Terence Donovan captures the hedonism of Birmingham’s ’90s raves – The Face

In January 1996, Terry Donovan was, happily, in the rave and techno trenches.

DJing in his hometown of London, and back in Birmingham where hed studied philosophy at university, the 25-year-old was spinning the likes of Vamp by Outlander, Energy Flash by Joey Beltram, Jeff Mills Mecca EP and LFO by LFO.

It was amix of historical rave culture you could take anything from 87, 88 onwards alongside some of the more metallic, fierce stuff that the actual DJs at the club were making, he says of his sets, mentioning Surgeon (aka Tony Child), the sound of UK techno at the time and the genres local hero.

That location in Englands second city was The Que Club, housed in the historic, 1904-built Methodist Central Hall, with 35 to 40 rooms spread over three or four floors. Quite the venue, and it created legendary nights like House of God, where Donovan spun.

Id been aDJ for along time by that point, and it was really hard to find that feral energy, Donovan remembers, where the crowd could overwhelm the sound system. And then you took that to the architectural scale of this venue, and the scale of 2000 or 3000, whatever the number of people in The Que Club was Id never done anything in my life where Iwanted to say to my dad who had apretty special eye and had seen some pretty special things over the years Dad, could you come and look at this please? It was literally like alittle kid saying: Hey, Ithink this is cool.

Terry Donovans dad was Terence Donovan, the legendary fashion photographer. Alongside David Bailey, Donovan Sr. had pretty much captured the Swinging Sixties, shooting models and celebrities galore. He also directed sleek Eighties pop videos like Robert Palmers Addicted to Love, lensed myriad television commercials and snapped assorted royals, including Diana, Princess of Wales in 1987 and the Duchess of Yorks engagement photographs.

And now here he was, at his sons urging, aged 59, patrolling aheaving, throbbing late-Nineties rave in wee hours Birmingham.

He was wearing apair of black tracksuit bottoms and an old British army camo jacket, and he just wandered around and did his thing. You know, the nature of Birmingham and the nature of House of God, people were unimpressed by fame and celebrity, says Terry, who went on to become co-founder of Rockstar Games and now lives in Colorado. Thats one of the greatest gifts Iever got out of both dad and Birmingham aconstant reminder to treat everybody equally.

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Terence Donovan captures the hedonism of Birmingham's '90s raves - The Face