Coventry raves: 'People were hugging each other and dancing'

A new exhibition will explore the rave scene in Coventry.

The City of Culture event will be an immersive multi-media exhibition exploring the city before, during and after the arrival of house music.

The area was central to the scene and saw the first legal events orchestrated by Amnesia House and The Eclipse, the first all-night 24 hour club in the UK.

Artist Adi Dowling said it records "one of the most important cultural movements of the 20th Century".

Mr Dowling moved to Coventry from Ireland in the 1970s and was a teenager when he first got involved in the scene.

He said once in it became "like a religion... it sort of changed my world".

"The people attending were a diverse crowd from every background, every ethnicity."

"It was just completely different and also unlike what was going on at nightclubs in the city before that period, people weren't getting drunk and fighting, they were hugging each other and dancing.

"It was sort of euphoric and they were playing music you weren't hearing on the radio," he said.

"You'd be given a flyer for what was on next, you were just planning on what was the next event you were going to go to, the next week was spent earning enough money for a ticket or to go to Eclipse."

He said he spent the following years documenting what was happening.

It later became his job, as in 1992 he set up Daylight Robbery, an organisation specialising in live visual projections, moving image and curated sets designed for themed club nights.

"I found something where I could earn money but also be involved in something that I loved," he said.

In 2018 he self-funded, produced and curated his first exhibition which was a combination of original footage and digital manipulations of the dance music revolution of the 1980s and has produced a series of audio documentaries focusing on 1980s and 1990s Coventry.

"At that time to go to nightclub you had to wear a shirt, tie, trousers and shoes and played they played pop music 'til 02:00," said Mr Dowling.

"This was completely different for these young people to go against the grain and be putting on events.

"This is the start of all these new subcultures that exist today."

House is a Feeling, he said, would look at Coventry before house music, during, and also its aftermath, plus the impact the drug culture of the rave scene had.

The exhibition, he said would be a sensory experience.

"If people come to the exhibition and don't feel intoxicated I'll be quite annoyed," he said.

Chenine Bhathena, creative director of Coventry City of Culture, added: "The city was at the epicentre of electronic dance music and rave culture at this time.

"It was just pure love for the beat. There was a sense of freedom and spirit amongst that generation that won't be seen again."

The exhibition will be take place in a secret location from 11 to 28 November.

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