7 signs you're a child of the rave era

Updated April 2021

Sara Cox introduces a selection of rave classics in a special edition of her Half-Wower mix - featuring The Shamen, Gala, Utah Saints and more - on BBC Sounds

But how can you tell you were a late 80s and early 90s rave kid? Well, these seven things may sound familiar...

Let's not pretend anyone is so addled by the ghosts of clubbing past that they find themselves busting moves to any repetitive beep. But by the same token, should an item of electrical equipment, vehicle or washing machine emit the same noise to a precise rhythm often enough, it'll start to raise anticipation levels. The head is going to start nodding, the hands will involuntarily become lighter and maybe even head skywards... only to end in disappointment as that perfect beat fails to drop.

In the late 80s, before the advent of superclubs, going to raves was a dark art, closer in spirit to a treasure hunt than any other form of entertainment. Finding the party - which could be anywhere from a disused warehouse to a forgotten field - was as integral to the experience as getting the tickets. And the literal wheel around which rave culture span was London's perimeter motorway, the M25. It was so central to the techno experience that the band Orbital - based in Sevenoaks, just off junction 5 - named themselves after it. So there are bound to be a few hazy, glowing memories of certain key junctions and service stations for rave dads and techno mums stuck in traffic while driving to work.

D Mob's We Call It Acieed was a No.3 hit in October 1988, coming just after The Second Summer of Love and right in the middle of increased tabloid interest in acid house and its potential adverse affects. It also mentally scarred a generation as to the correct way to pronounce the word "acid". Sure we all KNOW how to do it properly, but we also all know there's a fun alternative - involving a high-pitched squeal that lasts as long as breath will allow - that plays around at the back of the mind every time you hear the word.

In the post-rave world there's an understandable fondness for names that seem to reflect something a little transcendent, perhaps a mystical search for enlightenment, such as India, Bodhi, Phaedra and so on, but there genuinely are many people walking the earth with Ibiza or Raver as a christian name. And Ayia (as in Napa) is pretty popular too. And while Pacha was already a name, there are precious few Shooms, as far as we can make out.

Ebeneezer Goode by The Shamen represents a particular moment in rave culture, it's two-fingered salute to anyone in society declaiming house and techno culture as being degenerate, with a provocative chorus based on a silly pun. And arguably, with the matiest of cockney rap lyrics about an inescapable rogue, it's a potential precursor to Blur's Parklife. Which would make it the accidental launchpad for what would become Britpop, the musical movement that sought to change pop culture back to a pre-rave guitar-based experience. Ravers loved it for cocking a snook and hated it for selling out the underground, and most other people just thought of it as a fun but annoying novelty song. But try starting off former club kids of a certain age with the song's opening line: "A great philosopher once wrote..." and see how far you get.

Subtle differences are the heart of expertise, and when your musical catnip of choice can be machine-tooled to perfect tempos, the differences between genres can be hair-splittingly fiddly for newcomers. But not you. You can still spot a balearic beat a mile off, parse the essential differences between progressive, diva and deep house, and may even, on occasion find yourself looking up more recent innovations such as complextro, fidget house and moombahton, just to keep up with the kids.

You don't have to be young to keep living for the weekend and saving up for the summer. While the pandemic means the only raving we've been able to do for the last year has been from the comfort of our own homes, we're all looking forward to an eventual return of festival experiences that offer mixed-age raving. These allow not only older people to relive their wildest nights out, but even share those experiences with their children, during daylight hours, with the opportunity to go and get an organic fruit smoothie afterwards. Those raver dummies have been replaced with real ones. And if you don't have kids, the international popularity of EDM means it's always just past midnight somewhere.