Storm From The East: Rave culture, rurality and regional identity in East Anglia, 1989-2019
Research Stage 2: Participant Information
Thank you for taking part in this PhD research project. You are reading this information because earlier this year (2025), you filled in an online survey regarding your rave experiences in East Anglia, and have indicated that you are willing to take part in the next stage: remote, one-on-one interviews, conducted online via Zoom.
Before the interview takes place, it is important to understand what the research is about, what it would involve for you, and how I will use the information and data you provide. What follows is divided into two sections:
- Essential information about the research project, data processing and security, and the interview process
- The process of providing consent to use the information you provide in the PhD project
Please read the following information and discuss it with others if you wish. If you would like any more information or if anything is unclear, please contact me.
Matt Anniss
PhD researcher, Southampton Solent University
Email: hello@jointhefuture.net
Tel: 07786 393174
Part 1: Essential Information
What is the study about?
As the title suggests, this PhD project focuses on three things: the hidden history of free parties and pay raves (referred to as ‘rave culture’) in East Anglia (defined for the purposes of this study as the counties of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, and the unitary county of Peterborough); the communities and networks of people behind them; and the experiences and meanings of those experiences to those who took part.
The project aims to document, as accurately as possible, the scale and nature of free parties and pay-raves in the region over a 30-year period (1989-2019); the crews, soundsystems and promoters behind the events; how the scale, frequency and nature of rave events in the region changed over time; and what this rural and peripheral rave culture (so-called because the events under investigation took place in the countryside and on the coast) meant to those who made and experienced the culture – people like you.
It will not only look at rave events and the role they played in the wider dance music culture of the region, but also how they contributed to the construction of personal and collective identities, the relationship between rave participants and the landscape, and how rave culture fits in to East Anglia’s history of resistance and countercultural activity. The project began in October 2021. Field work, in the shape of interviews, will take place in late 2025 and the first four months of 2026. Publication of a PhD thesis, presenting and analysing the results of the research project, will follow in late 2027.
What would be the benefits of taking part in this research?
Taking part in this research will help create an accurate history of rave culture within East Anglia over a 30-year period and help increase our understanding of dance music culture, and the communities that create and sustain it, outside of larger English towns and cities. As it stands, the experience and activities of dance music enthusiasts in rural and predominantly rural regions, such as East Anglia, are omitted from published histories and wider discussions about dance music culture in the UK. Taking part in this research is your opportunity to contribute to widening and deepening narratives of dance music history within the UK – and the history of music and counterculture in East Anglia. With the help of research participants such as yourself, the story of rave culture in East Anglia will no longer be a ‘hidden history’, and the unique contributions of people from East Anglia to wider UK dance music history will finally be known outside the region.
Will I be paid for taking part in the research?
You will not be paid to take part in this research.
Who will conduct the research?
The research will be undertaken by myself, Matt Anniss, a PhD candidate at Southampton Solent University attached to the Art & Music School. I am an experienced dance music historian and researcher who has previously written published books and journalistic articles on other under-reported aspects of British dance music culture – including the wider club scene in East Anglia since the mid 1980s. Examples of my work and previous non-academic research projects can be found elsewhere on this website, www.jointhefuture.net. Please contact me if you want further examples of my work or proof of my credentials as a PhD researcher.
Why have I been invited to take part?
You previously filled in a questionnaire about your involvement in rave culture in East Anglia, providing information about some events you attended or contributed to in some way. In doing so, you indicated that you would consider being involved in the next stage of the study, sharing your experiences and answering more questions. Participants who have been chosen to take part in the next stage of the research, yourself included, come from a variety of backgrounds and were involved in rave culture in different ways, at different points between 1989 and 2019.
What would I be asked to do if I took part?
If you agree to take part in this stage of the research, you will be interviewed about your experiences of rave culture in the region, what those experiences meant to you, and the impact they had on your life and how you see the world.
Research participants will be contacted by email to arrange an interview. These interviews will be a minimum of an hour, and a maximum of 90 minutes. Interviews will be conducted remotely, using meeting software such as Zoom, Teams or Skype. In the case of those who do not have access to these services, phone interviews can be arranged on request. Times and dates of interviews will vary depending on the needs of interviewees and their availability, so if you can only do evenings or weekends, for example, this can be accommodated.
Would the interviews be recorded?
I would like to record the interviews in full, using recording software such as Audio Hijack, and then run the recordings through an automatic online transcription service called Good Tape. This is to ensure that the information I collect, and the personal history you provide, is as accurate as possible and can be fully analysed afterwards.
