Reclaim the Streets Brixton Party, June 1998

Brixton has seen many parties, but none quite like the Reclaim the Streets event on Saturday 6th June 1998 when thousands of people brought traffic to a standstill by partying in the main road without the permission of the police, Council or anybody else.

Reclaim the Streets brought together the politics of the road protest movement with the sounds and energy of the free party scene to stage a series of  spectacular actions from the mid-1990s onwards, basically involving a crowd of people turning up, blocking the road and occupying it for a party. It started out in May 1995 with a party in Camden High Street and another north London party in  Islington's Upper Street in July 1995 (I remember dancing to a sound system mounted in an armoured car there, which I think belonged to Jimmy Cauty of KLF). The idea soon spread around the country and indeed internationally.

In one of the biggest actions, 6,000 people took over part of the M41 Motorway in West London in July 1996 with sofas and sound systems, and this was followed by a party in Trafalgar Square in April 1997. By this time the focus of RTS had widened out from roads to posing bigger questions about the use of social space and linking up with other movements - the Trafalgar Square action came at the end of a march with sacked Liverpool dockers.

The challenge for 1998 was how to keep one step ahead of the police now that the basic tactic was well known. There was also some dissatisfaction amongst RTS activists about simply continuing with parties that erupted suddenly but disappeared just as quickly leaving little behind except memories and a sense of the possibility of a different way of life.

The agreed way forward was to try and organise two simultaneous parties in different parts of London, and to attempt to root the parties more in what was going on in the areas concerned. Whether the parties succeeded in linking with that elusive notion of 'local communities' is debateable, but they did involve a broader strata of local activists with knowledge of their patch and connections to the kind of resources needed to make the parties happen.

The planning meetings for the South London party were held in a squatted social club in Kennington (now North Lambeth Housing Office, 91 Kennington Lane SE11 -pictured above). Sometimes there was no electricity and we talked by candlelight. At other times we met up on the roof of the building in the open air. We broke up into groups, each responsible for a particular aspect of the party. I was in a group focused on organising activities for children. One sub group was responsible for selecting the location, something that was supposed to be kept secret from everybody else until the day of the party to keep the authorities guessing. In this way too the Wednesday night planning meetings could be open to all comers without worrying about all the details becoming widely known.

'calling all Systems; pedestrians, cyclists, Road Ravers and road ragers, workers and shirkers, dreamers and schemeers, unhappy shoppers, happy shoplifters, kids, crusties, punks and prophets, the young at heart. Let's take back our streets'

The publicity called for people to meet at noon outside the Ritzy cinema in Brixton, and several hundred people were there at the appointed time. Most party goers only knew that the party was to take place somewhere in South London. The expectation was that there would be some chasing around to get to the location – for the M41 Reclaim the Streets party in 1996, people had assembled at Liverpool Street on the other side of town and been directed by tube towards Shepherds Bush.

This time though a game of double bluff was being played. In the road opposite the Town Hall two old cars crashed into each other in a pre-arranged manoeuvre to halt the traffic, a flare was let off and a few people immediately stepped into the road. After a moment’s hesitation, the crowd pushed past the police into the road, with another staged car crash at the other end of the high street blocking traffic in both directions.

'Roadblock- street party brings Brixton to a standstill' (South London Press report, June 2018)

As we had our small children with us, we ducked into a Brixton market cafe for a bit figuring that if there was going to be trouble it would be in this period of getting set up. There was no trouble though, and we now know that the police must have known all along that the party was due to take place in Brixton, as one of the key organisers was an undercover cop, Jim Sutton (real name Jim Boyling). In fact he had been part of the group which had selected the location. I remember he asked if I could drive one of the vehicles for the fake collision - I guess you could call that potential entrapment though I declined as my priority on the day was to keep my kids safe.

Within a short time the party was in full swing. The whole stretch of Brixton Road from the Fridge down to beyond the tube station was full of people instead of cars; Coldharbour Lane was also traffic free down as far as the Atlantic Road junction. Climbers had scaled the lamp posts and hung enormous colourful banners across the street – my favourite read ‘Under the Tarmac Flows the River – Dig Up the Effra’, referring to the lost river now flowing beneath Brixton. Others read ‘Cars my Arse’ and ‘Against Tube Privatisation’ (tube workers were due to strike the following week). There was a huge figure of a woman – the poster and flyer for the event had featured an image from the 50s movie ‘Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman’ showing said woman lifting up cars. Another climber got a big cheer for putting a plastic bag over a CCTV camera. A red, green and black RTS flag flew on top of McDonalds.

dancing on a Brixton bus stop

People danced to a sound system set up in a van at the junction of Acre Lane. Down by the tube station there were two more sound systems, one playing ragga and the other, a cycle-powered effort, spluttering out techno. A live music PA was set up in the road outside Morley’s store. Over the next few hours it featured an all-women punk covers band (a highlight for me was ‘Teenage Kicks’), Steve Prole, Headjam, Painful and various others. On the other side of the road there was a big acoustic jam, with drums etc. There was lots of random activity, including juggling and people playing chess on the road.

A sand pit in the road was the centre of the children’s area. As Past Tense recalls, police officer Jim Sutton/Boyling had pulled the trolley of sandbags to the party from where they had been stored earlier in the week in a local squat. My partner was working as a childminder at the time, so she pulled together lots of arts and crafts materials from the South London Children's Scrap Scheme, a recycling project based in Consort Road SE15 (it closed down later that year, after which it was squatted as the Spike). We had loads of gold shiny card which we made into big conical hats, and some gold fabric which was used for costumes. We hung up children's art work from washing line strung between lamp posts. There was a paddling pool,  and children were also playing in the fountains outside the library which were overflowing with bubbles - I remember seeing Jerry Dammers (ex-The Specials) round there.

