No Right To Party: Acid House

2005 note: Unforgivable as actual real journalism – I made no effort to represent the anti-drug position – this still works as a snapshot of a subcurrent veering wildly but strongly across the semi-political landscape: the invisible secession of a million MORE minds blah blah blah. The impulse behind it (and its placing in the Statesman) was the need to translate the inarticulate bohemian-pirate impulses of the world I loved (not just of teenage ravers, but of all of lovely, despised quasi-pop culture) into terms that grown-up politicals – who want to make the world a better place, but haven’t a clue how to start – might grasp, and use. Need as duty (because I knew I could), but need as dream also: because I wanted to and thought it mattered terribly. Goal blocked by fear of desire expressed, even to myself, let alone the arts editor at NS. Plus apologies for this: "Their club, Synergy, is mobile, cutting-edge and likely to be influential."