Warehouse Parties
The era of the legendary "Showcase Warehouse
Parties" (spring 1995) has sadly passed since the warehouse was
demolished; they were documented by HTV [video clip (5MB!)] and Eternity and
were proof (if needed) that such parties are safe, trouble-free and
very popular.
Spring 1996 brought a new series of parties at a 'secret'
location in Kingswood, there were 4 - 5 there, each totally safe
and without incident. Just before the "M.D.A." party on March 16th the
police, fire brigade and building inspectors turned up, satisfied
themselves that it was safe to proceed and the party went ahead! It was
an excellent night with about 1000 happy ravers having a wonderful time.
There have been several other venues used for free parties but a huge
party on New Years Eve 96/97 was busted by the police with 8 people
being arrested, equipment confiscated and some violence (only one way of
course) so the scene has gone a bit quiet while things sort themselves
out again. Respect goes out to those who put on these parties, this is
always a risk but the police had been very reasonably until then.
Pirate Radio Stations
As with most cities, Bristol usually has at least one pirate radio
station broadcasting, many of them coming out of the St. Pauls area. We were
lucky to have DANCE 104FM for a while in 1996, it was one of the best ever for
dance music and is sadly missed. However, hitting the airwaves from 22nd June
to 19th July (1997) is Powerjam FM (106.6Mhz) which is running 24 hours a day
during that period with some good dance music programs being featured.
On the 'legit' radio front, Galaxy 101 (on 97.2FM in Bristol and 101FM
South Wales & The West) plays 6 hours of non-stop House music on Saturday
nights from 8pm till 2am with residents Tristan B, Deli G, Nick Warren
and Jody, plus guests like Mike Shawe & James Savage, Paul Harris, John
Kelly, etc. Tel. (0117) 924 0111 or for further info.