ourhistory uk catalogue 2008/11
And who is society? There is no such thing! Margaret Thatcher BBC radio Interview for Woman’s Own Sep 23 1987
After a decade of post-punk monochrome & Thatcherite government, the explosion of acid house in 1988 brought colour and the hope of freedom back into the lives of Britain’s youth. But without the medium of graphic design, the twenty-year phenomenon of acid house would not have been as ground-breaking as it has proven to be. Before the advent of computer-generated graphics, it was young and often untrained designers, cutting and pasting images and typeface by hand, who created a visual identity for the emerging musical genres. And just as the music was a montage of sampled and remixed sounds, so the imagery of acid house was a collage of visual sources taken from psychedelia, punk, sci-fi, gay and black culture and elsewhere. Initially reflecting & giving form to the ideals of the tribal sub-cultures that formed around the music, the imagery of acid house went on to play a crucial role in the development of what became a diverse global club culture. And to the clubbers and ravers who danced in the early warehouse parties in London’s Clink Street, derelict warehouses in Blackburn, in the fields off the M25 orbital, through those nights at Manchester’s Haçienda, or who never returned from their summer in Ibiza, these images are a key point of reference in a slightly hazy collective memory of that time.
At the heart of the ourhistory shows and exhibtions is the belief that acid house was not just another moment in popular music, but a turning point in the ongoing relationship between mainstream society and the formation of alternative subcultures. This collection seeks to make a correspondingly serious argument for the importance of acid house, not merely as a musical genre but as a cultural movement. The music of acid house was never a unified genre anyway, & had its origins earlier than the birth of the scene, in New York garage, Chicago house and Detroit techno of the early and mid 1980s, and earlier still in the music of Kraftwerk. Rather, acid house was a sub-culture which drew its spirit from Ibiza, Manchester, London and around Britain. Although its musical forms mostly originated elsewhere, therefore, the spirit of acid house was particular to the social, political and cultural climate of Britain in the late 1980s. This was a notoriously unsettled mix of a contemptuous and seemingly unmoveable Tory Government, whose iron leader became the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the century in 1988; repressive and punitive social laws, of which the Poll Tax of 1989 was only the most hated; the systematic destruction of working class communities, to which the miner’s strike of 1984-85 had been the
last, failed attempt at organised opposition; high unemployment, low job prospects, and an everwidening gap between the rich and the poor, all enshrined in the new division between an entrepreneurial middle class of newlydubbed ‘yuppies’ & an unemployed and apparently unwanted working class. It was the youth of the latter who, realising that if anything was to be done they had to do it themselves, took up Thatcher’s ethos of self-determination, turned it against their would-be masters, and created the phenomenon of acid house. To reflect the importance of this movement, which has never been adequately described by the overlapping but distinct terminology of ‘rave’, ‘club’ or ‘dance’ culture, ourhistory uses ‘acid house’ as an umbrella term to designate both the initial explosion of the phenomenon into popular consciousness in 1988, as well as the twenty-year history of club, rave and dance culture that it set in motion. On the one hand, this show is a celebration of the sheer fun, colour, madness & inventiveness of this history; but it also seeks to create a framework by which to understand the ongoing significance of acid house as a cultural movement. In doing so, two factors distinguish the show from what will no doubt be other celebrations of the
twentieth anniversary of its origins.First, the exhibtion aims to write a new type of history. As its title indicates, ourhistory will not be a history of the individual producers, DJs and promoters of a scene – the movers and shakers who, like the kings and queens of outdated history lessons, claim to make history – but of the dancers, ravers and clubbers whose collective experience is the movement of that history: in the communities they formed, the experiences they created, the spaces they opened up and explored. It was the creation of this space – both physically (the abandoned warehouses and fields they occupied) and psychologically (the rave and club experience they invented) – that made acid house not just another genre in the history of popular music, but a genuinely new moment in twentiethcentury culture. Moving away from pop’s focus on the artist, performance and product towards the experience of the clubbers and ravers, acid house challenged the very bases on which the music industry exists. What distinguished the acid house experience from other forms of mass entertainment – like a rock concert, football match or television show – is that it did not create a division between the entertainer and the entertained, the spectacle and the
spectator, the commodity and its consumer, or any of the other divisions on which the culture industry relies for its continued existence. The dancers at an acid house party, rave or club were their own entertainment, looked at each other, consumed themselves in a collective outpouring of energy and creativity that was its own end, and – at least initially – existed outside the cycle of exchange controlled by the music industry. Fuelled by an unholy trinity of music, dance and drugs, it was this that constituted acid house’s most radical assault on mainstream culture and perhaps its greatest threat to the society it rejected – that, and the moral panic induced by millions of young adults taking ecstasy and dancing off their heads every weekend. To convey both this threat and the radical shift in attitudes driving it, the show represents the history of acid house as the history of the musical and cultural forms in which these challenges to the mainstream appeared, and of the corresponding attempts by mainstream society and culture to limit and control their influence.
ourhistory celebrating acid-house& international clubculture
B-Art Studios/ Martin Brown Trade After being kicked out of Art School with no qualifications, Martin worked as a stage hand and set builder for Hackney Empire and partied at Trip, Spectrum, Troll and Trade. He ended up creating graphics for flyers, posters & CD covers as in-house designer for Trade at Turnmills in 1991, painting banners and decorating interiors, He also helped to start DTPM at Villa Stefano in 1993 and developed the brand over the years at various venues, from Bar Rhumba to The End and finally to its present home at Fabric. Currently he is Art Editor for DJ Magazine & still partial to the odd disco!
