london acid city at the saatchi gallery

The phone rang. It was the director of the Saatchi Gallery, Philly Adams. She’d heard about my documentation of illegal squat party raves in the mid latter 1990’s and asked if I could email some of the work to her. I’m afraid not was my reply, for the simple reason it was sitting buried deep in a cupboard having not been seen in more than 20 years. Like the raves I photographed this was going to be an ‘old skool’ way of showing work and we met in an east London cafe where I showed her and co-curator Kobi Prempeh the dusted off old prints from my London Acid City series, their faces lit with excitement as they saw the photographs for the first time.

Never have I been more proud to be in an exhibition than the SWEET HARMONY RAVE | TODAY exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery. The show, set across the entire gallery, presented a revolutionary survey of rave culture through the voices and lenses of those who experienced it. Including artists Tom Hunter, Vinca Petersen, Dave Swindells and others the exhibited work reflected the history of the early rave movement, particularly the illegal parties through a mixture of photography, sound and immersive experience.

The exhibition was made unique by the rave room which one evening a week would hold a ‘Saatchi Late’ event where visitors could walk around the gallery and then dance whilst legendary DJ’s spun tunes spanning 30 years of rave.

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My photograph of the sound system in the burnt out sports hall in Tottenham was, for the time it was up, one of the largest photographs in Europe. The original negative was lost by a member of Spiral Tribe. This huge image is a duplicate of the only print that exists of this photograph.

Way back in the day in the autumn of 1990 on the night of my 20th birthday I was immersed in one of the infamous Alpha Raves at the Academy on Plymouths notorious Union Street. 

The night was made the more extraordinary and transformational by discovering for the first time in my life the sheer magic of blending psychedelics and acid house. It was to be the beginning of what has been an incredible and exceptional 30 year journey and quite honestly some of the best moments of my life. 

Unbeknown to me at the time it was the legendary Carl Cox that DJ'd that night in Plymouth. One evening at the Sweet Harmony exhibition he talked about these last 3 decades of DJin and was to later play the night alongside Fat Boy Slim. I felt very proud as he sat there talking about his extraordinary career with my huge photograph of the sound system as a backdrop behind him. 

In so many ways he was the catalyst that set me off on this beautiful 30 year journey of beat, rhythm, love and passion. And my, what a journey it's been! So to have him talk about his DJ life right there in front of my picture, was really rather special. A journey he helped inspire that in a funny way I was able to help thank him 30 years later by providing the visual backdrop to the story of his DJ life!