Everybody In The Place - An Incomplete History of Britain 1984 -1992 by Jeremy Deller

Everybody In The Place - An Incomplete History of Britain 1984 -1992 by Jeremy Deller is an intriguing documentary about the rise, commoditisation, commercialisation and eventual loss of the rave scene.

Now, when the scene was gaining momentum I was just a toddler so I never saw the scene for myself. However, through pop culture and media consumed at the time I was aware that raves were a thing. For me, my formative years were in the mid to late 90s and this was when the trance and club scene were huge. The Ministry of Sound and Cream Annual albums would typically top the charts and tracks like Saltwater by Chicane and Till I Come by ATB reached #1. Even now, Darude's Sandstorm and Kernkraft 400’s Zombie Nation haunts my nightmares in earworm form.

Deller is an excellent documentarian and is obviously passionate about the subject material. By delivering a lecture and having a dialogue with college students, he is able to explain eloquently that trajectory of the rave scene to a group that were not alive when it was a going concern. I'm not in any way a young college student but this device means the information is delivered in a clear and precise way.

He discusses how the scene started as a way for people to capture the means of production and make the music they wanted to hear. Detroit and its post industrial landscape were a hotbed for musical creativity and we see how the creators of the time were using these derelict buildings to create a sense of community. This scene moved to the north of England but the miners strike created division within the country and struck fear into the establishment and so they went hard against large social gatherings and parties as they feared social unrest. Deller then looks at the Industrial Revolution and how the Condition of England question, where the Industrial Revolution created massive inequalities in British society, led to huge wealth disparity, and is still in effect today.

He also elaborates upon the news media creating a moral panic about the scene. A lot of the MPs representing their constituencies surrounding London were Tory and so hardline about these gatherings. Also, these large gatherings had the political classes worried with flashbacks of the miner's strikes still ringing in their head and so the idea of a politicised and active youth was scary... they preferred docile and easy to corral sheep.

The popularity that followed and then the commoditisation as commercial interests gutted the scene and took out the heart and soul of what had been created by the people for the people... free of commercialisation.

He ends on the hopeful note that although the scene died it remain in the heart of many and changed the face of the country. Deller is very good at articulating, contextualising and celebrating this beautiful scene that only lasted for a while but shone brightly.

After watching the documentary, it got me to reflect about my closest approximation of the 90s and early 00s club scene. The clubs were a venue for me to escape from the cares and worries of my everyday Muslim teen life and reach euphoric transcendence through trance tracks. Obviously I didn't let my parents know about my trips to London clubs as they saw them as hedonistic dens of inequity but for me it was a way to escape the constraints of the religious and communal expectations.

In much the same way that by the early to mid 90s saw the decline in the rave scene, as it had mostly been appropriated and homogenised by corporate money, I remember the trance scene changing and out of that came a new underground including Jungle, Happy Hardcore, Drum and Bass, Garage, Grime, Techno, Dubstep, Trap, Witch house, Drill etc. I'm not into a lot of these scenes but I'm sure that there is a vibrant scene I'm not seeing as an early 40s aged man who lives in a sleepy coastal village in south Devon, England.

I was interested in other peoples' opinions about the scene and so was looking though the comments on YouTube and a lot of the comments talked about missing these halcyon days and the perceived lack of rebellion in youth today. However, I do not agree. In the film, a lot of people who were lined up for the raves in England were homogenous white folk whereas now, through the internet and social activism, youth of all colours and stripes are fighting the system in much more powerful and meaningful ways. Just because they are not rioting it doesn't mean they are not changing the world. Look at some of the most powerful youth figures and you have Greta Thunberg, Malala Yousafzai and the myriad of school Valedictorian speeches that have condemned and shone a light on systems of inequality. Yeah, it's a shame that the club and rave scene is much diminished but the youth are not as compliant as may be assumed... They are fighting for a better future in a different way.