Long-standing Nightlife Editor at Time Out Magazine, Dave Swindells gives you a unique insight into the Second Summer of Love, a period in 1988-89 when electronic dance music exploded on the youth scene in Britain.
His latest exhibition, ‘Spirit of Ibiza 89’, focuses on how ‘Balearic Beats’ – an eclectic cocktail of rock, Chicago house, Eurodisco, and funky reggae – and the ecstasy-fuelled clubbing lifestyle experienced in Ibiza inspired DJs to create a more freestyle and egalitarian club scene in London, albeit in dark, smoke-filled and strobe-lit basements.
With this series of images Dave Swindells shows the nightlife of Ibiza in the late ‘80s, with its open-air dance floors for those hot Mediterranean nights, drawing a polysexual, all-ages crowd in an easy-going hippie-inspired atmosphere which was nonetheless self-consciously stylish (unlike many of the dressed-down Brits).