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Miscellaneous Features
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Dreamscape Facebook Group
www..facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=5700493460
We caught up with Tim Becker, creator of the brilliant group dedicated to preserving the memory of Muray Beetson and what became one of the iconoclastic rave promotions in the country. Dreamscape!!! Though they hosted events up and down the country their spiritual home was arguably The Sanctuary in Milton Keynes. Tim gives us his reasons for starting the group, which currently has membership of over 3000!!!
What is your connection with Dreamscape and why did you decide to start the group?
The only connection I have is that I was a big fan of their raves in the 90's, and that's why I decided to start the group up, as a tribute to what I believe was the best rave organisation we've ever seen!
How long has the group been running?
The group has been running for over 2 years now, and there are over 3,000 members. I'm overwhelmed at how popular it has turned out and I didn't expect to get so many members.
You have posted some classic sets on the page. What sort of a response do you get from members when you post a new set up?
I usually get a lot of emails with people thanking me for them, and telling me they used to have this set on tape before they lost it or leant it to a mate way back when and never got it back and never thought they'd find the set again, so generally its all positive feedback.
Do you take the set selection from your own collection, and have you found yourself hunting down tape packs down to increase that collection?
All the sets I post are from my own collection, and currently I have every single Dreamscape tape pack from 6 through to 28 without a single tape missing, a miracle I've not lost any really!!
What are your plans for the group in the future?
I've had a few people asking about if I'd consider putting a rave on with all the old Dreamscape DJ's, and I've even had someone offer me the Dreamscape name for quite a few quid, so there is always a possibility Dreamscape could be back! For the moment I'd just like to carry on doing what I'm doing and that's giving all the members great memories and some classic sets!!
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October 2009
Tony Rosenberg - The Sanctuary
Milton Keynes
Tony Rosenberg was the guy that took The Sanctuary into the realms of the Super-Rave. Having purchased the building in 1993, it went on to host nights by all of the big gun rave promoters in the UK, including Helter Skelter, Dreamscape, Hardcore Heaven..................the list goes on. After some considerable help from Sammy Jones I managed to track down the man that once owned the biggest and most memorable rave venue our scene has ever known.................
It was demolished in 2004 when The MK Dons, IKEA and ASDA joined forces to raize it to the ground and replace it with their respective complexes.
Here Tony tells us a little bit about the venue from the other side of the office door.....
Could you tell us what line of work you were in prior to The Sanctuary, and how the whole idea came about? (what are your musical interests-did that have an impact on your idea/involvement and was it always intended purely as a business venture?
I first came across The Sanctuary in Milton Keynes in late 1993. I owned a snooker and indoor bowls centre in the Forest of Dean and in order to stay in business, we were putting on bands at the weekends. Of course, the main claim to fame at that time of the Forest of Dean was that it was home to EMF (Ecstacy Mother Fuckers) who had hit the charts with their track “Unbelievable”. They'd done a couple of charity gigs at my venue to offset criticism they'd received in the tabloids for being “involved” with Ecstasy.
I won't go into the lead up to my owning The Sanctuary for reasons best left alone, but to cut a long story short, in January 1994 I persuaded a number of financiers to support what I believed to be a revolutionary leisure venue. However, one of our first bookings, which we had to honour from the previous management (and we never even got a venue hire fee!) was the WORLD CUP SOUND CLASH, which brings me to one of my “Most Memorable Nights At The Sanctuary” (unfortunately for all the wrong reasons).
I think that night in February 1994 is still talked about by all the ex-Sanctuary Security staff, Thames Valley Police, MK Council EHO and anyone over 40, into reggae music and living within 100 mile of MK. Basically, it turned into an indoor riot of 4,000 people. The event, venue, estate, and TOWN! was hijacked by some seriously “bad boys”.
Anyway, everybody lived (thank God) and, after being told off like a naughty schoolboy by the Thames ValleyPolice Chief Super of the day, we carried on.The subsequent years until the final event in July 2004 were filled with the good, the bad and the ugly.
