squat parties (work in progress)

i first started going to squat parties when i moved to london to study. i guess i already had a vague yearning towards alternative culture since i knew about cooltan, which unfortunately got evicted just before i got there in september 1995.

i was already into underground music and had been to some exodus raves in luton plus a few free festivals in london. there was the deptford urban free festival, where i heard zebedee DJing for the first time on a rig called something like avinit army, plus one on clapham common where the revolutionary dub warriors played. then there was hackney homeless in clissold park, whre i took mushrooms for the first time. it ended up in a riot... aaand that was the excuse for that not to happen again

above is the nme report thanks to historyismadeatnight, which also links to a film about the fest



i picked up some advance party flyers at the festies and of course once actually living in london had a lot of places to explore. back in those days i thought nothing of clubbing thursday through sunday (without drugs even!) and i remember being given a vox populi flyer at the end of megatripolis. i didn't go and then they headed off to europe. spiral tribe were already gone. but not to worry, i found the infoline for an immersion party in manor house or somewhere in north london and headed up to a bingo hall and a party which blew my head off.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaa-Vj85Pdo

another early rave was a NYE bash on the corner of well street / mare street in an old cinema which is later became an iceland supermarket. we walked there from highbury and islington tube, not knowing london very well!  i think my first rave was in farringdon, or maybe that was later than the NYE party...

the farringdon party (above) was great, the guy on the door with a pierced lip said he thought spiral tribe were in germany but he wasn't sure and we sat in a corner as all these crusties (which in 6 months would be us) just kind of stood around and chatted. i don't remember anyone dancing and i couldn't process the music, it was just a wall of noise.

systems around at that time were mainline, virus, oops, insanity, jiba. all playing seriously good underground tekno, a language i started to understand. on rigs like immersion and also at parties like club alien and kinky techno (a semilegal immersion venture under kingsX station) acid trance was just getting going and that was great for a while before it stagnated. i remember when drum n bass was controversial (like there being a dnb room at hellraiser WTF!?!) but that soon started to feature. parties that stand out for me were: the hackney wick mashups - dace road, carpenters road ... one was a benefit for curley's family, since he had just died. i remember turning up late on acid, then taking K and forgetting i was on acid and spiral tribe's 'goign all the way' eviscerating my body.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1zCVvxChFs

the (unsound)cinema in wood green was pretty awesome for a few weeks - we turned up fucked after pride with little flashing wands (acid again - it doesn't get much better than seeing the pet shop boys sing go west as thousands sing along and the sky explodes with fireworks). the bullring at waterloo was pretty funny - outside, in the place where the IMAX stands now, as a benefit for the homeless who were being evicted. dan hekate talks about it in this resonance radio show:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvLLtMOLY8I

 my fave memory is someone playing this wicked anticore track:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wai_ZEcUay4

 come to think of it there were K-related religious experiences galore at that time. molly's book documents a lot of the places, even if i remember them slightly differently. and of course we were travelling out to europe for teknival - for a few summers that was what summer meant. systems like metek, dstorm, lego, furious, foxtanz, total resistance, sound conspiracy, samovar, damage control all twatting out amazing music through electrical storms. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuxDiYqGqLs

 czechtek was always great - cheap booze and amazing weather; dutchtek tended to feature loads of gabba and speedcore; paristek 2000 was where i made a lot of good friends before my travels had even started in earnest; slovtek; poltek; the list goes on.. and there were english festies like tolworth and the travellers field at glastonbury (RiP) and some great quarry raves in wales. by this time, there were newer systems like headfuk and hekate. and panik. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RDm65exZ6s

whilst i was living i europe i carried on raving, going to parties in and around prague from people like cirkus alien and vosa, but of course it's not the same without your drug buddies and a scene which you are part of. by the time i ended up in NL i preferred hibernation. nowadays its hard to find a good party, they still exist of course. the kids are no doubt doing it different now but i still (2013) try to make NFA and pokora parties.

Curley RiP

Gone but not forgotten. Taken from - http://www.expressillon.com/curley/Curley_Uk.html

Born in Leidschendam Holland 16 April 1973 Curley Schoop spent his childhood years in Curacao (Netherlands Antilles). After moving back to Holland with the family in his teenage years his love for music came into true fruition. At the age of sixteen he released his first record on the DJAX label (D.I.C.E. - rubba dice stylin).

In 1994 he was to travel to Berlin with R.A.F. who were his friends Joep, Katja, and Chiel as well as with his friends Sazz and Ratski where they played on a party of Acid Orange.

