When the rave culture exploded onto the scene during the late 80’s, secret parties started taking place in and around the Cambridge area. On selected Saturday nights hundreds of ravers were meeting in the city centre at Hobsons Bar and The Fountain Inn as well as the surrounding industrial areas of Milton and Waterbeach. These places were providing the party venues for some serious events. Every week it was a true textbook M25 orbital party operation, arrive at the meet and await instruction. As soon as the lead car got the phone call it was all systems go. My own experiences outside The Fountain Inn were always pretty hazy and one weekend I actually passed out on the pavement suffering from a bout of ‘over indulgence’ ehem! What I do always remember though is as soon as that call came through it was a mad scramble to the cars.

Most of the events always seemed to be within half an hours driving distance in convoys of up to 100 cars or more and once there you had to park up, get in the queue, pay the security and you were in. I don’t think I ever attended a ‘Cambridge Illegal’ that was not a memorable night as the production was always of a very high standard, big sound system and a selection of strobes and moonflowers all wired up into the mains board of the warehouse! The parties firmly established themselves very early on and attracted hundreds of bodies every Saturday night. The names that continually became associated with Cambridge and its scene were the ‘Banks’, namely Stuart and David, Les Mourani (The General), Criterion Lighting and H-Team security.

Because of the popularity of the events it unfortunately did not take long before a majority of the parties were getting busted and for a while it seemed almost every Saturday night either the meet or the venue would descend into chaos as ‘The Pay Party Squad’ would do there best to halt the festivities. It was out of this that a rumour spread... Dave and Stu Banks were looking at putting on a party in a legal venue and because of the massive costs the authorities were facing policing the Saturday night illegals they would not oppose an application for a license. Shortly after this Groove II Promotions was formed and Eclipse born.

The first party took place on Saturday 12^th May and as I remember went on until 1.00am, which although was a little early paved the way for later licenses of generally 4.00am and on certain occasions 6.00am. The venue picked was the Cambridge Corn Exchange on Wheeler Street, a 1300 capacity venue located in the city centre. This remained Eclipse’s home until the final curtain in June 1993. The memory that seems to be most common of Eclipse is that of the mighty Turbo Sound system and blue green laser, the sound was crystal clear and the laser projected sharp waving tunnels across the dance floor.

The venue itself consisted of a large foyer area as you walked in, this was used as a chill-out zone, bodies would litter the floor at every event standing, sitting, chatting and when the 2 doors into the main hall opened a massive gush of Turbo Sound would rush in. Once through those doors and in the main hall you were greeted with a main stage at the far end, this housed the sound system and lighting rig, in the centre of the floor a dance platform. Upstairs were large balconies that could be used to view the party down below with the option of an alternative room, which supplied a more progressive Italian sound.

Eclipse whilst resident for 3 years at the Corn Exchange went onto tour around East Anglia and put on 2 large marquee events (one of which featured a live appearance by 'The Prodigy') all with considerable success, but as house evolved and original hardcore branched into drum and bass and house it was no longer one sound. Eclipse veered towards a more drum and bass/hardcore flavour and the final Corn Exchange party featured collaboration with ESP Dreamscape.

The Cambridge Eclipse was arguably East Anglia’s most successful legal monthly party night, spawned directly from the 1989 illegal party scene.

Courtesy of www.chicagotrip.co.uk

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