1989

January

Genesis / Sunset parties. "The Fight Goes On", "Against All Odds", "Hedonism" & "Strength to Strength".


Inspired by what he had seen at RiP, Joe Wieczorek starts holding illegal warehouse parties in various east end locations (Shacklewell Lane, Essex Road, Homerton & Ferry Lane to name a few). Labrynth is born.


Around the same time, Andy Swallow and Tony Wilson having already run a succesful after-hours club at Mile End, Hackney, starts Echos in a small club at the foot of Bow flyover, East London.

Friday's are Tony Wilson's "Adrenaline" while Saturdays sees Andy Swallow's "Pasha". With links to ICF (West Ham United's football hooligans) the club soon becomes a disreputable gangland venue.

Fantasy turn on their first Broadcast and using powerful transmitters gained a massive audience. An array of pirate stations soon followed including Sunrise, & Dance FM.

January 28th

RiP move to "The Dungeons" at Leabridge Road, Leytonstone.

February 25th
Jarvis Sandy enters the scene with a party called Biology. Held in a film studio in Battersea, this party is a huge success and starts the assent of Biology in the rave scene.

February

Wayne Antony & Kp flood London with a month of Genesis parties * Genesis’89 – The Promised Land - * Genesis’89 – West Way Blues - * Genesis’89 – In House We Trust - * Genesis’89 – Only Love Conquers Hate

February

Labrynth hold a party in a disused warehouse at Silverton Way, Canning Town. An East-end gang ask to take over the door but Joe refuses. This refusal leads to three nutters sneaking into the venue and hacking innocent people with machetes. Joe is threatened at gun point and decides to get out of the illegal warehouse party game. Labrynth move to a licensed club venue, The Four Aces Club in Dalston.

February

James Barton teams up with John Kelly to start a new night at Liverpools Nights Alive nightclub calling it The Underground.

March The scene takes a new direction as parties move away from inner city nightclubs and move out to huge barns and fields in the countryside. Like a premier division, all the top promoters dish out an amazing summer of raves. Sunrise (Tony Colston Hayter), Biology (Jarvis Sandy), Energy (Quintin "TinTin" Chambers & Jeremy Taylor), Back to the Future (Dave Roberts, also a partner in Sunrise), Weekend World & World Dance (Anton Le Pirate).

March

Obsession Fm unceasingly promote all the illegal raves. True to their word, they broadcasted rave information and House music 24/7 . Viewed as a source to illegal parties Obsession FM go through continuous raids. Not helping, their rumoured links to hooligans and transmitter funding by Jamaican Yardies, leads to Obsession regularly being targeted by the Dti.
Police bust a party in Blackburn as the situation heats up.

April

The production levels of the illegal rave parties dramatically increased. The smaller founding raves became unimportant as large events become the in thing. Illegal partys with 1000's of kilo watts of sound, lasers & fun fairs, attended by sometimes tens of thousands of people cladded out in ponchoes, smiley's, bandanas & kickers becomes a weekly event. With ten of thousands of new people starting to go to raves, the term Raver becomes fully main stream.

The location of these events was a intimately guarded secret up until an hour or so before the start. Meeting points would be made available through flyers and pirate radio stations such as (Sunrise,Centre Force, Obsession, & Fantasy FM). Mobile phones were still widely regarded as Yuppy toys but thanks to BT's messaging service they became an ideal way to co-ordinate people to different meeting points (Motorway service stations usually) and eventually the venue itself. It broadly turned into a game of "follow the car in front" until you find a party. By keeping the venue secret promoters could get everyone on the move heading for the party or in the wrong direction if needed. The Police have no option but to follow. So the end effect is that 1000's of people can descend on one location in a matter of minutes. Once a party goes past a certain size there is, in reality very little the Police can do to stop it.

April

Breakbeats begin to materialize in rave tunes. Rat Pack run Trip City at the Elephant & Castle.

Outside London, Tommy Smith and Tony Creft take over the administration of the illegal parties in Blackburn after the first organisers are arrested. Almost every week empty warehouses in and around the Blackburn area are descended on by thousands of ravers. Sett End, Bubble Factory, Unit 7, Pump Street and many more abandoned buildings,warehouses and even an old abattoir are used for parties over the coming months.