Audio recordings and transcripts will be stored online in a secure, password protected environment, both during the research process and for a minimum of five years after the publication of the PhD thesis. Express consent to record and store the interviews for future analysis will be sought beforehand, via a series of consent questions at the start of the interview. Within these questions, permission will also be sought to use any direct quotes from the interview within the thesis or any other publications related to the project. All quotations will be ‘anonymised’ and attributed to a ‘participant number’ based on the order in which survey responses were submitted (IE the first person who filled in the survey is ‘Participant 1’ and the last ‘Participant 219’). This means that anyone reading the thesis or subsequent publications will not recognise you or your personal experiences.
Do I have to take part?
Taking part in this research is entirely voluntary, but your contribution – and those of others who also took part in the rave scene in East Anglia – is valued and vital to the success of the study. Anyone who agrees to take part will be asked to provide express consent before the main part of the interview gets underway.
Can I change my mind about participating in the research?
Yes! Participants are free to change their mind at any point during the process, before or after any interview has taken place. You can withdraw without giving a reason, and you will not be asked to explain your decision to withdraw. If you wish to withdraw after the interview has taken place, please alert me of your decision within six months of the date of the interview – this will allow enough time to allow for your data, including interview recordings and text transcriptions of the conversation, to be extracted and destroyed.
Would my taking part in the research be kept confidential?
All the information collected about you during the research will be kept strictly confidential, stored securely, and any information that leaves Southampton Solent University would have your name and location removed so that you could not be identified. It will also not be possible to identify you from any published material arising from the study, as all participants will be ‘anonymised’ and only referred to in publications via their unique ‘participant number’. If you wish to know your participant number, just ask.
Permission to use the information provided, in the shape of audio recordings, transcriptions and direct quotations from interviews and questionnaires, will be sought before the main interview begins.
During the research, data will only be accessed by the researcher (that’s me) and, on rare occasions, my supervisors at Southampton Solent University. After the study is finished, data will be securely stored online in a password-protected environment, with all audio recordings and text transcriptions containing only one anonymised identifier (your participant number). This data will be stored securely for a minimum of five years following publication of the PhD thesis and may be used by the researcher in future publications and conference presentations.
What would happen to the data collected?
The collected data will be analysed and used in a published PhD thesis, and potentially in books and journals. Aspects of the research may also be used in presentations at academic conferences. As stated above, you will not be identified – other than by your participant number – in any report or publication. If you have any concerns about how the data you have provided may be used, at any point in the process, please get in touch to discuss them.
Has the study been subject to ethical review?
The study has met the criteria laid out by the Southampton Solent University Ethics Policy and Procedures. Copies of this document are available on request.
Who should I contact if I wish to make a complaint?
Any complaint about the way you have been dealt with during the study or any possible harm you may have suffered will be addressed. Please send your complaint to the person below who is a senior University official entirely independent of the study:
Head of Student Achievement, Academic Services, Southampton Solent University, East Park Terrace, Southampton, SO14 0YN.
Part 2: Providing confirmed consent
As stated above, all participants must provide confirmed consent to take part in this research. Consent was provided for the first stage, the online survey, via a question and check-box that you had to fill in to proceed. For stage 2, you will not be asked to fill in and sign a form but instead provide verbal consent. This will be done at the start of the interview, when you will be asked the following questions:
- Have you read the participant information sheet? Do you have any questions?
- Have you read, and agree to, the consent statements included in the participant information sheet?
Please take time to read the following consent statements. Remember, if you have any questions about them, you can contact me and ask for clarifications. I have listed my contact details again at the end of this document.
The consent statements are as follows:
• I have been told about the purpose of the project and I understand this.
• I have been given the opportunity to ask questions about the project and my participation.
• I voluntarily agree to participate in the project.
• I understand I can leave the project at any time without giving reasons and that I will not be questioned about why I have left the project.
• The procedures regarding anonymity and confidentiality have been clearly explained to me (e.g. not using my real name, so that anything I contributed to this project cannot be recognized unless I give my consent; that only anonymised data will be shared outside the research team)
• The procedures regarding data anonymity have been clearly explained to me (e.g. not using my real name, so that anything I contributed to this project cannot be recognised).
• I agree to the use of voice recording in my online participant interview
• The use of the anonymized data in research, publications, sharing and archiving has been explained to me.
• I understand that other researchers will have access to this data only if they agree to preserve the confidentiality of the data and if they agree to the terms I have specified in this form.
• I agree to the use of direct quotations in publications provided that my anonymity is preserved.
• I understand what I have said or written as part of this project will be used in reports, publications and other research outputs.
• I have read all of the consent statements and agree to continue with the anonymised interview
Thanks again for taking part in this research project. Feel free to contact me with questions or queries at any time.
Matt Anniss
Email: hello@jointhefuture.net
Tel: 07786 39174
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