Altered Perspectives: UK Rave Culture, Thatcherite Hegemony and the BBC

Sam Bradpiece, University of Bristol

Image 1: Boys Own Magazine (London), Spring 1988

1 Contents

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………...……… 7

Chapter 1. The Rave as a Counter-Hegemonic Force: The Spatial Element…….…………….13

Chapter 2. The Rave as a Counter Hegemonic Force: Confirmation and Critique..…..…… 20

Chapter 3. The BBC and the Rave: An Agent of Moral Panic……………………………………..… 29

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….... 37

Appendices…………………………………………………………………………………………………………...... 39

Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………………………………...... 50

2

‘You cannot break it! The bonding between the ravers is too strong! The police and councils will never tear us apart.’

In-ter-dance Magazine1

1 ‘Letters’, In-Ter-Dance (Worthing), Jul. 1993.

3 Introduction

Rave culture arrived in Britain in the late 1980s, almost a decade into the premiership of Margaret Thatcher, and reached its zenith in the mid 1990s. Although academics contest the definition of the term 'rave’, Sheila Henderson’s characterization encapsulates the basic formula. She describes raves as having ‘larger than average venues’, ‘music with 120 beats per minute or more’, ‘ubiquitous drug use’, ‘distinctive dress codes’ and ‘extensive special effects’.2 Another significant ‘defining’ feature of the rave subculture was widespread consumption of the drug methylenedioxyphenethylamine (MDMA), otherwise known as Ecstasy.3 In 1996, the government suggested that over one million Ecstasy tablets were consumed every week.4 Nicholas Saunders claims that at the peak of the drug’s popularity, 10% of 16-25 year olds regularly consumed Ecstasy.5 The mass media has been instrumental in shaping popular understanding of this recent phenomenon. The ideological dominance of Thatcherism, in the 1980s and early 1990s, was reflected in the one-sided discourse presented by the British mass media. This work seeks to liberate the voices of the ravers themselves, from ‘the enormous condescension of posterity’ in order to provide a more complete historical conceptualisation of the phenomenon.6 As there is a limited amount of historiography surrounding UK rave culture, this paper draws extensively on sociological literature. According to Peter Catterall, History of the recent past must be attempted or ‘analysis of the contemporary will be left to journalists’.7

Summary of Events: The roots of the rave can be found in the club culture of Chicago. Phuture, a musical group, is credited with having composed the first ‘acid house’ track in 1985; acid house

2 S. Henderson, ‘Luv’dup and De-lited: Responses to Drug Use in the Second Decade’ in, P. Aggleton, P. Davis and G. Hart (eds.), AIDS: Facing the Second Decade (London: Falmer, 1993), 121. 3 J. Merchant and R. McDonald, ‘Youth and the Rave Culture, Ecstasy and Health’, Youth and Policy, 45 (1994), 18. 4 H. John, ‘UK Rave Culture and the Thatcherite Hegemony, 1988-94’, Cultural History, 4 (2015), 170. 5 N. Saunders and L. Heron, E is for Ecstasy (London: Self-published, 1993), 14. 6 E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (London: Victor Gollancz, 1964), 12 7 P. Catterall, ‘What (if anything) is Distinctive about Contemporary History?’, Journal of Contemporary History, 32 (1997), 450.

4 became the predominant genre of early rave music.8 Chas Critcher claims that elements of rave culture, including experimentation with MDMA, began to infiltrate the ‘trendy Soho elite’, by 1986.9

By 1988, the rave had emerged as an identifiable subculture, taking place legally at nightclubs as well as illegally at warehouse parties and events in hidden rural locations. The size of the rave subculture can be measured economically: Sarah Thornton estimates that by 1993, the UK club market was worth £2 billion whilst the illegal rave market was valued at £1.8 billion.10 The early to mid 1990s saw diversification of rave music as the emergence of ‘garage, hardcore, psytrance and jungle music’ broke the dominance of acid house.11

Authoritarian reactions of the government and the mass media grew in parallel to the growth of the rave itself. Matthew Collin’s popular history of the rave, describes the ‘ritualized sequence of moral panic’ that surrounded it.12 Brian Osgerby elucidates that the tabloids presented the rave as ‘a barometer of social decline’.13 Various legislation was introduced by the Thatcher and Major governments in order to suppress rave culture. The Entertainments Act 1990, increased penalties for illegal rave organizers, raising the level of fines to up to £20,000 and introducing prison sentences of 6 months.14 Jason Merchant suggests that the act ‘heralded in quite draconian measures to quash the rave culture.’15 Although the government had already criminalized ‘a whole section of the youth population,’ it continued to target the ravers through the 1994

8 H. C. Rietveld, This Is Our House: House Music, Cultural Spaces and Technologies (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998), 8. 9 C. Critcher, Moral Panics and the Mass Media (Buckingham: Open University Press, 2003), 49. 10 S. Thornton, Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capital (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1996), 14-5. 11 A. Fraser and N. Ettlinger, ‘Fragile Empowerment: The Dynamic Cultural Economy of British Drum and Bass Music’, Geoforum, 39 (2008), 1648. 12 M. Collin, Altered State:. The Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House (London: Serpent’s Tail, 1998), 90. 13 B. Osgerby, Youth in Britain Since 1945 (Oxford: Blackwell), 182. 14 C. Critcher, Moral Panics and the Mass Media, 51. 15 J. Merchant and R. MacDonald, ‘Youth and the Rave Culture’, 17.

5 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act.16 The act increased police powers to prevent the occurrence of raves, which they defined as ‘a gathering of a hundred or more persons, whether or not trespassers, at which music is played during the night’. The music was defined as ‘wholly or predominantly characterized by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats’. 17 Osgerby described the act as ‘the most comprehensive and authoritarian’ set of ‘social and cultural controls’ since 1945.18 Over a thousand young people were arrested under the act within its first year.19 The authoritarian stance of the government drove the institutionalization of the rave, resulting in the growth of the club industry and the demise of illegal raves and free parties from 1994 onwards.

Literature Review The relationship between rave culture and Thatcherism, the key focus of this analysis, has been explored in the sociological work of Andrew Hill and the cultural history of Henry John. 20 Scholarship surrounding rave culture is part of a wider academic discourse on youth and subcultures, which established itself in Britain upon the founding of Birmingham University’s Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS), in 1964. The CCCS analysed style-based youth cultures such as Teddy Boys, mods and rockers, skinheads and punks. Major works of the CCCS such as Resistance Through Rituals, advanced the theory that subcultures were inherently deviant and that such deviance represented a collective reaction to structural changes in post-war British society.21 Phil Cohen claimed that the ‘latent function of the subculture’, was to ‘retrieve socially cohesive elements’, in reference to a sense of working-class community, ‘destroyed in the parent culture’.22

16 C. Critcher, Moral Panics and the Mass Media, 51. 17 ‘Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994’ quoted in C. Critcher, Moral Panics and the Mass Media, 51. 18 B. Osgerby, Youth in Britain Since 1945, 216. 19 C. Critcher, Moral Panics and the Mass Media, 51. 20 H. John, ‘UK Rave Culture’; A. Hill, ‘Acid House and Thatcherism: Contesting Spaces in Late 1980s Britain’, Space and Polity, 7 (2003). 21 S. Hall and T. Jefferson (eds.), Resistance Through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post-War Britain (London: Hutchinson, 1976). 22 P. Cohen, ‘Subcultural Conflict and the Working Class Community’, Working Papers in Cultural Studies, 2 (University of Birmingham: 1972), 23.

