So Gordon Brown sacrificed his only begotten spin doctor over the Easter weekend. Sadface. The man who leaked the emails that toppled Damian McBride was Guido Fawkes – real name Paul Staines and already the biggest cheese on the UK’s political blogging scene, often dubbed “Popbitch with a blue rosette”. Less well known is that, before he was the scourge of the political classes, Staines was the self-styled saviour of rave.
As head of PR for the 88-89 rave-o-nautical M25 party planners Sunrise, he was a key player in events like Mid-Summer Madness, definitive acts in the mythology of mong. Under his partial guidance, Sunrise famously got round its legal issues by declaring itself a private members club. When the rozzers once more turned up the heat, Staines and co-organiser Tony Colston-Hayter formed the Freedom To Party Campaign at the Conservative Party conference, later drawing 4000 young people to Trafalgar Square for a rights-protesting party (in fact this was the famous day that The Sun reported that ravers were ripping the heads off of pigeons in an “ecstasy frenzy”).
“I have fond memories of taking LSD and pure MDMA, trance-dancing and thinking that I had turned into a psychedelic, orgiastic wisp of smoke - it was the most staggeringly enjoyable, mind-warping experience I have ever had,” he has since decreed. Incredibly, even as he trance-danced from night till morning light o-o-o-o-pening his mind, he was holding down a day job as a foreign policy analyst on right-wing Tory pressure group Committee For A Free Britain. Uh, and also acting as UK general-secretary of The International Society For Human Rights. One minute he’d be on TV pretending there weren’t any drugs at Sunrise’s parties (he claims that he coined the myth that the “acid” in acid house was a Chicago term for theft, not drugs) . The next he’d have his politics hat on, on Newsnight, talking about civil war in Angola.
Staines could juggle all this because he was a pure free-market libertarian, as committed to free trade as free psychedelics, a philosophy he once described as “Thatcher on drugs.” “Uptight Conservatives are probably the people who would benefit most from taking drugs, particularly Thatcherites, with their machine-like obsession with efficiency and abstract attachment to the freedom to make money,” he’s quoted as saying, “I’m as much of a believer in capitalism as the most earnest of Young Conservatives, but couldn’t we put acid in the punch at the YC Ball and then really have a party?”
In the past few days, Guido’s Labour enemies have insinuated that David Cameron may have been at some of these repetitive beat parties, and bang on cue, there’s now a slice of YouTube doing the rounds which, at 0:12, shows a figure who may or may not be Just Call Me Dave at a Sunrise event.
The generation who once filled time having their tits blown off in Surrey wheat fields are now the ones running the country. The great entrepreneurs and innovators, who were slick enough to see the potential in rave are now mixing with the pointy heads who’re in charge of democracy, and they’re not just the peace’n'luv lefties of folkore. Once, the acid house generation was turning to their mates and saying: “Imagine – just imagine – if the Prime Minister was on this stuff, maaaaaaaan…” Is that moment drawing ever nearer? I asked Guido Fawkes (who has an odd way of neglecting to write the first word in a sentence.)
Have you turned your back on rave entirely? Do you still party?
I’m 42, married with kids. Yes I have outgrown it. My music collection is out of date. “Strings of Life” brings back fond memories.
No matter who gets elected, there’s no hope of any change in drug policy liberalisation anytime in the foreseeable future really, is there?
Farcical situation where dope is demonised. Yet so many of this generation have smoked it, including Cameron. We should push the door open with legalised medicinal cannabis.
You’re part of the generation who were involved in the mass-popularisation of illegal drugs. The political classes are now of a similar age. Do you think there’s more overlap between the two than we generally suspect?
I know there is.
How do you think the political classes you rub up against view your turn as a Sunrise mong messiah?
Interested amusement.
Given your propensity to leak, would you ever consider leaking backdated drugs-shocker stories about politicians? Is drugs-policy hypocrisy alone a good enough reason, or do you take this as a case for the public-private distinction?
I can’t remember most of the details. I would only trash a politician who was a drugs hypocrite.
GAVIN HAYNES













Reader Comments
April 17th, 2009
Where is the top graphic from? I love it! It’s like Galaga meets Larks Tongues in Aspic.
April 17th, 2009
sorry, but how could you have anything but fond memories of eating pure mdma?
April 17th, 2009
i no norml protester stoner but come on, isn’t it time to legalize and tax pot? everyone i know smokes it anyways, we might as well use it to help get out of this massive deficit and with everyone getting high maybe we would cut down on going out and spending so much money to begin with.
April 17th, 2009
i think we should just legalize everything and let darwinism take care of the rest
April 17th, 2009
Very good article. Reminds me of partying with Republicans.
April 18th, 2009
This is one of the est things I’ve ever seen.
April 20th, 2009
Call Me Dave is a top bloke. I met him on the Jubilee line, he was with a tasty blonde piece and I remarked on the size of her breasts, much to the amusement of said company.
April 24th, 2009
Its a rave Dave
April 25th, 2009
he was a cunt only in it for the money and hiding behind his own pr. did he manage to undo any tory policy when he had gordon’s ear did he fuck
April 25th, 2009
Sorry. Did I miss a fucking meeting.
So. A fat young Tory cunt who used to organise raves is well-connected in the Tory party.
And some other fat young Tory cunt who didn’t used to organise raves but instead tried to toe the proper party line and become PM went to one of his posh mates parties and was caught on film. Most probably pissed or on E.
So. Fucking. What? Grow the fuck up. This is shoddy.
April 26th, 2009
adam, are you a virgin? do you dream about making your mum puke on your cock? are you a psycho? you are very angry you weirdo, i don’t think this was meant as a personal diss on you. tool.
April 27th, 2009
[...] 27th, 2009 Dave the Rave? This has been building up for a few weeks and now Guido is getting calls from Dead Tree Press diarists it is probably time to bring it out [...]
April 27th, 2009
Honestly, to look at some of the postings on here, you would think drugs rot yer brains!! Spelling, Boys, (for you are), and plenty of punctuation, costs nothing y’know…
Anyroads, Guido’s a top bloke, and his libertarianism reaches parts other political philosophies just don’t reach. Let’s hope Mr Dave Bloke looks kindly upon some good honest de-criminalisation for all our favourite substances. The money saved on Policing, and to be gained in Regulation and taxation is going to be sorely needed. Depression did it for Alcohol in the US, so maybe the time is right.
Sophia x
April 28th, 2009
[...] some of you older, nore politcial Magik Bullet peeps will appreciate this. http://www.viceland.com/wp/2009/04/bringing-back-thatcherism-one-rave-at-a-time/ Bookmark [...]
April 29th, 2009
What price do you put on unnecessary capitals, Sophia?
April 29th, 2009
Hey Sophia we all don’t speak the queens english like you that language is out of date in the modern world. people r more creative 2day an language change is people driven not academic driven an if you can make complaint about grammar an punctuation that shows that you understood what was being said so worry aboot how yer gonna get a shag an worry less about how people speak an spell yeh ken areet
June 16th, 2009
[...] cloak his identity, a strange move when it could be argued that he already had quite a profile for racy goings-on and his real name was something of an open secret amongst [...]
February 6th, 2010
Don’t glorify cunts.