Boom Records Party , Portugal. Boom Records Party
28/11/1998 - Costa da Caparica Beach
Dj´s: Filip (p), Pena (p), David (BOTFB-Sweden) and Matt Boom (Boom Recs/Nl)
Live Acts: Battle of the Future Buddhas (Boom Recs-Sweden)
This was a party organized by four portuguese psytrance dudes, who thought that, if no one was bringing down to play BOTFB and Matt Boom and David from the BOTFB here in Portugal we would, so that´s what happened, found a place - a beach bar in Costa da Caparica beach (10 min south of Lisbon) - got some decors from all the portuguese party promoters, contacted the band and dj´s, made some flyers and it´s done!!!
When Matt and the Buddhas saw the place they said:" Man, This is GOA!!!". A beach bar with wooded floor, some coverings, fluo and trippy decors and backdrops, and nice sunny weather even in Winter), what great place for a party.
This was a non profit party, made for friends and by friends, no radio or newspapers advertising, only some flyers, but appeared more or less 600 people to party.
The party started at about midnight with Dj Filip and Dj Pena from Portugal who played till 3.30 am with a building up dat set with great new tracks preparing the scene for David who played a dat set, very well mixed, deep and dark (scandinavian style, with some tracks made by him and friends) finishing with some uplifting tracks...
At 6 am started BOTFB live act who played mostly unreleased tracks, weird, dark, noisy, very psychedelic stuff (and everybody was enjoying and dancing), they´ve finished is set with an amazing uplifting track that tells that they know how to play with everybody´s mind.
At 7 am started Matt Boom , who played only unreleased tracks, and made one of the best mornings that I had ever heard. What a story Matt told us, so beautiful and powerful, so well mixed, everybody was dancing and tripping with the beautiful landscape(desert sunny beach with beautiful waves in front of us) until 11.15 am when Matt finished is set.
This was an unpredictable party that will stay in the minds of all presents for a long time.
By João (Dj Pena - Flow Records) - http://www.flow-records.com/
Haze – December 2000 Haze 2k
by Dj Haze
After waking up on Dec 31st with plans in place for a party at our DJ castle in Basingstoke things took a downward turn. Mental phoned to say she had split up with Duncan (also known as Gordon to a select few) the night before so would not be attending. Her friends obviously wouldn't be coming either so the numbers had dropped significantly. Bugger!! About an hour later Duncan phoned. Pretty much a re-run of the earlier conversation with Mental.
People dropping like flies! Time to take drastic action!! What were the Haze's to do this Millenium Eve now that the party had been reduced to tatters in a very short space of time?
There was the possibility of a set at Free State's wharehouse affair, but the prospect of hanging around waiting to play a set didn't sit well. The solution presented itself shortly when Gid, an old friend and would be promoter, phoned to say that the AMP NYE bash was in desperate need of another dj and that well...say no more. So that settled it. I was to play from 2am to 3:30am. Bargain! Happy Haze's. Now all we had to do was find somewhere to send Lois. Thus followed a phonecall along the lines of...
(globule's) "Hi Mum, you know we were supposed to be having a party...blah, blah, blah.."
(globule's mum) "No problem".
Hurrah!
Well to cut a long story short we dutifully turned up at the wharehouse which happened to be just round the corner from Free State's studios. Small world. Illusion from Ooops! Sound System was already there and the 4K of sound was setup in a cliff like arrangement some 20 feet from the turntables. Facing back at the DJ! The thought of all that sound running full speed with hard as you like jungle flooding out was enough to make me go week at the knees!!
The party kicked off rather strangely with The Chemical Brothers performing their latest album from the safe confines of the cd player! First DJ up was an old friend of mine, Plenty, mixing up and ecclectic selection of styles including Hip Hop, Big Beat, Drum n Bass and the totally splendid Fool's Gold - Original version!
Next up, and to take us up to midnight, where two guys from London town whose names escape me. The selection of tunes was superb with some of the best old skool hardcore tunes from 92 cranking out of the system. The crowd were seriously jumping and grins were most definitely on display! As midnight approached the sound was cut and the countdown was delivered by Mat, one of the promoters. On the count of 0 the sound went back up amid cheers, popping champagne corks and party poppers. Half of cuba went up in smoke and the partying started seriously!
Hello year 2000!!!
Goodbye eardrums!
Next up was supposed to be another one of the London crew but they appeared to vanish into thin air. Never to be seen again. Wierd. So up stepped Illusion with a set that got me going almost as much as the hardcore. Whacking great chunks of bassline washing over the crowd. Lovely! With the dissapearance of our friends from the big city my set got moved up to start 1:30am and extended to to cover two hours. Yippee! The night was getting better and better!
I started with Nu Skool but only played two tunes due to the serious tempo drop from the previous set. So onto the hardcore I went. Basically filling the gaps that the earlier guys left. After about 1 hour it was onto the jungle. Racking out the tunes like it was going out of fashion. As the night went by the music just got harder and harder and the bass seemed to get louder and louder. Hmmmmmm :) All told I ended playing for 2 1/2 hours until I said enough was enough and that a replacement had to be sought.
So on went Gid continuing the jungle feel that had pretty much dominated the start of this new year. Su-fuckin-perb! At around 5 o'clock I had to go home as I just wanted to sit down with a cup of tea and relax. Besides my ears were ringing so much that it was stoopid. It was so loud that one image that will stay with me for a long time is that of my friend Steve O stood on the dancefloor, whilst I was playing a new RAM Trilogy track, with his fingers in his ears!! My ears continued ringing for about 4 days after!
Now that's what I call music!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Haze ;p
Reading, UK – December 2000 Reading 2k
by bugsy*
Location: High Wycombe/Reading
Date: 31st December 1999
Soundsystems: J14-Survival/Freestate- Engineering-J10
Rather than writing a number of different reports, I thought I'd gather together the information I had about the various parties which happened over the NYE celebrations. First up, I went to the Junktion 14/Survival party near Aylesbury. Although unfortunately the original location was raided early on by a police taskforce arresting several people in the process; the second location, a series of huts in the middle of nowhere was looking good as a convoy of about 60 cars arrived, but unfortunately the system hadn't been setup...
However half an hour or so later, the police turn up in force. A riot van and 8 or so cars. Their intention: not to let this party happen! Coming in heavy handed, outside of the law, they STOLE a set of decks. No public orders were served on Junktion 14 or Survival. After hanging around for a while, it was looking like the police were not going to leave so we decided to head over to Reading, heading for a party happening near the (annual) festival site. A large warehouse was used and after finding the place around 11.30pm we entered the building via the kitchens. Junktion 10 were in charge of the Drum and Bass room, Freestate had a large system setup in the next room and were playing old skool tunes, while in the main room, Engineering had another large system playing the beginnings of loud techno. A chill out room had also been setup and setup quite well - sporting comfy seats, a bar and laid back sets of acid jazz and chilled music. We had a good night here, but things might have been very different had the first J14 venue not been busted.
