I remember this period, was involve with both free parties and demoscene/cracking, which for me were both related in free creativity in margin of law and mainstream economy, and i was very pissed with all the laws & harsh repression against this in the 2000 :) it was very weird and intense period for me lol
But i have so much good memories of those underground scene, never understood why the ban has been so harsh against it, and how they made a big deal to make it look very bad and criminal, while most were rather peacful and more in underground digital creativity out of companies and corporation.
But in a way corporate economy is always surrounded with violence to defend their interest.
Hey @hobby1 thanks for the great comment my friend, I really appreciate it! And yes exactly in many ways we were some of the first of that generation to fight against the system and in many ways the ripples of that rebellion reverberate throughout our society to this day.
I wrote these words but didn't include them in the post "As I've grown older and had time to reflect upon this pivotal moment in British cultural history. I've come to realise that it was never the music or even the drugs that scared the authorities. It was the unity and fellowship it created among the youth of a divided country"
Its something ive been wondering for a while, but as for authorities fear if unity, i dont think it was exactly this, because as i got more in the way of thinking of authorities and politics, like free mason or so, i know they are able to estimate the degree of unity and mobilisation of a group in term of capacity of achievement, of very strong bond on very clear principle like in free masonery and i dont think they would consider free parties as being structured enough to be a real threat in term of united force of mobilisation like in politics.
But still the repression has been very organized, and i saw the crack down happening methodically, and vast ressource being dedicated to kill legitimity of those motion, to only speak of them in bad term in the media, never promoting the posistive side of it, regarding international connections, digital art, way of life, only focused on drugs and accidents, and added to very strong police side.
In a way i was close to many organizers of those motions, who were into this since tje beginning, often emerging from getho culture, and police abuse, violence etc is quite a constant that is witnessed daily, and the whole trend only got worst with terrorism, emergency state, security bill after security bill, i would say even parties were only the emerged part of the iceberg, more seen as being a place were people can be themselves, out of clubs with harsh security, and rather expansive, where people from getho or rural poor place were not really welcome, and in the first period of raves, cops were a bit lost behind and it was exeptional to be able to have parties with our music, for free, without security, where all the getho and all come without fear of judgment and rejection at entrance of clubs.
But i think what disturbed more is it killed all the hype with clubs, where authority wete still able to select easily music played, and collect high fee in clubs and all while controlling the messages and environnement, where free parties made their own decoration and athmosphere, as a marking of alternative style, and showed it was possible to have alternative to clubs that was even better and cheaper, and this whole club hype was very fake and very boring for the high price.
For me the cracking/demoscene world was same objective, a bit killing the fake hype of corporate software, and showing other way to concieve software with video games, psycheledics graphics, and underground scene of computer programing, which ended with same thing with zero mediatisation of the positive side, and huge accent put on the illegal side, leading into massive raids and the whole thing being outlawed totally, and having the same philosophy than free parties with the goal not being to unite people under a flag in politics motion, but gathering alternative creative thinking to make an alternative to corporate thinking.
And drug addiction striked mostly people who were already lost before, like in tatcher era, loads of people were feeling abandonned by the state, and lot of depression and psychological problems to people who were not specially used to street way of constant on the go, surrounded by false friend drugs and cops, and no real solution, but the street wise people of the free parties knew better. For me it was really an escape from the dead end many people were parked into at that time, even if drug abuse have been maybe under estimated how it could turn wrong with certain persons.
Hey I remember this :D .. thanks for taking the time to read and share!
I remember this period, was involve with both free parties and demoscene/cracking, which for me were both related in free creativity in margin of law and mainstream economy, and i was very pissed with all the laws & harsh repression against this in the 2000 :) it was very weird and intense period for me lol
But i have so much good memories of those underground scene, never understood why the ban has been so harsh against it, and how they made a big deal to make it look very bad and criminal, while most were rather peacful and more in underground digital creativity out of companies and corporation.
But in a way corporate economy is always surrounded with violence to defend their interest.
Hey @hobby1 thanks for the great comment my friend, I really appreciate it! And yes exactly in many ways we were some of the first of that generation to fight against the system and in many ways the ripples of that rebellion reverberate throughout our society to this day.
I wrote these words but didn't include them in the post "As I've grown older and had time to reflect upon this pivotal moment in British cultural history. I've come to realise that it was never the music or even the drugs that scared the authorities. It was the unity and fellowship it created among the youth of a divided country"
Thanks again :)
Its something ive been wondering for a while, but as for authorities fear if unity, i dont think it was exactly this, because as i got more in the way of thinking of authorities and politics, like free mason or so, i know they are able to estimate the degree of unity and mobilisation of a group in term of capacity of achievement, of very strong bond on very clear principle like in free masonery and i dont think they would consider free parties as being structured enough to be a real threat in term of united force of mobilisation like in politics.
But still the repression has been very organized, and i saw the crack down happening methodically, and vast ressource being dedicated to kill legitimity of those motion, to only speak of them in bad term in the media, never promoting the posistive side of it, regarding international connections, digital art, way of life, only focused on drugs and accidents, and added to very strong police side.
In a way i was close to many organizers of those motions, who were into this since tje beginning, often emerging from getho culture, and police abuse, violence etc is quite a constant that is witnessed daily, and the whole trend only got worst with terrorism, emergency state, security bill after security bill, i would say even parties were only the emerged part of the iceberg, more seen as being a place were people can be themselves, out of clubs with harsh security, and rather expansive, where people from getho or rural poor place were not really welcome, and in the first period of raves, cops were a bit lost behind and it was exeptional to be able to have parties with our music, for free, without security, where all the getho and all come without fear of judgment and rejection at entrance of clubs.
But i think what disturbed more is it killed all the hype with clubs, where authority wete still able to select easily music played, and collect high fee in clubs and all while controlling the messages and environnement, where free parties made their own decoration and athmosphere, as a marking of alternative style, and showed it was possible to have alternative to clubs that was even better and cheaper, and this whole club hype was very fake and very boring for the high price.
For me the cracking/demoscene world was same objective, a bit killing the fake hype of corporate software, and showing other way to concieve software with video games, psycheledics graphics, and underground scene of computer programing, which ended with same thing with zero mediatisation of the positive side, and huge accent put on the illegal side, leading into massive raids and the whole thing being outlawed totally, and having the same philosophy than free parties with the goal not being to unite people under a flag in politics motion, but gathering alternative creative thinking to make an alternative to corporate thinking.
And drug addiction striked mostly people who were already lost before, like in tatcher era, loads of people were feeling abandonned by the state, and lot of depression and psychological problems to people who were not specially used to street way of constant on the go, surrounded by false friend drugs and cops, and no real solution, but the street wise people of the free parties knew better. For me it was really an escape from the dead end many people were parked into at that time, even if drug abuse have been maybe under estimated how it could turn wrong with certain persons.