One Last Night at The Boathouse

But the party could not go on forever. In September 1994, the venue, which is now a restaurant, called time on its super Sundays, bowing out with one last event.

For Dave Harrison, now 48, it was not only the last night of the Boathouse but his last night in Stratford before he left, aged 20, to study graphic design in London. He decided to photograph the night, and now looks back at a time when the town was renowned in the rave scene.

“Stratford throughout my teenage years was full of ravers,” said Dave. “I got into the clubbing scene in about 1990, when I was 16, and most of my friends were into it. There seemed to be so many young people in Stratford, and there was just so much going on. In the years running up to 1994 there were free parties all around Warwickshire.

“Sunday nights at the Boathouse were often the nights where everyone in there had been off clubbing and raving around Coventry, Birmingham or London, and were back in Stratford on the Sunday to chill out. Quite a few big names in dance music used to play there and it was an amazing scene. If I went to clubs in London over the next few years, Stratford would often come up, and it almost had a kind of city status.”

After long hours, and sometimes days, spent in the likes of The Eclipse in Coventry, Sunday nights at the Boathouse were a chance to reconvene by the riverside, and a scene of friends and fellow music-lovers blossomed, with some going on to great things.

“The music on Sundays was quite jazzy, trip-hop type of stuff, which is quite mellow compared to what everyone was probably listening to on Friday and Saturday,” said Dave. “Jamie Hancox was a brilliant DJ. It was a friendly affair, and there was never any trouble.

“There’s a few faces in the crowd in those photos: Chris Tarrant’s daughter, Helen, who I grew up with; the guy in the blue striped t-shirt with glasses is Ricky Robbins, who was just a lovely guy and a real legend around Stratford; and Russell Houston, in the Adidas jacket, was the life and soul of the party, and went on the Big Breakfast around that time pretending to play the digeridoo.

“So many young people in Stratford around that time went off and did incredible things. Graeme Fisher – who’s now married to Lauren Laverne – became a DJ along with his brother, Logan. Sophie Robinson, who’s now a TV interior design expert, used to go there. There were lots of DJs, but also James Holder, who started Bench and went on to found Superdry, used to skate around the Bancroft and we all had stickers with ‘B’ on, supporting his fashion brand that was just starting to happen.”

When the night ended, so too did an era for many young people in Stratford, explained Dave, who said that while they went away to study, work, or create new lives for themselves, the town transformed in their absence.

“I remember thinking it was absolutely outrageous that the only decent place left to go was closing and feeling a bit bitter about it,” he said. “I think a lot of people felt like all the doors were being closed on young people. So there was an atmosphere of it being the last hurrah – that’s why I took the pictures, for posterity.”

PLAYLIST: Dave Harrison recalls some of the music that was popular at the Boathouse in the ‘90s.

1. Cantaloop (Flip Fantastia) – Us3

2. Midnight at the Oasis – The Brand New Heavies

3. Step – If (Mo’ Wax Records)

4. The Story of Light – William Orbit

5. Apparently Nothin’ – Young Disciples