6 Andy Bennet has criticized the contention of the CCCS that ‘styles were uniformly used by working-class youth in a strategy designed to resist the structural changes taking place around them’, instead stating that ‘post-war consumerism offered young people the opportunity to break away from their traditional class based identities’. Bennet critiques subcultures as a theoretical model through which to study youth, as the term implies rigid ‘lines of division and social categories which are very difficult to verify in empirical terms’. Instead, Bennet argues that youth culture identities are closer to Robert Shields’ ‘postmodern persona’, which has ‘multiple identifications’, and ‘can no longer be simplistically theorized or unified’.23 Jeffrey Paris and Michael Ault maintain that whilst the structuralist approach of the CCCS could be considered flawed, subcultures provide ‘a vital political critique and vision against a backdrop of expanding neoliberal institutions and free market processes’.24

John identified the rave as an entity similar to Hakim Bey’s ‘Temporary Autonomous Zone’ acting to liberate areas before dissolving ‘to reform elsewhere.’25 Parallels have also been drawn between rave culture and Michel Foucault’s ‘heterotopias’ in which ‘real sites found within the parent culture’ are ‘inverted’; and Henri Lefebvre’s ‘representational spaces’, which exist, in ‘clear opposition to the homogenizing effects of the state, of the political power, of the world market and of the commodity world.’26

Methodology: This dissertation examines UK rave culture from 1988 to its apotheosis in 1994-5. It draws extensively from historical, sociological, spatial and political theory. Drawing, in a novel manner, from sources from within the movement itself, such as rave flyers and rave fanzines, this paper revises contemporary understanding of the rave through an

23 A. Bennet, ‘Subcultures or Neo-Tribes? Rethinking the Relationship Between Youth, Style and Musical Taste’, Sociology, 33 (1999), 601-5; R. Shields, Lifestyle Shopping: The Subject of Consumption (London: Routledge, 1992), 16. 24 J. Paris and M. Ault, ‘Subcultures and Political Resistance’, Peace Review, 16 (2004), 404. 25 H. John, ‘UK Rave Culture’, 165; H. Bey, T.A.Z: The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism (Brooklyn: Autonomedia, 2003), 99. 26 M. Foucault, ‘Of Other Spaces, Heterotopias,’ Architecture, Mouvement, Continuité, 5 (1984), 46-9; H. Lefebvre, The Production of Space (Cambridge: Blackwell, 1991), 64.

7 unexplored perspective. In order to build a more complete history of the rave, this dissertation employs ethnographic methods to better understand the role of women and ethnic minorities within the subculture. Analysis of a wide variety of BBC footage is also employed here.

Outline: This dissertation uses previously unexamined evidence to support the contentions of John and Hill, that UK rave culture was a counter-hegemonic force, embodying characteristics inherently oppositional to Thatcherism.27 Although Shami Chakrabarti argues that elements of Thatcherism even shaped the politics of the Labour Party under the later leadership of Tony Blair, this analysis concerns the ideology that characterized the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major in particular.28 The second key contention of this research is that the BBC held agency in the creation of moral panic surrounding the rave and thus enforced Thatcherite hegemony. Detailed analysis of BBC coverage of rave culture has been, until this point, non-existent in studies of the rave.

Chapter one will demonstrate that the rave was a counter-hegemonic force due to its capacity to decentralize culture and capital from the city of London and the South East of the UK. Through various mapping techniques, it is evident that the consumption and to a lesser extent, production of rave music defied the spatial-economic trends of Thatcherism. Chapter two will validate contentions about the counter-hegemonic characteristics of rave culture, using a new set of sources. Analysis of fanzines, and ethnographic analysis of rave musicians, will suggest that rave culture was counter- hegemonic because of its empowerment of ethnic minorities, widespread drug use and political alignment with the left of British politics. This chapter will also contend that counter-hegemonic role of the rave in liberating women, has been overstated in existing scholarship.

Chapter three will show that the BBC participated in the creation of moral panic surrounding rave culture, by constructing an exaggerated impression of the social

27 H. John, ‘UK Rave Culture’; A. Hill, ‘Acid House and Thatcherism’. 28S. Chakrabarti, On Liberty (London: Allen Lane, 2014).

8 dangers of the rave and health risks associated with MDMA consumption. Through the use of various techniques, the BBC created discourse shaped through the paradigm of Thatcherism itself. Jean Seaton’s claim that by the late 1980s, the British media was reduced to a ‘quivering sycophancy’, appears valid when considered in the context of the BBC’s reaction to rave culture.29

29 J. Seaton, “Pinkoes and Traitors”: the BBC and the Nation, 1974-87 (London: Profile Books, 2015), 2.

9 Chapter 1. The Rave as a Counter-Hegemonic Force: The Spatial Element

Hegemony and Thatcherism In order to revise the works of Hill and John about rave culture as a counter-hegemonic force, it is necessary to define the term hegemony itself. Cultural hegemony is a concept prognosticated by the Marxist intellectual, Antonio Gramsci, to explain continued international dominance of capitalism. Gramsci claimed that the capitalist economic system maintained control not solely through violence and coercion but also through ideological control of culture. In a hegemonic culture, the ruling class advances its own values and norms, suppressing alternatives, so that the dominant values of the ruling class become accepted as commonsense. Through cultural hegemony, the inequalities of capitalism are justified and opposition to capitalism is quashed.30

Stuart Hall describes Thatcherism as a ‘hegemonic project’, that attempted to define ‘what the nation is’, and ‘who the people are’.31 Hill argues it was marked by ‘intolerance for those who did not conform’, such as the ravers.32 Furthermore, Andrew Gamble claims that an image of a ‘good society based on the free economy, a strong state and stable families was central to Thatcherism’, and that Thatcher’s attack on social democracy ‘took shape through emphasis on the politics of gender, race, national unity and social and public order’.33

The following analysis builds on the work of Hill and John, proposing that the rave was also counter-hegemonic because of its impact in decentralizing influence from London and the South East. Historiography of Thatcherism notes a centralization of economic and political influence in the South East, during the Thatcher and Major governments. Whilst the South East generally prospered under Thatcher and Major, deindustrialization critically impacted other areas of the UK causing regional inequality

30 A. Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1971). 31 S. Hall, The Hard Road to Renewal: Thatcherism and the Crisis of the Left (London: Verso, 1988), 71. 32 A. Hill, ‘Acid House and Thatcherism’, 220. 33 A. Gamble, The Free Economy and the Strong State: The Politics of Thatcherism (Durham: Duke University Press, 1988), 27.

10 unprecedented in the post-war era.34 The pattern of spatial distribution of raves and rave music production suggests that UK rave culture defied the spatial-economic trend of Thatcherism.

Methodology This analysis uses a variety of sources to ascertain the geographical location of rave culture. The spatial distribution of licensed raves in 1988-95, was determined through an examination of 176 rave flyers available in the UK’s largest online rave archive (appendix 2).35 Determining the location of illegal free-parties (appendix 3) during the period is problematic. Because of the clandestine nature of the events themselves, there were relatively little printed advertisements. As no definitive list of free parties exists, this analysis relies on the work of Collin, a widely sited authority in existing scholarship, to identify free parties of the period. 36 An alternative may have been to search newspapers for coverage of free-parties, although this would not have accounted for the hidden, unreported events that took place from 1988-95.

To examine the geography of rave music production, it was necessary to compile a list of prominent rave artists (appendix 4). This paper uses the term artist in a musical sense. This analysis relies on once again on the work of Collin, as well as that of Alistair Fraser and Nancy Ettlinger, to identify these artists.37 An alternative would have been to examine the national dance press to compile such a list. The fanzine, Atmosphere, however, claimed that ‘the dance press is normally the last to hear about big tunes.’38 Fanzines also could have provided a list of artists and groups (musicians), although such publications are normally rooted in regional specificity, thus would provide a misleading

34E. Evans, Thatcher and Thatcherism (London: Routledge, 1997); A. Gamble, The Free Economy and the Strong State; G. Fry, The Politics of the Thatcher Revolution: An Interpretation of British Politics, 1979-1990 (Hampshire, Palgrave MacMillan, 2008). 35 Fantazia, Flyer Library, http://www.fantazia.org.uk/flyerlibrary/raveflyers.htm [accessed 4 March 2016]. 36 M. Collin, Altered State. 37 M. Collin, Altered State; A. Fraser and N. Ettlinger, ‘Fragile Empowerment’, 1647-56. 38 ‘News & Views’, Atmosphere (Essex), Jul. 1993.

11 impression of national trends. Ultimately, the methodology employed in this analysis is imperfect but serves as the optimal choice given the limitations of the possible alternatives.

Analysis Figure 1 and Image 2 demonstrate the extent to which participation in licensed raves was by no means limited to a concentration in London and the South East. 84% of the licensed raves surveyed in this analysis occurred in regions other than the South East of England. The East and West Midlands accounted for over half of all raves during the surveyed period, thus demonstrating that rave culture antithetical to the Southeasterly centralizing forces of Thatcherism.

The geographical distribution of illegal raves and free parties further suggests the de- centralized nature of the rave culture. Although 41% of illegal raves occurred in London and the South East, the majority of these illegal events took place in the other regions of the UK. The South West was a particularly significant region. Image 4 demonstrates that the overwhelming majority of these free parties occurred in rural locations. This can be explained by the need to avoid police detection. The illegal nature of these raves further illustrates their counter-hegemonic significance.