Trade Laurence Malice started Trade 1993. With fifteen years experience in the promotion of gay and mixed clubs, he is one man with his fingers firmly on the pulse on club land. Trade is without doubt, Malice’s masterpiece. Something which started as an underground club and which evolved into what can only be described as a phenomenon. The club itself has enticed literally hundreds of thousands of people into its throbbing vortex of sound, light, performance, visuals and of course people. Every Saturday night/Sunday morning, Pop stars mix with builders, Trade is famous for many things, but probably the most famous element is of course the music policy - pumping, underground, cutting edge dance music, supplied by its Fierce Rulin’ Residents. This term is a brand in itself and is known throughout the world. International DJs such as Tall Paul and the late Tony de Vit both came from the Trade stable, a place where DJs cut their teeth! Currently Trade is proud to list the following DJ maestros as its residents, most of whom have been with the club since its inception: Alan Thompson, Malcolm Duffy, Steve Thomas, Pete Wardman, EJ Doubell, Lisa German, Rosco, Gonzalo, Sharp Boys, Peter Ward, Steve Haswell, Fat Tony, Guy Willimas, Ziad, Tom MacMillan, Dolle and Fergie
Basement Jaxx Atlantic Jaxx Recordings is the legendary house music label established in 1994 by Felix Buxton & Simon Ratcliffe, better known as Basement Jaxx. Since starting life as underground producers and party promoters in 1995, putting out their first tracks on shrink wrapped vinyl and throwing hush-hush raves in abandoned South London pizza joints, Basement Jaxx have taken the sound of London, SW9 to the world. While accruing album sales of more than 3 million, including 2005’s double platinum UK No.1 collection “The Singles”, performing legendary live shows, and winning two Brits & a Grammy, the Jaxx, now signed to XL, have continued to release tracks by other artists under the Atlantic Jaxx imprint as well as some of their more “underground” tunes & the occasional “cheeky one” under pseudonyms (you work it out!). Atlantic Jaxx was the place where the world first heard the production skills of Basement Jaxx on releases by artists such as Ronnie Richards & Corrina Joseph. It also spawned Basement Jaxx’s first chart hit, the seminal “Flylife” in 1995. Joel Lardener designed the logo for basement jaxx in 1993. The label and band websites: www.atlanticjaxx.co.uk www.basementjaxx.co.uk
Derek Yates Confusion De Londra Designer of Soul II Soul’s seminal ‘Funki Dred’ logo, Derek went on to make a major contribution to the way Britain’s multicultural club culture looked in the late nineteen eighties. During that time he designed tee-shirts, banners, merchandising and 12” covers for Jazzie B and was responsible for the visual identity and interior design of the groundbreaking acid house night ‘Confusion De Londra’. This led to him being a featured artist in Design After Dark by Cynthia Rose, which was the first survey of the design that accompanied the explosion of dance music culture at that time. Derek is now a senior lecturer in Graphic Design at Camberwell College of Arts, where his research interests include the significance of black music culture to contemporary art & design.
Artwork story The club was originated by Nicky Trax of Phutere Trax pr, the club was the first to bring groundbreaking New York based House music artists to the UK, such as Masters at work, Frankie Knukles, Barbara Tucker, Ten City.
Darren Bartlett Metalheadz logo The Original Logo was created in 1991 by Darren Bartlett who recalls; “I created the original logo in 1991. I was making a lot of graphic images at this time, all hand drawn with an ink pen. Sometime after this Goldie and I first met up and I showed him some of my work. I remember he was immediately captivated by this image, and so the music and the image converged - and the rest is history. To be honest, it was Goldie who elavated the logo, gave it character and a high tech soul. He created its Iconographic status�. Darren Bartlett
Metalheadz Additionally, Metalheadz released the groundbreaking Platinum Breaks series of compilations, which were hailed by critics as the uniquely futuristic sound of young, multiracial Britain. They showcased a maturing genre of music that displayed the influences of reggae, hip-hop, house and techno and were highly-sophisticated and intricately-produced, contrary to the image of the music that had been presented by the mass media up to that point. Before their
release, drum and bass compilations had been more closely associated with live DJ mix albums of varying quality, and the interest in the Platinum Breaks series proved instrumental in bringing the scene from its underground origins to the brink of mainstream success (at least in the UK).
Dave Little After escaping from Art College in the mid 80s, Dave started as a freelance designer at Pens Studio in Soho Square, London. Within a few months Dave realized he needed a bigger challenge, and through a design contact became the head window designer for the HMV flagship store on Oxford Street. His duties included drawing 30ft x 30ft hand painted rendition copies of the latest major releases such as Queen, Bruce Springsteen, Prince, and Billy Idol, which looked incredible, and inspired him to embark on sleeve designs of his own. In the late 80s, a chance meeting with a friend got Dave an introduction to the label Rhythm King, which fast became the UK’s No.1 dance label, signing up acts as: Bomb the Bass, S Express, Beatmasters, Betty Boo, William Orbit, for whom all of which Dave created the highly recognizable artwork. Around this time the acid house scene was in it’s infancy introducing Dave to its founding fathers, from Paul Oakenfold to Terry Farley, Ian St. Paul and Andrew Weatherall. This is where Dave Little’s designs made history! Dave went on to design flyers for seminal club nights, The World, Spectrum, and Boy’s Own; as well as Boy’s Own Records, Flying Records, and FFRR’s ‘Balearic Beats’, album - all of which are in permanent record at the V&A.