We gave out free Portuguese pastries donated by staff at Grace and Favour cafe in East Dulwich (workers at the café in Clapham Common also gave up the contents of their tips jar for the party). More free food was distributed by Food Not Bombs. News came through that in North London a similar party had been successfully established on Tottenham High Road, after an earlier meet up at Euston Station.

The flyer had promised to ‘transform our Streets into a place of human interaction, a dance, a playground, a football match, the sharing of food, an exchange of free thoughts’. And that’s pretty much what happened, with up to 5,000 people partying on until about 9 pm.

The police mainly kept themselves at the edge of the party, with only five arrests, one of a fire eater for allegedly breathing flames too near to the police…

'Techno blips and booming bass rocked the van carrying the system while people danced all over the area. Before long a veggie burger stall had been set up opposite a banner proclaiming the South London Clitoral Liberation Front. Traffic lights that had temporarily lost their purpose soon became pretty useful as party podiums, one of which became the throne for a naked reveller wearing only a pair of red pants on his head' (report in DJ magazine, June 21 1998)

Documents

RTS Press release:

'Two streets in London were reclaimed for parties and the people shortly before two o'clock today. By mid-afternoon the crowd near Seven Sisters station had grown to over 5000 people and a similar number partied in Brixton. The parties finished at about 9pm. At the time of writing (10:30 pm) about 300 people remained outside Brixton Town Hall, listening to two groups of drummers in the almost-Mediterranean promenade atmosphere of a warm summer evening. Police continued to appear relaxed, and this time avoided the mistake of sealing off people's exit routes.

In North London, someone set fire to two old cars after the end of the party. RTS would point out that these were our cars, obtained to block the road, and that some of the most "aggressive" acts of which we are aware during the day were the enthusiastic reduction of these same cars to scrap, by a group of five- and six-year-olds.

As the smell of exhaust returned to the streets of Brixton, a participant commented "The whole of Brixton has been here with a real sense of community." Let this be a premonition of a time when the present conditions of our lives will be no more than a memory'.

RTS South London Street Party stickers

Leaflets produced for distribution in the Brixton party - I had a hand in writing and designing both of these, which were printed at the 121 Centre in Railton Road SE24. One leaflet focused on the impact of traffic on children:

'Reclaim the streets for children

The streets used to be a place where children could run around, play and hang out with their friends. Today children are taught that the streets are dangerous and that they should keep off them. More and more children are being brought up like battery chickens - living most of their lives indoors, except when they are being driven around in their parent's car between home, school, the supermarket and short bursts of supervised play.

The biggest problem is that the streets are dominated by cars. In the UK, the number of vehicles on the road has increased from 8 million in 1960 to 24 million and rising today. When a fast moving lump of metal hits a child's body there's no contest. In the last 20 years, 200,000 children have been killed or seriously injured by cars, two-thirds of them while walking or cycling. Instead of removing this danger from our children, we remove our children from the danger - by keeping them at home.

Cars are choking children

South London suffers the worst pollution in the UK, and it is having a major impact on children's health. Vehicle pollutants like nitrogen dioxide can trigger asthma attacks and other breathing problems, while others can cause cancer and heart problems. Noise-related stress builds up for the thousands of children living next to busy roads. Driving children everywhere is no protection - pollution levels are often higher inside cars, and of course there is still the risk of a crash.

Faced with this dictatorship of the car, it is not surprising that parents and carers want to keep their children at home. This in turn can create other problems with children's physical, social and emotional development. Many children get less exercise than they need, because they rarely walk or cycle very far. They are also denied the chance to learn to do things for themselves by mixing with other children without being constantly watched over by adults.

Curfews for children

As the streets empty of children, and increasingly of adults too, they become seen as an alien and threatening place. Fears of crime and of strangers become exaggerated out of all proportion. Where children do continue to hang out on the streets they are portrayed as a problem. In some places, police have already enforced curfews for children, giving them the power to drive kids off the streets even if they aren't doing anything illegal. New Labour's Crime and Disorder Bill will extend this power to police across the country.

Reclaim the streets

If we want to break this cycle we've got to start reclaiming the streets. Reclaim the Streets parties are about taking a piece of car-infested tarmac and turning it into a free space where we can dance, play and for once live and breathe easily. They show what life could be like if people had control over our streets and over our lives. Come along to the South London party on June 6th 1998 - bring your kids, your friends, your friends' kids... There will be a children's play space as well as sound systems and live music'.

The second piece of RTS South London 'agitprop' was a folded A4 sheet called 'South London Stress South London Street Party Special'. It included a list of contacts of  an eclectic mix of groups active locally including the Crystal Palace Ecovillage (a protest camp against plans to build in Crystal Palace park), Critical Mass and South London Anti Fascist Action.  The front page text read:

'Reclaim the Streets

Today Reclaim the Streets are planning to turn part of South London into a free festival zone for the day. Most non-residential streets in South London are dominated by bumper to bumper traffic with nothing much to do except shop. RTS parties are about creating our own space where we can dance, play, eat and drink - all without any money changing hands.

Space and time in South London

So much South London space is covered in tarmac, covered in cars. It’s no surprise that we suffer from the worst pollution in the UK. The building of new roads has slowed down, with the plan to destroy Oxleas Wood in south-east London abandoned because of the threat of mass resistance. Now is the time to start taking back some of the space already lost to roads.

