The rave timeline
As record companies try and flog endless 'old-skool' compilations, TheSite.org takes an action-packed look back at the early years of rave.
1987: British DJs largin' it in Ibiza thought the Balearic beats played over there would go down well in the UK. They brought some back to London, but it didn't take off as planned. Rejected by the mainstream, the music found its happy place underground instead. Massive youth unemployment together with a punk scene that had had its day was plenty reason enough for Acid House to be born. Warehouse parties were already happening all over London, but rave music gave them another lease of life.
1988: One year on and raves were really catching on, as was the club drug ecstasy. The scene had moved away from the smaller, cooler crowds to a more mainstream following. Increasing numbers of punters meant bigger venues were needed, moving the parties away from industrial estates and out to the muddy fields of the countryside. Many of the parties took place around the M25 (aka. the magic roundabout), making them accessible to as many people as possible.
1990: The mainstream clubs began to cash in on the scene by organising legal parties. The Government attempted to reduce ecstasy use by introducing the Entertainment Act - shutting down raves and introducing harsher restrictions for clubs.
1992: Rave culture seemed to peak in the summer when the biggest commercial raves attracted 25-35, 000 people while the illegal techno traveller festival at Castlemorton Common drew an estimated 30- 40,000.
"The drugs culture took a disturbing new turn at the weekend when the biggest ever 'acid house' party was held. As 11,000 youngsters descended on a quiet airfield in the middle of the night, drug pushers were waiting to tempt them with an evil selection of narcotics." (The Daily Mail)
Approximately half a million people regularly use Ecstasy in the UK alone
1993: The government announced further acts to control illegal raves. With the law coming down so harshly, the scene turned legal and commercial as clubs organised one off events and longer licensing hours meant they could offer all-night dancing at their venues. The likes of Cream, Renaissance and Ministry of Sound had hit the big time and superstar DJs were more famous than film stars.
1994: Larger scale commercial raves were held across the UK, even in Wembley while the Criminal Justice Act came into force allowing police to order people they suspect to be organising or going to a rave off the land.
And so to today. . .
While the Magic Roundabout years have been and gone, the nation's passion for dance music hasn't. In fact dance music is everywhere: TV advertisements, radio jingles, film soundtracks as well as in the clubs and bars all across the country. And it's not just new dance music. The current fashion for nostalgia has seen a sea of early dance anthem compilations being released, with names like 'Back to the Old Skool' and 'Old Skool Euphoria'. Thirty-somethings can now reminisce about the golden age of rave over dinner parties.
Ecstasy's popularity has not died either - approximately half a million people regularly use the drug in the UK alone. Illegal parties haven't stopped, but they aren't on the scale of the early raves. In fact in rural areas where the club scene is more mums and toddlers than super-club, gatherings in woods, quarries and cliff tops happen all the time, while in London illegal squat parties can be found at the ring of a number - if Ketamine and dark drum'n'bass is your bag.
The big festivals have begun to cater for today's rave generation. Homelands and Creamfields attract maximum capacity crowds while in 2005 Glastonbury increased its dance tent to a village, and now has eight stages.
The Criminal Justice Act also caused many ravers to look abroad for kicks, spending summers in places like Goa, Ibiza and Ayia Napa.
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