kimix's blog: "rave"

Rave THE MUSIC Dance parties developed in Australia in the mid-1980s particularly in Sydney, in warehouses, or clubs. It was largely an art school and fringe gay crowd in their twenties and thirties. Around 1990 a new concept, the rave, was imported from the UK and Europe. The music was more important than the party, and it was fast.The venues were often outdoors and secret, and they attracted a bigger teenage crowd. In the past four years raves have been restricted and much more heavily policed. Now the venues are less secret and more likely to be indoors, in warehouses or sport centres. Doof [a definition] Doof party-goer: It's the sound, doof, doof, doof, doof ... the sound of the bass speakers going hard core outside, because you have no walls and things for it to bounce back and echo badly. The "doof", was coined more recently in Australia. Doofers are anti-commercial, a more political crowd, including the fluro ferals, and urban travellers, the vibe tribe. Their territory spans the city and the bush. The various techno tribes have their adopted musical style. The music varies in speed, from 120bpm (beats per minute), to 200bpm. And although high bpm's and repetitive beats are common characteristics, it's the feel, what's going on under the beat, that differentiates. Electronic music styles have sprouted like shoots off the main stems of house, trance, hard core, techno and drum and bass. So you have happy house, hard house and funky house. Deep trance, acid trance and goa trance. Happy hardcore, industrial hardcore and killcore or ragga. Garage, jungle, drum 'n'bass and hardstep - to name a fraction. And each subgroup has a substantial following. THE BACKGROUND Raves began in the UK in the late 1980s and spread out with the music. 1988 was known as 'The Summer of Love' in Europe as spontaneous parties popped up all over the place and the "love" drugs flowed freely.The British police were caught by surprise with the popularity of raves. 'The Labor party has now joined in calls to put an end to the so called 'acid house parties'. There was some trouble over the weekend. Police closed off several roads and two motorway service stations trying to stop thousands of youngsters staging more parties. One policeman was beaten up. The Opposition spokesman, Barry Sherman, said there was a growing menace of drug peddling. The aim of the organisers on these occasions is to try to get thousands of youngsters together at such venues as disused air fields. The aim of the police is to stop them.' BBC News File The British police targeted raves, and by 1994, had a strict new anti-rave law in practice. 'Powers in Relation to Raves: This applies to a gathering on land, in the open air, of 100 or more persons at which amplified music is played during the night. Music includes sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats. If a Constable in uniform reasonably believes that a person is on his way to a gathering to which this law applies, he may stop that person, and direct him not to proceed in the direction of the gathering'. U.K. Criminal Justice and Public Order Act Making the point, police in London moved against thousands of ravers who had gathered in Hyde Park to protest against the law. 'At times last night the violence was even worse according to Police than the Poll Tax riots of 1990. Police and the organisers of the demonstration agreed it was a relatively trouble free event until the marchers were herded down Park Lane and told to leave the area.The demonstrators say there was no room to disperse, although police insist they simply refused to move. Either way what was billed as Britain's biggest ever march for civil liberties ended up turning an expensive area of London into a battlefield'. BBC news file In Australia the police began to find and close down raves from 1994. South Australia led the way with a set of guidelines drawn up by the police, health authorities and party promoters. It says party venues must be approved by the local council, they must be patrolled by licensed security guards, have drinking water available at all times and a ventilated chill out area, away from the loud music. One of the authors of the South Australian guidelines is Detective Inspector Graham Lough, the co-ordinator of Drug and Alcohol Policy for the South Australian Police, who takes a softly softly approach. 'From my experience over the last couple of years, with the media focus on dance parties and raves as they used to be called, is unfair. We don't go out raiding dance parties and closing them down, or having any sort of major operations to do it like they did in England. It's only just a common sense approach such as ensuring water, free flowing water, is available in toilets. Ensuring that there's a chill out area for people to go and cool off. These aren't things that people are finding oppressive. Some people will be taking illegal drugs, well so be it. It is a reality, so while we'll take some major efforts to control the dealing in the drug scene we will not be making the dance parties so oppressive that people won't want to go'. - Detective Inspector Graham Lough, Co-Ordinator of Drug and Alcohol Policy for the South Australian Police Dance parties and raves present health authorities with a dilemma. Philosophically we argued that we could lose 200 people in a shed fire, in a night, we would never see that much harm from Ecstasy in 20 years. So, we had to very clearly work out the priorities for promoting health within the dance scene. And the dancing in itself is inherently healthy. There is no indicator to say that there is anymore drug use occurring at dance parties than any other form of youth recreation. But I would imagine that the hydration and exercise and other things that happen at dance parties are actually more healthy. So it raises a question, should authorities like us be in the business of promoting dancing? I think the easier that promoters and artists find it to set up their work, then the better that it's going to be in the long run, and they'll get better venues, safer venues, they'll have easy contact with the people that can help them do it. It makes good sense to me'. Bob Braithwaite, South Australian Drug and Alcohol Services Council ECSTASY Party drugs are the basis for a good night for many people. And Ecstasy is the most popular. Some of those "E'ing" or "tripping", are very young, 14, 15, 16 years old; powerful chemicals in developing bodies. It's not hard to understand why Ecstasy is so popular with ravers. The drug works by releasing large amounts of a