But roads aren’t the only problem. Green space is also being enclosed to build supermarkets or, like at Crystal Place, corporate leisure centres. Meanwhile urban space is increasingly controlled, with our every move watched by CCTV cameras.

Out time too is being taken away from us more and more, as people are made to work longer hours and the unemployed are forced to take low paid jobs by New Labour’s New Deal.

Reclaim the World

A party in the road is not going to change all this on its own, but it does give us a glimpse of a different way of life. By linking up with other communities of resistance across the world we can begin to reclaim more of our space and time from a system that sucks life out of human beings and the planet for the financial benefit of a tiny minority.

Since the first RTS party in Camden in 1995 the idea has spread throughout the country and internationally. A few weeks ago (May 19th) simultaneous street parties were held across the world. In Birmingham where world leaders met up for the G8 summit, 10,000 people took over the city centre for an RTS party and protest. Roads were blocked everywhere from Toronto (Canada) to Tel Aviv (Israel), Stockholm (Sweden) to Sydney (Australia). Our time is now'.

The leaflet also included a South London radical history map, with episodes featured included the 1897 protests against the enclosure of One Tree Hill, anti-fascist protests in Bermondsey (1937), Lewisham (1977), Wellling (1993), the Peasants Revolt and the death in 1896 of Bridget Driscoll at Crystal Palace - believed to be the first pedestrian in the world to be killed by a car.

Benefit gig

The week before the party there was an RTS benefit gig at the 121 Centre with Headjam, Headache and Painful.

At the time I was part of the Association of Autonomous Astronauts and at the gig I set up my interactive space music experiment 'Sonic Soup' described below. At the street party I also put up a cardboard rocket labelled 'reclaim space':

'Reclaim the Streets, Reclaim the Stars

Autonomous Astronauts were strongly represented at the South London Reclaim the Streets party on June 6th. Following simultaneous staged car crashes at both ends of Brixton high street hundreds of people poured into the road for a day long free party with sound systems, a sand pit and much more. Disconaut AAA attached a rocket to a lamp post bearing the slogans "Reclaim Space" and "we don't need cars 'cos we've learnt to fly', the latter a line from Stevie Wonder's space utopian song 'Saturn'. One person was arrested for breathing fire too close to the police lines, illustrating the problems autonomous astronauts may face handling rocket fuels in public.

The week before the street party there was a benefit gig for it at the 121 Centre in Brixton at which Disconaut AAA set up 'Sonic Soup'. This involves a Wasp analog synth and a fostex 4-track, with each of the four tracks including a haphazardly assembled sequence of beats, loops and mutated samples from diverse sources. The 4 tracks were assembled independently so that any juxtaposition of sounds from two or more tracks is more or less accidental. The aim of Sonci Soup is to explore some of the range of possibilities offered by music in space, randomly combining sound sources from different parts of the universe, slowed down, speeded up and twisted around by variable gravity fields. In anticipation of the free collective practice made possible in autonomous communities in space, passing voyagers are encouraged to push buttons and turn switches to help mix the ingredients in the soup.

On this occasion the crowd at this mainly punk gig were mostly reluctant to join in, even when the equipment was put on the floor in the middle of them (this contrasted with the more open-minded revellers at the "I didn't do nuthin" party in the same venue last year). Nevertheless some of the less technophobic did step boldly forward, and there were the usual interesting sound clashes. These included Judy Garland singing "Fly me to the moon" over an Alex Empire backing track, a Todd Terry remix of a Yuri Gagarin speech (fading into Hawkwind chanting "space is deep it is so endless") and William Burroughs talking about "future travellers who are ready to leave the whole human context behind" over Deadly Buddha vs Sun Ra "Strange Celestial Road".

Parts of Sonic Soup were also used recently in a AAA radio programme put together by Inner City AAA on London Musicians' Collective temporary radio station' (from Everybody is a Star! no. 3, Summer 1998, newsletter of Disconaut AAA).

See also:

Past Tense post - as well as an earlier version of my text above, this includes more reflections on the role of Jim Sutton

Brixton Buzz post - lots more photos, including this one of the sandpit:

Reclaim the Streets original report from 1998

More memories and photos at Urban75





[post published on 20th anniversary of the party]

Police and Free Parties 2018

It's been a long time since I've done one of these posts, but important to remind ourselves that the anti-rave Criminal Justice Act from 1994 is still in effect, and that free parties are continuing nevertheless... these days it's the kids of the 1980s/90s ravers out there, but the story hasn't really changed.

'Illegal rave shut down' in Shoebury Essex
Basildon, Canvey Southend Echo (30 January 2018)

'A crowd of people were dispersed from an old church after attempts were made to organise an illegal rave. Neighbours from homes near the decommissioned Garrison Chapel, in Chapel Road, Shoebury, were forced to call the police after about 30 people congregated and a professional sound system had been set up on Saturday night. An advert for the event, seen by the Echo, suggested a £5 donation on the door and promised to be the “most ambitious party in Southend history”.

One witness, who has asked to remain anonymous, said: “Police were called to disperse people from the church and surrounding area...The police sent about seven cars, including unmarked ones, and they were roaring up and down trying to catch people running away from the church. This resulted in what sounded like a massive fight near Sainsbury’s. The noise was horrendous and woke up my young daughter who was trying to sleep.”

Police confirmed they were in attendance and dispersed a crowd from a disused church using powers under Section 63 of the Public Order act'.