Other parties happening around the South of England were all over the place. Listing but a few, the main three London parties were all packed out. Shoreditch had 6 floors of systems and played host to a lot people - may'be too many. In Uxbridge, Underground Sounds/United Systems did their thing in a huge abandoned sports hall. Over in New Cross, Headfuk, Damage Control held a party in a disused Bingo Hall - combining all of their systems to fill up the main room. Exodus had a large attendance of 4000 people, using the same building they used for their Xmas Day party. Down in Bournemouth a large Squat Party was raided and even in Norwich a large party was stopped from happening in a disused factory.
The Old British Rail Offices Paddington, UK – October 1999 The Old British Rail Offices Paddington, London
by Derek Williams*
23rd October 1999
Pendulum and loads of other systems
Leaving the safety of Norwich, I go see my squatter friends in their 19 story high rise squat in Hackney. They get the location of the party from their own contact and around midnight or so, we go find a taxi.
We tear across London in a cab driven by an old skool DJ with a pumping sound system who enjoys a smoke of skunk weed. His car has very good breaks and first rate road holding. We get to the Westway motorway and see the building ... oh, oh oh.
First, this party is no secret. Its in a very respectable area (London's "little Venice"), one of the better examples of 60's architecture it was a pre-privatisation British rail office complex built into the motorway junction on the side of a hill. We enter under the motorway which is on a flyover bridge, push past the barricades (this party isn't going to be shut down), pay 3 quid "donation" and go in.
Darkness and pounding techno echo around a vast stairwell, a huge spiral staircase which winds up about 5 stories to the first office level. The staircase heaves with people, I go explore.
Essentially three levels of techno, jungle and stuff. The techno level is the best in my opinion, in particular one huge room with a big pumping system with a very nice sound. Something like ten or more systems are kicking off around the place all told.
The main problem is the lack of lights, there was one small strip to light the stairway and the systems had lights of course, but beyond that, we had to live with the light coming in through the windows from the motorway outside.
The other problem is no running water, or toilets, although that didn't seem to upset anyone. Well, it was a London squat ...
The view in the main techno room was breathtaking, a massive room which eventually filled up with a loads of people, the big widows giving a backdrop of the Westway motorway with people dancing in silhouette, I spent a lot of time in here. Although it hadn't been used for around 10 years or so, the place hadn't been cleared out, the offices were still furnished and there were huge metal storage cabinets all over the place. In the room with the massive system, people were dancing on these high above the dancefloor and some had already collapsed into a twisted heap of metal.
Actually, I suspect the unstable ones had been collapsed on purpose and the remaining ones were actually quite firm, they didn't fall over anyway. The rhythm of the people dancing on the metal shelves added a strange quality to the pounding bass of the music, so the sound was all around as you danced, plus it had this echo that you only really get in warehouses and dead office blocks. This is what I like about squats, a quality you just don't get in sanitised clubs, seriously, the place was alive.
The London parties can have a darkside though, and this one was a bit on the darkish side. Some of the events of that night really did my head in and overshadowed the rest of the party, just a bit.
Sections of the two main floors were offices, once plush 80's style suspended ceilings, smart window blinds and so on, the rooms too small to use for the party. As the night progressed, the office areas became the places to go for a chill and to have fun in the offices, which of course, didn't remain plush for very long.
Huge shelving units still full of 80's style "yuppie" promotional leaflets get pushed over, doors pulled off hinges (the offices were really only made of fibre board walls) and chairs thrown through the suspended ceiling, which fluttered down like confetti. There was a sort of continuous good natured general mayhem and the place got trashed.
But then as a couple of kids were ripping the ceilings down, one kicked out, slipped backwards and smashed through a window - we were several stories above ground level remember - anyway I caught him and pulled him back. aaarrrggghhh, that was close.
Later I find a "body", still breathing but out to the world lying in a heap of trashed office furniture (I guess deep in a ket hole). There's no lights of course, so by the flickering light of a ciggy lighter and with help from a couple of others I give him a quick check and roll him into the recovery position.
I find another staircase which leads up to the roof, there are a lot of people up here, then the sound of a big window being smashed and another. I come down.
Later in the darkness a voice says "rocks?" - crack cocaine. You don't often get that at parties even in London.
In one room the music stops with a flash of sparks as the suspended ceiling collapses, not sure what happened after that.
Daylight comes eventually to show a scene of utter devastation in what was once a very smart building. Walls covered in graffiti, broken glass everywhere, trashed offices. Everyone is off their heads, walking round through the scattered yuppie literature, ceiling tiles and general chaos or else going wild in what was left. London squats have this darkside sometimes, be warned if you've never been to one ...
A strange thing happened as a result of the trashing of the offices though. The place had been given this makeover sometime in the mid-80's. Before that it had been some strange kind of British Rail warehouse, which it had suddenly become again, the place had totally changed.
I go back up the staircase - actually a water tower - with some other people this time. The view from the top is mind blowing, the whole of west London laid out like a map, a lot of people up here running around, looking over the edge, shear drops through broken windows. We find a door to the outside and there's the window cleaning machinery, we resist the temptation to play in the cradle, but I'm sure someone would have done.
Around 9.00am and I'm finished. It's been a long day (I was in work at 7.30 in the morning!) and the body was saying "sleep", I had to go, like I say, my head was done right in. The party continued of course, it was still going at 4.00pm when my friends crawled home anyway.
So I leave and suddenly I'm in the real world again, clean people, walls not covered in graff, windows not smashed, reality - it takes a bit of coming to terms with sometimes.
Footnote: By the time the photo's were taken, a few months later, the place was being gutted and refitted for a new use, nothing of any value was trashed.
Derek
Solipse Festival – August 1999 courtesy of marita* [august 1999]
.....and there was much shouting and cheering and waving of little flags!!!
So! i've finally sat myself down to it, after getting a bit of nagging from a few ppl, and many gentle but solid reminders. =)
I'm not really sure where to start to be honest... er.. well.. at the start i suppose. okay. here goes. but be warned. it's turned out much longer than i had initially planned.... =)
Timo and i drove (as ever) down from amsterdam over a few days, and arrived at ozora early afternoon on saturday. lots of beefy security guys around wearing either all black, with 'SECURITY' on the backs of their t-shirt, or with camoflage combats, and 'SECURITY' t-shirt. very 'don't fuck with me' kinda ppl, but i suppose it was necessary considering the size of the event.
