In July 1990, at the Love Decade rave in Leeds, over 800 ravers found themselves trapped as police surrounded the venue. Tensions escalated when DJ Rob Tissera attempted to rally the crowd, urging them to resist the police. This led to a chaotic three-hour siege, involving hostility towards law enforcement and barricades being set up. The police eventually breached the venue, leading to the arrest of all attendees, marking a significant moment in UK dance music history and its contentious relationship with law enforcement.
As word had spread that the building was surrounded by police, a young DJ who was on the decks at the time, Rob Tissera, decided to take action. I got on the microphone, and very stupidly and regrettably, said: If you want to keep the party going, we're gonna have to fight the bastards.' People did just that. Everybody turned into bloody hooligans, he says. It ended in a three-hour siege and got pretty nasty.
It was a full-on riot, says Winterbottom. Eventually the police got in and grabbed every single person, all 836 of them, resulting in one of the biggest mass arrests in UK history.
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