relationship to their subject area (Back 2001). In doing so, I can now appreciate how
my previous experience as a consumer of dance music since the late 1980s and as a
DJ, promoter, drugs counsellor and dance outreach worker since the 1990s has
informed my methodology and translated into my ethnographic research practice.
These roles have not only provided me with crucial insights and improved my
understanding of dance culture, but in addition helped me to develop networking
techniques required for gaining access to specific areas of my research field. These
factors, combined with living in London and being constantly exposed to the current
sounds of pirate radio, have enabled me to view the constantly changing landscape of
the capital’s dance culture.
Scene fragmentationTo understand the development of UK garage, it is important first to consider the
process of scene fragmentation which began in the early 1990s and consequently led
to the formation of an array of interconnected scenes comprising Britain’s wider
dance culture. This process is linked to early attempts aimed at restricting the
development of British dance culture through the introduction of various legal
measures. These began in December 1989 when Graham Bright, Conservative MP
for Luton South, sponsored a Private Member’s Bill, which later became the
Entertainments (Increased Penalties) Act 1990. This legislation raised the level of
fines for breaching the licensing laws from £2,000 to £20,000 and introduced a
maximum six months prison sentence for those organizing unlicensed parties
(Collin 1997:111–12). The act was later strengthened when the then Home
secretary, Douglas Hurd, granted the police additional powers to confiscate
equipment used at these unlicensed events (Push and Silcott 2000:60). Other
amendments to the Local Government Act 1963, the Private Places of
Entertainment Act 1967, the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act
1982 and the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 were all clearly aimed at the
early ‘acid house’ phase of dance culture (Redhead 1997: xi). Later, the introduction
of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 crucially shifted focus, in that it
became the first Act to place restrictions on individuals attending or attempting to
attend unlicensed events.
Throughout the early 1990s the British police and local authorities pursued a
continual crackdown on illegal parties, which coincided with the liberalization of
licensing laws, as clubs’ opening hours were extended whilst promoters were
encouraged to organize events under a regulated framework. This resulted in a
gradual demise of ‘illegal’ events held in unlicensed premises that took several years
to transpire, as the majority of party organizers moved their operations towards
nightclubs and other licensed venues. Consequently, divisions began to emerge in
the early 1990s, as dance-music participants began to fragment and mutate into
smaller social groupings focused around specialized subgenre consumption
(Newcombe 1992:7–8). Many of these groups contributed new discourses to dance
culture by adapting it to suit their own needs and sensibilities (Collin 1997:5). This
SOUNDS OF THE LONDON UNDERGROUND 185