Geographical Location of 176 Licensed Acid House Raves 1988-95

Region Frequency Percentage Greater London 17 10% South East 11 6% East of England 11 6% East Midlands 70 40% West Midlands 31 18% Yorkshire and Humber 15 9% South West 5 3% North West 10 6% Scotland 6 3%

Figure 1

12 Licensed Raves 1988-95

Image 2

Geographical Location of Illegal Free Parties 1988-95:

Region Frequency Percentage South West 6 27.27% North West 3 13.64% South East 7 31.82% West Midlands 1 4.55% Greater London 2 9.09% East 2 9.09% Yorkshire and Humber 1 4.55%

Figure 2

13 Illegal Raves and Free Parties 1985-95

Image 3

Free Party Locations 1988-95 - Rural/Urban

Urban 18%

Rural 82%

Image 4

14 The geographical distribution of rave music producers provides less convincing evidence to support the claim that rave culture was a counter hegemonic phenomenon. David Hesmondhalgh argues that rave culture scholarship has neglected to consider the politics of cultural production. He claims this is due to a view that study of ‘cultural production is a sign of an unreconstructed, old-fashioned Marxism’, at odds with current academic trends.39

Image 5 demonstrates that the majority of rave music producers were based in London or the South East. Such findings suggest that rave culture was not entirely immune to the centralizing effects of Thatcherism. It should be noted however that the sample size was just fifty-four, and that a more extensive survey may have revealed a less centralized pattern of production. Furthermore, Image 5 fails to adequately represent the importance of the North West as a center of rave music production, accounting for 19% percent of all surveyed producers. Manchester alone had more music producers in the sample than all of the Home Counties combined.

Location of rave music production 1988-95

Rest of UK 39% London & South East 61%

Image 5

Although the spatial distribution of rave music production complicates the contention of this essay, the highly decentralized pattern of rave music consumption indicates that UK

39 D. Hesmondhalgh, ‘The Cultural Politics of Dance Music’, Soundings, 5 (1997), 172.

15 rave culture spatially challenged Thatcherite hegemony. Hill writes that a hegemonic project ‘has to be established in spatial terms.’40 These findings suggest that counter- hegemony can also be established in such terms.

40 A. Hill, Acid House and Thatcherism, 222

16 Chapter 2. Raves as a Counter-Hegemonic Force: Confirmation and Critique

Existing scholarship on the rave assigns various counter-hegemonic characteristics to the rave including both ethnic minority and female empowerment, and widespread consumption of illegal drugs. These characteristics are confirmed through literary analysis of fanzines and ethnographic investigation. Furthermore, fanzine analysis suggests that the ravers politically aligned themselves with the left, suggesting that they consciously sought to challenge Thatcherite hegemony. This analysis also challenges the notion that the rave was counter-hegemonic because it empowered of women.

Empowerment of Ethnic Minorities This paper supports the view of John, that rave culture was counter-hegemonic because of its tendency to act as a forum in which ‘racial conflict could be harmoniously dispersed.’41 The 1980s saw a period of escalating racial tension, culminating in a number of race riots. Racist sentiment was not, however the sole preserve of the rioters. Stuart Hall and Martin Jacques note that Thatcher’s immigration policy was shaped by ‘patriarchalism, racism and imperialist nostalgia.’42 Thatcher’s pronouncement, that the UK could be ‘swamped’ by immigrants, in conjunction with her passing of the British Nationality Act 1981, demonstrated Thatcher’s intention to ‘clearly define, segregate and restrict minority communities.’43 The ethnographic study of the fifty-four rave music artists, identified earlier in this paper, as well as literary analysis of a range of rave fanzines reveal that the rave was an important counter-hegemonic space of ethnic minority empowerment between 1988-95.

The high proportion of black and ethnic minority artists involved in the production of rave music is evidence that the culture served as a vehicle of socio-cultural empowerment. Between 1988-1995, the ONS estimated that non-white individuals accounted for 5.7% of the UK population.44 Given the limited size of this demographic,

41 H. John, ‘UK Rave Culture’, 168. 42 S. Hall and M. Jacques (eds.), The Politics of Thatcherism, 11. 43 H. John, ‘UK Rave Culture’, 168. 44 J. Schuman, ‘Demography and Health’, Population Trends, 96 (1999), 34.

17 the finding of this paper, that non-white artists constituted 31% of rave music producers, suggests that rave music was an effective method of socio-cultural empowerment for ethnic minorities. The rise of jungle music, sometimes referred to as drum and bass, demonstrates the cultural influence of black and ethnic minority musicians in the early 1990s. Jungle music blends the bass lines of Jamaican reggae-dub, with reggae-influenced vocals and break-beat percussion of a fast tempo. Referred to as the first ‘British black music,’ and ‘the defining sound of the 1990s’, image 6 demonstrates the disproportionate dominance of ethnic minority artists, in jungle music production.45 The proportion is calculated from the aforementioned list of fifty-four artists.

Jungle Drum and Bass Producer Ethnicity 1988-95

White 47% Black and Ethnic Minority 53%

Image 6

The Scene almost exclusively publicized jungle music events, demonstrating the growth of the genre by the mid 1990s. In one edition ‘Jungle Massive 2’, ‘Hardcore Junglist Fever’, ‘Furore’, and ‘Jungle Mania IV’ are all promoted.46 The content of these fanzines

45 C Critcher, ‘”Still Raving”: Social Reaction to Ecstasy’, Leisure Studies, 19 (2000), 148. 46 The Scene (Surrey), Nov. 1994.

18 suggested that the popularity of jungle was ‘exploding’.47 Although the era of Thatcher and Major may be characterized as one of oppression of ethnic minorities, the rave movement offered a chance for ethnic minorities to play a key role in defining the youth culture of the UK.

The content of various fanzines also suggests that attitudes among the rave community were generally anti-racist. Authored by ravers, for ravers, fanzines arguably provide the clearest insight into the attitudes held by this subculture. Boy’s Own took an anti-racist position with statements such as ‘racism: bollocks’.48 This fanzine claimed, in reference to acid house music: ‘The house scene, in all its forms has done more for racial understanding among today’s younger kids than ten years of racist door policies… ever did,’ before explaining that the rave was a space of racial ‘tolerance’. 49 The fanzine also criticized public figures such as Esther Rantzen for engaging in the ‘piss take of various minorities’, as well as London’s ‘racist/radical radio station’ in reference to Tony Blackburn’s show on BBC Radio One.50 Rave Scene Magazeen positioned itself against racism, employing adverts such as ‘Junglism against racism’ and promoting the music of black musicians such as Carl Cox, through artist interviews.51 The Scene shows a willingness to engage with the ‘Junglist movement’, conducting interviews with minority performers such as Kenny Ken and Marvelous Cain, thus promoting black voices.52 The visual prominence of ethnic minorities in the images of In-Ter-Dance magazine (Image 7) suggests that the rave was a multicultural space in terms of music consumption and production.

47 ‘JUNGLE DJ PROFILE: Kenny Ken’, The Scene (Surrey), Aug. 1994. 48 ‘Inside Cover’, Boy’s Own (London), Spring 1988. 49 ‘Love Thugs or Purist Mugs’, Boy’s Own (London), Autumn 1990. 50 ‘My Penis is Shaped Like a Carrot’, Boy’s Own (London), Summer 1986; ‘Uppers and Downers’, Boy’s Own (London), Summer 1991. 51 ‘Jungle Fever’, Ravescene Magazeen (London), Oct. 1993. 52 H. John, ‘UK Rave Culture’, 162-81; A. McRobbie, Postmodernism and Popular Culture (London: Psychology Press, 1994); M. Pini, ‘Women and the Early British Rave Scene’ in A. McRobbie (ed.), Back to Reality? Social Experience and Cultural Studies (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997), 152-68.

19

Image 7: In-Ter-Dance (Worthing), Jul. 1993

Drug Use John claims that widespread usage of Ecstasy (MDMA) ‘was clearly a catalyst for the euphoria and unity that characterized the entire history of rave culture.’ He argues that such ‘rejection of moral restraint stood in contrast to Thatcher’s obsession with moral regulation’.53 Gamble claims that Thatcherism was largely defined through an assault on ‘permissiveness’ and ‘crime.’54 Thatcherism took a stance diametrically opposed to the perceived permissiveness of the 1960s, an era once described by Thatcher as setting ‘the scene for a society in which the old virtues of discipline and self restraint were denigrated.’55 The hedonistic elements of MDMA consumption led to the branding of 1988 as the ‘second summer of love’: a clear reference to the counter-cultural

53 H. John, ‘UK Rave Culture’, 166-81. 54 A. Gamble, The Free Economy and the Strong State, 26. 55 M. Thatcher, ‘Speech to the Conservative Central Council, 1982’, http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104905 [accessed 1 March 2016].

20 phenomenon of 1967.56 Such widespread and flagrant consumption of an illegal narcotic by the ravers was counter-hegemonic. This paper proves the centrality of drugs to the rave culture through fanzine analysis.

