11/10/2021
Gavin Watson - RAVING 89’
In the late 1980s, a movement driven by the dancing youth and explosive “acid house” music took the UK by storm. Given this took place long before the age of social media, these ‘raves’ started out as a word-of-mouth sort of deal - if you knew about them, you had been ‘initiated’ into the circle.
Pirate radio stations, phone calls and flyers were the only way to know where and when they were taking place; Empty warehouses, small abandoned towns, fields etc were the venues that people packed out and danced for 12 + hours.
While the people at these energetic epicentres had some assistance in maintaining their high intensity spirit (wink*), they had ultimately come together to celebrate a new movement of freedom that was unfolding. Photographer Gavin Watson, who captured the early acid house era, said: “It was totally fresh, it blew us away. It was a real force in the country, like a revolution.”
While these events mainly promoted the free loving spirit (similar to the ‘hippie’ movement in the late 1960’s - Hence it being dubbed the “second” summer of love), the authorities weren’t having a BAR of it. People were arrested, attacked and charged for dancing in an empty field in the middle of England…But these people fought back.
“Everyone who was anybody was involved. It was important—we marched in London and changed the licensing laws. If it had been a purely working class thing they would have stomped on us, they would have trodden us into the fu***ng ground. But it wasn’t, there were middle-class people and even fu***ng lords going to these raves. Everyone was involved, they couldn’t stop it. The police just didn’t understand it. They had never had to deal with hundreds of people having a good time in a field.” - Gavin stated.
The following slides are a small sample of images in Gavins book “RAVING 89’”, that showcases this golden age of illegal raves.
SOURCES:
Photographs & Info: gavinwatsonarchive.com/raving89
