8th November 1992: Sketch at Upfront £5 rave, near Axminster, Devon

‘Upfront’, a £5 party in two marquees at a farm near Axminster in Devon. Everyone who’d driven from West Dorset  for the chance to go to a free party was a bit pissed off when they realised it wasn’t the free-for-all we were used to. After a bit of a haggle, we convinced the guy on the gate to let one of our posse have a stroll round to see if it was any good. Ten minutes later our spy came back with good news- it was kicking. Those of us who could afford £5 walked in through the gate, and those who couldn’t crawled through some muddy ditches and over some barbed wire fences.

One very tall, reasonably long marquee contained a hefty stomper of a main rig, great lighting, and a stall selling rave accessories. There was also a burger van, and another, smaller marquee (tacked onto the side of the big one), containing a smaller, housier rig (Sketchy Crew, I believe), and a makeshift bar.

We were later to find out that ‘proper’, i.e. legal pay parties, at 5 to 6 times the price of this party, offered a lot less value in terms of both facilities and atmosphere. Another bonus was a big firework display at the peak of the night’s festivities, which caused a lot of ooh-ing and aah-ing. There was also a decent sized bonfire, so that ‘chilling out’ didn’t mean getting freezing cold.

One downer was the fact that everyone seemed to leave so abruptly in the morning- not like a free event, when everyone loiters for hours.

One last thing, one of our friends loved winding people up when they were completely out of it, and on this occasion, she saw fit to endlessly harangue this one particular guy, telling him there were sheep wandering around on the roof of the marquee. It worked. He was very confused indeed.

There’s a nice post about Sketch on the Go Bang Brighton blog.

Some more random memories just came back, one was that I think I remember Slipmatt played there, and the other is that there was some kind of crustyfight which involved earbiting. Nice.

We’ve separated this out from the ‘general’ Lazy House post (which can be found here: http://freepartypeople.wordpress.com/2007/06/15/lazy-house/ ) , here are some of the comments that relate to this particular party:

tinkerbelle
corinne@cmps.uk.com | 88.105.81.9

The party you descride in Aminster ‘Upfront’ party sounds like a party i went to and helped with. From what I recall it was a guy called Jason’s birthday party. He worked for an Electrics company in Exeter and was going out with a friend Gemma in Ashburton at the time.
It was a pay party, £5 about right………
I remeber it was a blast.
Although I used to go to Exmouth in ye olde days I never atually made it to one of the Lazy house Parties. I did know Simon though.
Took my first pill in Exmouth, what fun…………

From Lazy House, 2008/04/23 at 11:27 AM

Frim
fimstonkg@hotmail.co.uk | 79.71.206.60

The upfront party in Axminster was Jason warren’s birthday party Tinkerbelle. I can remember Max having his own stage to dance on was well funny say hi to Gemma if you see her I aint seen her in years, not since she split up with Jason.

From Lazy House, 2008/05/23 at 12:11 AM

Lazy House

Deep cartel says:

Does anyone remember Lazy House? Classic house music free party crew based at a squat in Exmouth circa 1991-4 They had a very small rig but attracted huge crowds every weekend in the summer of 92. Parties were usually in Devon and they were at Smeatharpe. Dj`s: will, jonny t, aaron, Iain lazy Parties: Blackenstone Rock, Ashclyst Forrest, Chalice Wood, Woodbury Common, and many more Wow memories! I know the framed photo your thinking about and I know where it is now. Yeah it would`ve been mighty force and if I ask nicely I should be able to scan it, this was the first lazy party I attended. I`ve got two mixes, Lazy House vol 1, and Blackenstone Rock (bad quality). I also remember the backdrop which read lazy house-One Family. Diy dj`s often played and spawnee possee dj`s like Tigger and Justin. There is a brief account of a lazy house party with some pics on dj riddlers website. In 1993 a certain member of Lazy House wanted to be a dj so swapped the tiny rig for some decks.Some members of Lazy House including Will and Dom (spiral) and Lorien then formed “Sign On” and continued doing smaller parties throughout 93 which also evolved into Sketch (pawlette manor) . It`d be really nice to get a page up as they`re not anywhere on the web and they were some of the best parties of the time. By the way Smokescreen are still going! As are we and we sometimes have jonny t and will play in many of the same locations…. Dj will the simon dk of Lazy House…

freepartypeople says:

Thanks for the comment, deepcartel, I had been intending to write something about Lazy House. You’re dead right, absolutely classic parties The problem was, and this is a bit embarrassing, your parties were SO FUCKING GOOD, that my memories of them are a bit scatty.

I remember… forest clearings, great music, snowballs, a low canopy, shouting next to a river, our car having to be pushed through a ford ‘cos it broke down but we didn’t really care, leaning on my friends’ arm thinking it was a car window, massive convoys and meeting places, racing to get to the party site before the cops (I recall seeing a couple of guys sprinting across a field with decks shoved up their jumpers )

etc etc.

I lived in Dorset at the time and didn’t drive, so I’d just clamber into someone’s car on a Saturday night and see what happened. I don’t know any of the locations of the parties I went to.

We enjoyed these because they were local, and because they were a welcome break from the facelessspiraltechno we’d all been following slavishly, although I have to say some people at the time HATED house music. The scene could be insular even back then.

The first thing I ever heard about Lazy House was when we visited a shop in Exeter (Mighty Force?) and saw a framed photo of a party. We asked the guy in the shop and he told us ‘Lazy House’.

UPDATE: Some dates that I do have a record of: 10/10/92 near Exeter, 8/5/93. Also an event on 8/11/92 called Upfront, where there were two marquees, one of which contained the Sketchy Crew sound system, full freepartypeople report here.

Mark (mharridge8787) says:I have a ‘Lazyhouse’ tape but I cant be sure of its origin. Its mostly late 80’s chicago house. I went to a party in a squat in Bloxham near Banbury, Warks on NYE 93/4 (i think) which I was told afterwards was a lazy house party… but having just learnt they were based in Exeter this seems unlikely. Was anybody there??

‘anonymous’ says:

Dutch Barrels/snow balls/china whites the strongest pills I`ve ever done. I`ve heard they were 140mg of mda made in a former eastern block country in ex government labs. Jaw chatter and eye wiggle for 12 hours…Also do you remember pcp and k pills called m25`s/crackerjacks/ lose it pills?

mistychelle says:

wow the memories,i share them too,anyone know where arrone(probably spelt wrong and ian smith think it was ,i had such a crush on arron). apres exmouth pavillion on to the lazy hose squat,fab,give anything to go back there for a night ..anyone have pics or mixes from those crazy nights???/ thanks to the lazy house crew for the memories i shall hold 4ever