With my Bonkers series of posts now finished and my best year of the charts posts nearing the end it's time for a new series of posts on Thursdays for 2022.
1995 was my first full year as a raver but unfortunately I wasn't old enough to actually go raving. Instead of moaning about being born too late though, I thought it would be interesting to see where I would have gone raving in 1995 had I done it every weekend. As this is something that never happened I'm not going to think of practical considerations such as location (though I'll stick to the UK), price or other commitments I may have had.
At the same time I'll be listening to tapes from said events if I can find any to talk about the music being played.
We begin by looking at Dreamscape 15 vs 16. Had I been old enough there is little doubt this is where I would have been to see in 1995. It was just over 3 years since Dreamscape 1 had been held at The Sanctuary in Milton Keynes, but at this event they were using the adjacent Rollers building for the first time.
There were 2 tape packs for this event and each pack had half the picture on the cover. I became quite familiar with the 2nd pack without owning it via listening to other peoples tapes on their walkman. The tape which stood out to me in particular was the Pilgrim tape.
In those days acquiring the tapes was easier said than done. No internet to buy them from and you couldn't get them from the local Our Price either. Some time later the opportunity came to buy both packs from someone who was no longer into rave. There was another person interested in those packs, but I was determined to own the 2nd pack for the Pilgrim tape alone so I offered more money for the 2nd pack whilst the other person bought the first pack.
The rave scene had already split into happy hardcore and jungle by this point and there were tapes which were firmly either in the happy hardcore or jungle camp. The Pilgrim tape though was in both camps and Pilgrim himself would become more of an old skool DJ as opposed to a happy hardcore or jungle one in years to come.
The best tune on the Pilgrim tape is the first one "Easin On" by A Sense Of Summer. This was the other side of the much more popular "On Top" and I've not heard it on any other set. I played the Pilgrim tape so much over the years that it eventually broke. Fortunately the internet was a thing by then so I've still been able to listen to it since.
One of the jungle tunes on the Pilgrim set is "Champion Sound" by Q Project which was one of my favourite jungle records at the time. Clearly I was not alone as I've counted that it appears 9 times across the 2 packs.
We're in an era where the distinction between happy hardcore and jungle isn't as clear cut as it would become. The happy hardcore music was still breakbeat for a start.
An example of this is a tune that appears on the Ramos mix is "Sweet Memories" by Rhythm For Reasons. Ramos was a happy hardcore DJ and most of the tunes on his set are clearly happy hardcore. Rhythm For Reasons though is an alias of DJ SS, a jungle DJ and released on Formation Records, a jungle label and has been played in jungle sets. It doesn't firmly sit in either camp though.
On the first pack we have sets from Clarkee and Scorpio both of whom are known for playing hard techno. There is less of a distinction though at this point in time, the notable difference between their sets and the others is there's more Dutch music on them.
An incident that did happen that night was that someone let off CS gas, something which really pissed off MC Joker. All I can really find about MC Joker on the internet is a reference to him calling the person who let off the CS gas and their mother an arsehole.
There will be more Dreamscape events that will feature this year, they were pretty much the biggest rave at the time. There will no doubt be other events at The Sanctuary that will feature too and this is a venue I did actually end up going to once I did start raving.
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