Review - Warning Presents Eclipse (Reunion) Party

The whistles, the smiley faces and the ‘massive choons’ of the Cambridge rave era were officially back in town at the Junction nightclub on Saturday 18th March 2006. The chosen venue, the Junction, which has a big history within the local rave scene was host to over a thousand revellers, young and old wanting a taste of the Eclipse magic that had cast a spell on so many people back in the day.

In the late eighties and early nineties the illegal raves that were happening near the M25 on the outskirts of London had inspired a string of similar parties around the Cambridge area.

Hundreds of party goers – bored of the usual commercial nightclub fare – would descend on fields and warehouses and dance the night away until either they dropped with exhaustion or the police turned up and moved them on.

But soon the busts were happening all too often, and with local residents starting campaigns against these ‘all-night acid raves’ it looked like the scene was going to grind to a halt. But then the fabled Eclipse nights started at the Corn Exchange, changing the face of raving in the UK with the first legal event.

“Cambridge had its own illegal warehouse scene that started in the summer of ’89,” says one half of the original Eclipse founder and resident DJ Stuart Banks. “Most big illegal parties took place on the outskirts of London but the Cambridge scene started emulating that.”

“There were three groups putting on illegal nights and I was one of them. But in the end the police decided enough was enough and by 1990 they shut most of them down.”

“In response, me and my brother David approached the Corn Exchange to do a legal night. We did one not knowing what the response would be and that night went on to become a monthly rave that sold out every time for three years.”

Running until 1993, the event was so popular that similar legal events sprung up all over the place, but in the end Eclipse had too much competition and called it a day.

But more than a decade later those original ravers – now mums and dads with careers and mortgages – started to yearn for the endless nights of their youth. Old skool house nights have become all the rage in London and the crave for such events within Cambridge has also followed suit.

“When we started Eclipse it was the ending of one scene – the illegal scene – and the start of a new scene,” says Stuart. “Prior to that clubbing was a very mainstream thing.”

“Clubs were meat markets but these nights that we were putting on weren’t about pulling, it was all about dancing.”

“I don’t know whether its because dance music goes in cycles, but there’s so much old skool stuff going round at the moment – parties and websites and club nights. There’s a whole revival thing going on.”

“Since we decided to do another night it’s sparked all manner of responses. I was at the Junction the other day when they had some woman ring up, they couldn’t get her off the phone for 10 minutes because she was telling them how she used to go every month and she couldn’t believe it was back.”

“It will be a mixture of young people who want to have a feel for that music and what it was like back then as well as people that were there back then and are doing it for nostalgia.”

As well as legendary acid house collective 808 State and gas-masked ravers Altern8, the line up also featured influential act Shades of Rhythm, original Raindance DJ Slipmatt, renowned jungle pioneers Top Buzz as well as Eclipse resident DJ’s Stuart Banks, Pauly Carolan and Mark Bennett.

Did anyone attend this party? We would love to have your views or comments, or how about a review to add to our ‘event review’ section. If you have any pictures or memorabilia from this event we would love to include them.