Spectrum Spectrum grew out of Future, a night held in The Sanctuary, which annexed the much bigger Heaven club. Many never thought Spectrum, suitably subtitled ‘Theatre of Madness’, would succeed in a 1500 plus capacity club on a Monday night... how wrong they were! At first they looked to be right. For a few weeks, attendance was low, leaving Paul Oakenfold and co-promoter Ian St Paul in dire financial straits. Then, suddenly, the vibe was out and the queues were literally going around the block - and a new phase in club culture had begun! Spectrum continued for a couple of years, changing its name along the way to Land Of Oz. New initiates to the scene, as almost everybody was, marvelled at the full-on atmosphere of the place - hands reaching up into the sweat hazed air, laser lights pulsing and washing over the smiling crowd. Alex Paterson (later of The Orb) DJ’d in the VIP chillout area (the White Room), while Paul created his now trademark fervour in the cavernous main room. The Art was directed by Gary Haisman who had the No: 1 hit the year that Spectrum opened with “They call it Aceed” by DMob The Spectrum Eye image by Dave Little has since been featured in over 25 books worldwide and was shown in the “Art of British Rock” featuring classics such as images from the Sex Pistols. It is now in permanent record in the V&A Museum. The only one of two designs (Boy’s Own is the other) to achieve this. It is classic of 1988 - the year of Acid House! Written by Ed Tomlinson
DiY Soundsystem Emerging in 1989, DiY were amongst the first party rigs to marry the driving impetus of the new music called ‘house’ with the anarchic quest for freedom of the traveller movement. As Matthew Collin explained in ‘Altered State’, his definitive history of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House, DiY “were disappointed when they touched the ideological void at the heart of the new technologically enhanced leisure pursuit.” Twenty years later, the truly remarkable revolution which DiY launched against this void continues. From Castlemorton to the Café del Mar, DiY extended their punk ethos into a veritable empire of record label, recording studio, production, club nights, outdoor parties sound system and serious international underground acclaim. Although becoming deeply involved in a new movement combining protest with pleasure, DiY themselves remained enigmatic, always avoiding simple categorisation and demanding that the collective ethos that underlay their philosophy was not sacrificed to the temptation of momentary fame. Central to this was DiY’s design ethic. Whether applied to flyers, record sleeves, logos or book contributions, the publicity reflected the organisation’s anonymity. When the famous ‘dancing man’ logo (cryptically spelling the letters of DiY appeared on a flyer or poster from Glasgow to Jersey, San Francisco to Sydney, those who understood knew that DiY were heading to town. Despite releasing over 80 twelves and albums on their
own DiY Discs label, being present at many of the seminal cultural moments of the last two decades and travelling and living all over the planet, perhaps the most satisfaction was gained by DiY when ‘In the City 97’ described them as ‘culturally, the most dangerous people in the UK.” The graphics were the work of DJ Digs, who along with Woosh, Simon DK and Jack and many others, provided the deep and sensuous soundtrack to the exploits of this legendary outfit and their mission to bring the music of the clubs to the fields and the freedom of the fields to the clubs. Written by Digs
Full Circle Phil Perry Phil Perry has provided the twisted tribal house soundtrack to literally thousands of club nights; most notably the Full Circle nights in London over which he resided and promoted for seven years in the 1990s. With his international music background he’s a perfect tour DJ and has held court with Massive Attack, Leftfield and the mighty Faithless in recent years. He’s also compiled a great Guerilla CD for Jackpot Records (full of prog house before it was called that) and worked on numerous studio projects over the years. Phil Perry :: an innovator of early house who’s still going strong today. Source Trust the DJ
Charlie Chester Ibiza 90 This image comes from a club that run in 1990 by Charlie Chester, a club that set the tone for the rest of the decade on how the british club experience of the Island of Ibiza, cannel 4 made during this period a documentary called ‘a short film about chilling’ and is largely responsible for introducing Balearic beat and the Ibiza to experience to the world.
Jason Kedgley Tomato Jason has been a member of the highly influential design group Tomato since 1996, designing album covers for Underworld, Junior Boy’s Own records, Sasha and Arthrob as well as film titles for Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting and The Beach.
David Dorrell David Dorrell started his career writing Punk poems for Punk fanzines at school and soon graduated to writing for the New Musical Express and The Face in the early eighties. As a DJ he played at the legendary Dirt Box warehouse parties and the notorious Batcave (and is cited as coining the term ‘Goth’). By the mid-eighties he was DJ at RAW, then the hottest club in London and by 1987 he was Number 1 around the world as a member of MARRS with the seminal dance record, ‘Pump Up The Volume’. As a Remixer and Producer he has worked with such acts as U2, PIL, De La Soul, Tina Turner and Janet Jackson. As a manager he has overseen the careers of Pet Shop Boys, Bush, Dirty Vegas, Sasha and UNKLE. Against his better judgement - and that of others’ he continues to write poetry and now makes art. David Dorrell according was born on the 30th of November, 1962. You do the math.
Love LOVE was founded by David Dorrell and Rod Marsh in the Spring of ’88 and immediately became the most successful night at the legendary WAG Club on London’s Wardour Street. Along with Spectrum and Sin, LOVE was one of a trio of seminal London club nights that ushered in the second ‘Summer of Love’. Taking the Friday night crowd to peaks of ecstacy along with
Dorrell were co-resident DJ’s Steve Proctor and Paul ‘Trouble’ Anderson – both now House Music legends. LOVE ran for two years from Spring ’88 - inspiring David Dorrell to start LOVE Records and thousands of regular LOVE fans to smile a lot.
Mark Archer Altern 8 Altern 8 comprised of Mark Archer and Chris Peat, and was an offshoot of their Nexus 21 project. Of the two, Archer was the house music aficionado, while Peat was a former music technology student with an interest for computers. They crashed the UK charts in 1991 with ‘Infiltrate 202’ and ‘Activ-8 (come with me)’, two chaotic slices of hardcore, the latter reaching number 3. They were aided in their chart aspirations by the circulation of fictitious press stories concerning their alleged activities, which included promoting the decongestant Vicks Vapo Rub, which, it was claimed, heightened the effects of Ecstasy; and standing as local candidates for the 1993 General Election. Their live events were also designed as eye catching performances, where the band donned RAF chemical warfare suits and dust masks. The protagonists long maintained that this was a temporary diversion from their main project, Nexus 21, and confirmed this by releasing a ‘final’ Altern 8 single, ‘Everybody’, in June 1993.
