It's a lifetime ago, yet in part seems only a recent memory.
Here I was, innocent (ignorant?) but keen - I'd been getting deeper into dance music after years spent listening to 'inde'. House music was good, but I was really more into its bastard son, Techno. I'd heard about raves on the other side of the world in the UK, and knew that drugs could improve the experience...
Anyway, June 1990 - one of Melbourne's first fully fledged dance parties (I think there was one at the Old Greek Theatre a few months before, and more underground parties had been going for years...), put on by the guys who would later run the Every Picture Tells A Story raves, Richard and Hydi John plus Mark James who now fronts the Future Entertainment leviathan.
It was advertised as being in a warehouse, but close to party time the venue changed to the Powerhouse on Albert Park Lake. Suited me fine - I lived in a shitty flat around the corner, and I could see the party from my window. A couple of minutes walk and we were inside the party.
I'd planned to get on some E, but funds only allowed to try acid for the first time. Now it all made sense!
Eight or nine hours we stumbled out back to reality, but my life was never the same. I became a dedicated acid lover; any opportunity to drop was a good one - weddings, hair cuts, you name it; but I loved it most because Techno got different on it or because of it. That Biology party is important to me because it showed me for the first time that music should have enough depth to allow independent interpretation. That's why I hope the music you'll find mentioned here will be notable for its quality and thought provoking nature (but it won't be disappearing up its own arse; after all, it is just music to dance to - even if you are losing your mind in the process).
Well at the risk of posting too much in one go...just poured out of bed on a sat morn and stumbled on this blog -
ReplyDeletegot to say @ 'im getting flashbacks' haha you sound like a mirror image of me - techno , then acid and a few months later E!
I think im going to emigrate down under, Manchester is now full of corporate yuppies, trying to buy a slice of all this about 20 yrs too late...rave on - long live the underground...
thanks mate - yep, I think it was probably the same everywhere when it hit - London, Manchester, Melbourne.... high on hedonism between 88-91 and then others caught on.
ReplyDeletejust finished reading Hooky's "Hacienda: How not to run a club" - even at the epicentre it only seemed truly wonderful for a few years at the end of the 80s. Hope you got to be part of it! Now the Hac is an apartment block - funny ha ha.
Glad you like my stuff - lots more to come...