Mathew Collins - Altered State

Scubadevils

Read this book years ago and have started to read it again. I found it fascinating to read about the history of the whole dance scene and how it all started. For those of you who are interested, its worth getting. Too lazy to write a review etc so robbed below one from amazon! Reading descriptions of the clubs in the early days really brought me back to my clubbing days, I have not been in a club of that sort for around 8 years or longer! Lots of things in the book that I never knew, such as Danny Rampling came up with the whole smiley face thing to promote his club in the late eighties. Anyway, highly recommend if your into reading.

Journalists Collin and Godfrey have written a fascinating, compelling account of youth culture in conservative Britain during the last decade. They begin with a brief history of the dual elements at the center of the culture: the spacy version of disco known as acid house and the drug Ecstasy. After setting the stage, they describe the migration of unemployed British youths to the island of Ibiza off Spain, where the culture began, and the transplanting of the Ibiza experience to British clubs. Chronicling the spread of acid house and Ecstasy through large parties called raves, the authors explain the movement as a reaction of disillusioned, lower-class youths against a conservative British mainstream. Collin and Godfrey examine the downfall of the drug-based counterculture owing to gang-police violence and Ecstasy-induced deaths and discuss the mainstream commercialization of the hedonistic dance culture into a #1.8 ($2.8) billion industry. This well-written social history will become a standard for those wanting to understand British youth culture and music.