Press
Andy Madhatter, First Priority, Ian Tilton
Russell Club, PSV Club, Precinct 13
1992

Saturday Night, Sunday Morning: Manchester's Techno Blues Clubs.

Article about underground raving in Manchester in 1992 – Mixmag supplement. Photos by Ian T. Tilton. Words by Seamus Quinn.

In 1992, I was writing all sorts of stuff for both Mixmag and its weekly title Mixmag Update.

One day, the phone goes. They were doing a supplement to (I think) May’s Mixmag which was to be a rundown of the 33 best clubs in the country.

As they knew my feelings on the emerging corporatisation of rave culture, they wondered whether I would like to do a sort of counterpoint photo feature about the underground scenes I was always banging on about.

Basically, then, pretty much an article about a night out with me doing the things I liked to do. No problem.

I can’t remember whether using a slightly wary but ever game Ian T. Tilton was their idea or mine, but I do recall the ground rules which (because they knew me too well) boiled down to: “Don’t take any of your strange mates, don’t just bugger off raving and leave the cameraman on his own and, most of all, make sure he doesn’t get his camera nicked.”

Ian was very keen on the last bit and, indeed, it did need occasional attention on the night. But the major problem was getting Precinct 13, the PSV and the folks running the blues party to let Ian in and take photos in the first place. Glad they did, though.

Also, if you look closely at the bottom left of the bottom left photo, you can see me in the glasses sitting in the corner.