Weirdly, I was in London this weekend but decided not to go, I had work early the next day. Dear readers, I intentionally missed a Spiral party!
We heard the Spirals escaped and ended up playing tapes at this party.
Here’s a cutting from an unknown magazine:
This is one of Spiral’s newsletters:
This ill-fated party got a mention in both Energy Flash and Altered State:
An article from the Independent, published 22/6/92:
Police break up illegal rave at Canary Wharf
MORE THAN 300 police dispersed an estimated 1,000 summer solstice ravers staging a party in front of Canary Wharf in the heart of London’s Docklands early yesterday.
While druids and New Agers pitched their wits against police in Wiltshire to get to Stonehenge, ravers in cars and an articulated lorry engaged, metropolitan officers in a cat-and-mouse game for access to Mudchute Farm in front of the rather more recent stones of Canary Wharf.
Ravers began to congregate at 1am yesterday. They pushed aside three police officers trying to stop them reaching the illegal party. More than 300 officers and two
helicopters were drafted into the area to stop the party and disperse the ravers. But as police closed roads leading to the site, ravers drove to Greenwich and sneaked through the foot tunnel to the party. Police later closed the tunnel.
Officers surrounded the party’s “23K” sound system housed in a 40ft articulated lorry, but the owners, members of the rave party organisers Spiral Tribe, were not found.
They had set up the sound system by 2am and blasted the Isle of Dogs with techno music until the police shut down the party at 3.30am.
A police spokesman said the party event had been a flop, with far fewer ravers attending than the organisers had hoped. ‘The organisers were anticipating 50,000 people – 500 turned up, he said.
Seven ravers were arrested, three of them on drugs charges. Two were arrested for public order offences and another two detained for possession of an offensive weapon.
A Greenwich resident said police told him they had turned back around 5,000 people in cars who were looking for the party, but added that the ravers were well behaved. “They spent ages driving around looking for legal parking spaces at two in the morning. They brought coolboxes for their drinks, like you take to Ascot.
‘They were prepared yuppies, not rebels. If the barricades depended on this lot, they wouldn’t get higher than matchsticks,” he said. He said the two police helicopters and police vans caused more noise than the ravers. “There were cars packed with about eight ravers in each. But they were sitting in their cars silently while police vans were blocking them in by the river. The cars were only allowed to edge out one at a time, only when it was clear they had given up hope of getting to the party,” he said.
The organisers of the party were reported to be heading for Leicestershire, where another summer rave is planned.
UK Free Parties and Free Festivals 1988-1994 
We drove to this party from Bristol in two cars, we got split up as we got close to the party and we followed the convoy and parked up. We then followed a group of people who seemed to know where they were going through Docklands, across bridges and building sites but we arrived at the party just as the police broke it up!
My mate J in the other car actually made it to the party before it was busted and he appears in the photo at the top of this Select Magazine article about Spiral Tribe. The pic was taken at Canary Wharf as the party goers staged a sit-down protest!
Link to pic: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/VmRgVCNlJwE6LHmC3kCo4_mGlzn23P-agFOUiz3mH-fUDhhk8HuH0_RsFv9Sx-Pk_pxzrbn-yL6c5voNi_2HEFEFhsmS2KVT87hswn72YgYD4oKthBQAR0ezX6dOGU-epUUsh5QEd20=w2400
After the party broke up we found ourselves in the middle of Canary Wharf with absolutely no idea where our car was. We found it around 5AM after walking what felt like about 10 miles!!!