They refused to allow us to drive the car in with our tent and bags 'n' stuff, so that was a bit annoying considering the vast size of the terrein. it was *massive*! and that was our initial impression before we ever got a chance to poke around in the market and dance areas! so, after walking back and forth to the car 3 or 4 times, we finally got all our stuff down to our chosen tent site for the week, and built our house. =o)
First night we were there, there was a massive thunder and lightening storm. the lightening was like strobe, quite impressive when you're in a tent. =) overall the weather was quite good though. there was one day.. ehm, friday i think, when it did quite a bit of raining, but it was one of those days that we were completely flaked out and took a break from the festivities. i'll go into that later though. =)
Some of the first listees we ran into were chris (purusha) and brigid, and the cabbage crew. we recognised the van on the way to the loo sunday morning. =o) andrei and laura arrived later on sunday, and over the course of the week i ran into more and more people that i knew from the list, and that i had met at boom 97 & 98.
Guys... the 604 meet at 5pm on tuesday 10th didn't 'really' go ahead, although we tried our best, honest. trouble was... well... there was no chillout. =o)) there seemd to be lots of changes of location for where the artists camping was to be... and it eventually ended up being where the chill tent was initially to be set up. it didn't make so much difference to the party overall, cuz there were so many bars and chaishops and restaurants in the market area, they also served as chill areas, but it kinda fucked up our attempts to have a meet-up. so what we did was, we went to the ethno-ambient tent, and sat accross from it in the grass where it wasn't so busy, right next to the cosmophilia stall, with the 604 sheet on the ground in front of us. there were only 7 of us or so, but no-one noticed us, so we gave up after 30 or 45 minutes. but i managed to run into the others that i new before anyway, so big waves to chris, brigid, andrei, laura, denis, carsten, avi, sam (& jim's organic coffee), jason c, andy, vadim, alex, mike, kostas, matteo, mike bruton, and jeff & aya. jeff & aya, it was brilliant to meet you both, it was certainly a pleasure to speak to you. i hope we get another chance again in the future. ...ehm... i hope i haven't forgotten anyone!
Right. i suppose i should make a couple of comments about the toilets and showers now. this kept me amused for a couple of days. i discovered i can have an extreemly anal sense of humour, and chris and brigid can confirm, i'm sure. =o) well, considering we were there on saturday, and the festival 'proper' didn't start until tuesday, we couldn't really complain, but we could make lots of comments about the pyramid of poo that was building up to within 2 inches of yer bum after 3 days of not being cleaned. =) boom 97 attendees will recognise this. =) quite a harrowing experience as you can imagine. but fair dues, as time went on, more toilets were introduced, and they were cleaned.... no... they were *scrubbed* every evening from tuesday on, so that they were smelling of lemon, and they even put loo paper in there! so thumbs up on that one in the end.
The showers on the other hand.... well... there was a block of about 10 in the truck 'n' camper van field. as time went on, more and more of them got fucked so that in the end, only 2 of them were working. there was another block of about 20 close to the market area (stupid place to have them if you ask me. why not put them in the camping field?) but according as the crowds poured in, the queue and waiting time were a bit unbareable. but one managed, as one does in these situations. and it didn't take from the overall enjoyment. =o) i must say, the amount of guys that seemed to leave their undies behind in the shower was really amusing. especially when whoever went to use the cubicle just after them went to balance their showergel or whatever on some of the ledges and suddenly get someone's undies falling right onto their heads. cracked me up, naked tho' i was. =o))
Oh, and the lake wasn't there. seemingly the location for the party was moved ever so slightly, so the lake wasn't within walking distance anymore. but we heard there was a bus going there from the main entrance.
The 'information booklet' that was being handed out deserves some comment. this kept me amused no end as well. =o) there was the usual... rules and guidelines, eclipse info, f.a.q., and of course a timetable of performances. what gave me the giggles was the list of stuff happening at the ethno stage.
Intuitive singing workshop with jalada....
(err.... )
Rainbow chanting with jalada....
(i figured i knew this one from primary school already.... red and yellow and pink and green... purple and orange and bluuuueeee... i can sing a RAINbow... sing a rainbow... sing a rainbow tooooooo) ;o))
The rest were pretty okay.... then there were the lectures and discussions.
Vegetarianism.
one of the topics was "meet. destroying the environment & impoverishing the developing world". well, it was the typo that gave me a tickle, but i'm easily amused. -ahum-
Delicate mind transfer.
!!!!
(ehm.... i'll keep mine if you don't mind...)
The one on dreams might have been interesting, especially considering some of the dreams that i have regularly, but i didn't get there.
Oh yeah! the eclipse itself! what an experience. =o) the weather in general had been really hot with clear skies, with the exception of the odd thunder storm at night, and all was looking good on wednesday morning as well. then about an hour before the eclipse was due to begin, those big cotton bud type clouds started to hang around a bit. the moon had started to move in front of the sun, and they're were more and more of them coming towards us from the horizon. it was the first day since we'd gotten there that there had been any clouds at all, so we were starting to mutter obsenities at them. it took a good 45 mins or so from when the moon started to initially move in front of the sun until total eclipse time. and sure enough, just before total eclipse, there was a decent patch of cloudless sky. so there we were, all equiped with silly glasses, as you've prolly seen from the photo's on timo's page (www.xs4all.nl/~timoh) until the total eclipse hit. you could see the shadow coming from the west, and the hungarian airforce sent a mig up to observe, which zoomed across the sky. i had been expecting it to get darker, but it was more like dawn, just before the sun comes above the horizon. it certainly was an eerie experience. you could see venus and mars shining close by, and a couple of other planets that i'm sure the names of which some learned person probably knows. ;)) all you could see on the surrounding hills were tons of camera flashes as ppl tried to capture the event on film. =)
Anyway, i bet you're all bored shitless waiting to hear about the dj's and live performances. if you've stuck with me thus far, fair play t'yaz. =o)
/me casts her mind back to the dance floor....
The music started up on tuesday night, but we decided to keep our energy until wednesday, considering we had a 'few' days ahead of us, so we sauntered down to the dance floor around 2am wednesday night/thursday morning, about an hour into tsuyoshi's set.
We weren't impressed at all with him. he played very beat orientated, housey techno. it was awful. granted, some of the samples in the tracks he played were hilarious, but that was the only thing about his set that i enjoyed. in fact, we didn't stick around for it all. we spoke to richard from matsuri a couple of nights later, and when asked what we thought of tsuyhshi's set, we told him that it really wasn't our kinda thing, that we found his set lacking melody and very beat orientated. his answer on that was that it wasn't surprising considering that tsuyoshi is a drummer.
Anyway. we came back in time to see analog pussy. i had heard and seen reviews before, so i was expecting the high heals playing electric guitar on the front of the stage, but i definitely wasn't prepared for the actual experience. we stood in uncertainty for a while, looked at each other a few times, and then i fear, the wise cracks started. the music itself was 'okay' as long as you kept your back to the stage, but although i tried that tactic, i just couldn't 'not' look, cuz the woman with the red fluffy long-sleeved belly top, with red leather mini-skirt, and huge bug sunglasses was performing on stage *exactly* what i take great glee in taking the literal piss out of in clubs. i was getting a great laugh from the fact that the electric guitar and drums that she was playing weren't audible at all, so i still wonder what the point of that was. the jumping around waving arms in the air was just too much, but the final straw was when she started kissing the equipment and ran screaming to the front of the stage with her hands clasping both sides of her head, standing up on the montior's and screaming 'ANALOG PUSSY!!!! I LOVE YOU!!! ANALOG PUSSY!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!'