Can you remember the first event held there (I believe the first rave was Dreamscape 1?) and did you attend? If you did, what was your first impression of all night rave culture (did the drugs issue give you cause for concern?)
"The first event I attended was probably around September 1993. The Sanctuary had been running for about a year earlier under other ownership (but that's not an area I wish to go into).
My initial impression was extremely positive, from the reaction of the customers, their enjoyment of the events and the general mood. The drugs influence issue probably took a few months to sink in. Once it did I realised the main issue was of harm reduction and minimisation, not prohibition (which would have been impossible, since its not possible in/ the outside world either)".
Once the first successful event had been held, what did you think about the venues longevity, and did you make any future plans (ie contract out the building at least once a month to cover costs etc) – How long was it before the venue finally started to pay for itself?
"In the main, the venue had to pay for itself almost immediately as it was not realy a commercial lending proposition due to the nature of the business, as well as the potential and real licence challenges.
In terms of what events we took, we took anything as long as we were confident about security and safety matters. Whilst we were first and foremost a dance music venue, much of our own promotional efforts were put into trying to bring different events in so that we could reduce our dependence on a handful of major promoters, who at any time could be looking for the next “new” venue".
When things went wrong at the venue (drug busts/deaths/grief from local residents etc) what was the comeback on you as the owner? Did you hand over sole responsibility to the contractor, and how did you deal with them as the owner?
"All of the above went wrong and of course comeback was always to me as the owner AND licence holder. Contractors did have responsibility, but ultimately they too were answerable to me so the final responsibility was mine as well."
Once things took off, how did you manage the staffing? (security, advertising, finance, facilities etc)?
"All with great difficulty!"
Did you find it difficult to let go of the place on a Saturday night when it was in use, or did you accept that what will be, will be, and what was the official capacity of the building?
"Once we felt we had taken all reasonable measures and precautions, there was not much else we could other than stop accepting dance parties, which would have meant the end of the venue and the
business anyway.
The Legal capacity was 3000.
When using Rollers as well it was 5000.
The largest legal capacity was 8000 for the vents where we used all 3 buildings, including a chill out marquee on the whole of Denbigh Leisure"
How long did it run- from doors opening to doors closing?
"13 Years in total"
What was the official reason for the place closing, and how did it make you feel?
"Having had a long lease, after some financial difficulties with associated businesses and a bad rent review, a short lease was taken in the knowledge that the site was in the frame to be developed for more retail warehousing. When the MK Dons plan materialised, it was clear that The Sanctuary and Denbigh Leisure featured strongly in providing the finance for the stadium through its re-development to retail space (ultimately Ikea). It was sad to close, but everything moves on, and I was beginning to feel that the dance scene had shrank to a smaller “fan base” which could not sustain The Sanctuary operation and overheads. So in a way, it was inevitable."
Could you explain the association with Rollers, and how that came about? Did that building belong to you too?
"No. It was owned by another leisure company and Murray Beetson of Dreamscape came to me with the proposal to use it, which between us we achieved (I licensed it, he filled it!). Murray and I had worked together closely on Dreamscape 20, the festival at Brafield, Northants (which not many people realised was a partnership between Dreamscape and The Sanctuary)"
The Sanctuary will be remembered by all who attended, and by those that can only look back at history. It was to the rave scene what The Hacienda was to house music and The Casino was to Northern Soul. There hasn't been a venue to parallel it since, and as the scene has changed so dramatically since the 90's it probably never will. How does it make you feel to be a part of that? Did you have any emotional attachment to the scene?
"I am still quite surprised when occasionally I give my name is a shop or somewhere and a person immediately talks to me about The Sanctuary. Of course I'm very proud to have been a part of a “British” youth revolution and whilst I can't say I had an emotional attachement to the scene, I was far happier and safer walking around amongst 3000 ravers than going for a drink in any Wetherspoons.
I'm sorry that the scene has changed so much but, like all music, when the underground becomes the mainstream, its days are numbered"
Did you make any people that you could turn around and call friends from the rave scene (promoters you still talk to etc)?
