Dreamscape Interview 1993 part 1

Murray Beeton, aged 26, the man behind Dreamscape has progressed over the years and what plan they have for the future.

ESP was established in 1988, what sort of events were you doing back then?

The first ESP's started off in Northampton, but I wasn't involved then, I got involved in 1989.  ESP had done four events before I started, and a guy called Craig Campbell was doing it then, but at his last event he had a lot of trouble and he couldn't find another venue so he packed it all in, about four months after that in 1989 I got involved, and we found a venue called Castaway which is now called Milwaukee's, we split everything 50/50 and started ESP again.

And up until then you hadn't done anything?

No I just went abroad and all over the place, I worked in Ibiza at Amnesia, that was my first taste of the rave scene really,  then I came back and started Castaway.

So how did you meet Craig from ESP?

Well it was just a group of people who went around together, we used to got to events, the illegal ones when it was all underground. A few events went down will until one went wrong and he ended it, and as I said then we went into partnership and started Castaway and basically we turned more people away on the night than we could fit in, the club only held 550 people and nine times out of ten we turned that many people away, but it was only until 2am, then the last Friday in the month we did a members night and finished at 6am that went really well although we didn't promote it very well. A guy then came along and bought the venue, renamed it Milwaukee's and started doing Country and Western nights but it didn't take off, so eventually we got the club back but it was a struggle to get the people back in there, but once they came back it was packed out every week, that went well until March 1992.

That was ESP though not Dreamscape?

Yeh we did events called Bounce and a few more and as we progressed the flyers got bigger and better and so did the events, still keeping the price less than £10 in Milwaukee's and in the end it was £12.  Some other guy came along and bought the club, so that finished March 92. 

So did you just pay rent for that place?

Yeh the first time we went in there we used to pay £60, then when the new owners came in we had to set up another deal but it still wasn't anything to turn your nose up against, so another owner took over in March 92, although we did get first refusal on the place but they wanted silly money and we just didn't have it, but if we still had it now we would be cramming it in,  I'd say it was one of the best underground clubs of it's time.

Is it a 2am finish now or has it changed?

No its had its 6am licence since 1990 when we had it, its got a good sound system and everything, the music was brilliant but its more jungle now.  Anyway we got out of the club in 1992 but just before we got out I staged an event at Northampton, ESP wasn't really well known then so we did that with Weekend World who we knew would pull the crowd in, for they had done a lot of illegal events at that time.  By then I had bought Craig out and was doing it myself.

When did you buy him out?
It was 1991 and I did the club on my own for nearly a year, as I said the event in Northampton I didn't have a lot of money then and I put it into Weekend World, and called the event Heaven on Earth, ESP Promotions, it was an open air event licensed for 7,000 and on the day we pulled 12,000 the other 5,000 people got in either through entrances or through the fence, and I would say that that events was one of the best ever staged it was one of a kind, anyway that was the first big one I did, then I found a venue in Milton Keynes, Denby Leisure Park, we did Dreamscape on the 6th of December 1992 and sold out two weeks in advance before the event, then we did three more events six week apart and every one sold out two weeks in advance and I don't think any other promoter can say that, the last event we did there came near to our year Birthday on the 26th May 1992 by this time the name Dreamscape was pretty well establish so this next event coming up will be nearly a year ago from the last one that we did at the Denby Leisure Park, someone who bought the venue now calls it The Sanctuary, it does stage good events but it doesn't fill to capacity, but this next event will pack it out for a lot of people who were going last year will come back and hopefully keep the vibe alive as far as Dreamscape are concerned, that's basically the history of it all.

So what are your plans for the future?
At the moment we are planning a three day event but we haven't got the license for it yet hopefully it will be licensed for 48,000, it will start on Friday night at 9pm finish at 12 noon on Saturday there will be a free camping facility on site where the music will carry through the day, then the event will start off again on the Saturday there will be a free camping facility on site where the music will carry on throughout the day, then the event will start off again on the Saturday at 9pm until Sunday midday.

Are DJ's playing live all the time?
Yeh the whole day but no live PA's I have learnt through experience not to have them as I find that they break up the night too much, even though there are a few good ones I would like to use I don't really find it necessary, we will have more DJ's than Universe, and they will all be contracted, so that we can put them all on the flyer, and that way there will be no chance of the DJ's being at another event anywhere in the country.

It will be the biggest event of the year,  I think it will be an event where the whole categories of dance music will be played to it will cater for everyone.  Its good to go into the idea of a festival so that people get value for money and get a lot more out of the event, and for £20 per head for the whole weekend and that includes camping facilities and basically three days of raving.   Although I haven't got the license yet,  I don't think there will be a problem as the person that is backing it is a major promoter from the rock and roll world.

