The Toronto Star did a feature about me and my upcoming memoir.
Requiem For My Rave
My memoirs of my rave years has just been released, titled Requiem For My Rave. A requiem is an act of remembrance. The second part of the title refers to “my” rave. This thing that I created and suffered in service for.
I started writing the book at the conclusion of my rave company, Hullabaloo, in 2005. I finished the first draft in 2009. I then hit “save” and ten years passed.
I returned to the book at the start of 2019. I had begun the process of digitizing old VHS tape of my performances to upload to YouTube. Continue reading “Requiem For My Rave”
Requiem For My Rave now on sale
Requiem For My Rave in my hands
I have the advance copies of my new memoir in my hands, Requiem For My Rave.
Hullabaloo! One Last Group Hug
REQUIEM FOR MY RAVE
14 years in the making, my memoirs titled REQUIEM FOR MY RAVE: THE STORY OF ANABOLIC FROLIC, HAPPY HARDCORE, AND HULLABALOO! has a release date of Nov 19, 2019!
We’re going to do a very special Hullabaloo book launch party titled ONE LAST GROUP HUG on the same day. Not a rave but a “class reunion” and one last chance for old faces to see each other again.
Creating something new
My entire rave career I was always creating something new. When I had nothing left to create, I moved on.
Well, I have something new to offer.
Check back here towards the end of August for my announcement(s).
I suffered for years
This was originally posted at my entrepreneurial blog, www.chrisfrolic.com.
One of my biggest regrets is how many years I suffered needlessly because I didn’t value my own work.
Here are some pics from 20 years ago, February 1999. Me DJing in front a literal sea of people at the International Centre just outside of Toronto. People paid and traveled to come to see me. I had sold hundreds of thousands of CDs at this time, and my rave company, Hullabaloo, was at its peak.
When this event was over, I went home to my 1 bedroom basement apartment. I had abandoned my piece of crap car in the street about a month before these pics were taken because I had no money to pay for insurance or fix the car.
I lived without a car for 14 years after this.
I have to make this even more clear: I just had 5,000 people buy tickets to see me and I was broke! If I calculated the hourly wage of the months of planning and risk that went into putting an event on of this size, not to mention my value as an attraction – I was working for below minimum wage.
I lived in apartments until 2012.
I didn’t value the experience I was creating for all of my patrons. I was fixated on keeping prices low, about making a small bit of profit in some misguided attempt at not looking like a money grub combined with blue-collar guilt.
And I suffered greatly because of it. The sad thing was, I was still accused of “being in it for the money”. People would do bar napkin math and guess that I was making 100x more what the reality was. So, my suffering wasn’t even quieting those critics. I did it for nothing!
My real fans, the ones that truly valued this one of a kind experience I was creating, I’m sure would tell me the event was actually priceless.
This would be the advice I would give my younger self now:
1) Focus on the value of what you are creating. What is it “worth” to someone, not what did it cost.
2) Your time is valuable! It is not free! You are the sum total of all your knowledge and experiences, combined with the value you are delivering to someone. Don’t work for free!
3) Don’t compare what you are doing with anyone else, or anything you’ve done before. Abandon all that stinky thinking. Focus on what it is you are doing now, and what is that worth to someone.
4) You can’t please the critics, so don’t bother.
Till next time.
PS: I recently posted some video from this exact rave, if you are curious to see what it was all about:
Memorabilia on my walls
In my home office where I spend most of my day I have a handful of pieces dedicated to my rave career.
This was a gift given to me by the Friendship Crew at the final Hulla event in 2005. It features a record that was brought to the UK and signed by all the major UK hardcore DJs of that time and the rest signed by Hulla DJs and the Friendship Crew. There is a group photo taken at the pre-party and an engraved inscription that says “Hullabaloo! June 21, 1997 – July 9, 2005”. This is a very special gift.
This is a famous photo that was shot by a fan and photographer named Brian Sparano. He gave me the high quality print which I had framed.
My framed collection of the Happy2bHardcore series, with a designation from Nielsen Soundscan of selling over 400,000 copies.
This was a gift from a fan photographer named Megan Wong shot at Hulla in 1999. She actually included it in a photo exhibit she held, then gifted me the very large frame and pic (movie poster sized).
These are all very special and hang prominently in my office.
My memoirs will be published!
I have worked out a deal with a publisher to see my memoirs released in print, e-book and audio book (read by me!).
I look forward to sharing more details about what the book is and the title in the coming months.