'Reveller bitten by police dog in illegal rave chaos'
Newbury Today, 31 January 2018

'The chaos as police officers tried to close down an illegal rave in Burghfield was recounted at Reading Magistrates’ Court last Thursday. Up to 300 people are believed to have attended the unlicensed event in a field, with noise prompting complaints from surrounding homes and villages. More than 50 police officers with dog units and a helicopter attended the scene on land between Burghfield Road and Berry’s Lane on Saturday, November 18 [2017].

Two of those arrested on the night appeared in the dock, where Hasrat Ali, prosecuting, said: “Police had ordered people to leave the site and repeated that order several times". Many people refused to leave, the court heard, and more people were still arriving in taxis. As a result, magistrates were told, officers moved in with dogs.

[MR], aged 29, from London Road, Reading, and 18-year-old [EB], of Byworth Close, Reading, each admitted failing to leave the area when ordered in the early hours of November 19 last year. Sally Thomson, defending both, said: “It was a very confused situation with a lot of people and a lot of pushing and shoving going on. Mr Richards ended up being bitten by a police dog and sustained some injuries. In the melee, he was knelt on and struck in the face. It wasn’t a very pleasant experience and I ask you to take that into account.”

Both men had initially denied the charge they faced because they wrongly believed police could only invoke the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act of 1994 when 100 or more people were in the area and, when they were arrested, only 20 people had remained in the immediate vicinity. The act became infamous for its attempt to define rave music as “sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats”.

Presiding magistrate Nicola Buchanan-Dunlop told both men they would be made subject to a six-month conditional discharge. In addition, they were each ordered to pay £85 costs, plus a statutory victim services surcharge of £20'.

Bristol partygoers 'smashed down warehouse walls' for illegal rave with 300 people
Bristol Post, 5 Feb 2018

'A warehouse has been left in ruin after an illegal rave attracted hundreds of partygoers.The horde descended on the warehouse in Albert Road, in an industrial area near Bristol Temple Meads station and Motion nightclub, on Saturday, February 3.The unlawful event was reported to police in the early hours of Sunday but the party raged on until beyond 10am before it was finally shut down.

It took the Avon and Somerset force until 11am to clear all the attendees from the site... police spokesman said: “We can confirm we received a call during the early hours of Saturday morning about an unlicensed music event taking place on Albert Road, Bristol. When officers attended a large number of people were already at the location. The music was turned off at about 10.15am and those in attendance subsequently left the scene by 11am.”

The spokesman explained why the police had waited before closing down the event. He added: "If we are aware in advance about a potential event the law allows us to take action to close it down and seize whatever music equipment is on site before it gets fully under way. However, if it has already started and there are a large number of people on the site, an assessment has to be made whether safe and proportionate action can be taken at that moment"'.

Meanwhile in Kerela, India...

'Rave parties to avoid police glare'
The Hindu 17 February 2018

'With the police cracking down on ganja abuse, urban youth have switched to holding rave parties in remote areas in the district where more potent narcotic substances are use. Three youths from Ernakulam were arrested with 20 LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) stamps (small pieces of blotting papers soaked in liquid LSD) during a raid on a rave party at a homestay at Suryanelli, near Munnar, on Wednesday..

The raid was conducted on the homestay at BL Ram, near Suryanelli, on a tip-off by the Excise Department. As many as 29 youths, including a woman, from Kochi were present at the party. An Excise official said rave parties were being conducted in remote areas with the police increasing surveillance in metro cities such as Kochi. The targeted youths were from well-off families, including those who studied outside the State. He said the hosts of such parties changed the location often to avoid public glare. The attendees keep in touch online and on social media, he said'.

Dream English Kid 1964-1999 AD - Mark Leckey (2015)

Mark Leckey's film 'Dream English Kid 1964-1999 AD' is a collage of what he has termed 'found memories', fragments from a life time of TV, adverts and other audiovisual media that sketch out a kind of oblique autobiography of growing up in the UK in the second half of the twentieth century. I did too and have similar interests to the artist so not surprisingly it strongly resonated with me.

As with his previous 'Fiorucci Made me Hardcore', music is central to the film but in a particular way. Short samples are manipulated and looped so part of the enjoyment to be had is spotting some of their sources.

The 1960s section of the film features the opening chord of The Beatles 'Hard Day's Night', a space  launch and Harold Wilson's famous 'White Heat of Technology' Labour conference speech. Possibly some distorted chords from Summertimes Blues in the mix there too, as well as some stylophone. A child plays while an old tape recorder appears to play a snatch of Joni Mitchell's The Circle Game.

A frisbee heralds the 1970s. Strains are heard of Charles Aznavour's She - a massive UK hit in 1974 - as a woman in her underwear does a her hair in a mirror (a recreation of an illicit childhood memory?). A candle in the dark alludes to the power cuts of that period. Hard to believe now that in 1972 and 1974 electricity supplies were cut off as the Government sought to preserve coal stocks during miners' strikes.

We are entering the post-punk period. A couple of words are heard from Blondie's Heart of Glass ('in between'), and there is footage of Joy Division playing at Eric's in Liverpool, a 1979 gig which Leckey apparently attended - we hear echoes of the drum sounds from She's Lost Control (I think). Scenes of young kids outside Eric's are punctuated by one word which might be 'punks' from 'Part Time Punks' by the TV Personalities. To scenes of urban decay we hear what sounds like the opening drums from The Fall's Totally Wired fading into the only lengthy sample in the piece - a section from And the Native Hipsters 'There goes Concorde Again'.

