Words by Nick Blake
'Each and Every Time' – a novel set during the UK Hardcore Rave scene of the early 90s.
This book tells the raving story of Danny-Lee, Essex boy and Old Skool, Hardcore raver, who, settled and approaching mid-life, is suddenly thrown back to his 90s youth by an unexpected funeral and by the discovery of a box of forgotten rave memorabilia.
These events and the continuing succession of flashbacks and visions they provoke, inspire Danny-Lee to take a journey back to his old Essex home in Braintree, following the route he often took when travelling to and from raves. As Danny-Lee drives the memorabilia, the music he is listening to and the world passing by outside trigger further flashbacks and surges of memory about his young life. These different realities and time streams intersect; Danny-Lee is thrown from one to another, at first in a state of confusion but by the end reaching a new understanding of his youth and his place in the cultural phenomenon of early 1990s UK Hardcore Rave.
The idea for this book has been knocking around in my head for a long time – at least 15 years – and some of it is older than that! Basically, though I wanted to try and do a few key things: First, I wanted to write the story of an ordinary raver of that time; the story of a Hardcore soldier. I was conscious that there were plenty of autobiographies of DJs and producers around and plenty of documentary/academic style studies, which are great – and many of them provided invaluable research for my book – but there was nothing that really told the story of those who packed the dance floors to dance all night until the sun came up and then danced some more. It seemed like a missing piece and a story worth telling.
Second, I wanted to try and write about the music and the culture – Hardcore music and culture. I wanted to try and capture in words the spirit of the movement and the emotion and energy of what I consider to be some of the most originally creative music ever made. Thirdly, I wanted to try to bring to life some of the ideas and discussions I’d had about rave, about Hardcore, about youth culture, at innumerable chill outs and after-parties over many years of being part of this scene. And finally, I wanted to bring these things together in a ‘real’ person who had a ‘real’ and authentic life and existed in history. I felt this last thing was important as I didn’t want to write a series of raving anecdotes.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good raving anecdote - and there’s plenty in the book - but on their own I didn’t think they would stand up as a novel nor did I think they would have the weight and impact that I thought the ’raver’s story’ in my head deserved.
The writing process itself took about 2 years (I did have a day job) and it was pretty intense at times. It included detailed research to create a timeline of real raves and events against which the story takes place; a flyer collection for Danny-Lee – based on my brother’s extensive archive - and a modest collection of records; a series of music mag articles which are read by Danny-Lee; and - the thing I am personally most pleased with - a car journey between North-East London and Essex which is plotted in ‘real-time’ to a Top Buzz set recorded in 1991 at Oscar’s, Clacton Pier, which Danny-Lee listens to in the car.
I published the book in February this year. I did this independently as no publishers were interested - maybe UK Hardcore doesn’t fit the book club model - and I have been working to promote it ever since.
BUY
Troubador - Amazon
Nick Blake
