Dreamscape Interview 1993 part 3

Dreamscape Interview part 2

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.

When you plan an event do you worry that it will all go wrong?
No I have never had a fear that nobody will turn up, but the only fear that I had was when we did Rage at Leicester which holds legally about 450 people, we had way over that in throughout the night, the club is on two floors, and on the top floor I would only walk around the edges I thought the floor was going to go through, people would not sit in the office, they thought the roof was going to come down, basically it would have been a disaster just like Hillsborough because the club is over a restaurant,  I was shitting it, although we never had that many people in at one time it was frightening, it was too packed for my liking but a lot of people in enjoyed it, a lot of people said they would have enjoyed it more if there was less people in there.  On New Years Eve we planned an event which was to be held in an Aircraft  hanger but Vision was going for their license, it was the same area, we were told if Vision got their license we wouldn't, in the end neither of us got it which I am really pissed off about that,    I was quite lucky to stage an event and we went back to Rage again, with not as many people in this time but just over the legal capacity, it was packed but comfortable, I did shit myself as there weren't enough fire exits in there for the amount of people.  People that do the illegal events have got to be aware, such as Exodus, that when they get 10,000 people in a warehouse and it only has two exits, if anything went wrong in there it would be a nightmare I'm as much to blame as I shouldn't have filled over the capacity at Rage.   The safety levels are set by the councils and they have to do their jobs, sometimes they go too far and you have to argue with them, but you have got to agree to the regulations, cause one day there will be a disaster, and that will end every promoter for good.

Is there anyone your want to give a shout to?
Yeh, Gideon from Obsession, the 5HQ boys, DJ Clarkee, Dougal, Grooverider, Carl Cox, G E Real, Quest, Danny from Fibre Optic, Universe, Phantasy, there's too many, everyone who's helped me out - the biggest shout to Clarkee for sticking with me event though I've been such a bastard to him.  Before I got into the rave scene I used to manage a sports shop and I employed Clarkee as a shop assistant, he was Bruce Springstein's number one fan, I converted him, I must admit I even went to a Bruce Sprinstein event with him, basically he has never looked back since.  We have been best mates ever since 1988 or earlier.

So when did he get into the DJ'ing side of it?
No, I wouldn't let him play, I used to play records and buy loads every week anyway, the element of buying records wore off and rubbed off on Clarkee, he bought some decks and away he went, he used to hassle me to let him do the warm up set and I would say 'no your shit', anyway he kept playing and practising and eventually I let him have a warm up slot, I used to pay him £20, right up to 1991.  He has played on every Dreamscape but he's now got to pull his socks up and get out and get some work, he is to shy but I do believe that if there was a rating chart for the mentality of the music he plays he would be in the top 5.   I would say there is another Clarkee from down London way, he has been around a long time, the Funning things is they are both called Richard Clarke, they were both born on the same day! My Clarke is white and the other is black.  One event I want them both on at it, I would like to finish off by saying thanks to Stacey and Vanessa, especially Stacey for sticking by me.