Some football fans move us into the casual and not so casual 1980s. There is a joyous section of women dancing while Luther Vandross loops ('never too much') plus a little Kate Bush ('I put this moment here' from Jig of Life), but there also seems to be a moment of sorrow as the same women observe a minute's silence. All this is intercut with one of the danger moments of the Cold War - the shooting down of a South Korean airliner (Flight 007) by a Soviet jet in 1983. This was a time of heightening tension when nuclear war seemed to be a permament possibility, leading many of us into the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Leckey refers to this showing signs of apparent Nuclear Winter desolation and there seems to be a short clip of Peter Watkin's The War Game in there - this famous depiction of a nuclear attack on Britain was made in 1965 but banned from TV. In the 1980s it was often shown at CND events, I remember seeing it at Luton Library Theatre in this period.

The focus shifts to early 1990s London - the opening credits of 'London Kills Me' (1991) giving way to  (partially reconstructed?) footage of squat life, then Black Market Records in Soho. A flick through a record bin looks more like Leckey nodding to his musical influences rather than the actual selection in Black Market as we see albums including Soul II Soul, Stations of the Crass, Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures, Joni Mitchell's Blue and The Beatles' Hard Day's Night.

Some Soho street footage (including Old Compton Street), then a recurring fragment of Double 99's speed garage banger 'Rip Groove' takes us into images from the August 1999 solar eclipse, watched by crowds all over the world.

Threaded throughout is footage of empty motorways - perhaps highlighting their periodic transformation from images of gleaming modernity in the 1960s to their later graffiti'd actuality, not to mention desolate future remains of a vanquished humanity in a post-nuclear world.


I was initially confused by the closing sequence - why is Marianne Faithfull juxtaposed with a Pretenders record spinning round? In fact, this just spells out the title of the film. The word 'Dream' (from cover of John Lennon's No. 9 Dream - something I worked out via help on twitter), Faithfull's (Broken) 'English' and the Pretenders 'Kid'.


So let me know if you spot anything else...

DREAM ENGLISH KID 1964-199AD from Mark Leckey on Vimeo.

Although you can watch it online, it is best seen on full screen which you can do at Tate Britain, London in the Sixty Years room until Sunday 25 February 2018. The room also includes some other key works linked to musical and social history over this same period, including from Coum Transmissions, Jeremy Deller, Chris Ofili and Jamie Reid (the last day for this room is also 25/2/18)

Steve Strange and Camden Palace

Following our earlier post on the Camden Palace from The Face, 1983 here's a couple more courtesy of the excellent Like Punk Never Happened - Brian McCloskey's Smash Hits Archive (click on images to enlarge).

The first article, from July 22 1982 is a review of a live event for Gary Crowley's Tuesday Club Capitol Radio show with live appearances from Culture Club, Bananarama and The Higsons. It includes a great picture of Joe Strummer with Jennie Belle Star, Jerrry Dammers and Chrissy Boy from Madness.

In terms of a regular night out at the Palace, Deborah Steele's article from Smash Hits, 15 August 1983 is more evocative. It is headlined with Steve Strange's description of the Palace (which had opened some 18 months previously) as 'A club for the people created by the people'.

'The Camden Palace... a place full of famous people trying to look ordinary and ordinary people trying to look famous... Many would go so far as to argue that Thursdays represent what British pop is all about - the people, the stars, the music, the fashions  and the attitudes... Steve Strange (of course), The Palace's genial host, signing autographs, having his picture taken and looking very striking in 'Tom Bailey' goggles and blue tea towel wrapped round his head. He tells me his new image is going to be that of an American footballer. Also pretending not to be famous are Edwyn Collins from Orange Juice, Chris Foreman from Madness, Miranda and Jennie Belle Star, a couple of Hoovers and George and Andrew from Wham! Oddly enough, no-one really pays these 'stars' too much attention ("everyone's a star here", says Steve)...

'The quality of the sound is incredible (and loud too) and the light show has to be seen to be believed. Lazers, strobes, neon strips and great shafts of light beaming out of computer-controlled rotating gantries, it's like the famous spaceship scene out of Close Encounters. Add to that a massive video screen which descends every so often to show the latest pop videos and you can understand why so many people do nothing but dance all night... Whether it's the bar proppers, posers, pop-stars upstairs or the dancers on the floor, The Palace is about having a good time'.

The music from DJ Rusty Egan is described as 'largely electro-disco with a few old Roxy Music and Simple Minds evergreens', catering to a crowd in a diversity of styles - an 'assortment of Boy George clones, bleached quiffs, fish-net stockings, expensive suits and sunglasses'. People queuing round the block to pay an 'expensive' £4 to get in and £1.60 a drink.

Steve Strange with Jennie and Stella Barker of the Bellestars
cutting the cake at Camden Palace first birthday party
(Smash Hits, 12 May 1983)

See also:  Posing at the Picture Place, Standard, May 11, 1983 for a reminder of the dole/cash in hand day lives of the night time diy superstars - ''I’m wrecked', Nick announces as he downs his sixth pint of lager at about 2am. “I was so late waking up yesterday I had to take a taxi to the dole to sign on before I went into work.” Nick [not his real name, obviously] looks startling in a hat so huge it has to be seriously trendy, and is well aware of the irony of his remark. He is 19 and clears £80 a week in Vivienne Westwood’s clothes shop which also dresses him for next to nothing, another £15 on Saturday checking coats in a nightclub – oh, and of course £22 social security. “That’s just pin money,” he says. “It pays the rent.”... Mike uses his £25-a-week dole on top of what he earns in Kensington Market to fund his nights out. Among a repertoire of sharp practices people here admit to, fare-dodging is regarded as essential and one 18-year-old charges friends £1 for lifts in his car home to the suburbs'.