I’m really excited about telling my story.
Check back to my website for more updates as I have them.
Revisiting my memoirs
In 2009 I took a month and wrote all day everyday to capture my memoirs of my rave career.
I then saved the file and 10 years passed.
A few weeks ago I re-opened the file for the first time and was hit with the power of the words on the screen. No wonder it took all of this time, 10 years later and 20 years after the events portrayed in the book. There was too much trauma for me to deal with. It’s taken 20 years to be able to tell my story.
I’ve committed myself to finish my memoir project and finish it now. I’m about finished the second draft. After that it gets handed to an editor. Some time after that it will be published.
The thing that I asked myself now was the “why?”. Why did I do it? Why would someone go through everything I went through? I had the answer – you. The ravers. You inspired and motivated me at every point.
And I have an amazing tool to pull from – all of my emails dating back to the mid 1990s. I started to go through them. Your voices will now be in the book. Why what I did mattered to you, how it affected you.
I’ve often said these memoirs will be my last contribution to the scene. I’m going to be proud to share such a document. An honest review of an incredible time. No one knows what it was like to experience those intense highs and intense lows that I went through.
Please keep an eye on my page for further updates about this.
Rush Hour 1998 live video
Hullabaloo’s Rush Hour in 1998 was when Hullabaloo officially became a rave juggernaut. It was the 8th Hullabaloo, and everything that had come before was distilled into 1 perfect rave. Logistical issues with crowds were handled by it being the first Hulla that sold all tickets in advance and none sold at the door (first of many sold out events). It was the first time we re-used a venue, which let us build on what we learned the first time. The fan base was growing more and more, “Hulla Ravers” were more defined. I consider Rush Hour the first perfect rave we had, with more to come.
I also reflect on how young I was then, and what I had built at such a young age. It’s pretty humbling to look back on.
I’m also reminded how “new” everything we were doing was. New types of events, new type of music, new experience. We weren’t recreating “disco” from 20 years prior. This was a brave new world.
Here is some live video from my set that night:
Hullabaloo! Big Top 1999 footage
This is a capture from VHS of my historic set at Hullabaloo! Big Top, February 1999. Over 5000 ravers packed a sold out International Centre just outside Toronto, Canada. This was a kick off of the rave era’s “Summer of Love”, the arguable peak of the rave scene in 1999.
Something about the quality (from VHS), the washed out colors, makes it seem just as much the dream as what is in my head.
The entire audio recording of this set is available by clicking this link.
When Chris proposed to Robin
I just pulled out a tape from a box in my garage and posted it on Youtube. It was shot at the 2002 edition of the World Electronic Music Festival. It really captures the energy and magic of my sets of that time, but this recording is even more special because it captured when I proposed to Robin on stage in front of everyone. I remember someone telling me they thought the tent was going to explode from all the PLUR.
It’s special now to reflect on this. Until now, this only existed in the memories of everyone there. I’m glad I have the tape to share now.
Featured Live Mix: Anabolic Frolic Vs Vinylgroover 1999
This was a special event. It came on the heels of the rave scene simultaneously experiencing its peak and also terrible tragedy with 3 separate drug related rave deaths at Toronto events during the last half of 1999.
It didn’t feel right to me at the time to just proceed business as usual and pretend none of this had happened. It was a hard time for me, personally. Only decades later do I recognize my own trauma of having to deal with all of that at the time.
I felt the scene was too important to just give up on and I knew I didn’t want to quit because this was bigger than me and meant so much to so many people. I was committed to staying strong even though I was dealing with my own unchecked stress of the weight of all of it.
My idea was to do our next event on a more low profile. To this end we did not print any flyers to promote it, which was unprecedented at the time for a large event, early into the internet and a decade ahead of social media. It was called “For Those Who Know“. In addition, $1 from every ticket would be donated to the local harm reduction outfit (TRIP – Toronto Raver Info Project), which received a cheque for $2200.
Even with no flyer, the event immediately sold out the capacity of the venue.
I wanted to do something special and different in light of this and came up with the concept of having our most frequent headliner, Vinylgroover, and I do an unprecedented back2back set we called “UK Vs Canada” with the addition of MCs Magika and E-by-gum.
The atmosphere was like no other that night. The same importance that our scene was worth saving weighed on everyone in attendance.
I present this set in all its glory, all 2 hours and 20 minutes of late 1990s happy hardcore spun by 2 of the biggest names of that era. Enjoy.
