Aye ’tis true… You have to run anything in your past through the “rose tinted spectacles” filter, cos it’s the really good bits that you remember best IMO. It was the Spirals that really started me raving in ’91-’92, and memories of those parties are some of my most treasured ones. Parties now are no different (other than the fact I now live north of the border, and it’s colder/more midge infested).

The only major difference I notice now is the level of respect paid to the party crews. Few crews send a collection bucket round now for instance – us included, because it’s not worth doing (never seems to get much, and the bucket person has to deal with people saying things like – “but I thought it was a free party…”:hopeless:). It’s a bit depressing to have it go round a party with 100 or so people, and come back with about £3 in copper, and the arse end of a spliff.
Back then, the collection bucket went round every party – you put something into it if you have it, and anything was appreciated. I usually put whatever cash I had left over after transport and chemical enhancements were dealt with, and never would have dreamed of complaining about being asked. I understood from the start (at the tender age of 15) that even though it was ‘free’, someone had to cover the cost of making it happen, and others had worked their butts off to get it all going. Even if it was only 50p, or £1, it helped. And sometimes I was totally skint and couldn’t donate – they never minded (and I usually tried to donate in some other way if I could…:wink:) It wasn’t about the money, it was about respect. The money helped of course, but letting the organisers know they were appreciated was why you donated.
Or staying at the end of a party to help clean up the site – you do get people doing this nowadays, but not nearly as many as did then. Some crews don’t do it either, and that just causes trouble for everybody with the “evil ravers destroying countryside” stories in the rags:you_crazy:you_crazy. I don’t remember any parties in ’91-’94 that an attempt to clean up wasn’t made (didn’t always work – post Lechlade was a total pit, but people did try to do something about it). The smaller parties I went to were always done, and usually by the ravers, leaving the crew to get their gear packed etc.

It’s definetly all the Spirals fault though:weee::weee::crazy: :bounce_fl:bounce_fl:bounce_fl :crazy::weee::weee:. Introducing me to all those wicked:groucho::groucho: parties during my formative years could only have one result really…
I will always thank them for teaching me that the life society had mapped out for me wasn’t the only one possible, and that I could do anything. I’d always been a bit of a misfit, and discovering a place where no-one cared about most of the things that were supposed to be important (how you look, how ‘successful’ you are etc etc) was fantastic (as a fairly gangly teenager, I never danced as a general rule. I always did at raves though, as no-one cared about the fact that I couldn’t:bounce_g::bounce_g:)

Prefer Forward the revolution, or World traveller – adventurer to Breach of the peace though (I still have a vinyl copy of Forward the revolution:weee::weee:).