neurotransmitter called serotonin, from the base of the brain. This extra serotonin makes a person feel euphoric and energetic. In Britain, lab tests on rats have shown the drug not only produces hyperactivity but hyperactivity of a repetitive kind, a perfect match for the energy and repetitive beats of a rave. The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre is conducted a survey of Ecstasy users, one of the largest of its kind, involving 400 people in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and on the Gold Coast. One of those who conducted interviews for the Ecstasy survey is Paul Dillon, the centre's then information officer. Paul Dillon: We're seeing now on the streets of Sydney an incredible number of Ecstasy tablets being available. And the price is coming down which is really interesting. We are replicating what's been happening in Europe and the UK, where prices now are down to five pounds an Ecstasy tablet, probably about $10. We were interviewing people who are getting them for $35, $30 in some cases. Now that is really cheap. And, when the price comes down, of course they're going to be using more. How are people using the drug? Paul Dillon: Well interestingly people talk about the journey that they go on when they use drugs as well. When we interview them they don't just say, "ah, I popped two Ecstasys and that's it". I think because it is a special occasion it becomes a bit of an event. And you know they'll think about what will I need to kick start the night off, and that might be a line of speed just to get going. Quite often now it's an MDA (methylenedioxyamphetamine) early in the evening, and that will give you the energy to keep through, and particularly if you have Ecstasy that is a bit "smacky", as they say. The MDA will keep you awake, and then as the night progresses you may use another line of speed or reinforce it with another bit of a trip. And then about the two o'clock, three o'clock phase, where the deeper music comes in, it becomes a bit more trancey, they want to get a little bit more off their face, that's the time where really you use anything you possibly can to push you that far. And I think that's where we've seen the growth of ketamine amongst them, particularly in the gay scene, and ... What's ketamine? Ketamine is an anaesthetic that has disassociative hallucinogenic effects, so what that basically means is that your mind leaves your body. It's a very powerful drug and people snort it mainly in little things called bumps. They'll have a bump of special K, and that will really get them into that sort of putrid state. And that will get them through that trance-like thing. It also tends to flatten out the other drug types, so you don't have that sort of stimulant effect, that buzzy effect that when you leave the party you feel a bit uncomfortable and you can't sleep. That takes you on your journey. And quite a few people, also right at the end of the evening have a smoke of a joint. That either brings the drugs back on, in their mind, or flattens them out a little bit. But many people talk about this journey that they go on. It's often planned, I mean for a big event, it's planned months before. That's what we have to concerned about, because people aren't aware that mixing the drugs increases the chances of negative consequences. It's a real problem. Most people couldn't afford to go on the multi drug journey described by Paul Dillon, even if they wanted to. They'll make do with one E tablet, or an LSD trip. Ecstasy and other amphetamines raise the body's temperature, and in combination with dancing can lead quickly to dehydration and exhaustion unless fluids are kept up. Water is easily available at most raves, but the Ecstasy and water culture is a threat to nightclubs who want the bar profits from alcohol sales. Another study has found a number of night clubs in three states removed or switched off cold water taps in the toilets, and charged up to $5 for a small bottle of water across the bar. For more information visit ABC Quantum's What's Your Poison? BRIDGING THE GAP Nineteen year old Alex has been taking party drugs for two or three years. Sitting in her lounge room with her mother Donna, Alex described broaching the subject with her mother. Alex: Ah, I used to try trips and it was revolting and then I was introduced to Ecstasy and it was a lot better. And how old were you then? Alex: Probably 17. And did you know that Donna? Donna: Did I know that at that stage? Alex: We thought you knew. Donna: No, I guess I didn't, it must have been a bit later on. Alex: Well, for a long time all my friends and I thought she has to know. There is no way we are just really good liars, she has to know, and she didn't, obviously. Because one day I just couldn't handle it after a big night. I'd been fine all day and then that night I was just exhausted and my body was just so over tired it just couldn't handle the feeling. And I thought I have to speak to my mum, I have to speak to her, there is no choice. Now is the time. And that night we went to have a conversation about it and I decided okay. I took one of my close friends and we decided that we'd have a little chat, make sure that she knew I was okay and was always going to be okay. You know, it's not something I do all the time. She said - "Alexandra, do you know what I think?", and our hearts were just pounding. She said "I think we should E together". My jaw just dropped to the ground. My friend's "high-fiving" her and I thought my life is over. Why did you decide that, why did you decide that course of action? Donna: It gave me more of an insight and a knowledge of how the kids were handling it and it made me feel better to know what was happening basically. And so what did you do together [on ecstacy]? Donna: Oh we told each other we loved each other, talked a lot. So what did you make of the parties in the end? Donna: Well, it wouldn't be something that I would continuously go to. I enjoyed it, the couple of times that I went, and I loved the energy. Mainly because of the age group difference I suppose. But, I had a great time and the energy from the music was fabulous and everybody was extremely friendly. Talked to heaps of people and the people were just having fun, just having a good time and that wasn't because 1,000 people were on E, that wasn't the case at all. It would be more of a minority than a majority. The venues were very, very rigidly policed. People were frisked, there were security walking around the whole time, there wasn't any danger. It was just a fun, happy time, yeah, I really liked it.