This has been my goal since 1990.  I think the rave scene has lost its sense of direction, there are too many categories under the dance music label.  If we go back to the days of the illegal raves, you had the acid house parties the music that was playing was acid, bleeps, ambient tunes, and it was a good vibe, every tune was open minded and sounded good, there was lots of hugs and kisses, and everyone was on the same wave length.  Today the music is a mess in my opinion, the jungle has messed it up really, I like the music but its giving people an attitude.  There is nothing wrong with the jungle base but it should be mixed with Techno, the bleeps and the acid tracks, so that its not so dark, the atmosphere is just not there, you loose it with regards to the piano music with the hands in the air, I think the Techno will come back in a big way.  Even though you don't like the jungle you will still play it at your events.  Yeh of course so then it gives a cross section of the music that will only work on a big type festival event.  In October hopefully we will open a club up not too far away from Milwaukee's, which I want to run it as a Hardcore / Techno club on a Friday and Saturday got to garage.

In Europe at the moment its going Techno mad and that's what I want to concentrate on that most, its more a mature music and a thinking persons music so it will attract the older crowd back into the scene who will keep it going a lot longer, the only person who I know is doing well on that sort of scene is Gideon from Obsession he's putting a line up that is across the board and is bringing in an element of Techno.  For music content the best event I have been to was the event at Westpoint last year by Obsession.  Techno isn't in demand at the moment and the big named DJ's aren't bringing it in so they are as much to blame as the promoters for the state of the music, hopefully  the DJ's will soon start okaying across the board and cater for everyone.  There needs to be more events like Universe who put on events and cater for every category that's the only way to do it.

Really the garage type people are a selected few and they will only go to certain places and they rip off people who have a damn good time with the white gloves etc. 

So you can't see the day when you got to an event when the main tent will  be garage?

No definitely not, it will never work,  I do feel its a totally different vibe with Garage music, its on a mellow style there is no way you can have a bollocks atmosphere with 5/6,000 people where there is a Garage music playing, unless your into Garage.  I just don't think there will be the vibe, the main thing about a good event is to let all you inhibitions go and not be bias as to what you listen to.  The likes of  Ray Spence of Raindance and Gideon at Obsession and Universe know what to do but is should have been done last year.  The best music was 1991, the music is just not as fulfilling now as it was back then.

Is that why a lot of promoters are starting to put on DJ's playing a set from 1991?

No, there's nothing wrong with having a set of past music but I don't feel that's achieving anything, the whole point about Rave music was to let yourself go and rebel against societies music, because the music of today has got more to offer, you can't keep living in the past.  I think I will release some tapes from last year because they are really good, from when I first started doing ESP, the music is excellent.

The drugs of today play a big part in the way the scene is going, the kids that are just downing three and four tabs at a time because they don't get the same buzz, but they don't realise that they never will.  So do you think that the scene will get back to how it used to be?

It never going to die, the whole concept of dancing the whole night through is here to stay.   The only problem being the council only giving a license until 2am but half these people dishing out the rules were hippy's themselves back in the 70's, but all they are concerned about is the drugs and I think that every council up and down the country have their policies.  From a magazines point of view you have got to tell people about the drugs, and let people know what is happening, I know that here are a lot people out there that don't do drugs of any kind but they still want to go and listen to the music and have the bollocks of a night, but the war against drugs was over years ago before you and I were born, the more the kids are made aware about the consequences of taking them the better, I feel that experimenting is a part of growing up, they take the gear because their mate are.

What is you ambition? 
My main ambition is to go to the moon, if I could have my time again it would be to be here in the year 2090 by that time people will have holidays on the moon.  I would like to say all the promoters of today should say thanks to Raindance for they brought the legal events in, I went to them once for a bit of advice and they didn't want to know , the only advice they could give me was to live and learn. Everyone know that Dreamscape have got a food name, when we put on a event every DJ turns up and everything that was promised will be there, and all the punters know they are in for a food night and know what to expect.

So what is the most important thing in the rave scene to you?
Well I think its the music basically, if you put on an event with not too many light, just a few strobes and a few other lights, a bit of smoke no lasers or anything, but you had a bollocks of a sound system and mental music that would be the best atmosphere event there could be, you don't need any of this other crap to pull people in, all you need is the music content, all these other attractions just make it a bit more attractive and a bit more clitsy,  but it pulls a lot of people in and that's why we had to do it as well.

So don't you go for all the fancy fair ground rides then?
Well I'm not putting it down, it is a good laugh to go on a ride when you are at an event if you know what I mean, but that isn't the rave is it becasue you got to the event basically to listen to the music.

At your 50,000 event are you going to have all that?
Oh yeh of course I am and it will be free and loads of other attractions will be there, I like the idea of this virtual reality theme, I think that is going to be really big and not just at events you can be on another planet sat in your home.   I think that this year you will see a lot of events, not all of them will be brilliant, but on a big scale there will be a lot of them and the capacity is getting bigger,  Vision have done the biggest event so far, they had 35,000 people there, obviously it was way over the legal capacity, but it just proves that you can pull the people in and on that night the clubs were still full, you just think how many ravers there are out there, and I think if you promote it properly and tell people not to go to a club but to go to a certain event you could pull 100,000 people in, but a lot of people don't buy tickets in advance, a lot of people don't make their mind up until the day.

Dreamscape Interview part 2