TORONTO 90s RAVE DIARY: 1995

1995 February 5

Richie Hawtin was magic. It was at Club Generation on Isabella St. just off Yonge St. We bought a can of food for the homeless. The doorman really feeled me up but what the heck. It was hot & humid inside and the area around the dance floor was so filled with smoke/dry ice from the smoke machine that I could not see beyond arms length. For 2 hours I was totally in a mystic world driven by the rhythm of his transcendental beat. But the crowd was not much into it. They moved around from room to room aimlessly even though the hallways were so packed that it was actually difficult to do so. Many were into socializing and not dancing.
Went to bed in the morning at 7:00a.m. and slept all the way till 3:25p.m.. I woke up to the music of last night in my mind and was so tired that I could hardly move. When I got up I had trouble focusing.

1995 April 8

Very good vibe at the Dreams in Goa rave organized by the Pleasure Force at the Cherry Beach venue. Mr. Nivoc from France put me in a trance with his set but the toilets were jammed by shit piled high. We had to line up for a full twenty minutes to take a leak. Security guards stationed by the toilet entrances keeping order. What a job! Heard later on that crap E might cause diarrhea.

1995 April 27

Had a hunch I should walk all the way from St. George Subway Station over to the R.O.M. to get a copy of the latest issue of the Now magazine. Somehow I did not want to miss another concert like I did when the Blur, Portishead and Oasis were here. There, right before my very eyes, the Stone Roses' coming concert was advertised. Though it said tickets were for sale the next day at 4:00p.m., I still called to see if reservation was possible. But "no" , they said.

1995 April 28

At the office, my heart started to pound 10 minutes to 4. I picked up the phone, dialed & re-dialed, dialed & re-dialed till what seemed like 50 times before I got through and it was 5 minutes after 4:00p.m.. The guy on the other side of the line at Ticket Master told me it was all sold out. I started to lose control and ranted on till my face turned red and my heart almost jumped out. Hearing me talking like a madwoman, he said, "Wait, let me try this again." After 2 minutes, he said he could get me 3 tickets. It seemed that someone's VISA has been rejected. He then checked his machine again and said I had just bought the last 3 tickets 6 minutes after they were on sale. Wonder if this has broken any records. He then asked me who the Stone Roses were etc., etc. I thanked him most gratefully and it had made my day.

Glad that I was the one to buy the tickets instead of P. or his friend, Er because they would not have been so enthusiastic and would have called much later. Then I had this thought: Maybe it was fate. Maybe something special would happen since today is the 28th, the day of the performance is the 18th and the location is terminal 28. What a coincidence!

1995 May 17

I phoned Er to persuade him not to go. The thought of his lazy, luke-warm, unenthusiastic company made me feel like giving the ticket to someone who deserves it. Amazingly, he misunderstood my explanation earlier thinking that I had not got his ticket and had already made other arrangements. This just worked out the way I wanted.

1995 May 18

P. & I stood at the entrance and found scalpers all over the place trying to sell their tickets at an even lower cost than the purchase price. Just when I cursed myself for having told Er not to go, P. suddenly started to talk. I turned around and saw him talking to A.D. .He seemed sober, brighter in complexion and more light-hearted in his conversation. He told us he had been back to Scotland for an entire year but had returned to Canada and was now managing his father's bar in Brampton. Raves and the music have brought the most diverse people together, people who are physically and culturally so far apart. I was really very happy to see him keeping well.
Seeing the Stone Roses on stage was very exciting simply for the fact that they stood for the sound of this era. They brought back memories but objectively, their performance was not that great.