Another history / biog from sub mik

What I think…………

Serum (to me) is a tribal collective made up of like minded, alternative, people who promote everything we believe in through our music, our parties, our ethos & our ideas. We are free thinking, fun loving, life inspiring, positive people who believe in everything we do because we know we are making a difference!! We all (including you!!) survive & excel in a world of greed & ignorance with big smiles & happy hearts getter stronger everyday!!! Stay positive, laugh out loud, and spread the luv, Serum vibration across the nation!!

We all have a part to play in this universe to be free & the sooner we realise that we need to work together the sooner we’ll get there. Peace luv & unity is the key & positivity, happiness & respect will show us the truth.

I started off my partying career back in 1996 when I was first introduced to dance, trance & magic plants. For everyone that was there I’m sure you would agree it was a difficult time to enter the scene. The Criminal Justice Bill had already been introduced & established, the party family was being split between sound systems & we found we were having to become more inventive to keep the spirit & parties alive. The first parties Serum experimented with were based in Watford in 1997 (just outside north London) with Whippendale woods providing the wiked natural backdrop that we have now come to know & luv. These parties continued sporadically as & when we had the time & as & when we had the money because we were putting on these parties with no equipment to our names so everything had to be hired. As our enthusiasm, excitement & motivation for these parties enveloped our being we gathered our own equipment together & carried on with the parties in TWatford until one fateful day on 15th July 2001 (day after my birthday party!!) when the fuzz decided we were having to much fun & stopped the party, confiscated our new gear & 2 people were arrested. The court process was long & intense (it took 6 months!!) & the result was we would be let off as long as we didn’t seek to recover the gear. Serum took this kick in the teeth quite personally & while we were conserving our energy, thinking of the future & building on ideas, King bObby carried on doing what he does best & bought more gear to get the sound system running again. Since this set back everyone has been putting in more & more energy to get us where we are today & are proud to have been part of some of the best parties of this Millennium here & abroad, providing a mix of dub, reggae (King bObby), drum & base & global/ethnic roots Biophonic stylee (DJ Mole/Sub-Mik/Mr.Zippy), acid tekno (Sub-Mik), punk/ska (Father Vivian Oblivion) & analogue house/acid breaks (DJ Wig Wam).
We have always had an open music policy & welcome djs from all walks of life (we should have a few surprises up our sleeves for the future so watch this space!!)

Rumbling Ramblings Compiled by Mika (A.K.A Sub-Mik A.K.A Sputnik303)

A HISTORY AND STATEMENT OF INTENT FROM THE SERUM SOUND SYSTEM COLLECTIVES

Serum was the name chosen to signify what had been happening as an unnamed entity for some years in a corner of Hertfordshire. Since the late 90’s people from the Watford locale organised on an ad-hoc basis to produce free, outdoor parties for whoever fancied it. Numbers at these events fluctuated from 20 to 150 and usually took place somewhere in Whippendel woods, outside the neon delights of Watford town.This beautiful, sprawling forest provides natural amphitheatres in the form of dells, plus some discretion from the law. A happy state of affairs existed for some 3 summers until we had that one party too many and Old Bill illegally nicked two of our D.J.’s and the rig, all 10K of it. The phoney charges were later dropped but we never saw the rig again.

Though the use of the rig had always been a communal affair, it had been paid for largely by one individual. Unfazed by the stealing of the rig , he set about replacing it, piece by piece. By the following summer we were ready to go again, albeit with a refreshed sense of caution, eager to use the rig , plus the newly acquired mobile kitchen and van, we took ourselves off to the south of France to throw our oar in with the Techniville Free Festival on a mountain plateaux high above the town of Montpellier.

Driving there in two vans, a car packing a marquee, a small sound system and 10 people, we provided a chill out area with cheap vegetarian food and sounds in a marquee carpeted with straw we had brought from a farmer on the way. Thousands of people enjoyed the free sounds from dozens of systems, free from the interests of capital. and overbearing “security”. After 5 days of this, we drove to Holland to another Techniville.This time the site, on unused Brownfield land, was evicted after 24 hours by the Dutch Police.

We returned to the UK exhausted, but buoyed by the realisation of our ideas and eager to continue. A political subtext had always run through how we felt the system should be used. Forming links with some libertarian activist groups led us to participate in events where we feel naturally at home. The two big Reclaim The Future events had us taking responsibility for the WOMBLES room, laying on sounds and visuals at these multi-purpose gatherings. The basis of these events – non-hierarchal and collective decision-making/responsibility - match perfectly with Serum’s principals of organisation and have set the ground for future ideas. During the big anti-war marches last year, Serum helped with the Autonomous Space in Hyde Park and pitched in with the attempted RTS- style event on Old St. some months later.

A UK Techniville in Hereford last May was a success , despite the Police blocking roads to many who tried to get to the party. We had a much bigger marquee this time, providing warm food and tunes to those who made it and in the spirit of those who tried.

This involvement with overtly political groups and action has been a desired and beneficial aspect of what Serum is intended for. To help provide resources and energy to those we share a commonality of cause with is something we warmly embrace. But it hasn’t happened without it’s problems.

At the latter end of 2003, some people connected with some of the groups we were working with began to look on us suspiciously. The personal beliefs of some of the Serum crew were taken out of context and an image of a sinister cult was pushed, despite all evidence to the contrary. Such antagonism from so few people shouldn’t have been cause for concern, but we found doors that once welcomed us now closed, gigs that we were to play at cancelled, increasingly bizarre 4th- hand rumours finding there way to us.

To anyone who has heard dodgy fables about Serum, here’s how it is ; Serum is made up of people with common interests and common differences. Serum is a result of this hybrid We operate the rig like we think the all relationships are best managed – a place where common ground is shared and differences respected. For everyone else, there’s the Tory Party (or the Labour Party, as it’s now known).Our music is as eclectic as our thinking, our bond is as strong as our sound. This is our history, our agenda, unhidden. We have justified our position and future, let those who snipe at us justify there’s. Our actions will speak louder than there words ever will.
Let the party begin…………………..

OUR IDEALISTIC FANTASY REALITY

SEE
To be ambient yet Colourful
Inviting yet Confronting
Exciting yet Plain Boring Honest

HEAR
Big & Boistrous
Small & Incospicuos
Positive musical vibes in any flexible form.
Beeping out the roundabouts of London
Vibrating the fields of wales
Musical taste of limitless pace
Not fussy – We just like a bit of positive energy
Ambience to techno
Dub to Drum n Bass
Acoustic to hard thrash
Johnny Rotten to Johnny Cash
To get out our arses and dance with no rhythm to the sound of our bob tweeked speakers. As beats take there course and the original and unoriginal sounds take the party by force.

TOUCH
You are not punters, audiences or just another bod in the crowd.
You are partakers in our fantasy.
Uproot & tear down
Destroy & Overthrow
Build & to plant
There is no outside looking in.
Be part of it.
Take your stick & march, dance, shit and leave your dent upon all areas of our hippy fart fantasy.

TASTE
Good vegan filling saucy grub.
To have all ingredient obsessed ingenuity kitchen lovers be given space and tools to make and distribute almost free nourishment to all who need. (all is a big number – but you get jist).
From the healthy grilled pepper to heart testing battered batter. No overpriced chippie van will be able to protect itself from our underpriced communal kitchen. Getting the witches brew out and evolve.
Also to have affordable or free water. Don’t go dying.

SMELL
Any field
Any Space
Leave looking as we found or in better condition with more colour.
Taking all our own crap & disposing Elsewhere.
Smelling Rosey!!!