London in the 90's.- following my gonzo trail into what promised to be the true rock n roll going on backstage. Whilst doing my MA I was going to gigs, hanging out, discovering the underground scene and in my thrill and wonder became passionate about capturing some of its stories. It was all analogue those days, and this meant an exacting technique and going through countless rolls of film. Fun. Exploration. And commitment to a process as experimental as the scene I was photographing.
The UK was buzzing with rebellious new talent using new technologies, creating their own tunes, labels and parties; whilst the record companies still had the sexy verve and deep wallets to keep an abiding structure around which musicians and an industry continued to flourish. The variety was immense. The Wall had come down in more ways than one. Festivals and their promise of a pagan stomp in a field were attracting ever widening circles of people. The rebel philosophies and spirit, of Huxley to the Beats, lived on in figures like Timothy Leary, Terence McKenna, Ginsberg and William Burroughs, all of whom showed up in London to pollinate fertile new ground with gleaned wisdoms. The cynicism hadn't yet set in to commercialise a scene. Band's gigs felt visceral and nights like Sex, Love & Motion and Megatripolis at the club Heaven created a sense of there truly being an ongoing counter culture. The knowledge and use of psychadelics grew exponentially. Music was a banner for freedom you could rally behind, whoever you were and wherever you came from, and for the first time I felt like I had a tribe.
After I started working for publications I was sent all over to capture the scene..To industrial nightclubs in Germany to see how geekily cool technophiles might be embracing the lyrically punky Drum n Bass coming out of London….To Moscow for one of their first raves - held in the New State Circus Building - an indication in itself of the post-Glasnost freedom now being embraced. It felt like the Wild West gone East at that time with their home-made drugs and clubs with bullet-proof DJ booths. With the internet just starting, they were quickly learning to create magazines like Ptuch that could rival any of the likes of Raygun or i-D’s cool style evolving in the West… How inspiring it was to witness the visceral and intellectual claiming of new freedoms - the vibe and music reflecting and perpetuating an atmosphere of detente and hope.
To Iceland for Pop in Rejkevik - a new festival, where the cutting edge and traditional were in evident harmony. It’s a small country, where the liltingly dissonant folk rhythms echo the crazy fairytale landscapes the country is made up of. The unending summer light and pure air bred an atmosphere of light-headed adrenaline, fierce fun and equality. I went to a house party where the police were being pushed out of the house at dawn, whilst the people carried on dancing with the country’s President in the next room. Played football as we traversed glaciers, on a road trip with cheeky charmers Damon Albarn and Ingvar Thorssen. A local figure of romantic rebel myth, having held up a bank in order to visit his girlfriend in Sweden, Ingvar proved a compelling ambassador for the modern, evolving Iceland. The book he wrote, whilst in prison for his 'crime of passion', became a best seller and from those gains Ingvar was building up a hub around which a vibe could indeed evolve - owning a bar with Damon helped, as well as organising the festival that had attracted us all over there to explore the developing scene…
To a field outside Toronto where the pot was so strong that no wonder there were mountains growing where they were banning the alcohol at the gates of the party we were there for… Derek May, Ralph Lawson, Digweed and many of the now long-time greats were there that sultry summer night helping spread the magic further afield. The internet was firing ideas and connecting people and all sorts of inspired collaborations were coming together in a spirit of freedom and fun to shape a brave, new world we perhaps now take for granted, or may have lost sight of all together.
Seeing how different people and nations lose inhibitions and let off steam is telling. All the richness and textures. The contrasting fashions and visuals, which joys and intoxicants became favoured, were all part of a developing ethos, language and culture, which I value feeling part of and witness to. Music is the space inbetween. Today, the ‘new age’ is becoming mainstream along with an avid embrace of taking responsibility for one's own well-being that's evolved alongside it. Taking ayahuasca and going to Burning Man is now on many a sophisticate's agenda. Each to their own and all of which goes to show, that whilst charting the hedonistic currency of the myths of sex, drugs and music feels as valid, sensual and exciting as it ever has, ultimately it remains about timeless, universal truths. Losing yourself to reconnect with your own sense of wonder and momentum, beauty, tribe, communion, and fearless, sensual, joyful expressions of healing and empowerment.
Perhaps it’s no wonder then that I chose to end up living in Ibiza where, twenty years on, this small island can still feel like a barometer and bastion of the open-hearted free spirit. Of course there is plenty to turn a blind eye to, as people rock from bacchic to plastic, in the plethara of sensation that has come to be expected. Yet ultimately it is still about the underlying spirit driving us all. Our need and ability to connect to the spontaneous and mysterious and fun. If we allow it, out of spontaneous joys grows a natural order and an accompanying reverence for all beings to feel free. Science is moving on - the new thinking is that Nature’s nature is fundamentally to collaborate, rather than compete. That which the ancients taught - that the energetic vibration we are, attracts into matter - is now being proven in physics labs globally. Waves and particles. Tis what we are made of, and neuroplasticity is the new buzz word in town. Even the most traumatised and cynical amongst us can be rewired into a new state of being.
The hedonism that naturally accompanies all this freedom is a landscape we must navigate for ourselves - honour, purity, integrity and ease may all still be found within it, as any a true pirate will vouch to …and who of us isn't from such stock originally! The psyche of the exuberant explorer lies within us all ...and in our worlds of today it may yet indeed be inwards - into our individualistic unknowns and bridges to and from the collective consciousness - where we may embark on meaningful endeavour into uncharted territories. Meaning is what we make of it. As is fun. Music and dance have ever been a sacred and powerful portal into the connected unknown… From the standing stones to the village fete to the bedroom boogie and the biggest, boldest parties on earth, I celebrate the celebrating of who we are!
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