Monday, February 26, 2018

What's that sound? Raves on the front page of the Edmonton Journal, February 26, 1993.

~ ~ This article brought to you by the patronage of A.B. ~ ~

It has been 25 years since the Edmonton Journal published a front page, feature length article about something never before heard of: “raves.” The city newspaper's February 26, 1993 edition landed on the doorsteps of Edmontonians and titillated them over their porridge. The headline, white on black, shouted in letters an inch high:

Headline of the February 26, 1993 edition of the Edmonton Journal. "RAVE ON: A Dance Party for the 90's Flower Children"
It was the first time raves appeared on the Journal's front page.

For many Edmontonians, this would be their first encounter with raves and ravers. To those readers, the Journal defined raves. The article featured a large, full-colour photo and it ran with a factbox.

What’s the story here?

In general terms, the mass media provide context and significance for events: they offer interpretations of the events of the day and they speak from a position of perceived authority. Newspapers also speak to their audience’s desires as they perceive them.

So what was the “Rave On” about, and what did Edmontonians learn from reading it? Explicitly, the article was about a party called “Rise and Shine,” (February 19, 1993) and a promotion company called Universal Underground, but the Journal article was about other things by implication. Raving was placed in association with (‘paired with’) other things such as drug use, strange fashion, generational turnover, and what used to be called tranvestism.

Particularly important are the ‘rave-fashion’ and ‘rave-drug’ pairings – both of which had appeared in the Journal before. These associations are consistent with other coverage of raves in the Journal around this time, and coverage in other newspapers. The “rave-drug” pairing would play a major role in the history of Edmonton’s rave scene (as it would Canada-wide).

On the Journal’s front page

The Edmonton Journal published “Rave On” on February 26, 1993. The article ran on the front page with a full colour photo of the party “Rise & Shine” which took place a week earlier. In journalistic terms, the party is the story lead: the journalist has been sent to report on the party.

February 26, 1993 edition of the Edmonton Journal, page A1.
Deejay and promoter Cory Payne: "These are actually the Journal photos. There was a reporter that was following the stories. He gave us an envelope with these pictures in it." (December 28, 2016 interview)
“Rave On” wasn’t the first time the word ‘rave’ appeared in the Edmonton Journal. There were four articles before this one. Two of them were about drugs; one was about fashion; one was about drug-inspired fashion (specifically, pacifiers).

"Big hats are all the rage at Seattle's 'raves'" ("Grind the Grunge," Edmonton Journal, December 8, 1992).  
Nor was “Rave On” the first time a subculture was featured in an Edmonton newspaper. You can read about media coverage of Edmonton’s punk scene, for example, in Jennifer Messelink’s “Documenting a Punk Music Scene in Edmonton, Alberta 1979 – 1985.”

But February 26, 1993 was the first time that “rave,” as a noun, a subculture and a phenomenon, appeared on the Journal's front page. And the word didn’t just ‘appear’ on the front page – it dominated it. “RAVE,” in capital letters, defied the reader to ignore it. The headline was apt. “Rave On” meant that on February 26, 1993, ‘rave,’ whatever that was, arrived in Edmonton with a boom, boom, boom.

First Encounter

Extract from "Rave On," page A1. Photo of raver in hat.
What appeared under that headline was the first encounter many Edmontonians would have with raves and ravers. Raves at that time (or ‘parties’ to those in the know) were the near-exclusive domain of private clubs, notably the Bronx and Flashback (in its final location on 105 Street) before that. Other venues included the Yardbird Suite, the Old Strathcona Bus Barns, and the first Dance Factory in the Mercer Building – that is, no mainstream venues, bars or clubs. Parties were promoted by flyers and were both selective and exclusive. By all accounts, the people who knew about the underground rave scene in Edmonton were the ones who could find out by word of mouth -- not the Journal’s core readership.

The Journal defined raves to its readers. Not only with words, it did so with photos and a factbox (the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of raves) which ran on the front page.

Here are the opening lines of the February 26, 1993 edition of the Edmonton Journal:
"A transvestite with blue eyelids and pretty lips waves a feather boa in time to grinding music. A teenage girl black bra and garter sways on a scaffold high above the dark dance floor. Beside her, a man, his youthful face hidden behind a gas mask, swings his arms around to the endless beat.

 "Friday night at midnight. This is no ordinary night club pickup joint.
"It's a rave."

What was the article ‘about’?

“Rave On” was about many things, some of which are explicit and others that are implicit.

Explicitly, the article was about a party called “Rise and Shine” which took place on February 19, 1993.