Evidence of widespread drug use associated with rave culture can be found in the anecdotes of the movement’s fanzines. In Boy’s Own for example, it is written, ‘I once met a bloke who put himself through medical school making sulphates and LSD.’ 57 Euphemistic references to the drug use are common: one article claims that the quality of ‘gear’ is being reduced; another used the terms, ‘uppers and downers’, colloquial terms used to describe different kinds of drugs.58 At other times, mention of drug use was more explicit: ‘The main drug was Ecstasy’; ‘one of the features of these large gatherings is a large incidence of stimulant abuse’; and ‘We’ve swallowed them, sucked them and snorted them.’59 Such a blatant admission of illegal drug use confirms that the rave movement was essentially criminal and thus counter-hegemonic, in the eyes of the state.

Political Stance Existing scholarship largely neglects to explore the motivation behind the rave culture’s counter-hegemony. For the most part, the fanzines avoid explicit political alignment suggesting a lack of aforethought. Analysis of Boy’s Own magazine creates a more complicated picture however, suggesting that the ravers were politically aligned with the left of British politics.

The political views expressed through Boy’s Own fanzine suggest that the rave movement was not only counter-hegemonic, but also consciously politicized. Conservative politician, Woodrow Wyatt, makes an appearance on their ‘Wankers of the

56 K. Russell, ‘Lysergia Suburbia’ in S. Redhead (ed.), Rave Off: Politics and Deviance in Contemporary Youth Culture (Aldershot: Avebury, 1993), 101. 57 ‘Take Some Time Out’, Boy’s Own (London), Autumn 1989. 58 ‘Stand up for your Love Rights’, Boy’s Own (London), Autumn 1990; ‘Uppers and Downers’, Boy’s Own (London), Spring 1992. 59 ‘Bermondsey Goes Balaeric’, Boy’s Own (London), Spring 1988; ‘News and Views’, Atmosphere (Essex), Jul. 1993; ‘Stand up for your Love Rights’, Boy’s Own (London), Autumn 1990.

21 year’ list.60 Additionally, Thatcher and Norman Tebbit are referred to as ‘Margaret Mussolini’ and ‘Norman Goering’. The same article also articulates concerns over the control of the press and the BBC by conservative forces claiming: ‘We are told what they (the Tories) want us to be told.’61 Such critiques of the control of the media under capitalism are articulated by academics including Milliband and Chomsky; the subculture’s expression of such concerns demonstrates an alignment with the philosophy of the left.62 Each edition of Boy’s Own is signed, ‘The Outsider’, suggesting that the writers were aware of their counter-hegemonic position outside accepted ideological parameters established by Thatcherism.63

It is important to interpret the political messages of Boy’s Own with caution because such politicization is less conspicuous in many later fanzines published in the early 1990s. It is possible that the views of the editorial team did not reflect those of the rave movement as a whole. Given the sources available however, Boy’s Own can be viewed as a reliable source for providing insights into the views of the ravers themselves. The fanzine is singled out in much of the historiography on the rave movement, as being a popular publication. While it is still difficult to confirm whether there was political motiavation behind the rave movement, it is clear that from a number of perspectives, the rave held counter hegemonic properties.

Empowerment of Women John has suggested that the rave movement was a ‘direct challenge to Thatcherite tenets concerning gender hierarchies and the role of women within society’.64 This paper contends however, that John, alongside others such as Angela McRobbie and Maria Pini, overstated the counter-hegemonic properties of the rave as a space of female

60 ‘Wankers of the Year’, Boy’s Own (London), Summer 1986. 61 Last Exit to Brooklyn’, Boy’s Own (London), Spring 1988. 62 R. Milliband, The State in Capitalist Society (New York: Basic Books, 1969); E. Herman and N. Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (New York: Pantheon Books, 1988). 63 F. Broughton and B. Brewster, Boy’s Own: The Complete Fanzines, 1986-92. 64 H. John, ‘UK Rave Culture’, 168.

22 empowerment.65 Gamble conceives of Thatcherism ‘as a political project that sought to reassert the importance of the strong nation and the patriarchal family.’66 Beatrix Campbell claimed: ‘Nothing Margaret Thatcher did, absolutely nothing, created positive change for women. In fact she made everything worse.’ She points to the disproportionately damaging effects of privatisation and the freezing of child benefit on the economic position of women.67 Thatcher’s declaration in 1982 that ‘women bear the children and create and run the home’ demonstrates the conservative conception of gender inherent to Thatcherism.68 Analysis of the numbers of women involved in rave music production, combined with a literary analysis of rave fanzines reveals that the role of the rave as a liberating space for women has been overstated.

The sample of fifty-four prominent rave music artists employed in this paper suggests that rave music production didn’t empower women in the same way that it advanced ethnic minorities. Women constituted just 4% of the sample. The DJ duo, Kemistry and Storm was the only female act mentioned in previous studies of rave culture, from which the sample was drawn. Furthermore, the twenty-four fanzines analyzed in this paper contain fourteen interviews with male artists but not one with a female artist. The minimal number of female rave music artists suggests that the rave was not a counter- hegemonic space of female empowerment as claimed by John.69

Rave fanzines broadly fail to support the claim that the rave was a counter-hegemonic space of female empowerment. The Boy’s Own fanzine knowingly appropriates its title from an earlier magazine written exclusively for teenage boys from 1879-1967. Whilst the left-leaning fanzine ironically references an earlier sexist work, the content of the publication suggests that there was a gender-bias in the rave subculture. One letter sent to the fanzine reads ‘You have a large female readership… please give us members of the

65 A. McRobbie, Back to Reality?: Social Experience and Cultural Studies (Manchester: Manchester University Press: 1997); M. Pini, Club Cultures and Female Subjectivity: The Move from Home to House (New York: Palgrave, 2001). 66 A. Gamble, The Free Economy and the Strong State, 198. 67 B. Campbell, The Iron Lady: Why do Women Vote Tory? (London: Virago, 1987), 43. 68 M. Thatcher, ‘Speech on Women in a Changing World, 1982’, www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105007 [accessed 2 March 2016]. 69 H. John, ‘UK Rave Culture’.

23 fairer sex more of a voice.’70 The lack of female contributors to the fanzine suggests that men largely shaped discourse within the subculture. Sexual objectification of women is evident in many of the fanzines: one advertisement in In-Ter-Dance reads ‘FREE entry to girls in hot pants’.71 An edition of Boy’s Own features a ‘pin-up, Sammy Rogers’ followed by the editor’s note, ‘cor–ed,’ expressing onomatopoeic sexual excitement.72 Most artist interviews printed in the fanzines do not touch on gender issues, although Pascal, a drum and bass artist, jokingly claims that ‘I’m a pimp and I’ve got loads of girls on my books. Can I interest you in any?’ Such jokes further sexualize women.73 Boy’s Own objectifies women by referring to them generically as ‘acid Sharons’, ‘top-knot Sharons’ and simply, ‘Trace’; in doing so, the fanzine denies women of personal, individual identities.74 The same fanzine acknowledges that women ‘have been dealt a pretty shitty hand over the past couple of years’, adding that they had been forced to ‘dwell in the hinter land of media hype’, and ‘eternal laddishness.’75 This confirms that the ravers themselves were aware of gender inequalities within their subculture.

Whilst the fanzines did not convey the rave to be an empowering space from a feminist point of view, Boy’s Own readily condemned BBC Radio 1’s Tony Blackburn for ‘inane sexist chat.’76 The fanzine also suggested that women at raves were far safer than women at pubs or discos, where ‘lager-crazed youngsters (or oldsters)’ would ‘abuse anything faintly female unfortunate enough to be in their vicinity.’77 An article titled, ‘Good Vibrations’, was written by an anonymous female author and discussed the merits of using a vibrator sex toy; this can be interpreted as implying sexual liberation within the rave movement or as a cynical attempt to draw a lustful male gaze to the magazine.78 Ravescene’s Claire Henderson and Sarah of In-Ter-Dance provided rare exceptions to the

70 ‘Letter to the Chaps’, Boy’s Own (London), Spring 1992. 71 Inside Cover’, In-Ter-Dance (Worthing), Jul. 1993. 72 ‘A Safe Journey Home’, Boy’s Own (London), Spring 1990. 73 ‘Artist Interview’, The Scene (Surrey), Nov. 1993. 74 F. Broughton and B. Brewster, Boy’s Own: The Complete Fanzines. 75 ‘Pull the Other One’, Boy’s Own (London), Spring 1992. 76 ‘A Class by Himself’, Boy’s Own (London), Summer 1986. 77 ‘Shock Horror Probe Dept.’, Boy’s Own (London), Autumn 1988. 78 ‘Good Vibrations’, Boy’s Own (London), Spring 1992.

