Castlemorton and (n)me

Hi - I wrote this recently for a conference in Seattle on the Criminal Justice Bill. Journalist Todd Burns asked me about NME's involvement covering the Criminal Justice Bill and my thoughts on how the bill had changed music.

It seemed a waste not to use it as an article - and as the story of how I got into the world of music journalism it should work well as an introduction...

I also discovered this great footage of the event:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4amMvs-_-GU


My personal involvement with NME is down to the underground rave scene - the biggest illegal rave of all time, or so I'm led to believe, was at Castlemorton in Worcestershire in May 1992. At the time I was a rookie reporter aged 22 on local paper the Malvern Gazette, the local paper for this remote spot some 90-100 miles away from London.

The circumstances which led to a crowd of 20,000 people gathering to dance for three days could and never have been repeated. The gorgeous sunshine played a part. The new alliance between ravers and new age travellers who already had their circuit of summer festivals, previously inhabited by hippy bands like Hawkwind and Pink Fairies. The completely inadequate response from the police, already overwhelmed by the initial turnout on the Friday night of some 7,000 people. In fact it was rumoured that But the news reports on Saturday lunchtime that were effectively free national advertising led to a massive swell of numbers by the early hours of Sunday morning, to around 20 sound systems and even a big top.

The centrepiece was definitely Spiral Tribe's covered wagons-style arena, the speakers and vans bearing the strange, neo-cryptic slogans and patterns and indeed this is probably why the police tried to pin the event's 'organisation' on this sound system's members, eventually spending £5m of taxpayers money in a vain attempt to have them jailed.

In fact I was told on good authority that in previous years this festival (the Avon Free Festival) had taken place in neighbouring Gloucestershire and that this county's police were so determined not to have to deal with in 1992 that they turned up on a layby with petrol for the travellers' convoy and directions to Castlemorton, just over the border. Indeed in the police area it happened in (Upton, Worcestershire) was immensely proud of often boasted the lowest crime rate in the country, only to see it skyrocket as all manner of drug possession and other crimes suddenly blotted their copy book!

Environmentally there was much fear the common land would be ruined - or needle infested - but the travellers even went as far as having clean up squads go back on the Monday to pick up litter. I have returned there many times and you would never know the event had happened.

Anyway, I covered the arrest and subsequent trials of those accused for NME as well as my local paper, and through that got editorial work leading to an eight year career at the paper. I continued to cover the CJB marches, one of which in Hyde Park was particularly scary, with the police chasing protesters out of the park with truncheons.

We visited one traveller park near Stonehenge and interviewed traveller families. One even pulled out a clutch of cuttings of CJB articles I'd written from NME - one of my proudest moments ever.

In terms of the music there were obvious moments - Criminal Justice by D*Note on Dorado - sadly not a hit, but the 'Free Nelson Mandela' of the issue, definitely. Autechre's non-repetitive beats, Orbital including a 'Criminal Justice Bill' mix on one of their singles that was completely silent by way of protest. But for me the biggest legacy musically is borne out of the music I heard at Castlemorton - with DJs like Roni Size and Optical playing a music that was barely evolving out of hardcore rave into the darker, more insane rollercoaster ride of jungle. I believe it was the sheer audacity of those times - as well as the defiance that illegality brought - that gave birth to jungle/d&b.