Unusual Fridays in 1995

With this picture, unusual Fridays in 1995, I really wanted to capture, I guess, the euphoria that I had when I realized that there was another, another place to go out and listen to music, then the normal nightclubs that Brisbane had at that period, was quite small back then. Um, some people might say it still is, but especially back then and, you know, going, going out on a Friday night to a nightclub at that point in time was, um, was, I don't know, dull, boring daggy nightclubs seemed like they were in Brisbane at that time.seemed like they were a leftover from the eighties. They had, you know, pretty strict kind of, uh, dress codes and, and it kind of looked like going out somewhere where every guy had just been dressed by their mother to go to a job interview or something.

It was, it was strange. And, and there really wasn't much on offer other than guys getting smashed in, looking for fights or looking to pick up, I guess. Yeah. It just, wasn't interesting, uh, you know, on the, on the, the main stream, there's certainly some hidden little places, but from a mainstream point of view, it was, you know, dull and depressing and not exciting and not interesting. And, you know, it was really just about people just drinking too much. And that was kind of all there really was.

So when I kind of started to find raves and dance parties and those sorts of things, it was…that's where I started to find my, um, you know, I guess a crowd of people that were, that I thought were, were more interesting. I also grew up, I guess, with hip hop and graffiti, and at that time hip hop gigs were really just, you know, a hundred, , drinking ‘tallies’ and, you know, two girls begrudgingly taken along by their boyfriend or something.

So that wasn't a fun or exciting or interesting or creative space either. So, I kind of felt like, um, going out in and around Brisbane was a pretty depressing, aggressive kind of thing until I came across these, these different dance parties and stuff. And, you know, there's a clear connection between those parties in those environments and, um, and drugs, which is, pretty obvious in the the picture.

I don't really have any particular drug taking exploits to brag about. I think I was a pretty, naive and, and also scared and timid kind of young person, so that that's not what the attraction was, but I definitely benefited from being in the environment where other people were euphoric. And, um, while I don't want to kind of gloss over some of the bad things that come with that, that is in one of the other pitchers in this series, you know, at that time as a young person, to find somewhere where there were creative things happening, you know, people at these parties were making art and light displays and all kinds of interesting performances, and it was just a great place to go and stumble into, in Brisbane as opposed to kind of just the aggressive drinking culture that existed in daggy environments with no real, concept given to places that even look nice, or inviting or, or fun to be in.