No Boundaries
new Travellers on the road (outside of England)
Sample from this book:
Postcards from the edge
Tales from the road by New Travellers outside of England
Here are some bits and pieces from No Boundaries,
edited by Alan Dearling.
Through its pages, new Travellers and members of the UK and Europe's
alternative cultural scene, share their stories of lives lived
beyond the CJA world of England. It is the second instalment to
the 1994 publication, A Time to Travel? An introduction to
Britain's newer Travellers. That book chronicled the history
of the new Traveller scene; who travels; why they travel; education
and health; life on the road and hopes and fears. The Levellers
said of it: "This is essentially the definitive book
on Travellers. Let's hope it doesn't become a history book."
Thankfully, the new book proves that there is plenty of energy
and ingenuity left, even if much of it now exists outside of England.
Both during and after the Maggie and Major years, people from
the UK's Traveller community have been seeking to escape the harassment
being meted out in England. No-one is sure exactly how many have
left, but the Garda reckon that there are over a thousand new
Travellers in the south of Ireland alone. Quite large, alternative
lifestyle sites exist throughout southern France and Spain, Portugal,
Goa, and even the start of a new Traveller scene in South Africa.
This book offers blow-by-blow accounts of park-ups; communities;
festivals; street-selling and performances from a diverse range
of people who have, or are, experiencing life beyond England including
Southern Ireland and Scotland through to Scandanavia, Belgium,
and Germany.
Without being precise on the figures, there are certainly quite
a few thousand ex-Brits at any one time travelling around or settled
in Europe and beyond. Many of these could be categorised broadly
as new Travellers or members of the alternative counter culture.
Gaining access to land and freedom to travel without hassle, are
two uniting aspects of their chosen lifestyle.
The rest of this article consists of short extracts from the
'postcards and letters from the edge', which have been compiled
into No Boundaries.
Alés, France.
Dear Alan
Think I started the Big Exile during the winter of 1990-1991.
It was a question of self preservation. Just had to go at any
cost. Been travelling abroad before, but this was real desperation.
Woke up one morning with pigs on my left and skaggies on my right.
That was it. Spent a lot of time fighting both. Had to get out.
It's important not to let them think they have you, just by taking
your rig off you a few times. I've had sixteen years of that.
Have to keep out there. I was with this traveller circus - we
ran it on our giros.
And one day, SP received a message from Archaos saying that they
needed HGV drivers in England for their tour. And he kept it to
his self, knowing if I saw it I would go and not come back. And
at the next place we set up, the message came again and this time
I went. It was Christmas Eve and we set off for Dover en route
to Paris with these artics. The clutch went on mine, which was
the only one with a heater. Police came and I thought here we
go - but they left me to it. The chef convoyage, Franck, towed
me to Dover, with all of Archaos and the Dover customs standing
outside waiting. We went straight onto the boat. The doors closed
and we were gone.......
.....I still do driving for companies now and again, but I try
and do as many pyro's as possible. The Big Stuff: New Year at
St Raphael; the final event at a jazz festival or the 800th birthday
of Perpignan, capital of Cataloña on the Mediterranean
coast. Again, as a woman, it's probably even harder to get on
in pyro's than driving. They're superstitious about it, a bit
like painting a boat green........
Best of luck and hopefully meet up one day soon
XXX Dianne
Czech.
Dear Alan
The Czech technival has been running since 1994 when the combined
techno hardware of Spiral Tribe and Mutoid Waste, with DJ's perched
atop a soviet Mig fighter, played to an audience of about one
hundred Brits and a few bemused Czech farmers. The following year,
Prague's technoheads turned up in respectable numbers to be blown
away by a massive Bedlam/Kamikaze/Alien Pulse sound machine.
Year three was bigger still with over two hundred vehicles and
enough ravers to provide an audience for the fifteen or so sound
systems. Spiral Tribe and Lego with a circus bag top to themselves
were banging it out non-stop for the hardcore and played some
excellent live sets. Best of the bunch for me was a considerably
trimmed down Mutoid crew playing everything from hip hop and dancehall
to disco!
After two summers of relative inactivity, it was time for Dubious
Sound System to get out of bed. In 1997 we had finally managed
to achieve the transport and collective will necessary to take
our own brand of amplified madness further afield than France.
Our mission was to play the fourth Czech technival and then go
to Bulgaria, which to our knowledge, was virgin territory for
travelling sound systems. This looked a daunting prospect when
confronted with a map, but optimism prevailed and on July 23rd
we set off in convoy with four vehicles containing the rig, a
lightshow, a marquee and a radio transmitter.
One broken fuel pipe and a couple of asshole border guards was
all it took to turn a two day blat to Prague into a five day tour
of German lay-bys! Our delays meant that in the early hours of
Saturday morning we were confronted by the sight of a misty techno-Gypsy
encampment going at full tilt. Set in a large clearing in the
forest the site was much more secluded than previous years and
seemed perfect. A quick tour revealed the presence of sound systems
from all over Europe, including: Total Resistance, Kamikaze, OOPS,
Alien Pulse, Lego, Hekate, Desert Storm, Technical Support, and
others. As the refugees from Friday night stumbled home with dazed
grins, Dubious quickly formed an alliance with the Technical Support
crew who had a marquee and some gorgeous sounding EV and Turbosound
stacks. Despite the trials of combining two rigs and untold grief
with the huge Russian generator, we were up and pumping by the
evening. With Bedlam and most of the Spirals in America there
was no-one to really steal the show in '97, despite a truly epic
wall of speakers from Total Resistance. In fact, most of the rigs
were excellent at least as far as anyone can remember. The outstanding
sets on the Dubious rig came from DJ Sentinel, Chris Liberator,
Lazlo Legeezer, and DJ Full Fat Lester with DNA Selecta.
Dan Dubious
Goa.
Dear Alan
The moon is full so I go to Arambol with friends. We walk along
the long hot beaches to Arambol lake and make camp as dusk falls.
I am being flooded with the power of the moon. I am filled with
a rush of bursting energy, running around like a hyperactive child,
playing with night-time shadows, swinging firesticks until blisters
weep on my fingers. I lay splayed like a starfish on a boulder
soaking up the moon-drug. The moon is my lover, my partner, my
inspiration. Collecting firewood in brambly thorn thickets, feet
and fingers are shredded, bleeding. Flesh is sacrificed to the
fire-goddess in order to make our camp a gateway to the Banyan
Tree. There is a festival at the Tree tonight. Musicians halt
their journeys to honour our fire with serenades. I spin fire
before an unseen audience; applause rains down from hidden celebrants
scattered in the jungly valley. The lake is a mirror reflecting
moonbeams. We swim and bathe in cleansing clay mud of Arambol.
Waves roll onto the beach carrying with them alien-bright, fluorescent
green, phosphorescence. Even the ocean has gone techno....
....We are a large, unwieldy troupe, my group of friends, eleven
in all. We drifted together randomly like flotsam and jetsam.
We gain and we lose momentum; dispersing, dissolving, and regrouping.
Shifting sands; budding, burgeoning, blossoming and collapsing
relationships.... What bonds tie me to these beautiful strangers?
There is no personal space in our camp; everyone is lumped together
in a jumbled, fluid communality. And, we never sleep....
Take care, be happy
Em
No Boundaries is an act of
faith, commitment, celebration and fun
The bibliography section from
this book is also avaliable to read
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