Spiral Tribe is a free party sound system which existed in the first half of the 1990s, and became active again in 2007. The collective originated in west London and later travelled across Europe and North America. According to one member, the name came to him when he was at work, staring at a poster of the interconnecting spirals in an ammonite shell.[1] The group had a huge influence on the emerging free tekno subculture. Members of the collective released seminal records on their label, Network 23.
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From 1990 until 1992, Spiral Tribe were responsible for numerous parties, raves and festivals[2] 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.[3] Their trial became one of the longest running and most expensive cases in British legal history, lasting four months and costing the UK £4 million.[4] Regarding Castlemorton, Nigel South states that "the adverse publicity attending the event laid the groundwork for the Criminal Justice Act 1994".[5] 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."[6]
| Date | Location | Comments | |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 1990 | The school house, northwest London | First real party organised by Spiral Tribe | |
| June 15, 1991 | Cable Street, Wapping London | Took place in the loading bay of a large warehouse about 5 floors high and open to the sky | |
| June 1991 | Longstock | ||
| June 1991 | Hortem cum studley, Oxford | Weekend long party, Spiral tribe borrowed a local free party soundsystem never to return it | |
| July 6–7, 1991 | Mirage Winchester Devils Punch Bowl | Free party all weekend long; no problems from the police. | |
| July 1991 | Bala, Wales | ||
| August 9–12, 1991 | Liphook, Hampshire | Torpedo Town; no problems from the police. | |
| August 1991 | Chelmsford | Original site in an open mine (natural auditorium) was compromised by police while setting up. Thousands of ravers waited patiently for hours until a new site was found; permission was given for use of a field on private land. | |
| August 1991 | The Cisbury Ring festival, held at 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 | Northwest London | The green house party | |
| October 1991 | Kent | The Village Idiots festival | |
| November 1991 | Lewisham Library | ||
| December 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 managed to dance for a little over an hour before 300 police sealed off roads and moved in to make arrests. | |
| July 1992 | Smethorpe Airfield | ||
| August 1992 | The Cisbury Ring festival | The police allowed the party 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 resurface in Europe and around London. |
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:[7][8]
Some members of Spiral Tribe toured the United States of America in 1996 and were hosted by Pirate Audio and S.P.A.Z. Soundsystems on a coast-to-coast free tekno party tour.
In 1997 Spiral Tribe toured America with an impressive rig and crew, joining forces once again with free party systems. They were instrumental in the initiation of the Autonomous Mutant Festival in July of that year, which continues to this day. The 13th Festival was held in 2009.
The notion of member of the tribe was very informal; very quickly, numerous artists joined the initial four members, accompanying them on their trips, some for holidays only, others in a more long-lasting way. The public tended to consider every artist performing at one of their free parties a Spiral member.
Members of Spiral Tribe have included the following artists:[9] Sebastian (alias 69db), Mark Stormcore, Lol Hammond, Zander, Simon (alias Crystal Distortion), Jeff 23 (alias DJ Tal), Ixindamix, MeltDown Mickey, kaos, MC Skallywag, Debbie (aka Pheen X), Timmy Tribe, Paula, Sally, Alex 65, Steve Bedlam, Orinoco (AKA DJNerate), James (alias Jack Acid), Stefnie, Little Ez, Nigel (alias Edge), DJ Crafty (T.C.), DJ Aztek, DJ Manic Josh, DJ Renegad Sid, DJ Charlie Hall, DJ Mr K, Hamish, Darren, Dougie, Sacha, Old Frank, Paul, Sim Simmer, Joe, Tim Evans (Heathfield), Sancha, Dom, Mitch, Terminator Chris. MC Robbie Dee
| “ | Everyone can be a Spiral Tribe. | ” |
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—Mark Stormcore |
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From its inception, the group was obsessed by the number 23. Images for musical releases, posters, backdrops and flyers featured the number 23. Parties were often organised on the twenty-third day of the month. Members sometimes recorded under the moniker of SP23, and the record label itself was called Network 23.
In 1992, some members of the collective signed to the major label Big Life, as a result of the publicity generated from their involvement in the organisation of the Castlemorton Common Festival. Three EPs were released and two albums, one merely a compilation of the tracks from the EPs, the other a full album entitled Tekno Terra.
Members of Spiral Tribe also released records on their own label Network 23.
In 1997, Techno Import, a French commercial distributor, compiled a CD entitled Spiral Tribe: The Sound of Teknival. The CD consisted of previously licenced material via Big Life Music, Rabbit City, Drop Bass Network and Force Inc. It was released without any consent from members of Spiral Tribe, was advertised on television and sold at least 30,000 copies. Spiral Tribe issued a statement against its release which began, "F**k Techno Import, Spiral Tribe Is Not For Sale", and had to take quick action to ensure the name Spiral Tribe was not copyrighted by Techno Import.
Note: They also released EP 23 No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 (World Domination Part 1, 2 and 3), as well as a few untitled promo CDs, but there is little documentation about these vinyls.
A DVD has been released called World Traveller Adventures, echoing the title of a track ("World Traveller Adventurer") on an early Spiral Tribe record, Forward the Revolution. One of the four films, 23 Minute Warning (the name taken from a track on another early Spiral Tribe record, Breach The Peace), featured interviews with several members of the collective.[1]
In 2005, the label Network 23 Repress was set up to re-release tracks from the Spiral Tribe back catalogue.