Megadog AKA Club Dog Over the years Megadog events staged acts of the quality of Underworld, The Chemical Brothers, and Orbital, plus more recent successes like Death in Vegas and Lo-Fidelity Allstars, but even the biggest acts will play at Megadog for little more payment than the band at your cousin’s wedding might get. “It’s so funny when you talk to any big name American DJ” Bob Dog laughs, “they say, ‘yeah man, we’d love to come and play one of your parties. It’s only $2000, plus first class tickets on Concorde plus this plus that.’ One thing Megadog was anti-fame, anti ego-massage. ‘To be honest, half those DJs are worth fifty quid if your lucky. They sit there spinning other people’s records and often my cat could mix better’.
Oli Timmins Big Love This image was originally produced in 1993 for Tribal Gathering and was used for flyers, posters and T-Shirts advertising the event. The first Tribal Gathering festival took place in April 1993 at Lower Pertwood Farm, Warminster, Wiltshire although original promoters Paul Shurey and Ian Jenkinson had been promoting raves since 1989. Tribal Gathering came at a time when the huge outdoor raves such as Perception, Vision, Raindance et al had begun to be eclipsed by club-culture. Recognising this change, but still wanting to retain and develop the festival feel, Paul and Ian pioneered the multi-arena dance event concept which, as the name Tribal Gathering suggested, brought together different dance music cultures and styles under one roof. TG 1993, with over 25 000 in attendance, saw Paul Oakenfold, Frankie Knuckles, Nick Warren, Danny Rampling, Pete Tong and David Morales at the same event as Laurent Garnier, Carl Cox, DJ Rap LTJ Bukem, Groove Rider and The Prodigy. Although this maybe common place nowadays, with events such as Creamfields and Homelands, it was almost unheard at that time.
Pierre Anstis He began producing art for the club scene at the age of 18 painting backdrops for the likes of Turnmills and Propaganda. By the time he was 21 he was also working for the church conserving, restoring and renovating interiors for one of the ministers of the Church of England. Painting traditionally in oil and gold leaf he brought the two together and created his painting The Gallery Woman which became the face of Gallery Night at Turnmills. Struck by the spiritual aspects appropriable to both club and church he went on to paint DJs Judge Jules, Seb Fontaine, Tall Paul, Sister Bliss, Brandon Block and Alex P as saints for World DJ Day. Judge Jules now hangs his portrait, Julius Maximus in his home study. In May last year Pierre was invited to lecture at Central St Martin’s in London. Speaking to students about his process of creation he said: “The inspiration for my work comes from what I see and the people I meet; my research is the way I live my life.” Pierre continues to paint portraits which reflect his unique sense of humor and interest in life’s ambiguities. Attracted by the space and freedom of America’s polite society, Pierre has begun to seek out the icons of the...
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Rogan Jeans is a seminal, innovative graphic designer. From the outset of his career, his talents were recognised by a host of big brands and corporate companies, (Channel 4, BBC, Phonogram, Body shop, EMI, to name but a few), for whom he designed promotional materials. At the same time as working in the corporate sector, he found a personal, creative voice and artistic vision in designing promotional materials for the emergent, underground acid house/rave scene classic designs for Clink Street-RIP, Mr C’s seminal Plink Plonk Label and Voodoo parties. His utilisation of a constructivist style, created memorable promotional materials that contributed to the motivation of a whole movement. His passion for important socialpolitical concerns have also contributed to designs for Friends of the Earth, MIND, Shelter... His work continues to society’s vital concerns.
off lea bridge road
in Progress)
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RIP (Revolution Voodoo
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RIP (Revolution in Progress) Paul Stone & Lulu Styles Winfield started RiP in Jan 1988. Located in a labyrinth-like warehouse complex on Clink Street, near London Bridge, it was, centuries ago, Britain’s first prison. Mr C from the Shamen, played their first experimental acid set at RIP. Eddie Richards and Kid Batchelor played hard underground house to a very diverse crowd, from gangsters, football casuals, models, photographers, filmakers to people in shell suits - all got down to the RiP Vibe
Sign of the Times Fiona from Sign of the Times commissioned the poet Martyn Passey to write a poem and Paul Shrobrook to do the graphics. The poem captures the time in 1989 where the first flush of the rave scene was drawing to a close because of the police raids and the negative tabloid press attention was starting to kill the parties. It sums up the fantastic music, friendships, sunshine and warmth of the era and how special it all was. Sign of the Times Started in December 1990 the Sign of the Times parties were legendary, a total of over 60 events took place all over London using the best new talent from the music and the fashion scene. Amongst the DJs that played were Terry Farley (Boy’s Own), Danny Rampling, Darren Emerson (underworld), Rocky and the Diesal (X-press 2), Mark Moore (S-Express), Justin Robertson, the Dust Brothers who later became the Chemical Brothers, Andy Weatherall, Paul Daley (leftfield), Jon Carter and many, many more. Parties were promoted by original art flyers by Paul Shobrook and by word of mouth. Crazy outfits, kitsch acts and themes prevailed and the emphasis was on having a good time to beat the gloomy economic era that was the early 90s. Guests who came to events included Leigh Bowery, Primal Scream, Bjork (who also opened the Covent Garden shop by jumping on a sandcastle), Alexander Mcqueen, Issey Blow, Nina Hagen, Dee Dee Ramone, Nora Lydon, Paula Yates and a cast of characters from the club, fashion and music scene. Jeremy Deller (who went on the win the Turner Prize) took the pictures and the atmosphere was of fun, fabulousness and cutting edge music. Written by Fiona, Sign of the Times
Tom Hingston Studio Tom Hingston is an established graphic designer based in London. The Tom Hingston Studio, based in London, comprises four members and works across a range of fields ranging from music, fashion and film to advertising, publishing and branding. Renowned for it’s innovative and highly thoughtful approach to design, the studio has won numerous awards for it’s art direction and design on a number of music projects. Clients and collaborators include Christian Dior, Mandarina Duck, Nike, Massive Attack, Nick Cave, Robbie Williams and The Rolling Stones.
