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‘We were cheeky outlaws getting away with it’: the total euphoria of Liverpool’s 90s club scene

From abandoned factories to snooker halls, pre-superclub promoters dodged police to put on some of the UK’s wildest nights. Former ravers recall how they supercharged the city

“There was another place we called the Scrappy, which was a rave in a scrap yard.” Another party was held in the abandoned Tate & Lyle sugar refinery: it was such a vast space that when the police turned up it would take them so long to reach the ravers at the other end of the building, they had enough time to pack up their PA into nearby trucks and scatter. This pre-superclub era – energetic, euphoric, eyed-up by police – is being revisited in October with a reunion for Merseyside institution Quadrant Park, which should be spoken about in the same breath as Manchester’s Haçienda: a daringly uninhibited champion of north-west rave culture. While much of the narrative around UK dance music history has overlooked some of the vital contributions Liverpool made during this era, for Martelli there’s a direct through line from partying in filthy skips in the freezing cold night, or running away from police in abandoned sugar factories, to today.

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