Transcribed by Take Note®
FILE NAME: / Britain-s-Illegal-Rave-Renaissance--LOCKED-OFF_mp3ify-dot-com
Moderator questions in Bold, Respondents in Regular text.
Transcriber Comments: One primary male speaker and several interviewees throughout. Clear audio with occasional background noise. Voiceover sections italicised and separated.
KEY: Unable to decipher = (inaudible + timecode), Phonetic spelling = (ph + timecode), Missed word= (? + timecode). For respondents M: Male, F: Female.
(TC: 00:00:00)
Clive Martin: Rave culture was always supposed to polarise people. Depending on your experiences, it’s either one of the UK’s great exports, or a symptom of our own moral decline. After a nationwide clampdown in the mid ‘90s, the scene was forced further into the underground, with new super clubs, and licenced, sanitised parties taking their place. Recent years have seen an institutionalised attack on the nation’s nightlife, with nearly half of all British clubs closing down in the last decade. So, what happens next? An illegal rave renaissance, with young ravers using the UK’s complicated squatting laws to break in, set up, keep the police at bay and go hard. Fuelled by boredom, and lit by social media, the scene has left a trail of chaos across the country, with a number of incidents involving riot police, and more than one fatality in its wake. With the full weight of the British media upon it, and the police using increasingly extreme tactics to shut parties down, can it survive?
M: The locations, they just magically appear.
M: With the right tools, gets you in anywhere, to be honest. You just have to have the master key for the city.
M: Police had a force out, to stop raves.
M: They always come in over-forced, riot gear. What’s the point?
M: We can’t stop kids from doing what they do.
M: It’s not simply a bunch of guys with a bunch of speakers in a field. It’s bringing people together in a way that nothing else really does.
(Music plays 01.43-02.08).
CM: The London squat rave scene is a secretive, clandestine world, but we’ve been put in touch with a guy called Havic, who is hosting a rave, somewhere in the industrial darklands of East London.
We’ve just been messaged the location. Apparently, it’s about a five minute walk away, so we’re going to go down there, where someone’s waiting for us. Just walking over a dual carriageway to go on a night out feels quite strange, and quite scary, in a good way. You know, we’re surrounded by warehouses, and wasteland, and it’s a long way from a night out in a town centre.
M: Project X, House of Havic, drum and bass and house rave. Make sure you get yourselves down to Canning Town at ten o’clock, (inaudible 02.46) station. See you soon.
CM: The party line was out, and the rig was on its way. A gang of bored, tense teenagers were knocking about the warehouse, cracking balloons, and hoping the police weren’t going to shut it down before it started.
So, we’re at the venue, which is a, sort of, disused, industrial space in the shadow of the Blackwall Tunnel. Apparently the balloon canisters over there where actually taken from a medical facility.
The clock was against Havic and his crew, but I managed to get a minute with him, to hear how he makes these parties happen.
So, how long have you been doing this?
Havic: Since 2011. Like, I do these, and, like, people know my name, and it gets bigger and bigger.
CM: Tell us a little bit about the process of putting on one of these things.
Havic: It’s all done over social media and things like that. It’s all networking, really.
CM: How do you source the buildings?
Havic: We just look for, like, ‘to let’ buildings, anything we can use, like, to party, so, we look on the Internet.
CM: The owners have no idea, I presume?
Havic: No, no idea. As long as we can get into a building without making it look like it’s been broken into, then it’s not breaking the law.
CM: How did you get in tonight?
Havic: We never broke into the building, but we took the keys off the wall. It was in a little lock, and obviously someone’s broken it off. I’ve got to go.
CM: That’s alright.
Suddenly, one of Havic’s boys pulled him aside, and the mood changed.
M: The police are coming, I don’t want them to see anyone. Police are coming, but stay here, don’t come out. We’re going to talk to them. We’ll talk to them. No one come out here.
CM: So, apparently-,
M: Don’t come anywhere near this door, any of you.
CM: We’ve been told to keep quiet for a little bit, because apparently the police and the security from the industrial estate are all outside.
M: Basically, what I’ve told them is that we’re living here for a few days. There’s no power in this building, so we’re not extracting any electricity. No laws have been broken whatsoever.
CM: So, what’s happened is that the police have turned up, you know, some of the guys here have said that they’re, kind of, essentially squatting the place, will be staying here for a few days, which, apparently, is the way to, sort of, buy yourself some time.
M: Hey, the security van has left, isn’t it? He’s not, Terence has said he’s pulling up.
CM: You can tell, actually, this is probably just an inevitable part of the process, and this isn’t the first time it’s happened. It won’t be the last, and, as it stands, tonight is still going ahead. Every now and again you hear a loud explosion, which is usually someone’s balloon blowing up, because they’ve put so much gas in it. The rigs are coming in, starting to fill up a bit. For everyone on this side, that’s a lot of speakers.
