A couple of months ago PSFK reported on a burst of illegal raves around Britain – something that smelled to us like 1989 all over again. Now, Paul Flynn in The Times reports on the rebirth of rave for the noughties.
From its inception at the end of the 1980s, “old rave” (as it is now called) gradually degenerated into a dreary free-party scene, where men of a certain age cavort to increasingly chin-stroking dance music. But the early spirit of rave never died; it was just waiting for its time to come round again. New rave is a second coming: not just a throwback to the lawless euphoria of its golden age, but an aesthetic focus for a new generation of club kids, artists, fashion students and night-time celebrities who just want to dress up and get down.
New rave was publicly christened by the singer of its fluoro-coloured flagship band, Klaxons, who are at the tipping point of crossover success. The scene has thrown up a raft of great, slightly idiotic new pop groups and DJs, including Trash Fashion, Shitdisco, Silverlink, WarBoy and Namalee ’n’ the Namazonz…
Not everyone is so enthusiastic, however. The clubbing magazine Mixmag has dismissed new rave as just being about a few silly kids in east London. But they are missing the point. All radical shifts in nightclub culture are about silly kids somewhere. The Haçienda was about a few silly kids in Manchester, Taboo was about a bunch of silly west London woofters in the early 1980s, and Studio 54 in New York was about Bianca Jagger, Liza Minnelli, Michael Jackson and Andy Warhol mostly being a bit silly. This group of silly creative mates is no different. A new club moment is upon us.
Get in your car and get round the M25 quick.
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