Flyer (front) for "Rise and Shine" (February 19, 1993). Source: Dragan Jargic

“Rise and Shine” was held in a warehouse at 10334 - 108 Street.  Tickets were $6.  The party was promoted by Universal Underground, who became Universal Dance Productions. Universal Dance Productions promoted a party called “Nexus” on October 7, 1995 and would eventually become the Nexustribe.
"Rise and Shine" was promoted by Universal Underground, who would become Universal Dance Productions.
“Rise and Shine” was the story lead – the newsworthy occurrence – and the article “Rave On” was ‘about’ that party. But in publishing the article, the Journal placed Rave in association with other things, and the article was ‘about’ those associations too.

Here are some things (in order of appearance) that the reader will learn from “Rave On”
  • Raves have to do with transvestism / drag queens / gays.
  • Raves are about teenagers in their underwear.
  • Rave music is strange music.
  • Raves have to do with fashion / big fashion.
  • Raves have to do with youth / generational turnover / defiance.
  • Raves are associated with drugs.
  • Ecstasy is associated with LSD.
  • Raves are driven by profit motive / consumerism.
  • Rave party promoters are dishonest / deejays are cut-throat.
  • Rave calls itself a movement / raves are on the rise.
Schissel (1997) notes that mass media “represent the primary, and often the only source of information about many important events and topics,” and this was the case for many Edmontonians learning about raves in 1993. According to the Edmonton Journal, raves are about young people, generational turnover and defiance. They are motivated by profit, and frequented by people who are outside the norm, for reasons of homosexuality, drug-taking, hedonism, costumes – take your pick. “Rave On” is about a party, but it is also about how ravers are different from readers of the Journal.

Frame On

For a subculture to appear in a city newspaper has been likened to a baptism by fire. Punk rock and heavy metal both received this treatment. Now rave was about to get it too in Edmonton: placed on the cultural margins, relegated to outsider status, its motives called into question.

Raves are about fashion, but they are also home to “trendies from the alternative and gay scene” according to the article. Techno music is presented as “weird” even though it’s only weird if you have a small mind.

Repeated imagery of teenagers in underwear trivializes as well as sexualizes the people who attended “Rise and Shine” and emphasizes deviancy. So does suggesting that raves have to do with transvestism, drag queens and gays (or at least, it did in Alberta in 1993).

Regarding the emphasis that raves are attended by a movement for youth (defiant youth), see Bernard Schissel’s Blaming Children (1997) regarding media treatment of youth crime in 1994 and Canada’s “war on youth.”

“Disparaging the movement’s effectiveness” (Gitlin 1980) is a common technique used in writing about subcultures or political causes, and we see it in “Rave On.” Deejays hoard music from each other according to the article, and party promoters are dishonest (one promoter “sneaks into” the parties of another). The article suggests that parties are motivated by profit (the figure “$2,500” is quoted). Another example of disparagement: “mainstream nightclubs are cashing in” on the rave phenomenon. Another: “Despite the do-as-you-please philosophy, many ravers end up looking suspiciously similar.”

The ‘LSD-rave’ pairing

Readers of “Rave On” will learn one thing that is not about Edmonton’s raves or ravers: they will learn that the drug ecstasy is associated with the drug LSD. The article states: “Ecstasy is a chemical hallucinogen like LSD.” Also: “A New York magazine described Ecstasy as amphetamines cut with Valium or LSD.” 

In fact, the first time the word “rave” (noun) ever appeared in the Journal, was in an article about a “resurgence” of LSD in Vancouver.

Canada’s anti-heavy metal panic of ~1988 was incited by Pink Floyd's "Momentary Lapse of Reason" tour. Yes, Pink Floyd.
In the 1980’s, LSD was a drug for rock concerts, responsible for ensnaring Canadian children in a heavy metal underworld. The death of Benji Hayward, 14, in Toronto on May 13, 1988, is often cited as an event that sparked an anti-heavy metal panic in Canada.

 After the death of Benji Hayward, newspapers in Toronto ran stories such as “Drugs and Heavy Metal Are a Bad Mix for Some Teens” (published May 22, 1988 in the Toronto Star). In response to the incident, police Toronto police moved to “securitize” (Grayson 2007) heavy metal concerts. 

The pairing of raving with LSD that occurs in “Rave On” is a telling historical artefact, for the treatment of raves by the media and the police in Canada did not come out of nowhere. There are major similarities between Edmonton rave crackdown, and the one that took place in Toronto. There are similar parallels between the media treatment of raves in Toronto, and the media treatment of heavy metal concerts a decade before. “Rave On” occupies a place between the media’s treatment of heavy metal in 1988, and the treatment of the rave scene that would come in 1999.

The ‘rave-drug’ pairing

Drugs are spotlighted early and often in “Rave On.” The association between raves and drugs was a punishing one in Canada, for “if movements are framed as deviant and criminal, it follows that repression is understandable, if not required” (Mac Sheoin 2013). Across Canada, city police forces used the association of raves with drugs to proscribe measures to regulate the ‘problem’ of raves. For an excellent treatment of this issue, see Kyle Grayson’s Chasing Dragons (2007). 

