This Autumn sees acid house culture celebrated at The Old Market Hove in a totally unique, ground-breaking show hosted by the author of award-winning, best-selling book RAVE NEW WORLD: confessions of a raving reporter, Kirk Field.
This Autumn sees acid house culture celebrated at The Old Market in a totally unique, ground-breaking show hosted by the author of award-winning, best-selling book RAVE NEW WORLD: confessions of a raving reporter, Kirk Field. Expect a mixture of acid house anecdotes and socio-cultural commentary laced with humour, musical mischief, big-screen shenanigans, a special guest (one of the world’s biggest DJs), and an exhibition of the rarest flyers in the foyer from the leading flyer artists of that era.
The book has been described as, ‘A wonderful love letter to a much misunderstood era’ with the reaction sheet reading like a who’s who of megastar DJs and music industry hotshots. Everyone from Carl Cox and John Digweed, to Slipmat and Fatboy Slim urge you to buy this book. Rave New World is an honest account of Kirk Field’s experience of rave culture from its inception in the late 80s and his work is unarguably one of the most accurate and important accounts of that time. Not only that, it is also laugh-out-loud funny.
Field was a self-proclaimed ‘raving reporter’ for Mixmag who wrote unabashed accounts of what really went down at those iconic M25 Orbital raves that shaped a generation (and beyond). His articles were an answer to the propaganda spewed from mainstream newspapers at that time (ravers bite the heads off pigeons!) whose explicit intention was to shut the parties down. Kirk was there, he raved and sold soft drinks to 20,000 revellers at a time. This book is a must-read for anyone who was there and anyone who wanted to be there. Our editor chatted to him ahead of his show that accompanies the book.
What’s your favourite memory from those early rave days? It was finding a family and realising I fit in. All through the 80s I didn’t fit in, it was an increasingly materialistic and image led time. I felt more alienated as the 80s went on, but when I was in a field at Sunrise (one of the first illegal parties) with 20,000 other people with no one on the stage, all ravers, no VIP, no judgement – people accepted you for what you were, sharing each other’s water. I thought, ‘Wow, I’ve found my tribe.’ We were all on the same level and I think this is what sustained me when I was writing for Mixmag and my book.
Do you feel the articles you wrote for Mixmag in the 80s had a positive impact and counteracted the propaganda from mainstream media about raves around that time? I think they did. It was a spur to action to correct the injustice of the lies being printed. I had no ambition to be a journalist, I was on benefits and loving the parties, selling water at a £1 a time and loving life. I felt someone had to be the voice of truth and speak about the positives of raves. The negative press we received backfired on them, it was free advertising in the nation’s biggest publications. This meant more and more people came to the parties, so I guess we had the last laugh. A strange turn of events has seen me receive more support from The Sun for my theatre tour than I have from the big music magazines!
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