Check out these photos of the legendary ‘DiY Soundsystem’ in its acid house days
TThe acid house scene owes a debt of gratitude to the DiY Collective, who emerged from Nottingham in the summer of 1989, and as one of the first house sound systems in the UK, helped soundtrack a mountain of memories.
From Castlemorton to Café del Mar, the DiY sound and DJs became internationally renowned and beneath their banners of liberty, collectivism and untrammelled hedonism achieved an underground cult status that endures to this day.
As the legendary Tony Wilson put it in 1997, in their pomp the DiY collective was “culturally, the most dangerous people in the country”.
Having celebrated their 30th anniversary in 2019, DiY continue to challenge the idea that dance music is apolitical and to celebrate the ideology of liberation through fun.
With this in mind, one of DiY’s founding members, Harry Harrison, has written a new book, Dreaming in Yellow – The Story Of The DiY Soundsystem, which is out now on Velocity Press.
The book tracks DiY’s origins back to early formative experiences, describing in detail the seminal clubs, parties, festivals and records that forged the collective. Dreaming in Yellow seeks to distill the eclectic, outrageous and occasionally deranged story of them doing it themselves.
“For me, the publication of ‘Dreaming in Yellow’ will represent the culmination not just of my personal ambition to write a book, but more importantly a chance to really explore and explain the history of the DiY Collective and the wider Free Party Movement,” Harrison said.
“Overlooked by the media in these pre-internet days, that whole underground scene was huge and of massive importance to a whole generation of people.”
You can buy Harry Harrison’s Dreaming In Yellow here.
Check out some photos from the book below. Photos by Alan Lodge, Matt Smith, Sharon Storer and others.
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