Two posts in one night. Well, they're linked after a fashion, I guess.
I was just reading the Wikipedia piece on 'Acid House' and it's noticeable that nobody seems to know where the term or the music comes from.
Interestingly, they suggest that the term 'Acid House' might come from Chicago. Well, I was going to the very first House parties in England, which were at a couple of gay clubs - the small club above Heaven whose name I can't remember right now, and another which I went to once and it played too much poppy shit. And as far as I was concerned, they were playing 'House' as in 'Soul'.
It came from Chicago, for sure, but it was Chicago Soul music as far as we were concerned. We understood that the 'House' name came similar to the 'Rent Parties' of 15 years earlier - these were House parties the same way there used to be Rent parties - to pay for the house. And if you look at the music, that makes sense - it was Black soul music from a local Black scene, the same way the music at rent parties was. It got picked up by the gay scene in Chicago, which is why we were getting it in the gay scene in London. I went because I'm a sad kind of soul boy, and so were most of the other guys there. The term 'Acid House' was never used then.
But we did take a shit load of drugs, including alot of acid. What I remember is the DJs fucking with the music themselves to heighten the mood. Ecstasy came later - it was more expensive, more yuppie and less dangerous. Techno was Belgian, a year or so later. There was a very acid driven scene, that later came out in even those people who never went near the West End clubs - nobody would tell me the Mutoid Waste Company were on E's :-)
So my explanation - it was gay soul boys fucked up on acid that invented the term and the scene.
Interestingly, on the Wikipedia site, Genesis P. Orridge claims to have more or less invented the term. Funnily enough, he was living round the corner from me, but sure as hell I never saw him down the clubs ;-)
They were funny days. I never had the feeling that I was living through something really special, like punk. That's how people try to make it sound these days, but they're msotly the JCL's who were going to the M25 raves long after it became the new wave. Before that, the alternative and squatter scene were at the heart of things, but I remember being in that scene trying to play house and I was scoffed at for playing pop or boring music.
Probably something like punk after all - that didn't start in the squats or the suburbs but in a fashion shop on the King's Road ;-)
Oh, BTW that's Marky in the corner. Last saw him when we were both whizzing around Bang back when it was on Oxford Street somewhere. Never knew him well though, but the expression on his face that night was funny.