Tonka Design Tonka Soundsystem Tonka’s “First Monday of the Month” nights at Brighton’s Zap Club were a legendary fixture in England’s free party scene of the early nineties.
Suddi Raval Together, Hardcore uproar One of the first British dance acts to enter the UK top 40 singles chart with a House record, the Northern house outfit TOGETHER formed in 1989 following a chance meeting at one of the legendary Blackburn warehouse parties. Jonathan Donaghy and Suddi Raval combined their shared influences to create their debut single HARDCORE UPROAR with one ambition in mind: to hear the record in their local haunt and epicentre of Acid House culture, FAC 51 The Hacienda. The duo’s aim to create “the most powerful record they could produce” at the recording studios used by The Stone Roses, A Guy Called Gerald and 808 State was aided by 10,000 revellers in a warehouse. The band requested permission from Britain’s biggest underground party organisation “Hardcore Uproar” for permission to record the crowds of their events to be used as the introduction to the record. The party organisers agreed asking for only one thing in return: for the ensuing record to be named after their already infamous warehouse parties. Incredibly the duo narrowly escaped arrest as Police stormed the event and arrested all people associated with the organisers. To further enhance the legend, not only was the party the biggest of its kind it was also the last. After issuing 1,000 white label’s the buzz for the record snowballed, catapulting the duo into the attention of
the nation’s major labels and radio stations. Prior to it’s release their debut single was the most sought after record of the year in 1990. Following one of the most publicized bidding wars amongst the major record labels in UK dance music history the band finally chose to sign to Pete Tong’s seminal FFRR label. The record stayed in the UK singles charts for over 8 weeks and reached a top position of number 12 in August 1990. Only three weeks after it’s commercial release Jonathan Donaghy was tragically killed with his girl friend Emma whilst planning to perform at a festival in Ibiza. Suddi Raval has continued to record and release under the name ‘TOGETHER’ and continues to perform live with new and old material.
Ed Coward The Gallery / Turmills / Prolific Rave Propagator / Creative Ed graduated at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design in 1999. After a short stint at Club On magazine he moved into the art of club promotion and started working with Turnmills’ Danny Newman at the turn of the millennium. Since then he’s been producing flyers, press ads and on-line material for various club nights including: The Gallery, Headstart, London Calling, MetroGroove, City Loud, Roach, Release Yourself, Nocturnal, Get Loaded, Split, VERYVERYWRONGINDEED and Missdemeanours. He is also responsible for much of the Metro Weekender festival artwork including Get Loaded in the Park and SW4. Highlights have included designing the Big Issue front cover for Get Loaded in the Park and the Café Mambo album for React.
Mutoid Waste Company The Mutoid Waste Company has been around for quite a long time. There isn’t an exact date of their creation: it came together gradually, as life started from the bubbling lagoon in a thousand dark nights. At ‘86’s Glastonbury Festival they built a major replica of Stonehenge with trashed cars. During ’88 they organised all-night parties in London’s King’s Cross. Disappearing into Europe for 17 years where there exists an culture to alternative street theatre and performance , Now back in Britain they have just finished their sell out exhibition MUTATE BRITAIN, the final part of 2008 saw a huge collaborative effort with Behind the Shutters Gallery in London. ‘a multimedia pile up of artistic endeavour celebrating the evolution of artistic spirit’. Featuring a mixture of new cutting edge artists as well as some of the biggest names in UK Street Art. Central to the show was a reworking of some old military scrap from the Mutoid/Spiral Tribe collaboration in Berlin circa 1994,
Jimmy Cauty One time member The KLF (also known as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (aka The JAMs), The Timelords & other names) were a band from the British acid house movement during the late 80s & early 90s. releasing hip hop-inspired and sampleheavy records as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, and on one occasion (the British hit single “Doctorin’ the Tardis”) as The Timelords. As The KLF, Drummond and Cauty pioneered the genres “stadium house” (rave music with a pop rock production and sampled crowd noise) & “ambient house”. The KLF released a series of international top-ten hits on their own KLF Communications record label, and became the biggest-selling singles act in the world for 1991. With The KLF’s profits, Drummond and Cauty established the K Foundation and sought to subvert the art world, staging an alternative art award for the worst artist of the year and burning one million pounds sterling. Although Drummond and Cauty remained true to their word of May 1992—the KLF Communications catalogue remains deleted in the UK—they have released a small number of new tracks since then, as the K Foundation, The One World Orchestra and most recently, in 1997, as 2K.
Pez Pez - Contemporary artist Steven Perry is best known for his colourfull surreal illustrations which have adorned club flyers in the UK and across the world. Starting his career as a Graffiti Artist in the 80’s and then on to using the Airbrush he has a unique style which is synonymous with Urban Britain and Dance Music Culture. flyers artwork highlights include Rage, Therapy and Beyond Therapy, Raindance and many more between 1989 and 1996
Beyond Therapy Beyond Therapy was an original 1989 illegal dance party organisation. This event was held in Harlow Essex and was eventually closed down by the police in the early hours of the morning. As the police in full riot gear raided the party with great enthusiasm, the DJ specially selected the track “Welcome” by Sueno Latino, to herald their entrance. They were met by apathetic clubbers more interested in continuing to dance. Pez recalls: “The original flyer was a collage of two babies, I decided to cut them into sections to add that surreal Pez element that was missing and to show the world the feelings that I had at that time, the dance movement was so new, young, energetic, brave, illegal and wrong yet so right and most of all, ours, not like anything else happening at the time and this picture had to show that...two very happy children in the most heavenly of settings yet cut into half creating a reaction dividing the viewer into those that clearly understood the secret and were like me “Beyond Therapy” and those that would never and could never understand and were ultimately confused or disturbed by the imagery.