M: Okay, yo, party people, (inaudible 05.17). The party starts right here, right now. (Inaudible 05.22).
(Music plays 05.27-05.38).
CM: With Havic and his crew seemingly off the hook from the police, everything was in full swing, but in a city the size of London, I wondered what the people who come to these kinds of events get from this outsider style of partying.
M: It’s a massive culture where, like, people dress the same, people, like, like the same music, everyone doing their thing. It’s just sick.
CM: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen at a rave?
F: A girl getting her finger cut off.
CM: Oh.
F: Were you there? Oh my God.
CM: Is this quite a legendary incident, you’ve heard about this?
F: Yes.
CM: In terms of going to places on a night out, how often do they get shut down?
M: Too many times, too many times. Almost every time I’ve been, it gets locked off later on in the night. It’s just, like, young people trying to have fun. There might be some drugs involved, but, like, the same as anywhere else, isn’t it?
CM: You do have to remind yourself, at certain points, that this is an illegal venture, and people are breaking the law in there, and people have gone to prison for this sort of thing, you know, cash changing hands, the tax man isn’t seeing it at the end of it, but it’s no secret that clubs are closing down everywhere. It’s no secret that a lot of clubs have become quite sanitised and not very fun, and when you’re looking for something that isn’t being provided, it’s only natural that that comes from a slightly illegal source. There is that, kind of, edge of danger that, kind of, just-, it does make it a lot more fun.
The warehouse used for Havic’s night had been acquired by a guy called Jimmy White, a 22-year-old veteran of this young scene, with six years’ experience in the game.
Whereabouts are we going now?
Jimmy White: Just, literally, it’s just over the road, isn’t it? We’re going down there, and we’re going to see-, we’ll get into this fold (ph 07.11) quickly.
CM: Jimmy had a reputation for sourcing the best locations for parties, keeping them on ice until they were rave-ready, and using his knowledge of squatting laws to circumvent the police, until they could sneak the speakers and the punters in. He’d offered to take us on one of his regular scouting missions, finding potential venues for any future hedonism.
What do you look for, when you look for a building?
JW: Obviously, size. If security are around, like, if there are a lot of people in the area, something quiet and out of the way, really.
CM: This is, kind of, perfect for that, right there?
JW: Yes, of course. This area’s been hit a stupid amount of times.
CM: How do you find these places?
JW: I just get into a car and scout around the areas, like, as many industrial estates as I can. You’re never going to find the best buildings on the Internet. I’m just going to check if it’s okay, yes? Yes, it’s sweet. Like, the things I’d usually check is, up on the top, how to get in from the top ways, but it’s obviously quite secured, quite well, to be honest. It’s got, like, metal sheets up on there.
CM: So, someone has taken measures to-,
JW: Yes, they have taken quite good measures to actually stop this from getting on, like, a big chain.
CM: Yes, and you can’t just get a pair of bolt cutters to do that, legally?
JW: Well, not legally, no. This is what we stick up onto our buildings, as soon as we get into the building. This is just, basically, let’s just say, our safety net. We stick this up on the door, and we can’t be told fuck all. It just states that we’re living in this property, this is our home, and we intend to stay here. At least one person will be in the property, and if anyone comes into the property without our permission, we have the right to prosecute them, and take them to court, and the only way to get us out is by a high court order. Any other way to enter this property is completely against the law, and we will prosecute, is basically what we’re saying. This is the preparation before the party happens. No club could ever compare to what a squat can create. Going to the party, finding out the location at 10pm, it’s just all to the excitement. You can do whatever you want. You want to roll a Rizla? You can roll a Rizla, if you get my drift.
CM: Yes, yes.
JW: A nice little porta cabin. Let’s check if this is open.
CM: What would you have to do, to end up in trouble for it?
JW: They’d have to actually hunt you down, and find out every information about you. The only way that you could really get in trouble for it is if someone’s talking, and that’s the only way to get in trouble for it.
CM: Even though it is in this, kind of, grey area, why does that mean you need to conceal your identity?
JW: At the end of the day, there are a lot of things that I’ve done in the scene, and a lot of things that my group have done in the scene that I would prefer not to put a face to the picture. What I do, I do it for statement, and I do it just to literally say to the police, ‘Try and govern this.’
CM: Well, they are governing it, and this is how. Last year, a Halloween rave thrown by the notorious Scumtek collective was shut down early, only for a full-blown riot to erupt. The police turned up in full force, (TC: 00:10:00) with truncheons, shields and dogs. The ravers quickly replied with anything they could find. The usual suspects in the media responded in typically hysterical fashion, and both the police and Scumtek were quick to blame each other for the trouble. Scumtek are famously camera shy, but they offered to tell us their side of the story.