By now the entire Spiral Circus had descended on invitation to stay at the 'Blauwe Aanslag' squat in Den Haag, Holland. This is where the infamous Acid Planet parties from Jan, Unit Moebius, Siuli and Guy where happening and where Sebastian (69db) and Simon (Crystal Distortion) from Spiral Tribe together with Unit Moebius were beginning to inspire a whole generation. These happenings were to change everything for Curley as they did for so many from this period.

After returning to Holland the 'Hardcore Peace Generation' was formed. Holland was by now in full party flow, parties and sound systems were springing up all over the place. Curley moved to Den Haag from the south to be in the midst of it all. Time was filled squatting and organizing parties and tekno café’s big and small all over the place. It was in this period Curley was making music together with Jan, Sebastian and Simon. Together a sound was made: that sound would become legendary: 'the Spiral Sound'.

It was somewhere around this time Curley met Barbara who he was to be with for the rest of his life. Holland had much to offer for a young inspiring musician and DJ with its full flow party mayhem from the likes of his friends from Cyb-X and Mononom Soundsytems for whom he would play his legendary mental mix of acid, hardcore and tekno many times.

In 1995 he made the move to London. Barbara was English and Curley was always up for new adventures. Although a far cry from what he knew from the free party scene in Europe Curley would flourish in the diversity of the music in London. New influences were creeping into his Dj sets, breakbeats, drum and bass, the London style. I don't think there are too many recordings from his DJ sets from these times, in fact I don't think you could capture it on a tape, you just had to be there, those that were there know exactly what I am talking about, some things you just can’t capture in a recording.
Curley had the utter ability to ignite a dead party, to whip up a dance floor into free flow mayhem. He never looked the part, a black guy in a predominately white hardcore scene in a funny hat and flared trousers, but he was still somehow the coolest geezer in the building, everybody wanted to talk to him, everybody wanted him on the decks, to hang out with him. Probably some of his finest moments DJ'ing was in those warehouses in London, there he would create his voodoo magic on the wheels of steel.

A lot of people who had not been out to Europe could not understand what he was playing but they loved it. It was a combination of the Spiral sound, the Dutch sound and the London sound all mixed in and mashed up, it was truly unique.

It was in London he would meet Ben and Brett from the Fear Teachers: he would play a lot at their parties together with the Mainline Soundsystem. The Fear Teachers and the surrounding people would be a big influence on Curley. They had been to Europe, they did know what was going on but they had their own sound, their influences were also from electro and more distorted and messed up beats. Curley thrived of these new ways and sounds; he would revel in the London ways of music. Drum and bass were to seriously influence his DJ sets where he would play out together with his friend Beven (Dj Terroreyes) with their three deck mash ups. At this time he releases on Ben and Brett’s Audio Illusion label and made his other classic releases on the Club Craft, Utmostfear and Crowd Control labels.

In 1997, Curley now just twenty four years of age was a proud father happily in love and with his music seriously taking off. By now his DJ gigs were constant, playing out in London and back home in Holland as well as Italy, Germany and France; his records were also now starting to come out in a steady stream. After always releasing on other peoples labels and as he was always wanting to push forwards he decided together with Barbara to start their own label Kibra Hacha. The first release on this label was to be his final one in his lifetime.

After spending Christmas together in London with his new family, Curley & Barbara set off to drive to a big party in Rome Italy for the New Year of 1998. This was to be Curley's final set. In the early hours of the third of January whilst still out in Rome Italy Curley died suddenly in bed of a heart condition he never knew he had. It shocked us all and sent tremors throughout the party scene in Europe. Many tributes were made and several huge memorial parties were made in his honor, in Holland, England and Italy. One of the finest had been taken away in the prime of his life with everything to live for.

Some stars light up the night sky brighter than others, they give off more energy, sometimes those stars will burn out quicker because of this, but those are the stars you remember. In the end it's not how many years you have lived that are important but what you did in those years and Curley lived every minute of his life to the full. I think the following written by his friend Brett after Curley's death says it all:

"Within our creative dance culture there are few people with the active energy and dedicated commitment necessary to keep the scene fresh, vibrant and at the cutting edge. Curley possessed all these powers and spread them like a virus, infecting all who crossed his path with a positive feeling and uniting us all in confidence for the future" (Brett Youngs R.I.P)

[Huge Thanks to Skurge for writing this very difficult lovely words]