Raindance This event held at Jenkins Lane in East London was part of a series of many parties held at this site, starting off with a party supposedly for a few hundred people and rapidly expanding into events up to approximately 8,000. Pez recalls: “Part of a triptych (see original flyer) this Magritte influenced work shows two people who can never be together for they live in completely different worlds, be it geographically as shown in the other two images or by other imposed barriers which keep them apart: religion, race, age, gender or socially forbidden circumstances. The climactic communion happens in this other mystical dimension beneath the veil where all barriers
are
removed
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feelings can flow freely�..
all
thoughts
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Back to Basics The longest running weekly club night in the world, when a fully fledged teenager comes of age and gets the key to the door. Clubland as it’s now known has been inflicted, afflicted by this rowdy and voracious band of merry pranksters partying like no others before them, Basics are probably the first and last in town that have stuck to their original script and tattooed their multi – coloured slogans onto the psyches of the club masses: ‘Fuck Forever”, “Excess all areas’ and ‘Two Steps Further Than Any Other Fucker!’ instantly spring to mind. Seeking out new talent and bringing it to the fore. It has been responsible for helping spawn the careers of thousands of wannabe DJ’s and dance act’s alike, including the likes of now household names such as, Sasha, Daft Punk, Basement Jaxx. Dave spent a considerable amount of his time in the early 90’s in the USA looking for talent in such notorious clubs as The Sound Factory, For promoter Dave Beer it was never about a career, always about a way of life, a lust for life and the pursuit of happiness. A purveyor of good times, bringing joy into peoples lives, even if for only a short moment in time. Beer/Gundill 1995
Bastard Bunny Bastard Bunny was a rabbit of the early 1990s. In 1992 he appeared in his own eponymous comic and then in Deadline magazine along side Jamie Hewlett’s Tank Girl. In 1994 he moved to his own strip cartoon in the New Musical Express, where he embodied the spirit of new punk that was at the time spitting and spluttering its way through Camden Town and Soho. As dance music got progressively harder and techno-tonic, he became aligned with Andrew Weatherall’s Sabres of Paradise record label and legendary Sabresonic club, where the BB rabbit head T shirts and lop ear hats multiplied weekly on the dance floor. If Tank Girl captured the riot girl spirit of early 90s grunge, then Bastard Bunny came to represent the DIY attitude of the London club scene. He appeared in magazines like The Face and Ministry and even in the Drum Club’s Sound System video. In 1998 Virgin published his collected stories. And at that point, a bit like the club scene itself, he crashed and burned. Occasionally he would be spotted on stage and TV on a T shirt worn by the comedian Bill Bailey. Even today the T shirts sometimes appear and get snapped up instantly on eBay. But you can’t keep a good rabbit down. His adventures in exile are currently being animated by 12Foot6 (Modern Toss,Dog Judo) and will appear later this year on Paramount Comedy Channel. Bastard Bunny is written by David Anderson and drawn by Martyn Smith
Jaime Reid Two Steps Further Than Any other Fucker Jamie Reid is famously known for being part of the punk movement and branding the Sex Pistols, but little is known of his artwork within club culture. His successes include branding Leeds’s Back to Basics events and to co-promoting the 1994 Sunday afternoon chill out club, Megatripolis, in Shoreditch Town Hall, famous for having a 20m parachute in the dance floor with the audience dancing underneath it. Jamie’s Krusty Kapers includes . the Reclaim The Streets campaign, Castlemorton and the Battle of The Beanfield having followed a trajectory of dissent directly from the Miner’s Strike to the Poll Tax riots. As we as being fond of Fraser Clarke and the Pronoia/Zippy The artist’s website: www.jamiereid.uk.ne
Megatripolis Megatripolis was an innovative, underground London nightclub created by Encyclopaedia Psychedelica editor and founder of the Zippie movement Fraser Clark, partner Sionaidh Craigen, partners JJ and Bugsy and 25% partner Jez Turner, from Tribal Energy, together with a great many others. The club combined New Age ideology with Rave culture to create a vibrant, festival-like atmosphere presenting a wide variety of crosscultural ideas and experiences. The club was a reaction to the raves and events that were going on at the time which promised a lot and delivered little. Club nights ran regularly on Thursdays from 1993 until 1996 and from then intermittently until 2001, being the focus of much of the Zippie movement. The club and its related activities also helped to popularise ideas such as cyberculture and the Internet between those years. The club first started at The Marquee in London when it was at 105 Charing Cross Road, at first as a collaboration with Tribal Energy on Thursday nights in June 1993. With a lecture by Terence McKenna on its opening night, and with
DJs Nik Sequenci, Tribal Energy, Solar Quest and Mixmaster Morris. Smart drinks were supplied and sold by Steve and Inga and production was provided by the evolution/dream crew (including many members of the evolution collective), the Marquee in the form of manager Craig Taylor and Tribal Energy. A disagreement between the Tribal Energy and Megatripolis crews led to the latter being thrown out of the venue eight weeks later. Tribal Energy continued with a club on the same night called metropolis which ran for 7 weeks. The crew consolidated and grew after the regular Zippie picnic (which Fraser Clark founded in 1989) in June 1993 on Hampstead Heath. On October 21, 1993, the Heaven nightclub under Charing Cross Station became home to the club. 4000 people turned up for this opening night. Heaven was London’s original gay-only nightclub, but had run non-gay (known as Pyramid) nights for many years, including famous clubs such as Rage, Earth, Spectrum and Land of Oz. The Megatripolis ‘Festival in a box’ on Thursday nights attracted a diverse patronage from a wide age range, many of whom would not otherwise have considered going clubbing. By early 1994 it had also taken over the adjoining Sound Shaft
nightclub and turned it into an ambient space with frequent all-night sets by Mixmaster Morris on the club’s fourth separate sound stage. Megatripolis also put on several large parties with Frank Schofield at Bagley’s in Kings Cross and escalated its political agenda by renting an armoured car for the Criminal Justice Bill protest rally in July 1994. The club ran until New Year’s 1995 when internal pressures split it apart. It continued with a diminished agenda on an underground basis until it was closed on Thursday October 24, 1996, the club’s third birthday. A UK tour and two shows at the Mad club in Athens took place in the spring / summer of 1996. A 3-CD album representing the club was released in July 1996 on Funky Peace Productions 2000 featuring mixes by DJ regulars and completely packaged on hemp (tree-free) paper. Production equipment owned by the club was distributed to members of its crew. At a court case in London in June 1998 brought by Fraser Clark remaining rights to the name Megatripolis were returned to Fraser Clark. A single Megatripolis event organised by Fraser Clark took place at Heaven in May 2000.