24 general rule that it was men who shaped discourses within the rave movement.79 Despite these redeeming elements, the general content of fanzines, in conjunction with the lack of female rave artists suggests that John overstated the significance of the rave as a space of female empowerment.80

79 ‘The Real Hardcore’, Ravescene Magazeen (London), May 1993; ‘In-Ter-Info’, In-Ter-Dance (Worthing), Feb. 1993. 80 H. John, ‘UK Rave Culture’, 162-81.

25 Chapter 3. The BBC and Rave Culture: An Agent of Moral Panic

The BBC’s response to rave culture was one of antipathy. Although existing historiography and sociology on rave culture has considered the role of the tabloids in creating a moral panic around it, the position of the BBC towards the rave has remained largely unexamined. Hall suggests that moral panics are deliberately fostered by ruling elites, used to ‘mystify or re-articulate deeper crises of the capitalist system.’81 Hall’s model draws from Gramsci’s theory of hegemony in this respect. Considering, that in 2016, the BBC’s charter is pending renewal and that the current Culture Minister is seeking to downscale the corporation, examination of historical relations between the government and the BBC is of heightened importance.82 This study is a novel analysis of BBC footage that demonstrates how the BBC manufactured moral panic surrounding rave culture. The BBC thus acted, intentionally or not, as a tool of Thatcherite hegemony. Such moral panic was created via a combination of evaluative dualism, risk construction and selection of official moral spokesmen.

There is a conspicuously limited amount of historiography on the relationship between Thatcher and Major governments and the BBC. Many historians argue that the BBC has a tradition conservative values that have historically influenced its reporting. Paddy Scannell and David Cardiff have noted the importance of John Reith, the first managing director and director general of the BBC, in shaping the tone of early BBC broadcasts. Reith’s goal was to ‘make the nation one man’, fostering a sense of national unity.83 Reports to the 1925 Crawford committee suggested four key tenets for BBC programming: maintenance of high standards; preservation of moral tone; the shaping

81 S. Hall, C. Critcher, T. Jefferson, J. Clarke and B. Roberts, Policing The Crisis: Mugging, the State and Law and Order (London: MacMillan), 32. 82 ‘End of the license fee: BBC to back radical overhaul of how it is funded’, Independent, 2 March 2016. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/end-of-the-licence-fee-bbc-to-back-radical- overhaul-of-how-it-is-funded-10078945.html [Accessed 4 April 2016]. 83 P. Scannell and D. Cardiff, ‘Broadcasting and National Unity’ in J. Curran (ed.), Impacts and Influences: Essays on Media Power in the Twentieth Century (London: Methuen, 1987), 157.

26 of, rather than response to, public taste; and educative value.84 Simon Potter notes the imperialist function of the BBC empire service in the 1930s and Stephanie Seul notes the relationship between the Ministry of Information, the Foreign Office and the BBC during WW2.85 Tony Shaw claims that during the Cold War, there remained a ‘close affinity’ between senior executives of the BBC and the government.86 When Thatcher imposed a broadcasting ban on the BBC, in the context of the Northern Ireland troubles in 1988, the New York Times said the decision ‘gave comfort to regimes all over the Eastern bloc’ whilst Le Monde saw it as ‘transforming all the glory of the BBC into a servile state puppet’.87 Seaton’s recent work on the BBC 1974-87, argues that Thatcher believed that the BBC ought ‘to be more elitist, exercising ever higher standards as it shaped public behavior and attitudes.’88 BBC coverage of the rave phenomenon 1989-93 seemed to confirm this, as it reflected and justified the government’s attitude towards the culture.

Because the BBC’s Listener archive includes only a narrow range of material, and does not feature transcripts of programmes made after 1991, the footage analysed in this paper was sourced elsewhere. Perhaps reflecting the contemporary nature of the rave movement itself, the majority of the sources analysed here were accessed online, through the social media website, YouTube. Whilst the website allows access to footage inaccessible elsewhere, there are a number of limitations to it. The specific date of each broadcast is unavailable for the footage analysed here, although the year is provided. Furthermore, the BBC channel on which the programmes were broadcast is also

84 D. L. LeMahieu, ‘John Reith 1889-1971: Entrepreneur of Collectivism’ in S. Pederson and P. Mandler (eds.), After the Victorians: Private Conscience and the Public Duty in Modern Britain (London: Routledge, 1994), 195. 85 S. Potter, ‘Who Listened When London Called? Reactions to the BBC Empire Service in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, 1932-39’, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 28 (2008); S. Seul, ‘The Representation of the Holocaust in the British Propaganda Campaign Directed at the German Public, 1938-45’, Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook, 52 (2007). 86 T. Shaw, ‘The BBC, the State and Cold War Culture: the case of television’s The War Game (1965)’, English Historical Review, 121:494 (2006). 87 BBC, ‘WAC: Press Reaction to the Broadcasting Ban, 18-25 October 1988’, quoted in J. Seaton, ‘The BBC and the “Hidden Wiring” of the British Constitution: the Imposition of the Broadcasting Ban in 1988’, Twentieth Century British History, 24 (2013), 452. 88 J. Seaton, ‘Pinkoes and Traitors’, 14.

27 unavailable; hence the provenance of each video is further shrouded in ambiguity. Despite such problems, the social media site remains the only place where such footage is available to an undergraduate researcher and must be valued in that respect. The documentaries, news reports and film, available online, fostered a moral panic surrounding rave culture through evaluative dualism, risk construction and the use of official moral spokesmen.

Evaluative Dualism Chas Critcher considers the use of ‘evaluative dualism’ to be a significant method through which the mass media engineer moral panics. Evaluative dualism is used to construct a binary between acceptable and deviant behavior or identity. As part of the ‘inferential structure’ of news-making, the evaluative dualism used by the BBC presented a simple dichotomy between ravers, deemed evil, and the rest of society, deemed wholesome and conformist.89

Ravers were consistently juxtaposed against, and presented as separate from, society in BBC reactions to the culture. One documentary displays a raver lamenting about ‘our world’, followed by an edit to footage of a drugs advisor advocating the need for ‘traditional messages’.90 Another chose to follow ‘Operation Patriot’, a police operation designed to combat rave culture and the use of Ecstasy; the name of such an operation inferred that the ravers were an unpatriotic ‘enemy within’.91 A news report into acid house describes it as a ‘sinister and evil cult’, followed by an interview with a middle class shopper, who claims that the ravers do not behave like ‘normal people.’ 92 Repeatedly, ravers were presented as distinct from the rest of society. BBC news reports and documentaries about rave culture were consistently narrated through middle class

89 C. Critcher, Moral Panics and the Mass Media, 16-9. 90 BBC, E is for Ecstasy, 1992. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oswILmuC06E [accessed 2 March 2016]. 91 BBC, Ecstasy and Shelly’s Laserdome Rave Documentary, 1993. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59BYGvxuy7M&nohtml5=False [accessed 2 March 2016]. 92 BBC, BBC News, 1988. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rgjog28R9_0&nohtml5=False [accessed 1 March 2016].

28 voices, including Steve Coogan in E is for Ecstasy. 93 The disapproving bourgeois narration further isolated the ravers, as being separate from the perceived respectable values of middle England. Loved Up, a film commissioned for the BBC also framed raving as a trope of working class life, despite the fact that ravers came from a variety of social backgrounds.94 The abhorrent nature of rave culture is also emphasized through the juxtaposition of drug dealers and the innocence of young children in one documentary.95 By distancing the ravers themselves from the rest of British society, and by presenting the culture as a threat to youth, Britishness and middle-class values, the BBC helped foster moral panic. The reactionary policies of Thatcher and Major towards the subculture were justified.

Construction of Risk Hier suggests a paradigm of neo-moral panic in which the traditional folk devil, considered central to the moral panic paradigms of Stanley Cohen and Hall, is replaced by a construction of risk.96 Whilst evaluative dualism certainly helped transform the ravers into folk devils, the mendacious use of statistics in BBC responses to the subculture resulted in constructed physical, psychological and social risks. By exaggerating the dangers of rave culture, the BBC supported the government in legitimizing the Thatcherite agenda of eliminating the culture itself.

