Forty pence won’t go far these days but if you knew where to look in the late 1980s, it got you a copy of Boy’s Own, the cult fanzine that doubled as a handbook to acid house. Their resale value today is enough to induce a nosebleed, but with a new fashion collection, Boy’s Own gives the next generation of ravers their chance to own a piece of dance music history.
Emerging as London’s house-music scene was taking shape and written by some of those at the centre of it, Boy’s Own documented the rave revolution from within. Sounds too grand to describe marked its debut in 1986, when founders Terry Farley, Cymon Eckel, Steve Mayes and the late Andrew Weatherall unleashed their unique take on fashion and music, where the worlds of clubbing and football culture collided.
Boy’s Own launches as part of Photo London 2024
‘It was very organic,’ says Cymon Eckel. ‘Terry did the cheeky one-liners, terrace fashion and music. I carried a camera everywhere so was kind of the photographer. Steve was the political one, inputting from the edges. And Andrew was the arty grammar school kid doing most of the real work while Terry’s mum helped with the typing.’
Full of in-jokes, scathing reviews, and merciless with anyone wrecking their precious scene, it stood for speaking your mind – about people, parties and the world beyond. ‘It was always more of a mindset, and I’d love to reignite that now.’ An irrepressible energy lives on through the new edit of T-shirts printed with words, playlists and party pictures from its pages.
More than just the voice of an era, Boy’s Own was the catalyst for many of its biggest parties and anthems, evolving into Boy’s Own Recordings and later the Junior Boy’s Own label. If the iconic names who contributed are any measure of the zine’s influence on 1990s dance music, they include fellow DJ and promoter Paul Oakenfold and club photographer Dave Swindells. Not only the first to write about acid house when its vanguard of holidaying Brits returned from Ibiza in 1988, they can even stake a claim to the much-loved expression ‘it’s all gone Pete Tong’.
‘Looking at it 30 years later Boy’s Own feels like art, which is the last thing we intended,’ says Eckel. ‘It was designed using Pritt Stick then printed on at our mate’s work after everyone had gone home.’ Reimagined as a series of tees – which launch today at Dover Street Market London as part of Photo London 2024, with further stockists to follow – the raw DIY look resonates even more now than it did then. While the gang were too busy living it to notice, with hindsight we know just how much of an impact the zine had on British nightlife history, and in turn contemporary fashion and street culture.
The collection captures the Boy’s Own adventures with Clockwork Orange-inspired iconography alongside rave pictures, original clippings and playlists. From epic Dave Swindells photos and charts of ‘chunky tunes’ to features like ‘Bermondsey Goes Balearic’ and pictures of the original line-up. A trip through acid house’s raving pantomime cows and truncheon-wielding bobbies.
‘Even after a few years off we’ve not had to create an all-new Boy’s Own,’ says Eckel. ‘We just applied a fresh lens for today’s landscape while staying true to the emotion, politics and cultural responsibility we originally set out with. If our legacy is reminding people about that, I’m happy.’
Boy’s Own launches tonight (16 May 2024) at Dover Street Market London, before arriving at stores including End and Goodhood.
