Tribal Gathering
Encyclopedia
Music festival
A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and are often inclusive of other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines,...
that catered for different types of dance music cultures such as drum and bass
Drum and bass
Drum and bass is a type of electronic music which emerged in the late 1980s. The genre is characterized by fast breakbeats , with heavy bass and sub-bass lines...
, techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
, rave
Rave music
Rave music may either refer the late 1980s genre or any genre of electronic dance music that may be played at an electronic dance party such as a rave. Very rarely, the term is used to refer to less electronic related genres glam, powerpop, psychedelic rock and dub music parties...
and house
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
.
History
The original promoters of Universe (Paul Shurey, Rob Vega) had been organising events since the heady days of 1989 when raves such as Sunrise, RaindanceRaindance (rave)
Raindance are British Rave event organisers. They were one of the best known rave names on the Rave scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s....
and Perception were in their pomp. They wanted to organise an event to bring together the different sub-cultures of the dance world and also to have a festival feel to it.
The first Tribal Gathering took place Friday 30 April 1993 at Lower Pertwood Farm
Pertwood
Pertwood is a very small village, former civil parish, and manor, near Warminster in the county of Wiltshire in the west of England. Its land and houses now lie in the parishes of East Knoyle and Sutton Veny and have fewer than twenty inhabitants....
, Warminster
Warminster
Warminster is a town in western Wiltshire, England, by-passed by the A36, and near Frome and Westbury. It has a population of about 17,000. The River Were runs through the town and can be seen running through the middle of the town park. The Minster Church of St Denys sits on the River Were...
, Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. 25,000 people attended to see acts such as diverse as Laurent Garnier
Laurent Garnier
Laurent Garnier , is a French techno music producer and DJ. Garnier began DJ-ing in Manchester during the late 1980s. By the following decade, he had a broad stylistic range, able to span deep house, Detroit techno, trance and jazz...
, Carl Cox
Carl Cox
Carl Cox is a British techno and house music DJ.-Biography:Cox grew up in Oldham, Lancashire, before attending Glastonbury High Boys secondary modern school on Glastonbury Road in Morden. Cox began his career as a hardcore and rave DJ in the mid 1980s...
, Slipmatt
Slipmatt
Slipmatt is an English happy hardcore producer and DJ based in Essex, England. He was one half of rave act SL2, who had a 1992 UK hit with "On A Ragga Tip".-History:...
, The DiY Sound System
The DiY Sound System
The DiY Sound System was one of Britain's first house sound systems. The group "divided their activities between free parties and legal club nights, acting as a bridge between counter-culture and the mainstream"....
and Pete Tong
Pete Tong
Peter "Pete" Tong is an English DJ who works for BBC Radio 1. He is known worldwide by fans of electronic music for hosting programmes such as Essential Mix and Essential Selection on the radio service, which can be heard through Internet radio streams, for his record label FFRR Records, and for...
.
In March 1994 they opened the legendary London night club 'Final Frontier', at Club UK in Wandsworth. Weekly nights ran for several years, relocating in 1997 to the Complex Club in Islington. Each week featured numerous headline dj's and live acts, the likes of which had never been seen before. A proud moment for the promoters was when 'Final Frontier' was voted number 5 in Musik Magazines top 50 clubs of all time, just behind Studio 54, Dorian Gray, Paradise Garage and Limelight.
Also in 1993 the Universe - World Techno Tribe compilation CD was released in Europe on Rising High Records
Rising High Records
Rising High Records was a leading British record label, established in 1991, specializing in rave, techno and ambient chillout music. Founded by Caspar Pound, who had had chart success with a Homeboy, A Hippie and a Funky Dread, the label went on to be at the forefront of dance music in the 1990s,...
, on Sony Music in Japan and Moonshine Music in the USA. Compiled and mixed by Mr Oz it reached number 4 in the Gallup album charts. Subsequent CDs were later released on MMS records and FFRR.
The Criminal Justice Bill of 1994 discouraged massive outdoor raves. Tribal Gathering teamed up with the Mean Fiddler
Mean Fiddler Music Group
Festival Republic is a UK music promoter. Among its interests, it runs the Reading and Leeds festivals and is contracted to manage the Glastonbury Festival.-History:...
organisation to organise more legal festivals. The next event took place in May 1995, UK Tribal Gathering at Otmoor Park, Beckley
Beckley
Beckley could refer to:United Kingdom*Beckley, East Sussex, England*Beckley, Hampshire, England*Beckley, Oxfordshire, EnglandUnited States*Beckley, Louisville, Kentucky*Beckley, West Virginia...
, Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
. Headline acts included The Prodigy
The Prodigy
The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music group formed by Liam Howlett in 1990 in Braintree, Essex. Along with Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, and other acts, The Prodigy have been credited as pioneers of the big beat genre, which achieved mainstream popularity in the 1990s and 2000s...
, Orbital
Orbital (band)
Orbital are a British electronic dance music duo from Sevenoaks, England consisting of brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll. Their career initially ran from 1989 until 2004, but in 2009 they announced that they would be reforming and headlining The Big Chill, in addition to a number of other live shows...
and Moby
Moby
Richard Melville Hall , better known by his stage name Moby, is an American musician, DJ, and photographer. He is known mainly for his sample-based electronic music and his outspoken liberal political views, including his support of veganism and animal rights.Moby gained attention in the early...
The 1996 version of the UK Tribal Gathering, took place in June at Luton Hoo
Luton Hoo
Luton Hoo straddles the Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire borders between the towns of Harpenden and Luton. The unusual name "Hoo" is a Saxon word meaning the spur of a hill, and is more commonly associated with East Anglia.- Early History :...
, Bedfordshire with 30,000 turning up for to see sets by Leftfield
Leftfield
Leftfield are a British duo of electronica artists and record producers, namely Paul Daley and Neil Barnes, who formed in 1990 in London, England...
, The Chemical Brothers
The Chemical Brothers
The Chemical Brothers are a British electronic music duo comprising Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons. Originating in Manchester in 1991, along with The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, The Crystal Method, and fellow acts, they were pioneers at bringing the big beat genre to the forefront of pop culture.- Background...
, Black Grape
Black Grape
Black Grape were a 1990s rock band from England, featuring former members of Happy Mondays. The group's music was funky and eclectic, using varied instrumentation and samples.-History:...
, Goldie
Goldie
Clifford Joseph Price, better known as Goldie is an English electronic music artist, disc jockey, visual artist and actor. He is well known for his innovations in the jungle and drum and bass music genres, having previously gained exposure for his work as a graffiti artist...
, and others.
In 1997, at Luton Hoo, Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
were the headliners of the fesitval, playing for the first time in the UK since 1992. The show was a monumental success, despite the absence of any brand new studio material, since release of the album, Electric Café
Electric Café
Electric Café is the ninth studio album by the electronic group Kraftwerk, originally released in 1986. In October 2009 it was re-released under its original working title, Techno Pop.-Background:...
in 1986.
By 1998, the Tribal Gathering name had grown into a brand. There were albums, a TV Show and plans to establish events worldwide in the pipeline. However their things did not go to schedule and the 1998 event did not take place due to Universe and Mean Fiddler's legal battle of the Tribal Gathering name.
The Tribal Gathering name was revived in 2000 but on a smaller scale, at the Sankey's Soap club, Manchester. The "Tribal Sessions" event took place at the club with DJ's generally playing Acid House
Acid house
Acid house is a sub-genre of house music that emphasizes a repetitive, hypnotic and trance-like style, often with samples or spoken lines rather than sung lyrics. Acid house's core electronic squelch sounds were developed around the mid-1980s, particularly by DJs from Chicago who experimented with...
. In 2003 Tribal Gathering held the first legal warehouse party for over 10 years in a "secret" Manchester location, which turned out to be a warehouse previously used as a set for the movie 24 Hour Party People
24 Hour Party People
24 Hour Party People is a 2002 British film about Manchester's popular music community from 1976 to 1992, and specifically about Factory Records. It was written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and directed by Michael Winterbottom...
, in which it was decorated to replicate The Haçienda
The Haçienda
Fac 51 Haçienda was a nightclub and music venue in Manchester, England. It became most famous during the "Madchester" years of the late 1980s and early 1990s, during the 1990s it was labelled the most famous club in the world by Newsweek magazine...
nightclub.
In July 2005, a Tribal Gathering festival was organised, in aid of the war victims in Darfur
Darfur
Darfur is a region in western Sudan. An independent sultanate for several hundred years, it was incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1916. The region is divided into three federal states: West Darfur, South Darfur, and North Darfur...
, Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, to take place again at Luton Hoo but it was cancelled due to the terrorist attacks that took place on July 7 in London and poor ticket sales. Though in 2006 there was the "Love Leeds:Tribal Gathering" event at Lotherton Hall
Lotherton Hall
Lotherton Hall is a country house near Aberford, West Yorkshire, England. It lies a short distance from the A1 motorway, 200 miles equidistant between London and Edinburgh....
, Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
May 2006.