Trevor Johnson Trevor Johnson is a graphic designer and a consultant. He produced several sleeves for Factory Records artists, including Stockholm Monsters and A Certain Ratio, and designed many aspects of the Haçienda nightclub. He currently runs Object 57 and is also the owner and creative director of the graphic design company Via Communications, both in Manchester, England.
Fac 51 The Haçienda from a converted a former yachting showroom — boasting a massive, single volume space — into a true “people’s palace”. with brightly clad balcony supports and diagonal stripes painted on columns setting-up various “journeys” through the building. Siting the stage to one side, and using fly bars for theatre lights, — bollards & catseyes delineated the dance-floor — a city within a city, of pathways, plazas and bars, which acted as intimate refuge amid the cavernous space. The name itself quotes the Situationist manifesto; “The haçienda must be built”, the code being its Factory Records catalogue number. Source Ben Kelly, www.benkellydesign.com
Mark Wigan Mark is an Urban Art pioneer, an initiator and chronicler of club culture since the mid 1980s. His prolific output has included exhibitions worldwide, live painting performances, illustrations for I-D Magazine and the NME, club promotion and club and music graphics including The Limelight Clubs in London and New York, mural paintings described by Andy Warhol as HOT, nightclub projects include the Brain Club, LoveRanch, Cafe de Paris, P. Picasso club Tokyo. Exhibitions include Circulo de Belles Artes, Madrid, Spiral Hall Tokyo and many other international galleries. Record sleeves include A Guy Called Gerald, Frankie Bones and Deviant Records. His paintings are held in collections worldwide
The Brain Club The Brain, the infamous house and techno club in Soho, was originally founded in 1989 by Sean McLusky and Mark “Wigan� Williams. Many successful DJs and producers played there including Norman Cook, Orbital, Leftfield, Goldie, Moby, The Shamen and Mixmaster Morris, to name but a few. Back then live performances were rare on the techno scene. However, this was revolutionized with the arrival of raves. Live sets and P.As were actively encouraged at a time when vocals were reserved only for mainstream house music. The Brain was also renowned for its extremely diverse clientele with stars such as The Chemical Brothers, Paul Oakenfold, Nenah Cherry, the Happy Mondays and George Michael featuring on the guest list
Love Ranch By 1991 Sean McLusky & Paul Khera and his everwidening cast list of like-minded followers had found a new home on Saturday nights at Maximus, in London’s Leicester Square. The now legendary ‘Love Ranch’ club night was created, renowned for its vast popularity and unpredictability with a cast of resident Djs that included, Paul Daley from Leftfield, Darren Emerson from Underworld, Danny Rampling from Shoom and Al Mackenzie from D-Ream. Following Love Ranch, in 1993, McLusky also re-launched and promoted the recently re-discovered Cafe de Paris with his flagship ‘Merry England’ club night.
George Georgiu George Georgiou began designing flyers, banners and dance floors in his spare time for a variety of warehouse parties and clubs, back in ‘85. In the first 5 years he designed enough banners to cover a football field and numerous flyers for among others, Nicky Holloway. During the day, as an interior designer, he designed film producer, Terry Gilliam’s house, a number of restaurants and various retail outlets. Later credited with adopting the ‘Smiley’ face as the symbol for Acid House, he created the first ‘Shoom’ flyer for Danny Rampling in ‘87, now one of the most sought after and rarest flyers. The highlight of his career at this point (‘89) was performing onstage at ‘Sin ’with ‘Beat’s Working’ the Acid House band he formed with Nicky Holloway and Doug Gordon. He designed the stage set, the flyers for the club, the banners on the walls and the t-shirts worn by many of the audience. Released by London records with sleeve illustrations by Georgiou (and Dave Little) the single bombed, but at least it looked good. He went on to design ‘The Milk Bar’ and ‘Velvet Underground’ nightclubs for Nicky Holloway in the 90’s and continued designing flyers for a new generation of clubbers into the millennium. Today he is in partnership in a London based Interior Design company, General Practice, designing restaurants, bars, shops, exhibition stands, book covers, CD sleeves and the occasional flyer.
Shoom The Shoom Club was set up Danny Rampling in 1987. George Georgiou recalls “I first met Danny Rampling in early ’87 through Nicky Holloway. They were great friends. Still are I believe. He came down to help paint banners one day. I remember because he had to shoot off for a couple of hours to DJ on Kiss FM in its pirate days. I think ‘Shoom’ was his first serious attempt at a club more or less on his own. After the first night, he and his then wife, Jenny asked me if I would do the next flyer and some banners for them. I think it was make or break time for them on the club front, they were skint and realised they needed to monopolise on the success of the first night. Little did anyone know. I had a free hand on the design apart from one request - Danny insisted I use the ‘Smiley’ face symbol which I wasn’t that keen on. Nevertheless it came together quite easily. At the time I was fascinated with ‘tumbling’ images, I think it was because of the relatively new computer generated 3D images which were prevalent in film, video, graphics etc. So I made the ‘Smileys’ look three dimensional and made them tumble down the page either side of the text. Of course they looked like pills, which people picked up on immediately. Okay maybe it wasn’t the greatest piece of graphic design, but it was certainly spot on at the time. I remember on the night, going down to the original venue - the Tower Gym on Southwark Street - walking around the corner to find a huge queue outside the entrance and the road, literally carpeted in this flyer. Now they are fetching silly money, apparently the most sought after flyer of all. Someone described it as ‘iconic’ recently. I thought that was very funny”.
