Freedom 2 Party - A Ravers Perspective (Fusion)

I was sent this short story some years ago (2001) and personally replied to the email...As Follows;

1 of many memories 1990 - Author: Fusion aka Leigh Kilby

It's Saturday 27th January 1990 8.00am driving up the A2 from Kent going to the Freedom to Party Rally @ Trafalgar Sq arrive and park in Soho Sq walk down Tottenham Court Road and were here,
cannot believe the amount of people we recognise from all the raves we had been to by this time Trafalgar Sq is closed off to traffic the West End is @ a stand still and the police are being funny as usual saying no amplified sound with a beat to come from any of the pa systems then you got Anton giving it his all on the megaphone and then if the buzz wasn't big enough Debbie Malone sings
accapella of Rescue Me.

It's about 6pm now and the rumors are flying around about all the raves in the capital so we hang around for another few hours and try to get in the Astoria but cant get in because the place is full
so we thought ahh lets get up to South Mimms Services see what's happening up there. So off we set up the A1 get to South Mimms and the place is going mental with ravers and that's it someone mentions a rave in Watford so now there's at least 100 cars making there way up the M25 all following the cars in front. I remember a roundabout and turning left under a bridge and everyone's parking up really buzzing.  Now we're all looking at each other saying this is it we can hear it and it's still about a mile down road.

The road is solid with people walking towards it and the music getting louder.  Police everywhere but the rave is going on but they wont let us through. Then all the taunting started and that was it fighting with police and theres this geezer with a shopping trolley full of cans of coke. He's selling them for 50p to throw at police or a pound to drink it, i'd never heard anything so funny as that bloke when he came out with that comment. After all that we never got in but hey theres next week to look forward too, ended up back in London @ Dungeons on the Lea Bridge Road but what a top day that was.

This is what happened! - Wayne Anthony

Hey Fusion!

Wow! I remember that day well my friend. I was one of the organisers and i helped crash the party in Watford later that evening. I took lots of photos at both the demo's (Trafalgar Sq & Hyde Park Corner) Anyway! We held a meeting straight after the demo, (included - Genesis, Sunrise, World Party, Biology, Weekend World), we knew we would stage an event, but didn't have a venue. We
each went off to different parts of London, Slough, Watford. Tarquin from Weekend World found a venue in Radlett. We immediately dispatched our sound and lighting teams. We had a series of recorded telephone lines at the ready for venue details and meeting points which pirate radio stations were waiting to broadcast.

Tarquin greeted us when we arrived at the venue and told us the chap who hired us the fair ground attractions had pulled a shotgun on him and wanted £500 or he would leave. He got his money! People were already arriving at the venue but the sound system hadn't been wired up yet. So i convinced my cousin Bobby to drive his BMW into the building and play music on his £2,000 car stereo. So he did and everyone danced around the vehicle until the sound system was ready to go. By now there was around four hundred people in building and then the police arrived.

Wearing full riot gear and carrying video camera's and bright lights, they'd tried to storm the building. Everyone stood their ground and rushed towards the police. They stopped their charge and we all began chanting Acceeeedd - Acceeeeeed - Acceeeeeedddd

From the position we were standing we couldn't see what was happening around one corner of the warehouse. We heard cheers and then suddenly a thousand or so people came charging around towards. The police tried stopping them, so we all ran outside and into the riot police. For about twenty minutes, we played cat and mouse type games until the police finally gave up.

A lot more happen that night, you'll have to read the book, for the full story.

Wayne Anthony