1989 was a year of change amongst the young people of Great Britain. It was for many a dreary and hopeless period of Thatcherism and near poverty, particularly for those in Northern working class towns, yet a new music movement united the youth into a party fuelled rebellion against the conservative norms of the past decade. New dance clubs such as the Haçienda and Shoom played psychedelic dance beat tracks that incited people to dance for hours on end. This was often fuelled by the party drug ecstasy, hyping up the crowd and allowing them to carry on for hours without exhausting themselves. The music was also played at free parties hosted in abandoned warehouses or factories that were unregistered. Hundreds or thousands would turn up and cram in for the night, dancing until the sun rose. These parties were quickly jumped on by the media as a danger to society, promoting deadly drug use and unsociable and aggressive behaviour among the youth of Britain. Ironically this was often the opposite of true, as MDMA would lead to feelings of intense love and happiness, meaning many previously violent or thuggish football hooligans were transformed into smiling, dancing "hippies" almost overnight, after trying their first pill.
Shaun Ryder The Autobiography
To further research the play I reread Shaun Ryder's autobiography. Shaun Ryder was the lead singer of the Happy Mondays, one of the bands most heavily involved in the acid house rave scene, and this book provides a great insider's look at what it was genuinely like at the time. It also touches on the periods before and after, so provided some much needed context for how the scene came about, and what effect it had on society and youth culture.
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