The ‘rave-drug’ pairing was established in the Edmonton Journal before the publication of “Rave On.” The first use of the word ‘rave’ was in a March, 1992 article about a resurgence of LSD in Vancouver. ‘Rave’ appeared in the same sentence as the word ‘ecstasy:’
•    “They call it going to a ‘rave’ when they attend one of these late-night dance sessions, where the preferred designer drug is called ecstasy, a euphoria-inducing drug that runs $35-40 a hit.” (“New Generation Finds Escape in LSD,” March 6, 1992).
On December 8, 1992, the Journal ran two articles about rave fashions, including one that stated:
•    “Mickey Mouse T-shirts harken innocence, yet symbolize LSD [and] ‘Cat in the Hat’ top hats are sported by Los Angeles ravers high on designer drug MDMA” (“It's hip to walk around with a pacifier”, December 8, 1992)
This context may help explain why one of the photos chosen for “Rave On” was a raver in a hat:

Extract from "Rave On," page A1. The photo chosen to show Edmonton a ‘raver’ featured a hat.
Historical Significance

The “rave-drug” pairing would play a major role in the history of rave scenes in Edmonton and across Canada.

Toronto would take it the farthest. In 2000, the scene in Toronto was at its point of maximum expansion. Scrutiny by media and city regulators was intense following the death of Allan Ho, 20, at an underground party in October 1999.  Liberal MPP and future leadership candidate Sandra Pupatello went to a Windsor rave to see for herself. Her visit was documented in the press: “I did find many, many ... very young people out in the middle of the night and most of them stoned,” she said (“Raves history, Lastman says,” Toronto Sun, May 4, 2000). Pupatello added, “It took about 20 minutes from my arrival to be offered the ecstasy.”

In May 2000, Pupatello proposed the Ontario Raves Act (2000) in the Ontario provincial legislature.

The Rave Act's purpose was “to promote public peace and safety by regulating late-night dance events” but note how it expanded police powers in the name of doing so. Among other things:
•    “Police were to be given the powers to enter, without a warrant, any place where they reasonably believed a rave was being held in violation of the act or a bylaw” (Grayson 2007). 
•    “The range of infractions that could legitimate a police inspection spanned from the obvious (like overcrowding) to the nebulous suspicion that organizers had not removed people who might be engaging in unlawful activity” (ibid.). 
For an excellent article about how Toronto ravers succeeded in reversing the discourse surrounding raves, including their “iDance” (August 1, 2000) rally on the steps of their city hall, see “Risks, Raves, and the Ecstasy Panic” by Sean P. Hier (2002). For discussion of how the Toronto police subverted that victory, see Grayson’s Chasing Dragons (2007).

As in Toronto, there was a place reserved from the outset for police in Edmonton’s discussions about raves. Notice how their voice is included in “Rave On” in spite of having nothing to say:
•    “In Edmonton, police know about raves, but have never been called out to a noise- or drug-related rave complaint.”
Newspaper articles pairing raves explicitly and exclusively with drugs began to appear around 1998 in Edmonton. Media coverage exploded after the party “Ascension” (April 1, 2000) where six people were taken away by ambulance in incidents called ‘drug-related.’ The Edmonton Sun would call them ‘drugged-up teens,’ under the headline “Six Teens On Drug Collapse At Rave” (April 3, 2000).

As raves emerged into mainstream consciousness in Edmonton, the ‘rave-drug’ pairing facilitated the involvement of law enforcement. The voice of Edmonton police featured prominently in articles in the Journal and Sun. Police were invited to address city hall meetings and to sit on committee. This culminated in Bylaw 12610 (June 2001), the “License Bylaw” which would have imposed a 3:00 AM end time for any and all dance events – a fatal legislative order for the city’s underground nightlife.

The intense treatment of raves in Edmonton media would continue through to the ‘Battle of the Bylaw’ and the “Come Together” demonstration on the steps of city hall (June 24, 2001).

Advertisement for "Come Together" rally, June 24, 2001.  Source: Vue Weekly, June 1, 2001

Edmonton ravers were successful in pushing back against the dominant discourse associating raves with drugs. In this, Dragan Jargic was a voice for Edmonton ravers in the media as was Marcus Gurske. David Stone published articles in Vue Magazine that directly challenged the way raves had been presented in newspapers. The change in discourse was palpable. Rallying the city of Edmonton against the proposed restrictions, Oliver Friedmann of Bronx/Lush/Rev declared, “The state has no place in the bedtimes of the nation.” Robert Noce, the city counsellor responsible for the curfew clause, appeared on As It Happens on national radio to backtrack from his position. Ultimately, the ravers of Edmonton prevailed.

