Mike Pendegast is putting together a collection of rave flyers from the clubs and dance floors he went to all over England back in the early ’90s. The era was known for some of the best raves which took place around the world, and it’s reflected in the flyers which were always something cool and colourful.
In an interview with The Wire, Pendegast says that “In the late 1980s and early ’90s I spent seven years travelling up and down the country to different raves, clubs and similar events” and adds “Flyers document an era of peace and love, an eradication of barriers, an ethos of unity and respect. These memories can never be buried or discarded. They are an artistic history of the subculture. This was a scene that sprang from austerity into an underground, an anti-establishment movement that must be recorded as a significant era that, some may argue, altered the course of history.”
Pendegast collected the flyers from 1991 to 1993 in parties which he looks back on with nostalgia and inspiration to remember them through this book. It will feature flyers which are already published on Pendegast’s website where he talks about the reason why he began putting this project together in the first place. Remembering a night when police raided a rave in Hull in 1991, he says “the collection attempts to trace my steps before and after the infamous night on Thursday 21st November 1991, celebrate the era, and acknowledge all who experience peace, love, unity and respect on hundreds of England’s dance floors.”
The flyers come from different raves Pendegast attended such as The Fantasia, East Coast Experience, and Ascension among many others. The book will likely contain quotes from the likes of DJ Rap, Evil Eddie Richards and Dave Seaman, which are also on his website.