The construction of physiological risks surrounding rave culture can be found in BBC documentary and news footage. In E is for Ecstasy, the medical professionals stressed the ‘sometimes very fatal’ potential of the drug, emphasizing that ‘there have been a number of fatalities’, and that the drug was ‘a tragic killer’. At the time of the documentary’s making, the narrator claimed that there had been ‘at least 12 victims’ of Ecstasy related

93 BBC, E is for Ecstasy, 1992. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oswILmuC06E [accessed 2 March 2016]. 94 P. Cattaneo, Loved Up (BBC: 1995). 95 BBC, Ecstasy and Shelly’s Laserdome Rave Documentary, 1993. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59BYGvxuy7M&nohtml5=False [accessed 2 March 2016]. 96 S. Hier, ‘Raves, Risks and Moral Panic’.

29 deaths since 1988; this amounted to three fatalities per annum.97 Considering the size of the subculture, the number of fatalities was minimal. The Laserdome documentary claimed that in 1992, the existence of ‘half a million Ecstasy users is a conservative estimate’, adding that ‘if you go into any nightclub in any small town or city, you’ll find 50-80% of people will be using Ecstasy.’98 One social worker (outside of BBC coverage) estimated the probability of death from Ecstasy to be ‘a mere one in 6.8 million’ in 1996.99 Describing Ecstasy as a ‘serious threat to young people’, and comparing it to ‘heroin or cocaine’, without placing such claims in a statistical context served to exaggerate the dangers of the use of this drug.100

Equally significant was the construction of psychological risk surrounding rave culture and Ecstasy usage. Documentary footage focused on ravers who had experienced acute psychological issues as a result of Ecstasy usage, almost entirely neglecting to interview ravers who did not experience such difficulties. Interview subjects revealed that they had suffered symptoms such as ‘anxiety and panic attacks’, ‘paranoia’, and ‘completely breaking down’, whilst ravers who had not experienced such symptoms were less present in the discourse.101 In the Laserdome Rave Documentary, a medical doctor stated that although there has not been substantial research into the psychological effects of Ecstasy, he believed ‘it is possible that 50% of the people who take Ecstasy may develop severe suicidal depression.’102 Given the stated lack of research, the figure of 50%

97 BBC, E is for Ecstasy, 1992. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oswILmuC06E [accessed 2 March 2016]. 98 BBC, Ecstasy and Shelly’s Laserdome Rave Documentary, 1993. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59BYGvxuy7M&nohtml5=False [accessed 2 March 2016]. 99 ‘Don’t tell me that Ecstasy does not kill,’ Daily Mail (London) 15 April. 1996. 100 BBC, BBC South Today, October 1989 BBC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCObekfr6AY&nohtml5=False [accessed 1 March 2016]; BBC, Ecstasy and Shelly’s Laserdome Rave Documentary, 1993. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59BYGvxuy7M&nohtml5=False [accessed 2 March 2016]. 101 BBC, E is for Ecstasy, 1992. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oswILmuC06E [accessed 2 March 2016]; BBC, Ecstasy and Shelly’s Laserdome Rave Documentary, 1993. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59BYGvxuy7M&nohtml5=False [accessed 2 March 2016]. 102 BBC, Ecstasy and Shelly’s Laserdome Rave Documentary, 1993. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59BYGvxuy7M&nohtml5=False [accessed 2 March 2016].

30 appears to be nothing more than an arbitrary percentage, although this is difficult to verify. The psychological dangers of the drug were also therefore exaggerated, and helped to shape a one-sided discourse on rave culture.

Loved Up suggested that the social dangers of Ecstasy consumption were equally overstated. Having tried an Ecstasy tablet for the first time, Sarah, the protagonist becomes alienated from her family and moves house to live with a man she had just met. The pair proceed to engage in habitual Ecstasy use. During the course of the narrative: Sarah is fired from her job; nearly raped, twice; becomes a cocaine dealer; is assaulted in the street; and causes her own mother to self-harm.103 Such a narrative is a gross exaggeration of the reality for the vast majority of ravers, who would not have suffered such harrowing experiences. To suggest that such a substantial section of British society were likely to become victims of sexual assault or involved in the cocaine trade is misleading. The Laserdome documentary also suggested that acid house ‘is associated with violence.’104 The BBC represented the gravest possible social consequences of the subculture, largely discounting the positive elements. The exaggeration of risk was part of the wider evaluative dualism employed to present rave culture as a threat to society, thus justifying a tough response.

Official Moral Spokesmen In his discussion of the role of the mass media in the creation of moral panics, Critcher stresses the role of the media as a ‘vehicle’ for the ‘claims making’ of ‘moral entrepreneurs’ or ‘moral-spokesmen’. These spokesmen are defined as ‘individuals and groups’ who campaign to eliminate perceived ‘immoral or threatening behavior’.105

BBC reactions to rave culture, in the form of documentaries and news reports drew heavily from sources located within the Thatcherite hegemon, such as the police, thus creating a one-sided discourse around the culture. Policemen such as officer ‘Tyson’, ‘Christison’, Assistant Chief Constable Wright, and superintendent Pope are but a few of

103 P. Cattaneo, Loved Up. 104 BBC, Ecstasy and Shelly’s Laserdome Rave Documentary, 1993. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59BYGvxuy7M&nohtml5=False [accessed 2 March 2016]. 105 C. Critcher, Moral Panics and the Mass Media, 12.

31 such figures interviewed in the footage analysed in this paper. Statements from the police imply that they were simply acting ‘to prevent breaches of the peace’, and that the rave culture is ‘a little disturbing’.106 Given their antipathy towards the rave, the prominence of police sources in BBC footage builds a one-sided perspective on the culture. One documentary even draws on testimony from a Reverend who states, ‘I tend to think raves are unhealthy.’107 The use of such an interview subject demonstrates the BBC’s willingness to demonize rave culture; the Reverend was likely to give a negative impression of rave culture due to the nature of his profession and age, but was ill- qualified to provide an esoteric insight into rave culture. An interview with the father of David Brown, a young man killed by Ecstasy, provides further condemnation of the rave culture.108 Despite Brown’s tragic death, his experience was not common among the subculture; the decision to interview his father served an emotional purpose in discrediting the subculture. The disproportionate voice provided to moral spokesmen by the BBC served to augment the one-sided discourse, encouraging moral panic.

Exceptions to the rule Critcher claims that in order to stimulate a moral panic, the media must produce a ‘singular, incontestable and consistent narrative.’109 Contradictions can be found in the BBC’s reaction to rave culture, although the narrative provided is overwhelmingly one of demonization.

In E is for Ecstasy, ravers were shown to be enjoying themselves, professing, ‘I’m feeling great, feeling wonderful’, ‘I’ve had the best day of my life’ and ‘it is a great collective

106 BBC, House Music Documentary, 1992. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaLSZy8AfSw&nohtml5=False [accessed 2 March 2016]; BBC, E is for Ecstasy, 1992. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oswILmuC06E [accessed 2 March 2016]. BBC, Ecstasy and Shelly’s Laserdome Rave Documentary, 1993. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59BYGvxuy7M&nohtml5=False [accessed 2 March 2016]. 107 BBC, House Music Documentary, 1992. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaLSZy8AfSw&nohtml5=False [accessed 2 March 2016]. 108BBC, Ecstasy and Shelly’s Laserdome Rave Documentary, 1993. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59BYGvxuy7M&nohtml5=False [accessed 2 March 2016]. 109 C. Critcher, Moral Panics and the Mass Media, 11.

32 social thing.’110 The fact that ravers were provided a voice, which is absent in tabloid coverage, implies balanced reporting. The Laserdome documentary features medical professionals who admit that ‘serious emergencies are rare’, and that ‘there is no conclusive evidence as to whether Ecstasy can cause brain damage’.111 Various figures appear to defend the culture including an MP, as well as a policeman who describes the ravers as ‘perfectly nice young people’, thus challenging the constructed stereotype that dominated the wider discourse.112 A news report covering a police raid on a a rave, mentioned concerns from the ‘National Council of Civil Liberties’ and ‘some councilors in Basingstoke’ who expressed concern over ‘the containment operation of police services’; suggesting that the BBC was also willing to criticize the state.113 Such examples of balanced coverage suggest a level of impartiality greater than that of the tabloid’s response to the rave. The dominant effect of evaluative dualism, risk construction and other elements however, suggests that the BBC was an agent of Thatcherite hegemony.

110 BBC, E is for Ecstasy, 1992. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oswILmuC06E [accessed 2 March 2016]. 111 BBC, Ecstasy and Shelly’s Laserdome Rave Documentary, 1993. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59BYGvxuy7M&nohtml5=False [accessed 2 March 2016]. 112 BBC, E is for Ecstasy, 1992. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oswILmuC06E [accessed 2 March 2016]. 113 BBC, BBC South Today, October 1989 BBC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCObekfr6AY&nohtml5=False [accessed 1 March 2016].