Junior Tomlins Junior Tomlin with a career spanning 27 years went to Bam Shaw School of Art, then Goldsmiths College. Started his artistic career in the computer games packaging industry producing artwork in the early eighties. His initial pieces were done using an airbrush with his style considered by many as being part Sci Fi, part fantasy. In the early nineties he was at his most prolithic, producing some of the best well remembered and iconic images of that decade, images that has helped and inspired a generation to create art. He has had many commissions doing covers for leading dance labels, the first being Space Gladiator by Renegade Soundwave on the Mute record label , Fashion Records a compilation jungle album featuring Cutty Ranks and Poison Chang. His style developed over the years and he moved into creating rave flyers. His airbrushing technique combined with his futuristic style of delivery earned him the name the Salvador Dali of Rave‚ in the late eighties when the rave scene was flourishing in Britain. He amassed a moderate following among the Rave community in London and also in Japan and Australia, where his early flyers are still in demand and considered collectables, he is also known to street and graffiti artists of that period through the work done in the rave scene With the advancement of electronic graphical media, Junior quickly adapted his artistic abilities and moved into digital spectrum, working for three years for a computer animation company, AMG FX based in Soho. His film credits include‚ Nightbreed, 1990, a Clive Barker film, Lost in Space‚ 1998 where he assisted in the special effects ‚ The Fairy King of Ar‚Ä 1998 fantasy family film, Respect an Oz Hutchings film, and a series called ultra guardians.
Freelancing for many years, he has worked for various companies such as John Brown Junior. Publishing, Titan Publishing and Panini - famous for producing football stickers and licensed to produce Marvel comics in the UK. He worked as a digital colourist there with credits including Action Man, Transformers Armada, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Judge Dredd and numerous pocket book covers and collectors cards for magic the gathering. He has also worked for Cartoon Network, 2000AD, Audio Rom, Marvel comics, Panini, saddler’s wells theatre, bit, and many others. His most memorable moment was when the highly accomplished street artist asked him to sign a copy a record that junior had done in his collection.
Dream Zone Junior Tomlin recalls: “The rave promoter gave me ‘carte blanche’ to come up with the image, so I got sketching and came up with a woman’s head floating above Stonehenge in space. She’s wearing a crown and flames are seen coming from the top of her head. At that time new pictures of Neptune started to appear, so I incorporated the planet into the design. Her eyes are shut to give a more dream like quality... apparently this image had a marked impact on the rave scene”
High on Hope Design and co promoter Patrick Lilley The Nineties dawned and it was time for Jay to seek new musical challenges. On September 1st, 1990 - he hosted the very first legal broadcast on KISS 100fm (as it became known) after they won their legal licence. He was responsible for co-establishing the very first ‘Paradise Garage’ style club in Britain called ‘High On Hope’ with ex partner Patrick Lilley - playing a spiritually inspired mix of deep US house mixed with original disco classics. He was also responsible for introducing - then unknown US deejays and artists such as Tony Humphries, Marshall Jefferson, Blaze, Ten City, Adeva and Louis Vega (MAW) to the UK for the first time ever (another first). He again was responsible for reviving interest in - and in some instances was responsible for - kick starting the careers in the uk of original US dance divas such as Jocelyn Brown, Chaka Khan, Sharon Redd, Loleatta Holloway, Kim Myzelle, En Vogue and Gwen Guthrie - finally helping secure for them the uk recognition he felt they richly deserved. All regularly apeared at his ground breaking club to rapturous acclaim every time. Source Norman Jay.com
Queer Nation Designed by Alan MacDonald Queer Nation is a London clubland institution and it’s one of London’s most original club nights. The crowd is predominantly gay guys but girls and a few straights are made welcome. It’s multiracial, cosmopolitan and attitude free. Queer Nation Speakeasy is its re-imagining as a Friday nighter, re-born, re-freshed and returned to Brixton at the equally re-invesnted N-Somnia (formerly SubStation South). The music is high quality soulful house and classic disco music supplied by resident DJs and stalwarts of the London scene: Soulful / Funky House and US Garage.
Cafe del Mar Volumen 1 Design by Peter Chadwick The Café del Mar is perhaps most known around the world for its chill-out music compilations. The songs are described as balearic ambient, easy listening music. The collections of the music played at the café were first sold on cassette at the end of the 1980s. In 1994, the first official “Café del Mar” CD was released, which included works by world-renowned artists. Following the great success of the first release, a total of 16 volumes of the main compilation series have been published. www.popularuk.com
ourhistory ...growingculture Design By Rogan Jeans.
all image copyrights in the catalogue
Printing by WDP Ronco
owned by the artists
ourhistory Logos designed by Jason Kedgley www.culthist.com
Š2011 ourhistory, concept Ernesto Leal
ourhistory ...growingculture ourhistory is the creation of Ernesto Leal and its aim is to both record and archive the collective memories of the individuals who inhabit the moving places and changing spaces of the city. Through the medium of the visual arts, Our History places maximum emphasis on the experiences of those who are directly affected by the continuously changing nature of the city. It sets out to celebrate, recognise and to tell the stories of ‘those who were there’. ourhistory is a collaborative project that brings together creative practitioners from all walks of life who are then invited to take part in creating ‘Our History’. An exhibition which brings together
some of the most iconic graphic design, taken from the original flyers used to publicised Raves and Acid House parties over the last 20years. Officially launched in November 2008 at the Londonewcastle Project Space Huntingdon Project Gallery on Redchurch Street, East London. The exhibition ran over three days, received maximum press coverage and was visited by over 3000 people. In February2009 the exhibition moved to Selfridges UltraLounge Gallery Space as part of the ARTCORE show. Since then, ourhistory travelled to the Time Out Cafe- Tokyo and the U-Dance StudiosShanghai. ‘ourhistory’ exhibition has to date been visited by over 10 000 people worldwide.