thirdform

pass the sick bucket
Glasgow is mostly a clubbing city. It's never been ravey. Even their understanding of UK garage is somewhat truncated. As a clubbing city I 100% don't doubt its better than London but rave culture as a whole, including its white(er) pounding techno/gabba varieties is mostly really something of London, Essex, Bradford, Sheffield and Birmingham. That's it really, with forays in Wolverhampton etc. It's not even a totally English thing. EG Liverpool was a big house city but not really rave.
 

boxedjoy

Well-known member
what about the drugs, was it really all MDMA/e? because a crowd loved up on it is a different crowd to the one on cheap coke and speed. Again I wasn't there, but how many people were actually able to spend £20 on a good pill?
 

boxedjoy

Well-known member
Glasgow has very little 'nuum music, it's very Detroit/Chicago in respectable clubs and donk in the high street. We probably need a thread on the GBX.
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
Really rave is two things. Either the crossover of reggae culture with house and techno or the cross of hip hop with house and techno culture.

Gabba and hard techno is more the latter, either in the samples or in the style of 3 deck mixing in a Jeff Mills style.
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
what about the drugs, was it really all MDMA/e? because a crowd loved up on it is a different crowd to the one on cheap coke and speed. Again I wasn't there, but how many people were actually able to spend £20 on a good pill?

No not really, acid+speed was probably more prevalent until Es got cheaper.
 

boxedjoy

Well-known member
so again that's an element of the narrative that I find hard to buy into - because a few tastemakers and cultural gatekeepers had a good pill (and could afford it) suddenly everything was peaceful and friendly and loved-up when in actual fact it's not hard to imagine that it wasn't quite like that for everyone.
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
there's always been a darker side to rave. something closer to harsh noise or punk gigs, but without the conceptual baggage, instead psychedelic terror. It's the sound I tend to champion. But its always been there.
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
so again that's an element of the narrative that I find hard to buy into - because a few tastemakers and cultural gatekeepers had a good pill (and could afford it) suddenly everything was peaceful and friendly and loved-up when in actual fact it's not hard to imagine that it wasn't quite like that for everyone.

I mean that's more balearic beats. More your Terry Farleys and Andrew Weatherall's and what not, although to Andy's credit he was always much darker, much grungier and didn't buy into the summer of love optimism as much.
 

boxedjoy

Well-known member
what was the deal with chill-out rooms while we're at it? I've been in one club and one warehouse that had one and both were just really crap - people who wanted to be seen at an event because they felt they should, but having a safe space to not actually engage with the culture of Actual Dancing. I love ambient music and the ambient techno I'm familiar with but people floating about on beanbags seems completely pointless in this context
 

boxedjoy

Well-known member
(I'm asking these questions because it seems my understanding and perception of this played out is flawed, although I'm still cautious about how perspectives and personal biases etc shape history at all angles)
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
never been to a club or rave with chill out room so i dunno. Not going to pretend I can give you an answer. Silverdollarcircle is probably the expert on stuff like that.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
what was the deal with chill-out rooms while we're at it? I've been in one club and one warehouse that had one and both were just really crap - people who wanted to be seen at an event because they felt they should, but having a safe space to not actually engage with the culture of Actual Dancing. I love ambient music and the ambient techno I'm familiar with but people floating about on beanbags seems completely pointless in this context
They were quite varied. I think at their best you and your mates would head in there for a breather and a spliff. Generally you could hear each other so it was a good place to talk bollocks and sometimes you'd meet other people there too. The soundtrack was incidental really.

At their worst they were too quiet and too sterile and too bright and everyone just stared at each other in a paranoid fashion and it was the casualty room.
 

luka

Well-known member
You have to remember people preserve their own histories and tell their own stories or as third says you run the risk of being very patronising
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
You have to remember people preserve their own histories and tell their own stories or as third says you run the risk of being very patronising

Yeah rave as a whole is not political really. Neither pro nor anti. That stuff applies more to punk. There were of course political aspects but the culture was not based on speaking truth to power or rebellion.

In fact, most Black dance music is not, which is always uncomfortable for the white bohemian, something @blissblogger talks about pretty well, in, I think, Bring the Noise.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
what was the deal with chill-out rooms while we're at it? I've been in one club and one warehouse that had one and both were just really crap - people who wanted to be seen at an event because they felt they should, but having a safe space to not actually engage with the culture of Actual Dancing. I love ambient music and the ambient techno I'm familiar with but people floating about on beanbags seems completely pointless in this context
They're mostly just a place to sit to get a breather if you feel a bit (physically or psychically) overheated. Or to actually talk with someone, as John says. Snog. Roll a spliff. See if you can find those pills you bought an hour ago.

The music doesn't have to be terrible. The one at Wang often played roots reggae and stuff like that.
 
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