Jesters clash with riot police at Holborn rave

Halloween is always a cracking night out in London. I spent mine avoiding a thousand devils' pitchforks at Urban Nerds in Old Street.

Meanwhile, down the road in Holborn, this week's most hilarious news story was breaking at an illegal warehouse rave. Police were called to a gaff near The Den where around 500 people were raving to 'deafening hard techno', says The Telegraph.

After asking people to leave (who probably couldn't hear them if it was so deafening), police panicked and called in the chaps from the riot squad.

The newspaper says: 'Ravers in boiler suits, bear suits, and jester costumes, and an array of hoodies, top hats, fluorescent caps and dreadlocks, were in the road. Some were drinking beer in the road, many were clinging to water bottles.'

Ahahahahahahhaha.

Newspaper quote of the week goes to squatter David Emeri, who told reporters: 'The only thing is I've been here since 3am and I haven't had the chance to go to the lavatory yet.'



Read the full story here. There's an alternative video of the event here.

Raindance secret warehouse rave

Call yourself a real London raver? In that case you should know all about Raindance, one of the city's longest-running parties, which until recently was held at SeOne club in London Bridge.

Raindance is a mish-mash of all things old skool: hardcore, drum n bass, jungle, acid house and then some. It is one of the last true bastions of an era that gave birth to underground club culture as we know it today - as well as the notorious Criminal Justice and Public Order Act (anyone under the age of 20 won't have a clue what I'm talking about. Look it up.)

Dance music gods Prodigy are quoted as saying that in their early days, only two things concerned them: 'getting a record out and playing Raindance'.

But I digress. The reason I'm harping on about this is because Raindance, or more specifically its Jenkins Lane arena, has taken a new tack. It's breaking loose to host a secret warehouse party on Saturday 3 July - and it looks like fun.

Among the lineup will be the lovely Ellis Dee and Niki Dimensions (two of the nicest chaps on the planet). There will also be a live PA of classic stomper 'We Are IE' plus graphic design legend Pez will be putting up his original artwork for all you flyer whores to gush over. I will be one of them.

I insist you all come to this party. For details, head to www.secretraindance.com.

The warehouse rave is not dead

Regular visitors will notice the blog's been quiet in the last few days. The reason is a four-day party marathon in God's own city. Since then I've been a broken woman, but it was utterly worth it. Let's just hope I recover in time for Bloc this weekend (which has now sold out, by the way).

One of the events I rocked up at was a blast from the past. Having battled the wankers of Shoreditch at uber trendy Dragon Bar for half of Saturday night, it was time to bid goodbye to asymmetrical haircuts, skinny jeans and retro beats, and get my proper rave on.

I hadn't had a 'secret party line' text message in a while, so I followed the trail to a warehouse in Edmonton. There are lots of warehouse parties cropping up all over London, particularly in the east, in areas like Dalston. But take these with a pinch of salt - they're merely ticking the cool box by walking the walk, yet most of them are in fact licensed, legal events, albeit in temporary spaces. Not in Edmonton.

My first pointer was to 'follow the music'. Easy - we could hear it from half a mile away. Not a problem, as the venue was suitably out of reach in a vast industrial estate. Climbing through a fence (of course) we made our way into a huge hangar - and I mean fucking massive.

The first sign of a squat rave is the stench of piss (legal venues have proper toilets. This place had a pitch black cess pit. In fact it was so bad, it was better to just find a dark corner of the hangar.) The next two things you're guaranteed to see are people passed flat-out on the dancefloor (tick) and dogs running around (tick). But these things are all part of the charm, and having been a regular to squat raves in both London and Leeds in the early noughties, it felt like I was reliving the good old days.

The set-up was three large sound systems in the centre of the room, all facing outwards. There were around 1,000 people there, in various states, but generally a good vibe. The music ranged from gabber (dear Lord, forgive them) to dub and reggae (brap) to dubstep, breaks and jungle (hubba hubba).

The best part was discovering some old faces playing on one of the systems. This was truly a Leeds revival, as the High Pressure crew had made it down with their awesome record collection in tow. Happy days.

What struck me was the number of Spanish people there. This happened at Fabric a few weeks ago, too. It would seem they're Europe's top raving machines. I like this, and am now hatching plans for a rave tour of Spain.

We stayed at the warehouse until well into the morning. As we left, I spotted a police car parked around the corner, but there wasn't any hassle. You've got to love London. Since the eighties, we've known how to put on an awesome rave, anywhere. And there certainly ain't no stoppin' us.

PS... There's a blinding (legal) warehouse party coming up on Thursday 1 April. Head to Layo (former owner of The End) and Bushwacka's bi-monthly ShakeIt party at - tadah! - The Warehouse to catch the incredible Carl Cox in action. It's his first London gig of the year, and is set to be rammo-jammo. Click here for info.