The flat of the land

If asked to name a "hotbed of rave culture" in the late 1980s and early 1990s, most people would pick London or Manchester. Fewer, I suspect, would suggest East Anglia. But perhaps that's just because we've been conditioned by years of the same narrow media narrative. Matt Anniss certainly thinks so - as he told the BBC's Helen Burchell and Dotty McLeod.

According to Anniss, who's researching the subject for a PhD, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk were a "countercultural playground for ravers". Record shops and gig venues/clubs are the cornerstone of most music scenes, but East Anglia became notable for its free dance parties, which continued even after the inevitable legal crackdown under the Tories curtailed events elsewhere. Anniss puts it down to the region's "long history of non-conformity" and the fact that "there's a lot of space and not a lot of nightclubs".

A few years ago, the Guardian's Fergal Kinney drew similar attention to Blackburn, perennially in Manchester's shadow but the true heart of the North West rave scene. Credit to the likes of Kinney and Anniss for trying to change the record.