See previously: London Nightlife 1983 - Colin Faver on Camden Palace and Heaven

Poison Girls interview - Leveller magazine 1982

Interview with Poison Girls from 'independent feminist/socialist magazine' The Leveller (published from 52 Acre Lane, SW2), December 1982 - click on images to enlarge.

The Leveller interviewers expressed mixed feelings about it - 'It was a friendly interview yet we left dissatisfied, as a lot of the time we felt we were talking at cross purposes. What Vi says on the record and to us shows she feels deeply about the status of women. But together the group expressed  the anarchist view of everyone being equally oppressed, and so we often felt we hadn't got through to each other. They felt that government control was some kind of abstraction whereas to us, it was very real (the DHSS, the police). PS it was a very nice curry'.

I think at the time there were many anarchists who would have had a very different perspective to Poison Girls, like the folk who did the paper Xtra! for instance. But the Leveller collective's take on the band wasn't far from my own young anarcho ambivalence about the band, and indeed about Crass, in that period. On the one hand I had this respect - which older me now sees as condescending - for people over the age of 40 still making some noise politically and musically! Understanding too of their wish to break out of the confines and expectations of the punk ghetto. But also frustration at the somewhat burnt out on activism, been there and done it vibe, e.g. Lance saying 'I remember feeling when the Vietnamese war was over that there was a big hole in my life... I realised that I wasn't in this to oppose the Vietnam war, becuase once it was over I felt disappointed'. Maybe older me can appreciate this honesty and also Vi's critique  of macho posturing about other people's struggles : 'that's a very patriarchal thing, puffing up self-importance to talk about things like that and to avoid dealing with what's going right a the foot of the mountain'. Their personal is political approach challenged me in a positive way, but then as now the personal isn't enough to solve politics.

Summer Rites 1997: Lesbian and Gay free festival in Brockwell Park

20 years ago - on 2 August 1997 - the second Summer Rites lesbian and gay free festival was held in Brixton's Brockwell Park. Coming just a few week after Pride, which had been held not far away in Clapham Common, the programme declared 'In no way is the event a rival to Pride but rather a compliment, an addition, a festival where London's lesbians and gays can have their own party'. The main organisers were Kim Lucas and Wayne Shires, the latter of whom also ran Substation South, recently opened as a gay club in Brighton Terrace in Brixton.

The first event took place a year earlier in Kennington Park. I don't remember too much about it apart from seeing Gina G - the Australian singer who sang for the UK at the 1996 Eurovision song contest in Oslo. But I did record in my diary:

'August 3rd 1996: Summer Rites in Kennington, a lesbian and gay free festival for London. Drum and bass in the Queer Nation tent, a mixture of pumping house and eurotrash in the Love Muscle tent, one minute it was hard trance and the next it was Gina G ('oo ah just a little bit') with paper confetti raining on the dancers to deflate any techno boy seriousness. The inevitable cheesy cover versions too, including a terrible/wonderful Oasis cover that sounded as if it was off the same production line as Berri’s sunshine after the rain. The DTPM tent was heaving, almost but not quite as frenzied as its effort with Trade at Pride' [I think there had been a DTPM/Trade tent at Pride shortly before]



Front cover of the glossy 36 page programme

Running order on main stage at Summer Rites 1997

In Brockwell Park 1997 the main stage featured live acts such as Jimmy Sommerville, David McAlmont, Ultra Nate and Barbara Tucker, introduced by comperes incuding Amy Lame, Divine David, Rhona Cameron and Graham Norton.

The park also included some big dance tents put on by some of the main LGBT clubs at that time, including Love Muscle (regularly held at the Fridge in Brixton), DTPM (hard house night at The End), Popstarz (the gay indie club held at the Scala in Kings Cross), FIST and Queer Nation (the last two both at Substation South, the former a fetish/techno night and the latter known for its more soulful house and garage sounds).

Brockwell Park site plan

From my diary: 'thousands were partying at Summer Rites. What the 'rite' was for wasn't entirely clear, but it later transpired that William Burroughs and Fela Kuti died on the same day, so we could call it a farewell rite for them. We toured around the various tents dancing to the different sounds. In the Popstarz tent they played Blur 'Song 2'... but we left on hearing the dreadful Meredith Brooks 'I'm a bitch, I'm a lover' dirge. The DTPM tent was big and busy with housey beats, Love Muscle was a cheesefest, but we spent most time in the FIST tent where pumpin' techno was the music of choise'. The programme lists the FIST DJs aas Smalls, Graham D, EJ Doubell and Karim.

We had our young kids with us, aged 10 months and five, the former dancing on our shoulders, the latter 'fascinated by the scantily clad podium dancers - a toplesss woman with netting over her face and a man in a minute metal kilt. 'Why are they showing their bottoms?' he asked'.

Queer Nation after party at SubStation South, with DJs Francesco Simonit, Jeffrey Hinton and Supadon.

The Dance Floor is Packed with Stories

'Feels and Flows' by Paul Maheke at Tate Britain in London is essentially a recreation of aspects of a nightclub space within the gallery, developed in response to the Queer British Art (1861-1967

exhibition currently installed there:

'What does it mean to queer? How might we occupy a space and queer what surrounds us with dance and music? What about this is political? Artist Paul Maheke invites you to take your place on the dancefloor and experiment with movement and fluidity. Gathering together different elements from the dance club like sound, light and moving image, you and your family are invited to hang out, move, chat and explore different ways to turn the Learning Gallery into a space for queer celebration'.