"Believe it or not, David Pratley (Helter Skelter) and I are partners in a business. I still consider most of the people I associated with to be friends, even if I haven't seen most of them for some time. I either hear of them, exchange emails, or occasionally see them at someones “Nth” birthday party."
Could you tell us a bit about the building coming down? Did you sell the land and the new owners demolished it? Was it a difficult decision selling up (did you own the land, or lease the land, I can only guess that Ikea and the conglomerate offered you a very tidy sum??)
"Probably the only thing I didn't want to do was watch the building get pulled down, not because I would have been emotional, but just because there were a lot of other business issues which took place there that were more painful than the demise of The Sanctaury.
Financially, unfortunately because of the situation I described above, our “payoff” at the end was very small."
I know that you were also involved with The Empire, and fought a barrage of flack from the authorities for the raves held there. Could you give us a brief outline of your involvement with it?
"Thats a whole other story. The problems ultimately with The Empire (another leaisure venue in Mk City Centre) were to do with noise. When it was built, there were no houses the other side of the railway in Loughton (Milton Keynes) Unfortunately, one resident, who had bought a new house some 20 years after The Empire (or Golden Flamingo as it was) was built, waged a war with us which in the end we had to give up on. Such is the way of Environmental Law".
What do you do know? Are you still involved in the entertainment industry?
"Not really, but I suppose if the right situation arose, I'd always give it a “good look”.
Is there anything you would like to say to the hardcore rave fraternity on the scene and your involvement with its most legendary venue??
"Without the pressure of Police, Council and Magistrates, it would have been far more fun for me than it was. Nevertheless, you were all amongst the best, friendliest and enjoyable crowd to have in The Sanctuary (even if some of you “caned it” more than you should have). I'm sure some of you felt that at times, our actions seemed a bit heavy handed. That was never the intention and to anyone who feels they were hard done by, I apologise on behalf of all my staff and contractors. BUT... we stayed open longer than anyone else, so I'm afraid it was part of what we had to be seen to be doing"
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September 2009
RAVESCENE MAGAZINE
Many of you will remember Ravescene Magazine. It was in a folded A4 format, on white paper with a mix of black and purple/mauve/red print. It was packed full of all the latest goings on in
London
Town, and featured interviews and reviews of all kinds. I used to get my copy in the post as I lived in
Grimsby at the time. It was what kept me in touch with what was at that time the hub of the scene. Trying to get hold of early copies these days is a hard task indeed.
We caught up with Gwen Howells, the lady behind Ravescene Magazine and Double Dipped, the night she used to host alongside the magazine............
Gwen '94
How would you describe yourself as a youth before you discovered the rave scene?
"Before raving I was fairly typical suburban teenager, but when I left home at 18 and went to college we were all into the indie scene, and many of my friends were in bands. I used to go to loads of gigs seeing such bands as Siouxie and the Banshees, the Fire Engines, the Cure etc. I was never into chart music, and even through my 20’s when I worked as a very respectable estate agent, married and had 2 children I still couldn’t get into the mainstream"
How did you get into raving /clubbing and when would this have been?
"Raving reared it’s head when my then brother-in-law got some tickets for one of the early Raindances. It just clicked with me – the music, the people, everything. From then on it escalated pretty quickly, and the first 2 clubs we went to regularly were Orange at the Camden Palace on Friday’s, and the Astoria on a Saturday, and it was around then that the Astoria got the first 6am licence – even their flyers were cut-out 6am shape. I loved
Camden, 'Strings of Life' was the tune that everyone seemed to wait for, and then the dancefloor just filled, and the night began"
Can you tell us a bit about the first raves/events you attended?
"I lived in Chingford at the time, so the
West End wasn’t too far away. Raindance was in
Jenkins Lane,
Stratford, or East Ham I think, even closer to home.
I have to admit, that even in the very first days, the cost of it all was a factor in starting Ravescene. It wasn’t cheap, raving in those days, what with paying £25 for a ticket, then another £50 – 75 for other essentials. Some people financed it by selling E’s, but that wasn’t for me.