*cough* 'right!', we said, 'who's going to pick up those pieces?'
well, in fact, chrisbo did, and he did a great job, luckily. =o) next up was shakta, and played a good selection of old and new shakta stuff. we really enjoyed his set with ping pong.
'round this point i was distracted cuz i saw some ppl walking on the far side of the dance floor to where i was, that i 'thought' i recognised, but wasn't sure, so i set out in investigation, and sure enough, it was an old mate from new zealand that's travelling with the mutoid waste co that i hadn't seen in quite a number of years. so that was a joyous reunion i can tell ya. =) ran into another 2 mutoid friends that i hadn't seen in years either later on. *hihi*, yeah, twas a good place to run into old mates it seemed, also met an old mate from zagreb that i hadn't seen in about 4 or 5 years. =)
Anyway, at this point, we were getting a little tired, cuz we were still going on our own steam, so we left shiva jorg to it, and headed on back to the tent for a bit of shuteye.
Thursday night. *best* night of the whole festie if you ask me. it started off at 20:00 with cosmix, which imo, was a pity, cuz cosmix plays such wonderful morning sets, but he played great, and the first prize for *seamless* mixing of the whole festival (well, as much as i saw) goes to the man. we were really impressed with some of the mixes he pulled off.
There was a change in timetable, and next up was s.u.n. project. man, people were talking about their performance for days afterwards!! they pumped so much positive energy into the whole party, the whole floor was rocking. what a performance! i'd seen them at earthdance in koln, germany, last year, but this was 100 times better. this was *amazing*. they came on, as before, wearing their alien hoods, so when the naked guy got up on stage to dance with them, him being with shaved head, and being tall and skinny with long arms, he really looked like part of the show. *hihi*
I think that scotty was up after them, but we took time to trek back to our tent, and make some coffee and have summit to eat. when we came back funkopath must've been playing, or at least the end of scotty's set. ehm... can't remember anything bad about them, so i guess they must've been doing an okay job. =)
That's when we did a drop of liquid, i skipped off to handle the toilets while i figured i still could, and by the time i skipped back up to the dance floor, many litres lighter, olli wisdom was on the decks. *horray* best set of the party that was. he played a brilliant morning set, we really really enjoyed him. of course, more and more sad gits were getting up on stage to dance. you couldn't even take a decent photo. but the naked guy got back up for a while... and treated olli to a full frontal. as jason c said 'i don't know how much of a distraction that might have proved to be.' =o)) but saying that, with what olli was wearing, there wasn't much more between him and us either. *hihi*
Yeah, people on the stage were a roite pain in the arse. but they did give us a few giggles on quite a few occassions... like (as purusha reminded me) the two guys that couldn't seem to get their arms back down again... they reminded me of those two monsters in sesamestreet... one with unbendable arms stuck up by the side of his head, and the other with unbendable arms stuck straight ahead of him. they wanted to eat an apple, but the one with arms sticking out couldn't reach the apple, the one with arms straight up could, but neither of them could bend their arms to get the apple to their mouths. so one would hold the apple to the other ones mouth, and between them they were able to eat the apple. it was a lesson in co-operration. *hihihihihi* i'm still a sesamestreet fan. *proud* none o' them tellytubbies for me! gimmie big bird n' mr snuffelupagus innieday!! *hahaha* anyway, there were 2 guys standing on the front of the stage, talking, with their arms stright up, with hands flopping around on the top. don't know what the plan was.. maybe they were trying to dry off their armpits or summit, but they looked dead daft!
Anyway, next up, kode VI. first time seeing them live, and i enjoyed them very much. obviously *very* into the music and having great fun dancing around behind the equipment. =) they had barely handed over to tristan, when it started raining. we hung around for a wee while, but at some point the rain started dripping off the end of our dreads so we headed on back to the tent. pity, cuz i'd seen tristan play the gargoyle circle party in july (review is half written - honest! *hihi*) where he played really excellently, and i was really looking forward to more of the same. it was fun tripping in the tent though, sound of rain pattering all around. *hihi* the only problem was the 15 or so times i had to get redressed to walk the 10 minutes or whatever roundtrip to the toilets and back. must've been all that running water on the tent. =o)
Next day, i was pretty shattered, and did a *lot* of sleeping. we got ourselves up to see total eclipse... got to the stage... some'thing' was playing... we were too tired to hang around for it to get better, so although we wanted to see chris organic, electric universe, and anti, we ended up back in the tent, crashed out, and woke up next day sometime. learned from andrei and laura afterwards, that the performance we'd rapidly witnessed earlier, *had* in fact been total eclipse. 8o/ we weren't too bothered about missing sonic fusion, cuz we'd seen him at the taboo festival in belgium only a couple of weeks before, and hadn't been too... ehm... impressed. *titter* (but! review of that in the works too - really! =oD )
The last night, saturday night, started off with highlite tribe. scheduled to play for an hour from 20:00, at 23:00 or later, they were still going strong. very hands on performance, with some vocal assistance, they delivered a great show! heard that they'd been going for summit like 5 hours! but they had the whole crowd going, that's for sure.
The whole timetable for saturday night/sunday morning was completely arse about face, so i won't be able to give you a definite rundown of who followed who. i think that haldolium were the next live performance, but i don't think that we were very impressed by them either. a bit mundane. not very outstanding either way.
I think i remember mike dog playing inbetween, but i don't think i was over impressed by his track selection / set either. but x-dream played next, and we went right off to their set. i think that next to s.u.n. project, x-dream played one of the best live performances of the whole party. couldn't tell you who dj'd next, could've been domi pastor, (of which i can't remember much), or could've been mark allen, of whom i remember i did enjoy his set.
