I love clubbing. This is a Wednesday nighta called Dirty Burger. It’s predominantly childhood and tribal Eden transmission stella overdriver jam n spoon with a lot of hard hands and sloppy wonka thrown in on the overbeat – pretty mainstream, I suppose. Alexei Sayle’s Merry-Go-Round e5, BBC 1998
Pop culture has met the microchip and a strange new creature has emerged. At the heart of this techno trip is a drug called Ecstasy. But the pleasures of Rave have their price. Ecstasy can kill. But despite dangers known and unknown, this heady mixture of music, drugs and technology has created a brand new experience. Equinox: Rave New World, Channel 4 1994
Midsummer in Kent: an airport hangar is being turned into a beach. A quarter of a million pounds’ worth of lights will sear eyeballs with lazers and strobes. A hundred thousand watts of sound will hammer ear drums. ibid.
It all began in 1988, the so-called second summer of love. ibid.
The new dance music arrived at the same time as a new drug called ecstasy. ibid.
Over 3.7 million over-45s go raving once a week in the UK. And there has been a 518% increase in over-60s being treated for cocaine-related issues since ten years ago. High Society: The Geriatric Ravers Still Smashing Drugs: Gravers, Youtube 22.25, Vice TV 2022
What effect does this lifestyle have on an ageing body? ibid.
Dorset police block a main road to stop new-age travellers out of a seaside resort. It’s just one of hundreds of confrontations that’s take place this summer as a growing band of nomads takes to Britain’s roads. World in Action: New Age Travellers, ITV 1992
New-age travellers claim they are peaceful free-spirits wrongly condemned by a hostile society. ibid.
They are joined by thousands of ravers out from the towns for a weekend of non-stop dancing to loud electronic music. ibid.
The police are using controversial tactics first employed during the miners’ strike. ibid.
And then it became the drugs capital of Europe. Ibiza Narcos I: Disorganised Crime, observer, Sky Documentaries 2024
You soon realised it can be quite dark. Gangsters, cartels, people big and strong enough to kick the fuck out of you. ibid.
A lot of hash smoking, a lot of acid being taken. ibid. early days
This was the start of the party island Ibiza was to become … The hippies were the ones who started the party scene. ibid.
Organised groups from France, England, Italy, they see a market, they come and take the market. ibid.
At the beginning the mafias were more hidden. ibid.
They started spending money in Ibiza in an exaggerated way … We are able to see that problems are coming. ibid.
People started talking about this new drug – ecstasy. ibid.
The police targeted the hippies originally, even though the professional crime groups had started to come in, because they were easy targets. ibid.
You could see by the way the clubs were developing, and the drugs scene was growing, that it was all gonna explode. Ibiza Narcos II: No Sleep Till Wednesday, observer
The rave scene was just about people who wanted to escape their lives. ibid.
Ibiza was the best place on earth to take party drugs. ibid.
People started to get greedy, and things started to change. ibid.
Before we all came, the island was this beautiful, lovely spot. We were the one who brought all of this club life to Ibiza. ibid.
Ibiza is a land of inconsistencies. As I kid I loved it. ibid.
None of these has been as dramatic, as drastic, and with devastating consequences as mass tourism. To arrive in the morning and see the rivers of vomit and urine in the streets. ibid. islander
It’s a pity because they were almost always young. ibid. Rozzer
I realised that I was damaging my mind. ibid. hardcore pill-taker
The more money you were making, the more cocaine you did. ibid. geezer
You come here, you are in paradise. Ibiza Narcos III: Giving It the Absolute Big ’Un, early club promoter
If you didn’t die, you had a story to tell next day. ibid.
Sometimes one bullet is better than twenty words. ibid. old-time gangster
Cocaine brought with it a new, colder type of criminal. ibid. journalist
Ibiza was a very loving place. But I never went nowhere without guns and knives. ibid. gangster