the right to write on their own city to see if it is fulfilling or if they can get to know folks or brighten up their shitty area thats bin fuct by the council. you gotta start some where, no one HAS to tag trains orcomit burglary, and its a sad testament to the power of the media that crimew and graff is so closely ascociated…. to me graf is a positive expression of your self to your community, a positive act of reclamation of space by people, and the principle reason for it being so ugly is supression by the mainstream, and psychological worry of being caught. its always sick in legal sites. man has been writing on walls since the dawn of time, its only been illegal for a while, why is that?
the combined arts centre / skate park seems like an excellent idea – and a good use of many void/disused buildings found in city centres which are outside the peak shopping district and often end up not much use for anything else!
Another idea (for which funding is also available) would be to use basement areas as a secure parking space for pedal cycles; this doesn’t need much space (compared to cars) and most cyclists I know (myself included) would far rather use a place like this than lock their bike up on the street; where in most cities its at risk of being nicked or trashed! This would fit in quite well with the skate park/BMX type idea, and has worked in some areas of the UK. The users pay a charge like they would for normal car parking (although cheaper obviously) and there are security arrangements to prevent thieves.
This could use one area of a multi-floor building whilst the artists etc are elsewhere – and like most transport-related things is a good steady source of income. It also can be used to claim “environmental brownie points” as you are encouraging non-motorised transport…
I fully agree with your comments on art galleries BTW – they need drastic revamping to attract the ordinary people – or for that matter anyone under the age of 40 who is not there as a result of an educational course or trying to “break into the art world”
bump..
curiously this turned up before the nightmares thread!
surely some others must also be looking to the future like “USE?”
lets face it whilst free parties are of course fun they are not without their own issues (safety, health, wider society having to “clean up” after buildngs are trashed) and the zero tolerance stuff is proper kicking in here in the SE… (people and rigs getting nicked left right and centre, parties being closed down and buildings becoming harder to find…)
yet despite the cynicism that comes with 14 years on this scene I still think there is a postive aspect of this culture that could even be transferred across and outwards to wider society via such stuff as art and multimedia.. – but without overcommercialisation/
how about it?
I live on this crazy street which the talented teenages call the ghetto, they often get into trouble cause they are bored and have no positive out let for their talents. I have been trying to reach them and get them thinking in different directions. Some things have changed and the other day they came to show me their pride and joy – a chopper style bicycle made from various bits and pieces they have scrimped together. It functions well and they have loads of fun on it. The next development is they’re gonna get a small mini motorbike engine and wire it all together, haha, you should see the switches and things, i was so proud so where they all, they’re 14-16 yrs old. The youngest one came to visit me for a chatt the other day, he was beaming like a cheshire cat, when i asked what he pleased about, he said he had been arrested. I clipped him round the head and told him he shouldnt be proud of that, the smile vanished and i told him he was wasting his talents. Crazy stuff. Anywayz i would like to see, regional centres, that cater for people/teenages with various talents from djing too writing. Non main stream people/teenages get involved in project from start. Have something like admission to centre based on points earned while assisting, building centre, and continue on bassis of improved behaviour pfft :angel_fly , there need to be people who could work along side the teenages and earn there respect and be positive idol figure. Dunno maybe get some Celebs/Idols in to do some work along with them too if they reach targets etc. So much potential but loads of action is needed. I have been through nightmare trying to fight for my right too have music, i am in no way a disrespectful person. Anywayz enough of that but it well crazy how so much money can be spent on negativity, there will always be people who are different so why cant they put money into letting us have a positive outlet music/art/ etc :good_evil , sorri my command of expressing my ideas on here is a nightmare. Anywayz i am up for helping. If anyone wants to add me to msn pm me.
Use amazing thread good luck. Infact there are so many talented people in the party scene. Keep inspired
nice one Irie
i think i know what you’re saying and i think it’s wicked (and true)
but using celebrities / media shine can be the kiss of death for a successful youth service
keep it real :biggreen:
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