33 Conclusions

A number of important conclusions concerning rave culture and Thatcherism can be drawn from the historical analysis presented in this paper. The geographical dispersal of rave music consumption and production was a counter-hegemonic characteristic proposed in section one. Scholarship previously neglected to explore spatial patterns of culture thus, the geographical location of raves had not been considered counter hegemonic until now. This section further demonstrated the potential capacity for spatial histories to build a more comprehensive knowledge of the past.

The emic approach of section two, confirmed, challenged and adjusted the contentions of John and Hill regarding the counter-hegemonic nature of the rave. Detailed literary analysis of fanzines, sources otherwise yet to be extensively researched in the academic community, confirmed that rave culture was counter-hegemonic because it empowered ethnic minorities. The Boys Own fanzine suggested self-conscious alignment of the ravers with the left of British politics, hinting at a level of motivation behind the anti- Thatcherite elements of the culture. Although examination of the fanzines generally supported the claim that rave culture was counter-hegemonic, various methods of analysis revealed that the rave’s function as a space of female empowerment has been overstated in existing historiography.

Additionally, this paper demonstrated that the BBC contributed to the development of the moral panic surrounding rave culture. Moral panic creation had previously been attributed almost exclusively to the tabloid press.114 Beyond revealing the methods through which the modern media was able to create moral panic, this study has hinted at the relationship between the BBC and the Thatcher and Major governments. Historiography of this relationship is currently lacking although this analysis has suggested that the relationship was a close one. The BBC provided a voice to the rave community and promoted a less one sided perspective of the subculture than the tabloid media. However, through the construction of exaggerated risk, use of evaluative dualism and reliance on official moral spokesmen, the BBC still created a powerfully one-sided discourse, which demonized rave culture. Through this discourse, the BBC acted as a

114 C. Critcher, Moral Panics and the Mass Media.

34 mouthpiece for the Thatcherite hegemon, legitimizing hegemonic repression of the rave and suggesting that the historically close relationship between the Government and the BBC remained intact during the 1980-90s.

There is significant scope for further historical analysis of the early period of UK rave culture, before and after the tight restrictions placed on it by the 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act. Given the severity of Thatcher and Major’s reactionary policies, which affected a wide section of Britain’s youth, the subject warrants further historical attention. The historical study of rave culture provides an insight into Thatcherite ideology and the BBC’s relationship to government. Crucially, such study has the potential to reach a previously unattained achievement of contemporary British social History: to liberate the voice of the ravers, the ‘biggest youth subculture Britain had ever seen.’115

115 P. McDermott, A. Matthews and P. O’Hare, ‘Ecstasy in the UK: Recreational Drug Use and Social Change’ in N. Heather, A. Wodak, E. Nadelmann and P. O’Hare (eds.), Psychoactive Drugs and Harm Reduction (London: Whurr, 1993).

35 Appendix 1: Timeline of Key Events

1987: • Nightclubs such as Shoom and Spectrum open in London. • Experimentation with MDMA begins. • Steve ‘Silk' Hurley makes the first song, of the acid house genre, to reach number one in the British charts – ‘Jack Your Body’.

1988: • January: Shoom adopts the trademark ‘smiley face’ logo to promote its events. This becomes the symbol of the rave, and the acid house genre. • February: The first illegal warehouse parties are promoted by Hedonism. • March: The Hacienda nightclub in Manchester brings acid house music to the North of England. • June: The beginning of ‘The Second Summer of Love.’ Raving becomes an increasingly popular activity. • The BBC ban Jolly Roger’s, Acid Man, and all other songs containing the word ‘acid’. • August: The Sun begins its moral crusade against the rave subculture. • Janet Mayes is the first fatality of Ecstasy. • September-December: rise of free party promoters, Sunrise and Genesis.

1989: • June: 11,000 ravers attend an unlicensed event on White Waltham airstrip in Berkshire, leading to outraged reports in The Sun. • July: Sudden growth in the scale of raves – tabloids report 20,000 attending an event organized by Sunrise. • Chief Superintendent, Ken Tarpenden sets up the Police Pay Party Unit, to combat unlicensed raves. Increased surveillance and monitoring of communications. • September: Police attempting to raid a rave in Reigate, are beaten back by private security armed with CS gas and dogs, in full view of news cameras. • October: Police prevent a 30,000 person rave in Guildford after a substantial operation. Centre Force pirate radio station is also raided.

36

1990: • Throughout the year, there are an increasing number of ‘orbital parties’ or raves, which occur just outside of the M25 ring road. • June: In 1990, at Glastonbury free festival, a new scene emerges – travelling sound systems and free festivals are spawned. • July: The passing of the 1990 Entertainment (increased penalties) act. Harsher financial penalties for rave organisers, as well as up to 6 months imprisonment. • At a rave in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, one of the largest arrests in British history is made. 836 ravers are detained – only 8 are charged. • September: Kiss FM becomes the UK’s first legal dance music radio station. • November: John Major replaces Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister of the UK.

1991: • April: Police raid a warehouse party in Acton, in full riot gear, armed with sledgehammers and a JCB digger. Over 100 ravers are injured.

1992: • May: Castlemorton free festival sees between 20,000-50,000 ravers occupy a small village in the Malvern Hills. The raving lasts for a full week as police are simply overpowered. • Diversification of rave music - jungle music gains in popularity and cultural influence throughout the Summer.

1993: • Four members of Spiral Tribe, the group behind Castlemorton free festival and other raves are arrested for conspiracy to cause public nuisance. • Introduction of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill to parliament.

1994: • November: The 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act receives Royal Assent.

37 • Attendance of raves is criminalized, police gain greater stop and search powers, police gain power to seize remove and destroy vehicles, and the power to force people to disperse. • Civil rights watchdog, Liberty, described the new law as ‘the criminalization of diversity and dissent’.

1995: • As a result of the 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, there is a sharp decline in unlicensed raving and free party activity. • The rave becomes predominantly club based, allowing for tighter regulation and monitoring by the police.116

116 M. Collin, Altered State.

38 Appendix 2: List of Licensed Raves 1988-95

Name Year Place Criminal Truth 1988 Nottingham Hip Hop Don't Stop 1988 Sheffield Mission 1988 Hyson Green, Nottingham Limit Club 1988 Eyre Street, Sheffield Mission II 1989 Hyson Green, Nottingham Sheffield Street Styles 1989 Sheffield Mega Def 1989 Derby Tubes 1989 Loughborough NRG 1989 Glasgow The Warehouse 1989 Doncaster ACID HOUSE 1989 Manchester I am Dawn 1989 Radford, Nottingham The Club 1990 Nottingham Bobby Browns 1990 Birmingham Cold Sweat 1990 Derby, Alfreton road Stork Club 1990 Regent Street, London Christmas Party by Fire 1990 Ilkeston road, Derby Frantik Promotions 1990 Hyson Green, Nottingham Basshead 1990 Hockley, Essex The Warehouse 1990 Marshgate, Doncaster Fantasia 1990 Speke, Liverpool Fantasia II 1990 Coventry DJ Formation 1990 Silver Street, Leicester Freedom 1990 Nottingham Heven 1990 Manchester Humanolofy 1990 Sheffield Kicking back 1990 Birmingham Lighthouse Music 1990 Immingham Vienna Nightz 1990 Lincoln Purple Pleasure 1990 Sheffiled Pulse 1990 Blackpool Raw 1990 Birmingham Rhythm collision 1990 Terrace St., Nottingham The Temple 1990 Linford Studios, London Hacienda Hubris 1990 Hacienda Club, Manchester Vibez 1990 Hurts Yard, Nottingham Bliss 1990 Leicester Club Kaos 1990 Leicester, Wharf Street Get Wet with Sweat 1991 Homerton High Street, London Jam Masters 1991 London Rd, Grantham A world beyond 1991 Lincolnshire