April 16th

Otiz F. Angel's single New Generation 'Body & Soul' is distributed by SRD

while he does an interview for Eternity magazine. During the interview he describes three common types of raver forming inside the rave culture.
“Ravers who rave because their friends do it”.
“Ravers who love the music but are not into the peace, love philosophy and are not bothered which direction the scene will take.
“Ravers who love the scene and believe the scene has the potential to make a positive impact in the world”.


April 29th
Back to the future, finding that their lined up venue has been revealed, end up holding a party in a cattle silo, still half full of animal feed!!

May 1st

Centre Force enters the scene becoming a 24/7 pirate house station. The station is set up with help from Andy Swallow and other people attached to Echos. Police 'intelligence' and general rumours suggest that Centreforce (like Echos) is run by the ICF (a football hooligan gang). Andy Swallow said "There were a lot of myths going round that we were involved in taking peoples doors, taking over the clubs demanding 25% and all that. Well, I don't know where the money went because I never saw any of it!".

May 20th

Sunrise 5000: 'Once In A Blue Moon' is held in aircraft hanger at Santa Pod race track. On arriving at the site in the early evening to set up, Sunrise find there is no electricity and no toilets. Their only option is to take a big risk with a diesel generator running dodgy wiring next to a pile of old newsprint.

Few weeks after the rave, Tony Colston Hayter (Founder of Sunrise) appear on the Jonathan Ross show. First he hand cuffed himself to Jonathan Ross then he threw water over Paul Morely (Journalist). The was a publicity stunt for the 'Freedom To Party'. Although there was a tonne of negative press after – it was still funny as hell.


May 27th
Energy hold their first major party, located in Westway film studios with 5 rooms, 12 Djs. This level of production was not experienced before including one room decorated as Greek temple and another exactly like the set of the film Bladerunner.

June 10th

Biology hold a party in a field near Elstree Studios, London.



Red Parrot illegal parties begin around Blackburn area.


June 16th-18th
Hypnosis set up the first dance tent in on of the car parks at Glastonbury.


Police use a new strategy and start to monitor info lines and posing as Ravers to find venues before the convoys.

June 24th

Sunrise’s Midsummer Nights Dream at White Waltham airstrip, Berkshire is attended by over 11000 people. The Sun newspaper runs the famous headline "SPACED OUT" with a two page "Ecstasy Airport” expose. Other reports involve “youngsters so drugged up they ripped the heads of pigeons!”“at the end of the night the floor was covered in empty ecstasy wrappers”. Unsurprisingly , both were untrue. The empty wrappers are actually pieces of confetti that fell from the ceiling; dead pigeons nowhere to be seen.

July 1st - 2nd

Energy party held at Membury, Berkshire. Police seal off 20 miles of the M4.

Biology and Panorama are made to find venue after venue as police intelligence find the main venue and all the back ups. Failing to find a spot, hundreds of cars drive up motorways and down country lanes all night. The party disastrously end in a club in Birmingham (The Hummingbird) and starts at 8am. Its a terrible event.

July 22nd

Energy hold an event in a Warehouse behind Heston Services. Over 1000 Police seal off the whole area but ravers simply park their cars on the hard shoulder of the motorway and run across 6 lanes. Enough gain access to the party and the Police let it go on.


The size of illegal rave parties increases quickly, starting to cause national panic by the end of the summer. With media reports of over 20,000 at one Sunrise event, and convoys of "crazed teenagers" tearing up and down motorways across the country, the government felt something needed to be done. Chief Superintendent Ken Tappenden sets up the Polices Pay Party Unit. Information is gathered about organizers, large, medium and small and it entered onto the HOLMES database.

Tragically, 16 year old Clair Leighton (R.I.P) dies after taking an E at the Hacienda in Manchester.

July

Spectrum hold the first large scale illegal rave in the Birmingham area. A field near Tamworth sees a full funfair and thousands of ravers. Due to a lot of Police pressure with this event Spectrum go inside and use the Hummingbird nightclub for all future events.


August 3rd
Anthony & Chris Donnely stage Joy at Stand Lees Farm, Rochdale. August 12th Future Dance Music Festival held by Sunrise & Back to the Future near the village of Longwick, Buckinghamshire. 17000 tickets sold.