Photo of the "Come Together" rally (June 24, 2001) in front of Edmonton City Hall. Source: Vue Weekly, June 28, 2001 


Conclusion

History is a sequence of events, and the publication of “Rave On” on the front page of the Edmonton Journal is one small event in the history of rave in Edmonton. It introduced Edmontonians to the concept of “rave” and defined the phenomenon to readers.

Mass media provide context and significance for events and offer interpretations of those events.  “Rave On” placed raves within existing frames of crime reporting and deviancy in Edmonton.

Over the next five years, the ‘rave-drug’ pairing would eclipse others in news stories about parties, setting the stage for the Battle of the Bylaw (2001). Ravers prevailed, but that is a story for another day.

The scholar Kellner (1995) says media influence “our deepest values”: our sense of what is good or bad, positive or negative, moral or amoral. According to Schissel, “The media give us the raw material from which we forge our very identities […] our sense of selfhood.” This includes, for readers of the Edmonton Journal, the sense that we are ‘us’ and ravers are ‘them.’ 


Interesting Facts: 

An abbreviated version of this article ran with the same title in the Calgary Herald on August 20, 1993, with the following added:
•    “Calgary has its raves but the word on the street is that they’re not as big as they used to be. They tend to be hastily-arranged, last-minute affairs often held in the country to avoid detection, organizers say.” (Note: disparagement of the movement’s effectiveness.)


For Your Reference

 You can view the entry for “Rise and Shine” (February 19, 1993) in the E-town Rave History Parties database.
Reverse of flyer for "Rise And Shine." Source: Dragan Jargic.

Deejays: Browse parties spun by each of the “Rise and Shine” deejays, in the E-town Rave History Parties database:
Venues: The party venue was 10334 - 108 Street, which is called "Nix in the Raw" on the party flyer.

Venue of "Rise and Shine" with map. 10334 - 108 Street, Edmonton.


The flyer record indicates there was one other party held at this venue:


Other Edmonton party venues as of February, 1993:


Promoters: "Rise and Shine" was promoted by Universal Dance Productions (UDP) who would be most famous for the series of "Nexus" parties.  UDP would eventually become the Nexustribe.  There were eight "Nexus" parties from 1995 to 2003:

[ Special thanks to the E-town Rave History Project's star volunteer, M.W for transcribing all the Nexus flyers with diligent care and attention.  Remember, the E-town Rave History Project seeks volunteers.]

Promoter Art Sproul (quoted in “Rave On”) spoke to the E-town Rave History project on May 16, 2017. Read our interview, “Ten Early Edmonton parties (1991-1993)” which includes a techno acid rave playlist.


Parties: The Journal article says, “The Bronx threw six [parties] in the last year.” These could be:


The party that is supposed to have turned its promoter a $2,500 profit was:


The article makes reference to a party where attendees were given jars of Vick’s Vapo-Rub. This may have been:

Flyer for "Vick's VapoRave" (November 13, 1992) at Dance Factory (10363 - 104 Street, now the Mercer Tavern).  Source: Art Sproul


Miscellaneous: The article makes reference to glasses given to attendees of a recent party. These are the glasses:

Source: Bronx archive

A view of the author's kitchen, as seen through the glasses above.


"Rave On" Full Text

Read the full text of the article "Rave On" in the project media archive, E-town Rave History Papers.


Sources
  • Gitlin, T. (1980). The whole world is watching: mass media in the making and unmaking of the left. University of California Press, Berkeley, Ca.
  • Grayson, Kyle. (2008). Chasing Dragons: Security, Identify and Illicit Drugs in Canada. University of Toronto Press, Toronto
  • Hier, Sean P. (2002). “Risks, Raves and the Ecstasy Panic: A Case Study in the Subversive Nature of Moral Regulation.”  Canadian Journal of Sociology, 27(1): pp. 33-57
  • Mac Sheoin, Tomás. (2013) “Framing the movement, framing the protests: mass media coverage of the anti-globalisation movement.” Interface, Volume 5(1): 272-365. 
  • Schissel, Bernard (1997). Blaming Children: Youth Crime, Moral Panics, and the Politics of Hate. Fernwood Publishing, Halifax


Post-Script: A Letter to the Editor (+2 weeks), More Fashion, and the Next Chapter

On March 12, 1993, the Journal printed a letter to the editor.  Excerpts:
"An article like "Rave on" (Journal, Feb. 26) has no place on the front page of the newspaper [...] it is little more than a gratuitous advertising feature for depravity and wanton self-indulgence (in order of appearance); transvestism, illicit drug use, homosexuality, and more drugs. 
"It's important to be up to speed, it seems, even on a rocket to nowhere. [...] Do we want to fall behind Vancouver or England ... or Sodom?" 


The next two occurances of the word rave in the Edmonton Journal would be about fashion:

The story “Master of techno music raves into Edmonton” (December 2, 1993) is worthy of analysis in and of itself and this is where we will go next.

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