Spiral Tribe

Spiral Tribe
Spiral Tribe logo
Background information
Origin	England
Genres	Free tekno
Years active	1990 (1990)–present
Labels	Network 23
Website	sp23.org

Spiral Tribe is a free party sound system which existed in the first half of the 1990s, and became active again in 2007 and continues to host club nights and parties in the UK and across Europe. The collective originated in west London and later travelled across Europe and North America. According to one member, the name came to him when he was at work, staring at a poster of the interconnecting spirals in an ammonite shell. The group had a huge influence on the emerging free tekno subculture. Members of the collective released seminal records on their label, Network 23.

From 1990 until 1992, Spiral Tribe were responsible for numerous parties, raves, and festivals in indoor and outdoor locations. These mainly occurred in the south of England. The largest and most famous party the group organised was the Castlemorton Common Festival free party in May 1992. Thirteen members of the group were arrested immediately after the Castlemorton event and were subsequently charged with public order offences. Their trial became one of the longest-running and most expensive cases in British legal history, lasting four months and costing the UK £4 million. Spiral Tribe first use the slogan "Make some fucking noise" on T-shirts which they wore in the court room. The judge ordered them to remove these garments. However when the female defendants revealed that they wore nothing underneath their T-shirts, the judge reversed his instructions, something quite rare in UK courts. Regarding Castlemorton, Nigel South states that "the adverse publicity attending the event laid the groundwork for the Criminal Justice Act 1994". Low and Barnett opine in Spaces of Democracy that "Spiral Tribe, with their free and inclusive parties, succeeded in constituting an alternative public space, rather than just a secret one.". Between 1990 and 1992, parties included:

After being acquitted of all charges relating to Castlemorton in March 1993, shortly after the group moved to Europe, doing parties in cities such as Rotterdam, Paris, and Berlin. Over the next few years, the collective organised parties and teknivals throughout Europe, then it slowly dispersed with some members taking up residence in Germany and the Netherlands and releasing work on Labworks and many other techno labels. Individual members of the collective joined other sound systems, did squat art events or pursued other interests.