• Emerson Todd
• 2000 and One
• Paolo Alberto Lodde
• Dub Pistols
• Elsa Hill
• Al Kent A.K.A. Million Dollar Orchestra
• Einzelkind
• Eddie Halliwell
• Edu K
• Emanuel Inglese

• Artist
• Emerson Todd
• Industry
• Buzzin Fly
• Event
• We Love

• Sunshine
• Style Of Eye
• Still Going
• Stefano Amalfi
• Star Eyes
• The Stafford Brothers
• Sonny Jim
• Smokin Jo
• Mission Control Innerspace
• Sir Smurf Lil

'If I can't dance, it's not my revolution'.

Pulse is proud to present the first in an exclusive series of features on the history of dance parties and the Free Dance Movement.

' 'Fight for your right to party' was for us not
about partying. It was about the wider sense of
the word. Today there is nothing disturbing or
revolutionary about dance music. It has become
the mainstream.'

Thomas Bangalter (Daft Punk) 2007.

What does dance music mean to you?

Is it:

A:  All about getting dressed up on a Saturday night with a nice pair of shiny shoes and a crisp designer shirt, going to a trendy club and hopefully pulling someone.

Or, is it:

B: A fundamental lifestyle choice, a big two fingers up to The Man and everything he stands for. A way of doing exactly what you want, outside the laws and boundaries of normal society, a way of belonging to a tribe of likeminded people who make their own rules?

If you answered yes to A, you may want to stop reading now (although on second thoughts, give it a bash anyway…you might just be converted!).

On the other hand, if you answered yes to B read on. This story is right up your street….

Free parties, squat parties, illegal raves, doofs, call them what you will. The particular moniker you use probably depends on which corner of the globe you come from and what particular flavour of bass line tickles your taste buds.

But whatever you use, anyone who has been to a truly alternative and free party knows the liberating and exalting vibe that such an event can cook up, when done with the right ingredients.

This is the first in a series of articles in which I will be doing my best to describe and communicate the history and highlights of the free party movement over the last two decades, in the UK and beyond.

But where does one begin?

Is there one moment, which could be defined as the birth of this vibe? Probably not,  Free dance is by its very nature free and without borders.

If you wanted to stretch the point into antiquity you could justifiably say that since the days of the druids and medicine men, home sapiens have been ingesting intoxicating substances and dancing round like lunatics to repetitive beats.

And more recently in last century, surely the 'happenings' and psychedelic wig-outs of the sixties could claim to be the ancestors of the modern day rave and free party. Indeed many old hippies from this generation were instrumental in setting up the early acid house raves and free parties.

Personally I would choose the free festivals of eighties Britain as my springboard into this pool of anarchic aural delights. At the time Blighty was suffering under the double whammy of right-wing Conservative government and shallow, materialistic yuppiedom.
However, there were alternatives.
'New Age' travellers were abroad in the land, living free and setting up legendary free festivals like the annual summer solstice events at Stonehenge. In London and the other major cities, sound systems like the renowned Soul to Soul were already setting up illicit warehouse parties playing rare groove, soul, funk and reggae.

The late eighties saw the sonic mind-bomb of Acid House explode and a whole new genre of outlawed night entertainment was catapulted into the mass consciousness.

As the eighties turned into the nineties and laws on 'raves' became stricter in the UK, dance music spread its ecstatic tentacles to clubs in every corner of the land and indeed many new parts of the globe. The era of the superclub began and in many ways dance music had already become part of the mainstream.

It was at roughly this point that the division between illegal and legal, free and controlled parties became more defined. You now had a choice between paying £10 – 20 to go to a legal club or rave with all the controls and limits that involved, or hitting the underground and taking your chances with a party in a warehouse or a field that would either be free or very cheap to get into, and where you could do as you liked without any bother or hindrance (bar the occasional and sometimes violent police raid.)

During the early to mid nineties the 'party as protest' vibe was at it's peak in the UK, with events like Reclaim the Streets turning the act of hedonistic abandon into a near revolutionary sport.

Anti-globalisation protests and acid underground raves were now on occasion one and the same thing, and this got the powers that be jittery to say the least. The high points of this period were some massive demonstrations in the middle of London, with underground sound systems providing the soundtrack.

In May 1997 around 40,000 people, myself included, marched from Kennington in South London past parliament and packed Trafalgar Square, just days before the general election that saw the end of the Conservative years and the beginning of the false dawn of New Labour; 'Blairism.'

A large white lorry containing a fat rig from the Immersion sound system drove bravely through the police lines and blasted out the acid techno tunes that formed the popular free party soundtrack of the time.

As riot police surrounded the square and fought running battles with the more anarchist inclined protesters, the twisted psychedelic sound thundered on, with the 4/4 beat reverberating off the grand old buildings. Huge banners were hung from Nelson's Column and a sea of ravers' danced deliriously on the steps of the National Gallery.

'Never Mind The Ballots' was the name given to this event on flyers that circulated that day, along with a map of all the main departments of government and the caption 'Whoever you vote for, things always stay the same.' How right they were.

The centre of London was taken over that day by dance music freaks and protestors of every colour, creed and background, proving that when people dance to the same beat they are a powerful force, no matter who is in government.

Or as my personal favourite banner slogan from the day stated:

'If I can't dance, it's not my revolution'.

Stay tuned to Pulse's features page for more upcoming instalments of the history of free parties and squat parties in the UK and beyond.

Tom Evans.  
London 2007.

Selected Links:

www.urban75.com - comprehensive cover of everything alternative from free parties to protests, festivals and much more.
An excellent site.
 
www.schnews.org.uk - the best alternative news and activist site, straight outta Brighton, UK.
 
http://rts.gn.apc.org - the official Reclaim the Streets website. The original party-and-protest crew, still going strong with their sporadic 'Reclaim The Future' squat parties and other events...