SPIRAL TRIBE ARE HITTING ENGLAND AND THE WORLD BY STORM. THE GROWTH OF THE SPIRAL TRIBE HAS BEEN ASTONISHING. THEY ARE THE LARGEST AND MOST INFLUENTIAL OF ALL THE TECHNO SOUNDSYSTEMS.
THEY ARE A COLLECTIVE OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN HOLDING MOSTLY FREE PARTY`S OUTDOORS, IN DERELICT BUILDINGS AND WAREHOUSES ALMOST EVERY WEEKEND FOR THE PAST 5 YEARS. PARTY`S HAVE BEEN HELD ALL OVER ENGLAND, HOLLAND, FRANCE, SPAIN, BERLIN, CACH REP, VIENNA AND ARE COURENTLY TOURING ITALY. INSPIRING MANY PEOPLE TO CONTINUE WHERE THEY LEFT OFF.
A tekno history lesson.
From 1990 until 1992, Spiral Tribe were responsible for numerous parties, raves and festivals in indoor and outdoor locations. These mainly occurred in the south of England. The largest and most famous party the group organised was the Castlemorton Common Festival free party in May 1992. Thirteen members of the group were arrested immediately after the Castlemorton event and were subsequently charged with public order offences. Their trial became one of the longest running and most expensive cases in British legal history, lasting four months and costing the UK tax payer £4 million. (1999:373) Regarding Castlemorton, Nigel South states that "the adverse publicity attending the event laid the groundwork for the Criminal Justice Act 1994". Low and Burnett opine in Spaces of Democracy that "Spiral Tribe, with their free and inclusive parties, succeeded in constituting an alternative public space, rather than just a secret one. Though no one could say how many lives were touched in their three year tour of duty". (2004:217)
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Parties
| Date | Location | Comments | |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 1990 | The school house, north west London. | First real party organised by Spiral Tribe | |
| July 1991 | Longstock | The displaced Stonehenge Summer Solstice free festival | |
| July 6-7 | mirage winchester devils punch bowl | free party all weekend long no problems from the police | |
| July 1991 | Bala, Wales. | ||
| 9-12 August 1991 | Liphook, Hampshire | Torpedo Town smiling policemen everywhere no trouble at all | |
| August 1991 | Chelmsford | Original site in an open mine (natural auditorium) was compromised by police whilst setting up. Thousands of ravers wait patiently for hours until a new site is found - permission given for a field on private land. | |
| August 1991 | The Cisbury Ring festival, held on a picnic area near Arundel Castle | ||
| August Bank holiday 1991 | The White Goddess festival for 2 weeks on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall | Combined their sound system with Circus Normal (to achieve a sound system of over 25,000 watts RMS) receiving complaints from over 14 miles away. Despite police pressure they partied on until all of the partygoers went home. The event was attended along with a number of other sound systems including Circus Warp and DIY. | |
| September 1991 | The Arches, Deptford | ||
| October 1991 | North west London | The green house party | |
| October 1991 | Kent | The Village Idiots festival | |
| November 1991 | Brewery Road | ||
| Christmas and New Year's Eve 1991 | The Camden Round House, North London. | The power was stolen from a light socket owned by British Rail at the back of the building and the system went off at 6:30 in the morning when they turned the lights off. Someone then found an alternative power source. | |
| January 1992 | Blackwall tunnel | ||
| February 1992 | York Road, King's Cross | ||
| February 1992 | Numbers Farm, Kings Langley, Hertfordshire. | ||
| March 1992 | Tubney woods | Done with the Bedlam sound system | |
| March 1992 | Swindon | ||
| April 1992 | Chobham Common | ||
| April 30 – March 3 1992 | Lechlade | 25,000 people | |
| May 1992 | Castlemorton Common Festival | ||
| June 4 1992 | Canada Square, next to Canary Wharf, London. | About 1,000 people manage to dance for a little over an hour before 300 police seal off roads and move in to make arrests. | |
| August 1992 | The Cisbury Ring festival | The police allowed it to go on over three different sites. The system was supplied by Big Life Records, it also got split up, and at the end of the parties it was misplaced by a number of different tribe members to re-surface in Europe and around London. | |
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Europe
In March 1993, after being acquitted of all charges relating to Castlemorton, the group moved to Europe, doing parties in cities such as Rotterdam, Paris and Berlin. Over the next few years, the collective organised parties and teknivals throughout Europe, then it slowly dispersed with some members taking up residence in Germany and Holland and releasing work on Labworks and many other techno labels. Individual members of the collective joined other sound systems, did squat art events or pursued other interests.
From the summer of 1994 a number of free parties were organised by Spiral Tribe members throughout Europe. When the parties were large festivals with an open invitation to other sound systems and artists to participate, they came to be known as teknivals. In tribute to this collective, the type of music predominantly played at early teknivals came to be known as spiral tekno. Parties included the following:
- Hellfire, Dublin. early 1993
- Montpellier, France. May 1, 1993.
- Paris, France. June 19, 1993.
- Berlin, German. June 26, 1993.
- Berlin, Germany. December 31, 1993 at the Tacheles squat.
- Hostomice, Czech Republic. July 28, 1994. First year of festival later known as CzechTek.
- Vienna, Austria. August 27, 1994.
- Vienna, Austria. December 31, 1994.
- Vienna, Austria. March 4-6, 1995.
- CzechTek, Czech Republic. July 26, 1995.
- Rome, Italy. December 31, 1995.
- Milan, Italy. May 11, 1996.
- CzechTek, Czech Republic. July 26, 1996.
- Vienna, Austria. September 14, 1996.
- Prague, Czech Republic. November 30, 1996 at the Cibulka squat.
- Vienna, Austria. April 11, 1998.
