Acid flashback: Tabloid coverage of the Summer of Love was the original fake news

It is ironic that the same issue devoted half of its precious front page promoting its new bingo game, with talk of £31,000 cash fortune, just waiting to be won… but wait a minute, isn’t this the same moral guardian that is often seen crusading against the evils of the nation’s youth getting hooked and gambling their money in amusement arcades? I looked at the small print and saw no age restrictions to enter the lotto bingo game. This is the same publication that gleefully exposes obscenity cases while at the same time delights in publishing pictures of topless or naked girls.

Where is the concern of the Sun when it comes to these anomalies? Quite simple: secondary to the primary concern of ‘fortress’ Wapping-selling newspapers. There is no mileage, no controversy in people dancing, which is, let’s face it, what the majority of ravers go out for.

In conclusion: what the national press are failing to recognise is a revolution. There now exists an entire dance subculture of a proportion never seen before on this sceptered isle. Radio stations, clubs, countless one-nighters, festivals and major chart dominance of records that have been ignored by that old grandpa Radio 1,all testify to this new attitude of ‘dancethink’ – an attitude that for some includes the use of illegal substances that have been around long before the Roland TR909 or 12” single ever hit the shops.

Just as football is blamed for the violence between opposing fans, if we do not make a firm, coherent stand against the untruths that have been outlined in this article, dance music will never shake off its shady association with drug use/abuse and will be held responsible for the irresponsibilities of a minority of extreme cases.

Both football and pop music provide valuable releases for young people growing up in a complex, confused society. Don’t blame the symptoms – cure the disease.

Until then, rave on… and don’t believe the hype.

Kirk Field is a former Mixmag gunslinger, now Ibiza promoter and Threadonist.com mischief-maker

George Morton is a freelance illustrator, check his website