Rob Tissera: Acid House's First Prison Hero

"I got three months though got out on appeal after three weeks, thank goodness. They weren't really within their rights to sentence me like that but they wanted to make an example of me. I can't tell you how long those three weeks in jail felt like."

As the first DJ ever jailed for fighting for his right to party, acid house veteran
Rob Tissera deserves the accolade hero and it's appropriate that 14 years on he remains a globally recognised DJ. Articulate, friendly and decidedly humble he's the diametric opposite of the stereotype swaggering jailbird thug, a fact that didn't help him when British authorities tried to use the courts, to smash Britain's then fledgling dance culture.

"When I was sentenced it was probably the most difficult and humiliating moment of my life because I was going jail. But what can you do- I'd been expecting a fine and had even taken the money to court to pay it. The judge was really harsh."

His offence had been to get on the microphone at the notorious Blackburn rave when police arrested 800 revellers (the biggest mass arrest of the 20th Century), which led him to be charged with incitement to riot. In fact, he'd merely picked up the mike to shout 'If you want this party to continue, you've got to keep the bastards out", a nuance that the judge failed to appreciate.

His bravery and that of the other tens of thousands of first generation ravers who refused to stay at home, helped normalise today's club culture. "There's no way I'd make such an announcement now but at the time it was driven by a love of doing what I was doing," he admits. "There was no money changing hands for DJing either, it was just about the experience of playing to that many people."


Skrufff: How do Australian crowds compare with elsewhere-

Rob Tissera: "I always find visiting Australia fascinating and a hugely enjoyable experience but there isn't much difference in people throughout the world and particularly in Australia there's a lot of parity between the UK and Australia. It has many European and American influences as well as its own culture, so you never feel like you're that far from home. The weather's better of course. I think the crowd's going to be for it too. In the past most of the gigs I've played there have been house gigs where I've played funky house music, the style I specialised in since I started in 88. But things have developed and over time I've developed a harder sound where now I play hard dance, though in the same way. I'm expecting different crowds though I'm sure they're going to be the most upfront people around."

Skrufff: What was your first ever rave experience-

Rob Tissera: "The first time I went to a proper old school acid house rave held in a warehouse on an airfield near Northhampton and it blew my mind. Before we even got there we communicated on those really big brick-like mobile phones to find out where the party was then followed a convoy of cars, passing through police lines. Eventually we got to the airfield being followed by about 30 cars and found there were hundred more cars all going to the same place. The atmosphere was like nothing else.

That's what makes it different from clubbing today; we had to go chasing it and it was the chase that was as important as actually getting there and listening to the music. Before that, I'd been going to ordinary clubs, getting dressed up in suits and drinking beer; doing what lads used to do. The raves changed things and everybody became much more friendly. It was a really special experience."

Skrufff: Did you see acid house as something that was going to last from the start-

Rob Tissera: "I had no idea of what sort of a journey we were going to set off on. I just enjoyed playing music having been a musician before. I played bass guitar in bands, this was a new form of music that took influences from every single area of the musical spectrum; from Bach to Talking Heads to Pink Floyd and jazz. It uses everything. Tags

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