M: Halloween was the most intentional piece of aggressive policing that any of our crew have ever witnessed. Now, some of our crew have been around for a long time, you know, they were there at the poll tax riots. Their first news report, going around stating that the police turned up to the venue, and bottles and bricks were thrown at them. Now, that’s absolute nonsense. There’s video of the first line of riot police arriving. There are peaceful ravers stood down at the end of the street. There are about 800 people inside. An hour and a half has passed without incident, apart from the noise. They had a perfectly legitimate way to shut the party down the moment they arrived, because it was next to housing.
They could have gotten a noise abatement. I’m pretty sure, if we check the council records, there will be noise complaints. With one noise complaint, they could have served paperwork, and then you would have shut the party down. No sound system would ever risk their equipment with the right paperwork being served, because once that’s been served, they can legally destroy the equipment. That wasn’t done.
There was no negotiation. There was no talking through law. There was no attempt to peaceful shut the party down. It was a completely intentional piece of policing, and media dissemination of information. The damage that was caused was terrible. I think that was all completely unnecessary, however, I think everything on that night felt very strange, you know? It felt like this was almost the reaction they wanted. I don’t condone how people reacted, but they were hit for at least two hours with batons. People are not feeling great at the moment.
CM: With the increasing pressures on the scene, and the resulting paranoia, would have its own consequences, this time, on us.
Since the House of Havic rave, there’s been some bad news. There have been a few police incidents at a few raves around London, and a few of the promoters, including Havic, have been actually visited by the police to their houses. As we were, sort of, you know, digging around at the same time, they put two and two together, made 50, and decided we were police. So, we’ve been told not to come to any more raves in London, and that we’ve essentially been banned from the city. In the aftermath of it all, we’ve got some absolutely fantastic threats come through. This is a message we’ve got from Havic. He says ‘All them videos you have of me, can you please delete? Please come to my house today’, and I don’t find that a coincidence, and this is one, one of the producers got. ‘You give us all the footage you took from the event on Saturday, or pay us, or you’re going to have problems. Seriously. No message by Monday, people will be coming to get the footage back’.
There’s a lot of scrutiny on this scene right now. The police are very much on top of it. The media seem to be increasingly involved, and, you know, it is something of their own. I can see why they would have a problem with people coming in, to, sort of-, especially older people, coming in to, kind of, look at it, and dissect it, and investigate it, I suppose, but there’s this unholy trio of illegality, bravado and paranoid that makes him very difficult to work with.
Tensions between the promoters, the punters and the police had burst a culture of accusation and aggression. The stakes were high, and everyone was out to protect their own interests. I wondered if there was another version of modern rave culture out there, something more open, more inclusive, more akin to the dream of the ‘Summer of Love’ generation. So, we went to the promise land of the rave scene, Denbigh.
Dan X: Let’s just wait for these to clear off. You can see this track is used by ramblers, walkers, ravers. North Wales used to be the place for raves. It’s died. It’s coming back now, back with a bang. The music we play is a hard style, hard trance, gabber, underground stuff, mate. We started off doing raves in clubs, and, like, they were alright, and we had our good weeks, we had our bad weeks, but people want to be able to come to a rave and relax, and be able to have a good time without, you know, dickheads over their shoulders, off their heads on, you know, beer and stuff like that. Then, bouncers, you know, in your face all the time in the town and things like that. I mean, it’s just land going to waste. It’s just a beautiful spot. We’re causing no hassle. Everyone has a great time. I don’t see what the problem is, they should just let us rave.
CM: Dan and the distortion crew were also feeling the brunt of new police incentives against the scene, with increasing pressures putting them in the same precarious situation as the London ravers. The terrain might have been different, but there was just as much to lose. They were in preparation for one of their biggest events yet, a huge party in the forest of Denbigh.
Dan X: If anyone wants to commit a serious crime in North Wales tonight, do it, because all the police are going to be on us. Fucking knob heads, like, you know what I mean? I told the coppers straight when they came to my house the other day. I said, ‘Listen, we’re going to do the rave. I know the consequences,’ do you know what I mean? If they come, they will arrest me, yes, because I am the orchestrator, yes? The guy in charge, yes? I’ve got so much to lose, do you know what I mean? I’ve got a missus, I’ve got a good job, you know what I mean? If I end up in jail, I’ll lose everything. The police’s main issue, obviously, is drugs. That’s the main issue. End of the day, they just don’t like us having a good time. Do you know what I mean? We’re not causing any hassle. We’re not causing anyone any trouble. We’re not anywhere near a fucking built up area, or a town, or anything like that. We’re in the middle of nowhere.