At first, I got into places for free by dancing! I was friends with some great people like Mike and Funki B of Elevation, (
Lea Bridge Road) and through them I got into dancing on the stage at loads of parties. Quite a few of them even paid me! Good memories of Reincarnation at
Herne
Bay, and a massive rave near
London, huge, huge party but I can’t remember the name of it. And of course, we were VIP’d with at least a plus 2. All through '91 there were loads of parties, in lots of places."
What gave you the initial impetus to start Ravescene? Was it purely your idea, or was it a group project?
"By '92 the day job had become less and less enjoyable, with the weekends becoming longer, and with the recession biting deep it made sense to find an alternative source of income. And so Ravescene was born. It started as just an A4 sheet, printed both sides, and folded to A5. We sold a couple of ads (I think Elevation were our first ever advertisers) and we flew it for free, outside various clubs and raves. We wanted to write a magazine that had all the facts and gossip that we all spent hours talking about when we were chilling out at home after a long night raving. And raving was a community – everyone knew everyone"
Can you tell us a little bit about the first issue? What was it like trying to organize advertising, features, event coverage etc?
"All the promoters loved it, although occasionally our policy of ‘tell it like it is’ got us in trouble. I remember mentioning that a waltzer car had fallen off at a Raindance (true, I was next to it when it happened) and Ray tried to get us to print a retraction, saying it never happened! Because I wouldn’t he refused to put me on his guest list for quite a while afterwards, and only relented when we started printing readers letters slagging off Raindance."
How did you promote the first issue? And where and when did you sell it?
From the very first issue it was a hit. We printed around 40,000 copies every fortnight and from the beginning we were totally independent. We wrote reviews of clubs and vinyl, and we attracted some really good contributers. Kris the aritist was amazing. He was only 15 when he started drawing for us, and he beats Pez hands down. He designed the double dipped logos – the purple ohm and the techno raver. Claire Henderson wrote the articles on drugs, and they were properly researched and factual. Not made up crap and hearsay. We listed all the forthcoming events and all the gossip from the scene.
Ravescene was never sold, it was always free. We gave it away like a flyer, but you could subscribe and we’d send every issue in the post. We also took bundles around all the record shops, posting to the shops that were too far away to visit personally."
Talk us through issue 2. At what point did you decide that it might be a project worth continuing with?
"Producing it became a full time job. We had a lot of help. Adrian Catwell was our right hand man, indispensable. Kristopher was a good friend, Garage DJ and reviewer. The Warlock reviewed all the techno and hardcore, plus being a very talented DJ. Then there was Claire I’ve already mentioned, and Natalie, Sean, Katie and Emma, all stalwart flyers, not forgetting The Criminal and Dean the Raving Plumber. We couldn’t pay anyone, but they all got into parties for free, and we had a good time"
What were the highlights of the first year in print? Did you continue running it from the same place, and how did you manage the typeset/printing process?
"I designed the magazine and did the layout on an Apple Mac, using Quark Express. The disk was given to our printer who usually turned the job around in a couple of days. Then we collected it, dished it out to the flying team, sent out the subscribers copies, and delivered and posted to all the record shops. We started to fly for other promoters as well, and we even put together packages of Ravescene and flyers, in a plastic covering which we put on car windscreens."
Doing the magazine got us introduced to many people. In particular, we had a lot of support from Joe & Phil at Labryinth. I guess we first went to Labryinth the same way everyone else did – someone told us about it, we took a chance, checked it out and had the best night ever! I loved that club, and the music. 'Promised Land' by Joe Smooth was a Labryinth anthem, and you rarely heard any Drum and Bass crap. In my view it was Drum and Bass and Jungle that killed rave. I’m not saying I was a cheesy quaver, but I always preferred the house side of things. The uplifting Balearic beats were more my thing."
How long did it run for, and what was the plan? Was it just a run it until you get fed up kind of project?