And then, at some point, etnica took the stage. they played a good stomping set, my 3rd choice for best performance. =) ran into max later, introduced him to yoh-hie, and am happy to report that he was looking *much* better than he was at boom last year. =oD
Again, i'm at a loss for what dj came next, but at some point the female half of analog pussi took the decks again for a dj set. her mixing was okay, but it was way too israeli for us. it was unfortunately verging on the point of cheesy. so we (me, timo, & jason) sat in the shade for a while, chatting with matteo and sam, and then wandered back through the market place towards our tent. i presume i slept. i'd be very surprised if i didn't. =)
We had an absolutely brilliant week. we met up with some fantastic people. =o) the only thing that 'kinda' annoyed us were the gang of israeli's that were camped beside us. don't get me wrong, i know lots of israeli people, i like lots of israeli people, but this lot were ignorant, arrogant, dickheads. (to put it mildly.) i mean, granted, we really had to laugh at them, music pounding, standing, bending at the knees in time to the music in the middle of the walkway in the campingarea in 40 degrees, passing chillums around. i mean, come on. 'yes! we see you, okay?' but in comparison to the groovy italians and english crowd to our left, this crowd to our right were just rude, filthy, disrespectful gits. it reminded me of momra. they insisted on using the wooded area behind our tents as a toilet instead of walking to the toilets like everyone else. they were the only ones i saw going in there. and on the warmer days, you could smell it. and when they left. jeez. the *rubbish* they left behind them! yeah, that's another thing i don't think i mentioned, the rubbish collection was great. horse drawn trailers came around every day and took all the rubbish away, and replaced the rubbish bags. there was one such rubbish point 20 meters away from our, and their, tents. did they use it? no. everyone else made a great effort to keep the camping area clean, with the obvious exception of this lot. *argh*
Anyway, that, to be honest, is the only real gripe i had about the whole week, and that wasn't the fault of the party organisers.
Phew! fuck, that was a long one eh? it's more like a personal diary than a review, but yeah, that's one of the reasons i write these reviews, as a reminder to myself of how much i enjoyed (or not as the case may be) myself.
It's been a long time coming, maybe now you can understand why. =o)))
Hope you were able to capture some of the atmosphere and fun i tried to recreate. we had an absolute blast. many thanks to all the listees that made it even better. =o)
Okay, i think it's *really* time that i wrapped this one up.
yoh-hie!
=o)
marita. http://www.solipse.com/index-image.html
The Exodus collective’s festival 1999 The Exodus collective's festival
by Derek Williams*
I arrived in London intending to meet up with Paj at 7.00pm, ready to make our way out to darkest Luton for the festy on Friday night. Well, for various "complicated social reasons", we ended up waiting in a dark squat in North London 'till 1.00am, well we did what needed to be done, but it wasted Friday night. The remains of the night were rescued by going to Techtronic in the Pleasure rooms in Tottenham though, so at 6.00am we fell out of the club and went back to Enfield to have a chill and get the bags.
So it was wide eyed but limp tailed that we arrived at the Exodus farm around midday on Saturday, noticed it was well busy, put the tent up and crashed out till about 6.00pm.
First some food and there was a lot to choose from, then on to the party. Now I'm used to parties, I've been to a few, but they've all started around midnight or later. I'm not used to starting early evening, but that's what happened
The site was originally a part of a much larger farm which was bordered by the London - Edinburgh main rail line, then a few years back they built the M1 motorway, cutting off this triangle from the rest of the land and this is now the Exodus collective's community farm.
The first field is quite large and drops away sharpish from the gate at the top of the hill. The view from the top was quite something, a mass of tents and fires and the distant sound of musical drums.
In the big field was the Exodus tent (the red and white one on the left) a huge structure with a lovely sound system, this was packed and manic all night. Nearby was another large tent (the blue and yellow one) which was playing dub when I checked it out. All around were cafes and smaller rigs and bars and fires, techno, D&B and live bands.
The Exodus military vehicles are worth a note - there were several lorries, APC's and the like, even a small tank like thing. This one's being used by the Djs.
Through another gate was the second field, a long thin triangle of land with a street lined with systems from all over the place. Now here, for me, was heaven and it has to be said, this is where I spent the vast majority of the time. Systems worth noting (in my opinion, to be fair) were Citricity, Coexistence, Junktion 14, HEADFUK, section 63 (I think) and one from France called Malfaiteurs. J14 also had a big rig playing jungle, but thats not really my cup of tea although it was crowded most of the time.
There were many other rigs as well, most of which I simply didn't have time to check out and on the other side of the street was the railway line, every now and then Intercity 225 trains rushed past at over 100 mph - YEAH!!!! they were well good.
At the end of this street of systems, a large tent blocked the path with a nice rig whos name I didn't get. Presumably, beyond this the M1 met the rail line in a mass of twisted steel and tarmac, or else came to some arrangement involving bridges or something.
I didn't have time to check all the systems out, even though the party started 5 hours earlier than normal and carried on 'till I hit the floor of the tent around 2.00pm the next day and then happened again the next night. Still not enough time though.
The reason for this was mostly due to Coexistence, I spent a lot of time in there, they were playing just the right sort of techno to get me going, so why move?
What really made things pick up though was meeting up with some people I know from the squat scene in London, these guys know how to party, believe me!
As with all free party systems which depend on gennies though, we had blackouts. So it was when I turned up at the HEADFUK tent for my Sunday morning fix of gabba (I like gabba in the early morning), all was silent and dark. Things get sorted out though and everything came back to life once the "technical problem" was sorted out. Thats was the good thing of having so many systems, not everyone broke down (or run out of petrol) at the same time!
The gods smiled on us it has to be said. Not only were there no blue meanies anywhere to be seen but the sun shone all day and it was hot, even at night. This happened in England, most strange.
Me and Paj packed up the tent slowly and not at all enthusiastically around 4.00pm on what we discovered was Monday and somehow made our way back to London, then I slept all the way back to Norwich, thanks to Anglia railways.
Derek
Mutant Dance Party Bust Mutant Dance Party Busted
June 1999
Just thought some of you might be interested to know that the Mutant Dance party on Saturday night was busted.....
We had planned to do the party at a quiet barn about 10 miles from Stonehenge, but due to uncontrollable rumours (not started by us) the police decided we were going to try to break into Stonehenge. (it did occur to us as a possibility, but only after everyone told us we were going to do it anyway!)
We were met at the meeting point by some of Wiltshire constabulary... We knew we wouldn't be able to go to the site without being followed, so we decided to talk to them. After hours of attempted negotiation, I finally spoke to the chief constable of Wiltshire constabulary (Andy Hollingshead) and he said to me "You have my personal assurance that we will allow you to take the convoy to your intended site, and any police officers or vehicles you see on the way will be merely spectating. We don't want to stop your party, we don't want trouble." No-one told the police where we were going.
We led the four mile long convoy from Amesbury car park to the site (a wikkid setup with 5 barns miles from houses, and lots of trees around to stop the noise traveling), we were followed by a chopper, military police, and vans of police. Just as we pulled up, the police cut across fields and stormed the site, arresting myself and the other organizers. They seized Dionisus sound system (from Milton Keynes), two systems from Bristol, and Stinky Pink System. We managed to laugh off the arrests, as they didn't seem very serious. (They did offer to un-arrest us, but that would have meant paperwork, so we settled for staying arrested, reasoning that they couldn't arrest us again that way). After they had read us the riot act we were turned around and we led the convoy back to Amesbury car park, past Stonehenge. At this point, the convoy slowed down to 5mph and the noise was deafening as people expressed their disgust to the assembled police.
