History is made at night

The politics of dancing and musicking and other dark matters

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Australian Jazz Panic

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From the archive - this is an article I wrote for Alien Underground 0.1, Spring 1995, a zine edited by Christoph Fringeli (Praxis Records) ...
Monday, March 19, 2007

I could have danced all night

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At the weekend I took part with my daughter in a South London community musical production of My Fair Lady , featuring a cast and crew of 20...
Sunday, March 18, 2007

Sonic Attack

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Back in the 1970s/early 80s the Throbbing Gristle /Psychic TV nexus explored the notion of sound as control, including how particular sonic ...
1 comment:
Saturday, March 17, 2007

When the Waltz was Banned

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The Waltz was the focus of outrage as the dance spread from Austria and Germany to France and England in the late 18th and early 19th centur...
Thursday, March 15, 2007

Dancing questionnaire 3 - Commie Curmudgeon

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Bronx-based radical Commie Curmudgeon has completed our Dancing Questionnaire (also posted on his site), and very interesting it is too. S...
Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Grime Stoppers

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Interesting article in last week's Time Out London about policing of grime nights: "Imagine a society where the police force says w...
1 comment:
Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Anais Nin: Dancing in 1930s New York City of Rhythm

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The writer Anais Nin (1903-77) lived between Paris and New York in the 1930s, and her diaries provide a vivid account of bohemian nightlif...
Monday, March 12, 2007

Indian Rave Bust

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Last week in India, near the city of Pune, police arrested 271 at a rave at a rural farmhouse. Seven people accused of organising the party ...
Sunday, March 11, 2007

Rave Magazine 1950s

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This US magazine cover is from 1954. By this point the word 'rave' was already being used in London to describe all night parties in...
Friday, March 09, 2007

Flogged for dancing - Saudi Arabia

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A Saudi Arabian judge sentenced 20 foreigners to receive lashes and spend several months in prison after convicting them of attending a part...

Dancing questionnaire 2 - Scott Wood

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Scott Wood describes himself as 'a fortean, veggie, wanna-be writer'. He is the promoter of South East London Folklore Society , run...
Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Once Upon a Time in New York

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Excellent BBC4 documentary this week. Once Upon a Time in New York: The Birth of Hip Hop, Disco and Funk was only an hour long when any of ...

Baudrillard

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'Being against war, telling stories, singing in the shower - these are the signs of a pleasant disposition' (Jean Baudrillard, Fragm...
Saturday, March 03, 2007

Parties raided on three continents

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1. Cambridgeshire, England "Police officers were attacked with fire extinguishers as they tried to break up an illegal rave at a disuse...
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The Ravers Next Step: into the 1960s

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In previous posts we have looked at the revivalist jazz raves organised by Mick Mulligan and Cy Laurie in 1950s Soho. From the mid-1950s a ...
9 comments:

How Does it Feel to be Loved?

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I went down to How Does it Feel to be Loved? at the Canterbury Arms in Brixton last month, which describes itself as a 'a london club ...
Friday, March 02, 2007

Ungdomshuset Eviction

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Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Copenhagen in angry protests against yesterday's police eviction of Ungdomshuset (the...
Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Licensing Laws for the Lower Sort of People

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Where do the licensing laws that control where and when people can drink, dance or listen to music come from? The principle behind them is q...
Monday, February 26, 2007

Birth of rave

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When was the birth of rave as a word for a wild party and raver as the party-goer? Quite a few sources suggest a Caribbean origin. The Wikip...
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Sunday, February 25, 2007

1950s Raves Continued

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In an earlier post , we referred to the revivalist jazz raves organised by Mick Mulligan and George Melly in London in the early 1950s, the ...
1 comment:
Saturday, February 24, 2007

Disco: blueprint for a future society

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Good article on disco by Paul Lester in the Guardian this week: 'For Steven Collazo, the musical director of Odyssey, disco was a time ...

Essex police target raves

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From Herts and Essex News , 15 February 2007: Raving the day! Illegal ravers were stopped dead in their tracks when police broke up an even...
Wednesday, February 21, 2007

'Hooliganism in Dancing' before World War One

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The Daily Express has been a fount of right wing bile for many years. Here's a classic example of its historic racism, a leading article...
Monday, February 19, 2007

Trinidad Carnival

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The Trinidad Carnival this week has commemorated a key point in the Carnival's history - the Canboulay riots of 1881-1884 (the picture ...

Carnival in Brazil

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It is Carnival time in Brazil , now a major cultural celebration, but one which people had to struggle to establish: 'By the turn of the...
Sunday, February 18, 2007

From Hangars to Warehouses

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When was the warehouse party born, that is a party in an industrial space rather than a specially designed dancehall or ballroom? One candid...
Friday, February 16, 2007

No spitting on the dancefloor

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Extracts from 19th century ballroom manuals: From a New York publication 1864: "Loud conversation, profanity, stamping the feet, writi...
Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Northern Soul dancing

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'I was in a shit environment that I hated doing stuff I didn't want to do. I loved dancing, it was the first time [for] northern mal...
Tuesday, February 13, 2007

They Shoot Horses Don't They?

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There is a dancefloor utopia, the fantasy of a Boogie Wonderland, a Saturday night that never stops. They Shoot Horses Don't They (a 193...
Monday, February 12, 2007

Dancing questionnaire 1 - Neil Transpontine

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I want this site to reflect people's personal experiences of dancing and musicking, so I've designed a short questionnaire which I...
Wednesday, February 07, 2007

No Sleep Till Morn

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The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men; A thousand hearts beat happily; and when Music arose with its voluptuous swell, Soft eyes...
Friday, February 02, 2007

Vortex eviction looms

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"On Sat 6th Jan a group of local people, along with others, occupied 139-141 Church Street [Stoke Newington, London] with the intentio...

Saving the Astoria?

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I'm not sure that central London gig venue The Astoria Theatre is still under threat - the fear that Derwent Valley Central (a property...
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