August 12th
From Noon till Noon, Sunrise & Back to the Future.

August 19th

World Dance hold their first event near Junction 6 of the M25. Over 8000 people in attendance.

August 26th

Energy put out on their information lines that the first 5000 to arrive at their Summer Festival will get in free. Within a few hours there are over 20,000 people dancing in a Surrey field.

September 9th

Genesis break into a huge warehouse in east London. The venue could hold upto 10,000 people and with a 60 foot high ceiling there was room for fairground rides! Biology also plan a party for the same night so Genesis' publicity goes into overdrive, 3 different sets of flyers and a sticker campaign eventually sees Genesis tickets outselling Biology's. At 6pm the Police arrest the lighting crew. Then as Wayne Anthony approach the venue they see Police everywhere and the man with the fairground rides surrounded by Police officers. With no other option Genesis re-direct there crowd to Biology. Genesis info lines start to give out directions to the Biology party held in Meopham, Kent.

September 16th 

Live the Dream, near Gib Lane, Blackburn

Raindance hold the first fully licensed all night dance event at Jenkins Lane, Barking, on the London/Essex borders. 8,000+ people in attendance.

September 23rd

Energy have the venue for their Dance89 event. Found by a Police helicopter just hours before the rave is due to start, Police stop the event. Energy end up illegally occupying another hanger at Raydon airfield, Suffolk. Jeremy Taylor is arrested for causing a public nuisance.

September 30th

Helter Skelter hold their first party and manage to get 5,000+ people in a muddy ploughed field near Banbury, Oxfordshire. The KLF demand to be paid for their live set in Scottish Pound notes. They write "children we love you" on them and throw them into the crowd. Maybe as a practice for their most famous publicity stunt of burning of a £million a few years later.

Police try to bust a Phantasy party near Reigate, but are beaten back by ‘Strikeforce’ security with CS gas and dogs. This immediately changes things for others. During this rave, a chance meeting with Bobby V, Jason Jones, DJ Merlin & Otiz F.Angel facilitates the planning Resurrection / Obsession rave in Cobham.

Days after the trouble at Phantasy, the media print that ravers were aggressive and prepared to stand their ground to take drugs. Focused on the opposition from 'Strikeforce security', authorities take a hardline approach to all rave party raids across London. Later, Egged on by more tabloid front pages like "Acid peril of Drug Kids" & "Drugs & Gun haul at Acid Party", the government lash out. Tory MP Graham Bright pushes the "Entertainments (Increased Penalties) Act" through parliament and the Police's 'Pay Party Unit' is formed to hunt down Rave organisers.

October 21st

Biology try to hold a rave in Guildford. With a massive line up which is to included Public Enemy to play live! A massive Police operation stops the party. Police estimate there are 30,000 people in the surrounding area trying to get to the event which was totally sealed off. Public Enemy are detained and held at Heathrow.

October
Centre Force Radio is raided and their DJs arrested. On the same night their Echos club is also raided.


November
Pandemonium do their last illegal event, held in a Church on Lime Street, Telford. The surrounding ring road is totally blocked and Paul Archer & Paul Dawks are banned from holding another rave event.


Police force The State in Liverpool to shut. Mike Knowler & Andy Carroll move down the road to Bootle and open a new night. Quadrant Park is born.

November 11th

Police raid The Underground in Liverpool. James Barton & John Kelly banned from holding events in Liverpool.


Konspiracy opened in Manchester by Chris Nelson. December At Whitebirk, Blackburn a Police car is set on fire during battles with Police trying to stop ravers entering the party,

New Years Eve

Sunrise organise an end of the decade party and for the first time print the venue on the flyer. With only hours to go until the rave was meant the start time the Land Owner gives in to serious Police pressure and calls it off. The back up venue in Norfolk is also given an the injunction by the local Council. At around 11pm the Sunrise message lines direct the remaining ravers to head for Heston Services on the M4, then from there they are directed to the National Panasonic building in Slough where Sunrise had negotiated with Biology and Genesis to join their party.
New Years Eve
Amnesia House's (Bambam & the two brothers Keiran & Neville) party in Coventry is stopped after only a few hours.