We made it back to the car park to decide what to do, closely followed by a few police vans. I was told of a travelers site on the Wiltshire border where they already had system going and wanted us to join them. It seemed like the best idea, as police are often reluctant to venture too far into established traveler sites.
We tried to talk to the police, and explain that we needed to compromise (by this time we had gathered about 600 people) and that they wouldn't be able to get rid of everyone peacefully, we needed somewhere to go. The inspector turned round to us and said "what makes you think people will go if you tell them? You lot couldn't organize a piss-up...." etc.
A display of unity was needed. We called all the party people over to one end of the car park, everyone got out of their cars, and stood silently to hear what we had to say. Cockney (another Mutant Dance rep and the one with the loudest voice) made a speech and told everyone what the situation was with the police... he told people we had an alternative site lined up on the border of Wiltshire, we would pass directions around the crowd discretely and that we needed to leave in small groups. We had an hour to get out. 15 minutes later the car park was clear and everyone was on their way to the party. Better organized that a military decamp. The Inspector looked suitably shocked. We call it organized chaos.
We now only had one system left (Junkchun 10 from Reading) and they were pulled twice and escorted out of the county. So with no rigs left we made our way to the site party, hoping to rescue some of the night.
Unfortunately, the site we moved to was not very nice. It was full of brewed-up crusties trying to make people pay a fiver for parking. There was a very dark vibe, and it started to rain. The police turned up (cos our phones were tapped) After an incident involving keys locked in a car, a broken window and my boyfriend getting covered in broken glass, we decided to call it a night and left. Sorry to anyone who was there and I didn't say hello to, I was beyond socialising.
I now hear on the news about a riot at stonehenge last night. BBC news is claiming that we were respon-sible for inciting people to riot. They claim our website was outlining plans to charge at the stones....
Bollocks.
None of the systems were impounded, but told they would be if they returned to the county. I am still under arrest (I think) And I can guarantee you will hear more about the lying bastard coppers as I intend to shout about it till everyone knows not to trust the police. Our phones are still tapped, and my emails are being scanned. (I was told by them that this was how they knew so much about our plans) Hello PC netplod by the way, hope you enjoy the story.
A word of warning: nothing is private anymore.... if you are into organising parties, landlines, mobiles and emails are NOT the way to do it.
We tried an experiment on Saturday which involved being honest with the police, trying to negotiate and seeking a compromise. We were fuct over. May that be a lesson to us all. Thanks to those that made the effort to come along, especially the guys with the systems. Maybe another time eh? Have we been put off? Have we fuck. Our next party will be in a safer, quieter place, but we will be back!
Queens Day at the Elf in Amsterdam Queens Day at the Elf
[30th April 1999]
courtesy of marita
Jason creak in tow, we headed over to the free outdoor party under the bridge close to central station, that's been happening every year now for the last 4 years. And it seems that this was the best one yet. Organised by the folks from the squatted Belgian embassy, (Elf), by the time we got there at 2:30 or 3pm, it was already well under way. Lots of fluoro freaks bopping around, and even more people on top of the bridge looking on in amazement and taking photo's of them. =o)
Derek was playing when we got there, and I *finally* got to hear him! Every party I've been to when he's been playing, he either took the decks before or after I'd been there. =o) He played really good. makes me look forward to when I get to hear a full nighttime set from him. I'm a good month late writing this review, so my recollection of the exact line up is hazey. I do know who played, just not exactly in which order.
I remember that Mariano played better than I've heard him play in a while. I enjoyed his set for sure. The martian was a bit... er.. 'cheesy' might be the word. Played around too much, a bit like a techno dj, and put on some very cheesy tracks.
Danyel was there as well, but he played some whoppers. I'm starting to really enjoy his sets again. =) I think jason was just taking over as we left. Lot's of ppl there that we knew, including Alistair, Matt, Remko, Baz, Ray, Stella...er... lots of others as well, a few of which are evading me at the moment, and many of whom the names would mean nothing to most of you anyway. =o) Oh yeah, claim to fame, got introduced to synchro. Turns out to be a nicer guy than i had given him credit for. =o)
Anyway, we'd been there from 3 - 8pm in the most gorgous sunshine, so we figured we'd head on home, albeit a touch sunburned, to get some food, and rest up before the rest of the night's festivities. =)
And what festivities they were! There was another party on, right in the centre of a'dam, with Jean borelli, Anti, Gms, and a few others, but we thought about it and figured 'queen's day. Centre of amsterdam. In a club. We're all going to be packed in like sardines, and trod on by lots of silly drunken people flinging beer around and wearing orange wigs.' but because of that, the crowd at the e.l.f. was smaller than usual. So i'm happy that party was happening. =o)
When we got to the Elf around 1:30 or 2am, there were about 175 - 200 people there, and it didn't seem to increase much more over the night. (correct me if i'm wrong timo and/or jason - I'm hopeless at estimating crowds.) but. The atmosphere was something else. Any of you that remember my reviews of parties in the Silo Well, the atmosphere in the elf is as close as it gets to how it used to be in the Silo. We recognised quite a few of the 'old Silo heads', and the rest of the crowd were like minded folks. *what* a rush. =o) It's difficult to explain unless you had experienced it a couple of times, but it's such a fuckin' relief to regain some of that friendliness, atmosphere, attitude, and pure downright fun that we used to have there. The elf seems to have captured some of it back. I must've wagged the ears of *every*one there that night, and they off me. =o)) Such a chatty, fun, friendly party I haven't had in a while. =oD You could tell how much fun I was having when I realised I was having some great conversations with a guy from Italy called Joseph that spoke almost no english, while I speak no italian... =o)
er... Decor : loads of blacklight, with a general mayan backdrop theme. No smoke machines, no strobe. Just blacklight heaven, and some *beautiful* backdrops. =o)
djs : as ever in the elf, you never know who's going to turn up and play there. but at parties like these, it never matters, cuz you know you're going to enjoy yourself anyway. =) Jason was playing when we got there, but we didn't have our 'energy' in check just yet, so we went to the chill out for a while. When we came back, he was on the last leg of his set, and it was sounding much better.
After him, an israeli dj that i hadn't heard of, or seen before took over. Discovered, after a bit of a chat, that his name was Asher. Fuckin' great set! He pumped some energy into the place! No wonder the place was beaming with fluorescent teethy smiles. =o)
And up after asher, was Poly. It's actually the first time I've heard him play, and the first time in *ages* that he's been back around Amsterdam. He kept up the same energetic vibe that asher had started, and had us all dancing well into the early hours. Talk about not being able to drag yourself off the dance floor. =)
After poly, came one of the residents, manuel. This is the 3rd time i've seen him play at the elf now, and once again, he didn't disappoint. The dance floor was throbbing (for want of a better word). =o)
Meanwhile, in the chillout, sander was playing another phenomenal set. =o) And as ever, walter the eyes, Benny and Joe the caterpillars, and yoh-hie the..er... umm... 'funny thing', went down a massive blast. =o)
We left around 11am the next morning, just as eveline was making her way towards the dj box to take over from Manuel, but we were starting to get very tired, and the crowd was starting to thin out considerably.