"Eventually, the magazine grew into Double Dipped, as we decided to promote our own events. The first one was at Christmas at Labryinth, and we went on to run nights at Turnmills, Enfield Palladium, various sports centre locations, and of course, Bagleys. We ended up running a regular Friday night at Bagleys, with our biggest one-off being the Spirit of Raindance party (that was the one that had the swimming pool and funfair outside). For quite a while we worked with Joe promoting Labryinth, before going our separate ways. We even published the Ravescene Yearbook.
It all ended when another promoter had a party on a Bank Holiday Sunday at Bagleys, and one of the door men was stabbed. Although it didn’t happen on our night the venue was hexed, and our numbers dropped from 1500 to around 500. We made a mistake, we stayed at Bagleys, instead we should have found another venue straight away, as our name was good and we could have filled any other club. This happened in May, and I’d given birth to my daughter Tara in the February (her birth was announced in Time Out by David Swindells!) and so my priorities had changed and maybe I just didn’t have the energy to get back into the thick of things. But to be honest, the vibe had gone by then, it wasn’t the same anymore. Too much Charlie, too much Drum and Bass, and too much interference from outside influences. I left
London in the November of that year."
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There must have been a few heavy moments…………discuss……..
"On the whole, looking back, I have good memories. I just registered on Facebook, and so many people have been in touch.
Worst moments?
There was a horrible weekender at some Butlins camp up north, Carl Cox was the only set worth listening to and they closed the pool so we couldn’t use it to chill in.
Pete Tong trying to mix.
Having to have 24 hr bodyguard for a while when another firm was trying to take over our door.
Best moments?
Really cheesy, but ‘what’s your name, where do you come from, what’ve you done’ springs to mind. It reminds me of all those fantastic nights when you just chatted to anyone and everyone.
The boat party was one of the best, and I’m sure that everyone who was on it remembers it.
One night at a club when a punter was being gropingly horrible to some girls so the doorman stripped him naked and sent him on his way........
Here are my top 10’s (in no particular order)
DJ’s
Billy Bunter
Adrian Age
Colin Dale
Carl Cox
Slipmatt
Loftgroover
The Criminal
Venues & Top Nights
Rage (Heaven on a Thursdsay)
Orange at
Camden (not the Rocket, hated that)
Labryinth
That boat party we did after the Enfield Palladium one morning
The early Raindances
Brighton Zap with Colin Dale
Reincarnation
Top PA’s
N-JOI
Prodigy for Labryinth at Bagleys
Tony di Bart (Double Dipped at Bagleys the week he was No 1)
Rozalla
Can you explain what you did afterwards, and what your thoughts were on the music and the way it changed over the years?
"After I left
London I went back to Uni and finished my degree. I got married again and ended up as an estate agent again (this is what I was doing before Ravescene). Now, apart from having an estate agency, we also farm rare breed pigs. I live in the country with ponies, llamas, donkeys and chickens. An idyllic life, really.
I kinda miss the life, and I do go out still, but I really don’t like the drinking vibe at all. I just don’t get the attitude of going out to get wasted.
As far as the music goes, to my mind in the last 15 years there’s been no innovation at all, which is why all the old classics still work so well. If you go 15 years back before raving i.e 1973 the music was totally different. Now, it’s just all a variation on a theme. I couldn’t have gone clubbing with my Mum and Dad, and listened to their music, but my son can go out with me!
And a big shout out to........
All the pirate radio DJ’s who entertained us at home during the week.
All the people that helped us fly, especially in the winter when it was cold and raining.
Kris the Artist, Natalie, Emma & Chrissie, Sean & Katie, Adrian, Chris, Scott from Slimetime, Paul, Dean the Raving Plumber, Terry Turbo, Mike and Funki B, Joe, Ginge, Dawn, Daniel ‘Billy’ Bunter,
And loads and loads of others............
If anyone wants to contact me my email is gwenhowell@kingsleyhowell.com or via facebook
Sweet, Mate!
Ravescene Magazeen - Safe as house!
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