39 Amnesia House 1991 Leicester Christmas Extravaganza 1991 Donnington Park, Derby Another Eden 1991 Birmingham Aural Kaos 1991 Skegness Buzz 1991 Sheffield, London road Catalonia L 1991 Willow Row. Derby Club Panorama 1991 Loughborough Control 1991 Chigwell Road, Essex Cryptonite 1991 Mildenhall Speedway, Cambridge Convention 1991 Nottingham Dance Unity 1991 Dagger Lane, Hull Destiny 1 1991 Mansfield Road Warehouse 1991 Doncaster, Marshgate Dreamscape 1991 Shepton Mallet, Wiltshere The Eclipse 1991 Lower Ford Street, Coventry Ecstasy 1991 Doncaster Ektos 1991 Swindon, Wiltshire Emotion 1991 Derby, Friar Gate Energetic 1991 Great Yarmouth, Norfolk Elevation 1991 Kings's Road, Chelsea Fantasy 1991 Rio Campus, Bradford Futura 1991 Scunthorpe Moseley Dance 1991 Balsall Heath, Birmingham Genesis 1991 Hummingbird, Birminham, Dale End Happy House 1991 Birmingham, Suffolk Street Streetlife 1991 Dryden St, Leicester Helterskelter 1991 Milwaukees Eclipse 1991 Exhibition Trade Centre, Edinburgh Hysteria 1991 The Assembly Rooms. Derby Ibiz 1991 Kennington Rd, London Illumination 1991 Drill Hall, Lincoln Infinity 1991 Aston Hall Road, Birmingham Insomniak 1991 Charter Square, Sheffield Intense 1991 Rose Lane, Norwich Life 1991 Holly Road, Handsworth Mekka 1991 Central Drive, Blackpool Nemesis 1991 Roosecote Sand Quarry, Furness, Cumbria Prescription 1991 Cripps Barn, Gloucestershire Phase III 1991 La Monmatre, Manchester The Pirate 1991 Lenton Boulevard, Nottingham Pulse 1991 Nottingham Rage 1991 St Nicholas Place, Leicester Deep 1991 Woolwich Manor Way Nottz Elemental 1991 Nottingham

40 Rezerection 1991 The Mayfair, Newgate St, Newcastle Scrabble 1991 Lower Ford Street, Coventry Shrine 1991 Hummingbird, Birminham, Dale End Skyz the Limit 1991 Stone and Arcade factory, Manchester Aston Villa Sports and Leisure centre, Useless Promotions 1991 Birmingham UpNorth Weekender 1991 Southport, Merseyside Spectrum 1991 Digbeth Higstreet, Birmingham Splash out 1991 Fleet street, Leicester Kicking up a fierce one 1991 Handsworth sport centre Storm 1991 Gardner Street, Brighton Young Warrior 1991 Nottingham Last Rhythms 1991 Skegness Jmone 1991 Nottingham Hip Hop Jam 1991 Hyson Green, Nottingham Sykosiz 1991 Barkers Pool Sheffieldd Syndicate 1991 Hurst Street, Birmingham The Ascension 1991 Swinderbury, Lincoln Elevation and Volatile State 1991 Hackney, London The Rythmic Zone 1991 Lewisham, London The Rhythm of Life 1991 Venus Place, Nottingham Wide Awake 1991 The Fleet centre, Peterborough Time 1991 Leadmill road, Sheffield Summertime rave 1992 Lee Bridge road The Funhouse 1992 Milwaukees Jungle House 1992 Wharf St, Leiceister Kaotic II 1992 Lower Ford Street, Coventry Ganja-Ash 1992 Bilston, Wolverhampton Massive Warehouse Party 1992 Ashwin Street, London E8 Mentasm 1992 London Road, Peterborough Monstermine 1992 Birmingham city centre Movements 1992 Rutland Street, Leicester New Age 1992 Lower Ford Street, Coventry New Dawn 1992 Oxford Street, Manchester Pure Passion 1992 Melton road, Leicester Playtime 1992 Lenton Boulevard, Nottingham Raindance 1992 Royal bath and west showground Rapido 1992 Oxpen road, Oxford The Rave Cave 1992 Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk Raveon 1992 Fordwater Road, Walsall Fyah 1992 Milwaukes, East Midlands Re-united 91 1992 Digbeth Higstreet, Birmingham Total Kaos 1992 Lower Ford Street, Coventry Jungle Mania 1992 Fleet street, Leicester

41 Tough 1992 Marcus Garvey Centre, Nottingham Rejoice 1992 Marcus Garvey Centre, Nottingham Utopia 1992 Skew Bridge, Rushden Vision 1992 Marcus Garvey Centre, Nottingham The Enchantment 1992 Pacha, Rotheram New Dimension 1992 Freightliner road, Hull Just bounce it 1992 Nottingham Christmas Throwdown 1992 St Marys Gate, nottingham Dance Nation 1992 Warrington, Chechire Dance Planet 1992 Aston Villa Sports and Leisure centre Desire 1992 Plumstead, London, 1992 Distortion III 1992 Sittingbourne, Kent Dreamscape II 1992 Saxon Street, Milton Keynes 3D productions 1992 Coalville, Leicester Enchantment 1992 Lytton way, Stevenage Hypnosis 1992 Spital Hill, Nottingham Infa-nite 1992 Handsworth sport centre, Birmingham Jungle Fever 1992 Angel lane, Kent Mindstorm 1992 Draycott, Derbyshire Music in the sun 1992 Attercliffe, Sheffield New age 1992 Lower Ford Street, Coventry Andromeda 1992 Donnington Park, Derby Perception 1992 Longleat, Wiltshire Quest 1992 Broad Street, Wolverhampton Redemption 1992 Streatham Hill, London Wave Squadron 1992 Riders Club, Nottingham Starlight 1992 Bingley Hall, Staffordshire Technodrome 1992 Kirkmichael, Ayrshire Temptation 1992 Bretton, Peterborough The Dream 1992 Greyfriars Gate, Nottingham Vaporush 1992 Fitzwilliam Street, Huddersfield Passion 1992 Marcus Garvey Centre, Nottingham Laserdome 1992 Brayfield stadium, Northamptonshire Weekend world 1993 Northampton International Raceway Pleasuredome 1993 Brixton, London Rave 4 peace 1993 Nottingham Whoosh 1993 Nottingham Boiling point 1993 The Essex Showground, Essex Mania Ritzn 1993 Weedon Road, Northampton The edge 1993 Lower Ford Street, Coventry Kiss 1993 Wicker Arches, Sheffiled Shoom 1993 South Bank, London Dance Craze 1993 Hale Street, Coventry Amnesia house 1994 Nottingham

42 Bedlam 1994 Swinton Road, Mexborough Pleasuredome 1995 Skegness Showtime 1995 Wonderland arena Jungle Slammer 1995 Marcus Garvey Centre, Nottingham Knights of the turntable 1995 Streatham Hill, London

43 Appendix 3: List of unlicensed raves and free parties

Event Name Place Year

--- Greenwich 1988

Spectrum Presents Slough 1988

Midsummer Night Dream Berkshire 1989

Back 2 the Future 2 South Warborough 1989

Summer Fest Raydon Airfield 1989

Sunrise Longwick, Buckinghamshire 1989

Labyrinth Silvertown Way, Canning Town 1989

Genesis Stand Lees Farm, Rochdale 1989

Glastonbury Free Festival Glastonbury 1990

--- Blackburn 1990

--- Wakefield, West Yorkshire 1990

--- Nelson, Burnley 1990

Summer Solstice Festival Stone Henge 1990

--- Westbury Film Studios 1991

--- Chipping Sodbury Common 1991

Torpedo Town Liphook, Hampshire 1991

Castlemorton Free Festival Castlemorton 1992

Biology Camelford 1992

--- Smeartharpe, Devon 1992

Exodus Luton 1992

--- Twyford Down, Winchester 1994

Tribal Gathering Otmoor Park, Oxforshire 1995

44 Appendix 4: List of prominent artists and rave music groups 1988-95

Artist/Group Name Production Origin Moving Shadow London DJ SS Leicester Clayton Hines London JB & Spice Derbyshire Andy C Hornchurch (london) Roni Size Bristol Hype Slough Total Science Oxford Klute London Goldie Wallsall Pascal High Wycombe Dillinja London Zinc Woodford Green LTJ Bukem Watford Kenny Ken London Shy Fx London Tonka Brighton DiY Nottingham Spiral Tribe West London Exodus Collective Luton Adamski Lymington The Orb London 808 State Manchester The Prodigy Braintree Paul Oakenfold London Mike Pickering Manchester Martin Prendergest Manchester

45 Coldcut London S - Express (Mark Moore + Matt Black) London Tim Simenon (Bomb the bass) Brixton, London DJ Johnny Walker Birmingham Eddie Richards Amersham T-Coy Manchester Dave Darrel + CJ Mackintosh M/A/R/R/S London Colin Faver London Pete Tong Kent Kid Batchelor London Mr C Mile End Graeme Park Glasgow Terry Farley London Winston Hazell Sheffield Fabio and Grooverider London Justin Robertson Manchester Darren Partington Manchester Fonso Buller Manchester The Jam MCs Manchester Greg Fenton Manchester Alexander Coe (Sasha) Stockport, Wales Ruthless Rap Assasins Manchester Mixmaster Morris Brighton Primal Scream Glasgow MC Scallywag London Kemistry and Storm London Renegade Soundwave London Rebel MC London DJ Ron London

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