It was during the late eighties and early nineties that East Anglia and in particular Cambridge really began to excel and make its own mark on the UK’s ever-growing ‘rave scene’. There were still parties taking place in clubs and bars, but it soon got bigger, in the form of massive illegal events. These were often held in empty warehouses, aircraft hangers and outside in the open air.
After realising the high demand for such events in the area I decided, that along with my brother Stuart to get involved and soon we found ourselves promoting these extremely popular up and coming events ourselves!!
These kicked off with some of the most memorable warehouse raves that Cambridge has ever seen. Along with a group of local DJ’s (including my brother) we quickly established a good reputation with a string of successful all night events. The meet point for these was usually at the city’s Hobson’s Bar and Fountain Inn as well as the surrounding industrial areas of Milton and Waterbeach. Every week you would see hundreds of revellers waiting for directions and it would be off to a warehouse somewhere until 6 or 7 in the morning. The atmosphere and buzz was unbelievable and to this day still sends shivers down my spine…
Because of the popularity of these events it unfortunately didn’t take long before a majority of these parties were getting ‘busted’ and for a while it seemed that every Saturday night that either the meet or the venue would descend into chaos as the authorities did their best to halt the festivities!
It was out of this that I decided to approach the Cambridge Corn Exchange management looking to put on a party in a legal venue and because of the massive costs the authorities were facing policing the Saturday night illegals we knew (hoped) they would not oppose an application for a licence. Shortly after this we formed Groove II Promotions and ‘Eclipse’ was born.
When Eclipse finished in 1993, Groove II continued to promote the odd party in local clubs but disbanded shortly after. My brother who had been working at ‘Planet Boom Records’ in Cambridge continued to play at various events as well as being involved in other projects. I went into nightclubs and took a job at Rick’s in Norwich where I worked my way up to general manager. It was while at Rick’s that ‘Club UK’ approached me and offered me the job of running their House and Garage night at Ipswich. This is what led me onto ‘Kink’ and a successful venture with partner Craig Barnett.
Both the Cambridge Eclipse and Kink in Ipswich were arguably East Anglia’s most successful legal regular party nights that were spawned directly from the 1989 illegal rave scene. They also made a statement for youth culture and for many was the benchmark for the current dance scene.
As for the future… The clubbing industry and whole dance thing has moved on dramatically over the past decade. But who knows, whenever anyone talks about ‘reunions’ and old skool events you can never say never. Watch this space, something special could just be round the corner..!!
For more information on Groove II Promotions, Eclipse and Kink including full flyer gallery,
photos and mixes visit the website and forum.
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