Summer of Rave 1989

Documentary by the BBC made in 2006 on the development of rave culture in the United Kingdom during the summer of 1989. In the final days of the yuppie decade, the summer of ’89 saw a new type of youth rebellion rip through the cultural landscape, with thousands of young people dancing at illegal Acid House parties in fields and aircraft hangars around the M25. Set against the backdrop of ten years of Thatcherism, it was a benign form of revolution, dubbed the Second Summer of Love – all the ravers wanted was the freedom to party… The rave scene, along with the drug Ecstasy, broke down social barriers and even football hooligans were ‘loved up’, solving a problem the government had never managed to crack. But lurid tabloid headlines and cat-and-mouse games with the police eventually turned the dream sour, as the gangster element moved in at the end of the summer. The pop charts, which at the beginning of the summer had been dominated by Stock Aitken and Waterman stars Jason, Kylie and Sonia, gave way to ‘Madchester’ bands like Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses, who’d been influenced by the burgeoning dance culture. Mrs Thatcher’s grip on power was also weakening, with a radical cabinet reshuffle and her increasingly regal demeanour revealing the cracks that would eventually remove her from office a year later. And in a euphoric, blazing hot summer, the Marchioness disaster was a moment of horror that people would never forget.