Cycled back, with dialated pupils, through the park. What a fantastic experience after such a night of perfect partying. Brilliant green grass and leaves, and tons of birds singing. And the creak of my bicycle chain that's been begging for a drop of oil for a while now.... =o)
And jason creak the bastard. He's here for a weekend, and he almost knew more bloody people at the party under the bridge than I knew, and I've been living here almost 8 bloody years! all these ppl he'd met in Goa and knew from his travels, came skipping up going 'wotcha jason!'.
;o)))
Anywayz. that's my review of queen's day. =)
Let hope you won't have to wait as long for the next one.... ;)
smiles all!
=o)
marita.
Wijk Aan Zee Beach Party [6 june 1998]
courtesy of marita*
Place : Wijk Aan Zee, The netherlands
Location : The beach
......which was looking a bit dodgy cuz we were having terrible lightening and thunder storms here all day friday, saturday morning, and again saturday evening. It wasn't looking promising, but we agreed that we'd wait and see, as it was only about half an hours drive from Amsterdam anyway.
And sure enough, at 10 or 10:30pm, it was looking okay. No clear skies, but at least it wasn't as dark and foreboding as earlier on in the day. So we phoned up X-ray and Stella and told them to come around to our place, and we'd go! Which they did, and we headed off, with 2 finnish friends of ours, Petteri and Niila, following in their van behind.
Our -ahem- 'half an hour' journey turned into a slightly longer one when we first made the same mistake as we did last year, and didn't take the correct road initially off the highway, and ended up driving back. That didn't make much of a difference, but then when we got to Wijk Aan Zee and drove towards the road to the north pier, it was completely dug up and blocked off. We couldn't find another road heading the way we wanted, so we kinda drove around Wijk Aan Zee a few times, and finally headed towards Castricum in hope of finding a sign post to head us in the right direction.
Not a hope. =o) We arrived in Castricum having not seen anything to point us in the direction we had wanted. Out with the map!! =o) And of course that helped. 10 or 15mins later we were on familiar ground, and driving down the road to the beach. And what's that in front of us..?? The Shakti mobile!! =o)
Hello's and greeting passed around, we headed off down the beach. They'd set the place up nicely, tent for dj's and a small chillout, and a very crude, not very weather worthy bit of shelter made from some plastic, but it didn't rain all night, we were dead lucky, and only at one point did I sit in around the dj tent, cuz it was warm and toasty in there, and i was freezing. =) They'd built up a fire as well, but there were so many people already sitting around it, it wasn't worth the effort to try and squeeze in. We'd brought ground plastic, blankets, and lots of warm clothes with us anyway.
We'd just set up our base with blankets and stuff, when I had a look at who, what, where etc. There I am, standing on the edges of our 'camp', when I notice that Kristina is sitting on a sleeping bag literally 1 meter in front of me. =o) That was a nice reunion!
Luna-tic was already playing when we got there, so we missed the first dj, (and didn't actually get a report whether he was any good or not), but Dave (luna-tic) played the best set I think I've ever heard him play.
Following him was Zen, whom I think also played a great set. The atmosphere there was very good, nice and friendly. There were a lot of the old party heads there that I hadn't seen in a while. Spent quite a bit of the night catching up with people I hadn't seen in about a year or so. Quite a few local drunks as well, but that's the good thing with outdoor parties, you're not stuck in a confined space with people you don't want to be stuck with, there's plenty of room to escape and avoid.
Walter didn't work too well, cuz there wasn't enough blacklight, but the troll with the flashing eyes went down a blast as it was quite dark! Made a few new friends with his help. =o) Him and dom's flashing bracelett made a great team. *hehe*
Ran into Baz on the dance floor, who was having a *wonderful* time. =o) (banana's baz!! bunches and bunches of banana's!!!) *hehehe* Our Finnish friends enjoyed themselves so much, they put off their drive to germany until the last possible moment. (they had to start work in dusseldorf on monday morning at 6am). They have a handy habit of dropping into amsterdam 'just' at the point where there's a nice party happening. =)
Danyel was last up to dj, and horray! He finally played well! The last times I've seen him play I've been a bit disappointed, he seemed to lack the talent he had a year or so ago, boring sets, very little melody, didn't keep the crowd going at all. But saturday he seemed to be his old self, and kept the dance area full and hopping.
The rain stayed away all night, and dave was so pleased that he thanked Shiva by burning a replica of the staff or whatever that for example the infinity project used on the back and inside cd cover of feeling wierd? Sorry, i don't know the official title for it, can someone inform me? =o) Anyway, I do recognise the symbol, and dave made his offering.
What tickled me pink though was when a guy I know, Pete, with a very Liverpool accent, turned and asked me what they were burning the farmers pitchfork for. =o) It wasn't the question that made me laugh, it was the description of the staff. =o)
All in all, it was a great party. I reallyS enjoyed myself, I think everyone I was talking to enjoyed themselves as well. We left somewhere around 10 or 10:30am on sunday morning, and just as we were on our way back up the beach, the first rain started to fall. perfect timing - for us anyway. =o)
So nice to be able to find the odd party in Amsterdam like this one, with friendly folks and atmosphere. May there be many more!
groovy grins!
=o)
marita.
Welsh Caper September 1996 courtesy of Jim
Having just been exposed to the most wonderful free party of my life, held in an old farm in Cornwall (yes 500 mile round trip, no sleep, 12 hours dancing). I can sort of understand how good the Welsh woods thing must have been. This party went on and on and on - never ending it seemed.
We were still dancing at 12 midday. The music was the finest psychedelic trance ever to reach my ears. The hosts of this party were the legendary TIP. If you ever get a chance to get to a TIP party, GO it is an experience never to be forgotten. Plenty of free lemonade. Everything and I mean everything is laid on, even rooms to lay sleeping children in, bonfires, chill rooms, candle light grottos, superb decor and DJ's of monumental ability (Si Posford).
Never ever in my life have I been so contented . I rocked for hours not even able to speak a single word in case I broke the spell, people were pulling my arms, hugging me, kissing me, offering me all manner of nau-ghties but all I could do was smile even further and shrug that expression of "you know where I am and you don't really wanna disturb me do you".
Exodus July 1996 Exodus July 1996 courtesy of phil
Saturday I was quite monged out. I got up late, and everyone had decided to go to Exodus, after much vacillating (Ronan was having a birthday party at the Point/Hobgobblin which meant there would be Oxford fun although I was externally worn out after only 2 hours sleep having speeded last night away) I got carried along. I got a lift (along with Mark, Petra and Moje) in Chris's car and we went up to Eddies, where a huge convoy of Oxford people were amassing to journey to the Exodus free party/festival. Among the stalwarts there were Bone, Mazzer + g/friend, Cait, Tasha + female friends, Luton (big) Mark, Kettle, Quentin, and maybe a dozen others whom I knew less well. Duncan, Charada, Emma etc. were being driven up in a Joe's (female) van but had already departed. After much sitting about we finally set off at 11:30 which is a shame because I could have gone to Ronan's birthday do until 11 and still caught up with the Oxford
convoy.