'The Dance Floor is packed with stories.  The Dance Floor could never be a story with one voice'

On to the 3rd September 2017, free admission.

(you have to pay to view Queer British Art exhibition thouugh- it's worth it)

Datacide at London Radical Bookfair 2017

It's the 2017 London Radical Bookfair tomorrow, Saturday 24 June, at Goldsmiths in New Cross.

Datacide, magazine of noise and politics, has a stall and will be selling the new issue - Number 16. Contents include a critical review article by me on the book 'Angry White People'  about the English Defence Leagure and Luton. 

All the cool cats will be heading to Datacide stall at the London Radical Bookfair

Two Nights in Hackney: police and free parties 1996

A report on police  raids on two free parties in Hackney in 1996:

'Hackney Police Risk Riot to Kill Joy

Hackney police have twice risked a riot to merely stop people from dancing. In January a Vox Pop party was first busted in south London. As the rig packed up, people loudly arranged to meet at the snooker hall in Hackney, which had just hosted a successful succession of totally havin it! Xmas parties. Soon after people arrived at the snooker hall, police began to descend from all four corners. The building hasn't yet been opened, so around 200 odd party people were milling about outside. As it began to become evident that things were getting seriously on top, people managed to get into the yard, and Kerr drew shut the huge double doors.  The police were now shut outside. This turned out to be a temporary measure though, as the police, hyped up and on one battered the way through, and wielding batons ordered everyone out. More and more police descended, until our bewildered revellers were outnumbered by 3 to 1. 

Truncheon happy and on a seriously aggressive testosterone tip, the Metropolitan police were out for a fight. As an escaping Virus rig backed out of the venue, the police all began to move towards the reversing van. Loyal party goers instantaneously rushed forward to the defence of their sound system. Violent chaos then blew up, and the Virus rig managed to slip away unhindered. Police charged and began to batter all and sundry. On their first charge two thirds of the party people immediately scattered and left. A hard-core of around 100 remained. Police pushed them round the corner into Well Street, aiming swipes to the backs of legs to those who didn't move fast enough. Police control then idiotically herded the remaining crowd into a nearby housing estate, thereby creating 10 times more disturbance than would have ever occurred before.

Hackney police again went in for the overkill on a party put on by Jiba Jake and Virus in an old dole office on Drysdale Road. The place had been happily partied two weeks previously by the Tofus, was away from any residential, but an inspector McCauley saw fit to put an end to the bank holiday merriments. When he arrived on the scene, Jake's tactic of admitting everything and then hoping that they will all disappear didn't work this time. McCauley responding to one telephone complaint, began to moan on about the rigs stealing electricity and demanded that the fuses be taken out. By this time a number of his PCs were in on the edge of the dancefloor (one was definitely spotted moving rhythmically to tunes being dropped by Manic Josh!) along with around 200 party people already inside. In the end Jake went over to the fuse box and shut off the power to the whole building. Pandemonium broke out. McCauley went mad because his men were now trapped inside a dark building with 200 pissed off party people. The leccy was then turned back on. By now the hard moody bastards in flack jackets had turned up and one of the McCauley's right-hand men was heard to say "right, it's stick time lads!" It was decided to tell the people inside (who were still largely unaware of the situation and were still boogying) that the time had come for them to wisely go. Eventually the building was cleared and the rigs allowed to pack up and go.

When asked why he had decided to stop the party McCauley answered "because I can". When asked what powers he had just used to clear the building, he mumbled ummed and ermed but failed to come up with an answer. He was then asked if he used any law at all in his operations and he answered arrogantly "yes the power of persuasion". While 30 odd of her majesties finest were tied up in this fiasco, and assault on two women crackled in over their radios. A distinct look of shame crossed their faces when they knew we heard'.

Written by 'CRS'. Report from Frontline magazine, number 3, Summer 1996 

(this was a zine that covered 'travellers, parties, protests')

London Nightlife 1983 - Colin Faver on Camden Palace and Heaven

From the Face magazine, February 1983, as part of an overview of the soundtrack to London nightlife at that point, an interview with the late Colin Faver 'One of the Camden Palace's four DJs who also plays Cha-Cha, the one nighter that provides a pansexual sideshow to Heaven's straight night each Tuesday'.

"The Palace on Saturdays is definitely the most upfront disco in England. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays educational, 50-50 disco and electro pop;  Thursday sticks to the no-funk groove; so on Saturdays we mix in funk and disco funk.

A lot of bands that have come out of the Palace initially as cult groups are now soft pop, like ABC, Culture Club. George proudly brought his first single to us and a whole new dancestyle developed from the girls in the Culture Club outfits, probably because they're so hard to dance in.

But the reaction has been a return to heavier underground sounds: Iggy,  Theatre of Hate, Lou Reed, Passenger. A lot of people don't like funk and we get asked for Killing Joke now which normally rarely gets played in discos. I reckon it's due to the influence of the Batcave and bands like Sex Gang Children and Bauhaus.

When the Palace opened we were almost totally electronic –  Visage, Soft Cell – but the most noticeable difference has been towards an acceptance of disco which was once a dirty word, particularly since electronic funk like Whodini and Man Parrish. Saturdays are good because people will dance to what's played. We've tried gay disco like Patrick Cowley and Roni Griffith and people to listen. Hard New York disco funk for sure came into its own last year on three labels in particular: Prélude, West End and Salsoul. For me this is the underground music. It's just like the days of punk because it revolves around small labels. D-train and Peach Boys really began the move.

