Welcome to the second installment of Tape That… The ultimate trip down rave’s memory lane, complete with selected mixes taken from the all-essential event tape pack. For this trip regular contributor Jamie S23 revisits his first underage rave and highlights the impact of Mickey Finn, DJ Rap and the influence of Evolution on an entire raving generation….

Rewind to ‘93

In a scene dominated by huge over-18s events such as Dreamscape, Helter Skelter and United Dance, the market for the younger raver was something of a bleak void. Some may have managed to sneak in using fake I.D, others may have just got lucky, but for a large percentage of us 14 to 17 year olds at the time, attending a huge legal rave was something of a daydream. That was however, until Psychosis arrived with Evolution.

I still remember picking up a flyer for Evolution 3. I was beside myself. Not only was it at The Sanctuary, but the line-up was amazing. The likes of Tango, Jumping Jack Frost, Mickey Finn, Ratty, Slipmatt & Lime and the legendary Dougal all featured on the same bill. For those that remember the buzz associated with flyers, you can no doubt relate to being fixated with reading and rereading the text on the back. I’d be interested to know if that buzz still exists, what with the multiple daily event invites on Facebook and the countless line-up exposure…

Unfortunately I missed out on Evolution 3 (parents eh?) but I was lucky enough to attend the monumental night that was Evolution 4.

Bring along the parents?

Imagine that! Inviting your parents to supervise while you and your raving buddies wave your hands around in the air, blow whistles constantly and listen to repetitive music for seven hours? That’s exactly what was originally on offer with Evolution: a parents-only VIP lounge was hosted in the upstairs of The Sanctuary. Thankfully my parents saved me the embarrassment of them attending, although from memory the first few events saw a string of the over 40s clock-watch from their special room.

How do you like BASS?

Arriving at The Sanctuary via the organised raving coach around 5:30pm (yup – tea time!) we were treated to a huge queue that wrapped around the side of The Sanctuary and all around the car park. I still remember the immense eagerness of everyone and that feeling of anticipation as the jungle basslines rattled away against the metal walls. This was only the beginning: walk through the glass doors, get your hand stamped, walk into the main arena…. then…. BOOM!

The bassline from DJ Rap’s Spiritual Aura hit me. Hell, it hit everyone in the whole arena. For the first time in my life I was experiencing music in its rawest form. Granted I had been a dedicated follower of rave music since 1991 but this was the first time I had actually felt bass and this then started my addiction with The Sanctuary and other large scale rave venues.

Tape pack alert

While we were all pretty much used to six and eight packs by now (bar Dreamscape 06 which was bizarrely a 5 pack), Evolution released their first tape pack in a collection of four, featuring Dougal, Vibes, Mickey Finn, Rap and Stevee Wonder alongside MC’s Hooligan and Juiceman.

If your assumption of a typical Mickey Finn set is filled with bananas jump up, then give this one a try. It’s certainly a fine example of how a jungle set should be played. Comparable to that of the late G.E Real’s sets at Dance Paradise (minus an extra 2 decks), Finn fires off a great selection. That’s the key point to this set: selection. We talk far too much these days about mixing, triple dropping basslines, 500 tracks an hour etc but what will always remain key in any DJ’s set is selection. Mickey Finn will always be one of the ultimate selectors of the 90s in my opinion. What I love about this set is that Finn was obviously on an educational tip, playing for a huge crowd of over 14’s, I would imagine he was keen to demonstrate the many flavours that jungle had to offer at the time.

Juiceman accompanies the set and for MC standards of 1994 he does a sterling job, firing all kinds of hip-hop influenced lyrics over the microphone. He is somewhat of an underrated MC even to this day and one that certainly outshines many of his peers.

DJ Rap is accompanied by MC Hooligan who also appeared on Rap’s label Proper Talent in 1995 with the self-titled track ‘Hooligan’. Although not as technically gifted as Juiceman, he still hosts the set with skills and doesn’t drown out the music. Slightly before her golden era, Rap plays a selection of jungle anthems and although not as well presented as the Mickey Finn set it’s still a solid effort from the original ‘bad girl’ of Jungle.

It’s the last 30 minutes of the set that are really worth checking as Rap steps into a varied selection of darkside beats followed by uplifting jungle vibes. This is the type of set you would expect to hear her play at any reunion party of 2013 with a dose of hard step thrown in for good measure. I can still remember almost wearing this tape out in my Sony Walkman and no doubt bashing this into my ears at full volume with the Megabass switch firmly activated. It did my eardrums no good whatsoever.

PlayStation, whistles and horns

A superb selection of sets from two exceptional DJ’s of the 90’s. When you listen to either set you will hear one thing that stands out from most everyday sets these days – the crowd noise. If you didn’t own a horn or whistle at one of these events you were no one. Thankfully they were on sale inside the venue for those that forgot or blew their existing one into oblivion.

Although making some noise with a whistle or a horn certainly wasn’t anything new in 1994, it was the sheer amount of people blowing them at the same time that made the early Evolution parties unique, maybe this was because it was perceived as the norm to constantly blow.

Around 1996 Evolution managed to secure some sort of sponsorship deal with Sony and their PlayStation 1 console pods were installed around The Sanctuary dancefloor. Quite a bizarre concept but when you think what Sony’s target market was for the PlayStation it could have worked. In principle though, it was probably something best left for the non-existent chill out room as the pods always seemed to remain unplayed.

Out with the young and in with the..

Evolution had a pretty good innings at The Sanctuary, and if my memory serves me correctly, lasted a good 3 years from 1993 to 1996 before leaving the venue. Establishing links with United Dance, Formation Records, Essential Platinum and Sony, the promoters at Evolution had obviously put in countless hours of hard work creating a well known brand for the over 14s, however what they didn’t plan on was the over 14’s growing up and moving on to the over 18s events.

By 1997 Evolution had since moved venues and joined forces with Neil and Simon who ran Peterborough’s dedicated jungle and hardcore record shop Vinyl 2 U. A brief stint at a venue in Peterborough finished with the demise of Evolution.

For those old enough to remember some of their finest events at The Sanctuary and the deafening sound of 100s of teenagers blowing whistles in unison it’s true to say Mel and Dave who ran Psychosis and Evolution played a huge part in the foundations of the rave scene for the early 90’s raving generation.

NEED MORE OLD SKOOL?

The Risky has put together a very special podcast to coincide with this very feature. Head on over here for a wild retro ride featuring major memory lane bangers such as Blame’s Music Takes you, Jonny L’s Hurt You So, Top Buzz’s Living In Darkness and Terrorize’s It’s Just A Feeling. If you’re not subscribed, now is the time. Rewind me selecta!