The drive was an exciting plunge through the night (although sadly we lost Bone and Mazzer's car which broke down I think) arriving at Dunstable at 12:30 ish. We drove to a huge industrial estate to see an amazing sight. Lining the roads were 100 upon 100 of cars, all full of people, laughing smoking and drinking and waiting for the sign.
We sat about listening to loud music in one of the many car parks, chatting to people as the excitement built. I never thought that in these days of the harsh Criminal Justice Bill I would see such freedom again!
Then it came, an army land rover with a red flashing light filled with the Exodus "peace'' stewards (what it says on their jackets) passed and the roads were filled. A massive convoy of cars with all kinds of freaks set off. Surprisingly every rule of the highway code seemed to be obeyed and nobody queue jumped, instead we drove in an orderly line 5 or 6 miles long (at least). Now and then we would reach a junction and more Exodus people would point the way (they seemed to have several 100 volunteer organizers + quite a few vehicles, most ex army landrovers and lorries (good for cross country) painted with a red star). I was told usually there is no trouble with the police, who allow it to go on, tacitly acknowledging the fact that the crime rate plummets to nothing whenever one of these parties occurs. This time there was some police hassle though because we crossed a county line and went into Buckinghamshire and the beautiful Chiltern Hills.
We were near the tail end of the convoy and suddenly everything stopped. After a while of sitting in the car we saw several police riot vans whizz by followed later by some Exodux land rovers. After some sitting about listening to soothing classical music the word was passed down to park our cars and walk in. Some walking revealed that the police had set up a road block. Several Exodus stewards (now balacaved to avoid identification) and the police were having a heated argument, next thing I heard was a shout "get the bricks ready lads'' (lads was presumably us a crowd of about 200 onlookers), at this the police fled straight away, and for the rest of the night that was the last we saw of them. Ironic that the Luton city dwellers would tell us to get bricks ready on an isolated rural lane.
Chris and I returned to our car and drove in, making a quid donation towards the party. We got to a car park and soon located the others. The party itself was in a large valley, a big green belly button of the countryside. The valley was very steep (I think it was artificial, maybe a quarry in its past life) and we had "fun'' getting down. I scoffed my wrap of billy to wake me up and decided to explore the lip of the valley to get my bearings. This involved another huge climb and about 1 hour of walking taking me round the valley and into the dawn.
I was impressed, everyone was very very friendly and the vibe was excellent. Black and white, old and young, all partying through the night, I saw quite a few faces I had seen on the TV program about Exodus. There was no trouble and no bad attitude, they even allowed some jugglers with devil sticks onto the dance floor (perhaps they are too mellow), thankfully there were no bongo players. The sun rose to reveal a scorcher of a day, and a beautiful deep green on the hills. I decided to meet Uncle Ebeneezer with the help of a cup of tea and a bean burger (yes there was even tea there, how civilized!). The music was some of the best I have heard recently, contrary to what I had been led to believe there was no jungle, mostly really good techno with a good beat, as Eddie (the rasta man) said if you can jump you'll love exodus. But the friendly atmosphere made it (some people had even brought their kids). We partied on through one of the sunniest days this year (good job I brought my suncream) leaping and cavorting until about 5pm next afternoon. All in all it ranks as the best rave I went to (especially as it was "free") and perhaps one of the better events since the days of the free festivals!
Beach Front Party Beach Front Party
June 1996 by Mark
At the last mo plans for hitting RTTS at the Fridge on Friday were shelved as words reached our ears of a free open air party to be held at a southern seafront location on the Sat night. The rumours were from 2 very reliable sources and the dj's were to include top goa trance dj's (amonst others)..... weather forecast brilliant................... who could resist.
Just in case the whole thing blew out TRIP web pages were scanned for a back up party but the nearest psychedelic one was the Spacehopper in Brum which was too far to go from where we were going. So it was shit or bust.
90 miles down the m25 and other motorways flashed by in no time and we soon found the location as other potential revellers were all about town at pub kicking out time wandering down to the beach front. T'was a fine but cool night. We still had the feeling that it may or may not happen and this added to the excitement.
We parked up down a deserted beach path and stumbled down to the front, ears straining to hear any repe-titive beats.
Other guys were all around us some clearly pissed up and just along to see what was going on down their town. We followed some distant sounds and soon found ourselves at a party right on the seafront under tall white cliffs a long way away from anywhere. Generators were powering sound rigs, lights and visual projec-tions. Perhaps 150 people were dancing about to the hard trance sounds.
The psychedelic sound people 500 yards up the front were having trouble with their supplied generator (the organisers had supplied 110v instead of 240 v) and it wasnt till the early morning that they worked miracles and managed to get some sort of sound out of their equipment. So we went back to the hard trancey sounds and tried to get into it (with considerable success - similar music to EFS) and whilst it did not trans-port us to those special places that only psychedelic trance can the sheer energy had us freaking hard on the floor.
More people added till I guess there were 400 or so total revellers there some sitting around fires some sit-ting in perches in the cliffs or just walking along the beach. Pissheads as usual fucked off about 2am to leave it to the enthusiasts and the vibe whipped up. Plod appeared along the front and visited for 10 mins and viewed proceedings from their car, and to their credit did sod all and just turned around and went away.
Although free we gave 10 quid between us as a donation to the cause. The best bit was freaking whilst slowly becoming aware that light was creeping up on us and dawn broke at 4am to bring a different atmos-phere to the party.....it was a further full 2 hours before the sun burst brilliantly over the cliffs and the dancers caught each others eyes grinned and yelled as the dj put on a massive number which brought the party to a pinnacle. I will remember that moment for ever.
We wandered down to the psychedelic end of the beach as word reached us that they had pulled of the impossible and got their equipment to work. Here we freaked some more and was reminded just how much difference there is between good psy trance and the stuff we had enjoyed earlier. There was amongst the revellers some of the biggest names on the psy trance scene revelling in the ultimate a free party on the beach with perfect weather.
Some early dog walkers must have wondered what the bloody hell had hit their quiet little backwater.
Suddenly limbs got tired as the now very hot sun beat down on us and we decided to leave. GOD KNOWS how many people I shook hands with, grinned and struck up brief conversation with, all guys reciprocated and I must say it was a very very special party and the long drive back was done with a cheshire cat grin and the thoughts of 'can this experience ever be topped? There were people who had travelled a long way for the experience and were not dissapointed. It was fair to say that the organiser was blown away by the number of people attending his bash............ he was on one from the success.
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