I do get pissed off by NME not giving space to disco. If ever they do get round to reviewing it the records are so old. And then it's only a mention just to sound hip. Yet I'm sure there's a market judging by the numbers of people who ask in clubs.

We can get as ahead as we like at Cha-Cha so long as we include Simple Minds. I made a point of introducing a 50% funk policy over the past year because I get bored with the pompous futurists like Ultravox. A lot of people haven't heard Gil Scott-Heron and there is no way they can't dance to James Brown.

The quintessential Cha-Cha sound sound is Patrick Cowley's 'Mind Warp'. Heaven on a Saturday is basically very very fast 130bpm wild dancing but these days more gays complain that it's too fast. Where gay music once led trends, the interesting crossover has Yazoo's two singles which they now play in Heaven. The gay market wouldn't normally touch them but the German mix of 'The Anvil' and the ABC remix have crossed too.

In fact there's never been more choice than we have now: excellent imports and so many brilliant British bands. Those two Blancmange singles must have been last year's best. And listen for Set The Tone's first single, it's gifted. And small English one-offs like Animal Nightlife and Shriek Back are going to do well"

State of the Dance:

Yello - Heavy Whispers (acetate, electro funk)

Divine - Kick your Butt (gay disco)

Vaughan Mason - You can do it (hard funk)

Members - Go West (English dance music)

Set The Tone - Dance Sucker (Scottish dance music)

The interview was written by David Johnson who now runs the Shapers of the 80s website, which includes a wealth of information about London clubbing in that period, in particular the so-called Blitz Kids/New Romantics scene, which as he notes nobody actually in that scene called themselves! He discusses this article in the context of what else was going on in 1983 here.

See also: Steve Strange and Camden Palace, articles from Smash Hits 1982/3

Acid House in the National Archives

The National Archives has today released Prime Minister’s Office and Cabinet files from 1989 and 1990, including discussions amongst Ministers and officials of how to clamp down on 'Acid House' parties.

A letter from the Home Secretary to Geoffrey Howe from 2 November 1989 reported: 'We understand from the Metropolitan Police that so far this year 223 such parties have taken place in London and the South East, of which 96 were actually stopped after they had begun. A further 95 planned parties have been prevented by pre-emptive action by the police or local authorities' (letter 2 November 1989).

In a hand written comment, Prime Minister Thatcher wrote ‘if this is a new “fashion” we must be prepared for it and preferably prevent such things from lasting’ (6 September 1989).

After reviewing the powers available to the authorities, the Government concluded that the way forward was to increase the fines for existing licensing offences, rather than bring in new powers as such. The result was to be the Entertainments (Increased Penalties) Act 1990 - 'An Act to increase the penalties for certain offences under enactments relating to the licensing of premises or places used for dancing, music or other entertainments of a like kind'. The question was of course to be revisited a few years later when the Government introduced the Criminal Justice Act which gave the police more direct powers to intervene to stop parties.

'Acid House Parties - the Prime Minister has seen the Home Secretary's letter of 2 November to the Lord President. She was content with his proposals to increase the penalites for illegally organising acid house parties and for making the profits from such parties libale to confiscation' (4 November 1989)

In the mean time, the police and local authorities were encouraged to make more assertive use of existing powers. The papers include a press clipping praising Operation Jute, a massive police operation to stop a party in Kent: 'Drug busting police sealed off an entire town twice at the weekend to claim thier first victory over the Acid House cult. Six thousand revellers were turned back from Chatham, Kent in the early hours of yesterday after a specially trained squad of 250 officers outmanoeuvred them across three counties' (Daily Express, 9 October 1989).

National Archives pdf of the acid house file

Zadie Smith on jungle and Anokha at the Blue Note

I recently came across an issue of Tate magazine from 2000, a special issue celebrating the opening in that year of Tate Modern. It includes an interesting discussion between Philip Dodd and Zadie Smith, looking back over 1990s London, including the transformation of Shoreditch into Hoxton, the deaths of Stephen Lawrence and Princess Diana, and the fascist bomb attacks on Brixton, Brick Lane and Old Compton Street. One of the things Zadie Smith touches on is the Blue Note Club in Hoxton:

'It was the last of the community clubbing experiences. It was artificial because it was partly to do with fame. You'd have a lot of people in there pretending that they couldn't see Bjork, who was standing right next to them. Yet the whole of the club was in one corner of the room circled around Bjork. It was about fame, but it was these people who did have quite a huge amount of fame who seemed perfectly willing to hang out with you, smoke with you, have a drink. Everybody was having a laugh.

Firstly, I was a Sunday kid, for the jungle, but you went to Anokha, on Monday, to see all that explosion of Asianness. When it first happened it was so exciting. We could see Talvin [Singh] doing so well. Bhangra has been going on in Wembley and Bradford for years. but he just changed it slightly, added a bit more of a western sound to it and everybody loved it. On jungle nights, MCs used to say a lot of cheesy things over the top of it like "black and white unite", but it did feel like that'

(I never went to Anokha at Blue Note, but I did go to the night they put on around that time at The Vibe Bar, called Calcutta Cyber Cafe)

Music & Dance at Kelvingrove Art Gallery

Some musical/dance images from Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, which I visited this weekend:

'Melody' by Kellock Brown (1894)

'Music' designed by David Gauld, made by Hugh McCulloch & Co., Glasgown (c.1891)



Angel musician, detail from 'The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin' by Harry Clarke (1923) - a stained glass window originally designed for a convent in Dowanhill, Glasgow

as above

The Dance of Spring by E.A. Hornel (1864-1933)