What goes up, must come down: New BBC podcast charts the rise & fall of ecstasy in Manchester
Ecstasy: The Battle Of Rave chronicles the rise of a drug that ultimately shaped a movement that made Manchester the city it is today; both for better and for worse.
Unemployment. Racism. Poverty. Hooliganism. Hopelessness. Communities at war.
1980s Northern Britain was a tortured place.
By the mid-point of the decade, the region was a bubbling pot teetered on a gas burner; a scorching, bewildered swirl of different ingredients thrashing around against one another.
But then ecstasy came along, and it was like someone simply turned the heat off.
Temperatures cooled, waters soothed, and the contents relaxed; rising to the top together whilst softly entwining.
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A new BBC podcast, part-written by Danny Brocklehurst, is about that moment the cooker dial twisted down, and the music cranked up.
Ecstasy: The Battle Of Rave chronicles the rise of a drug that ultimately shaped a movement that made Manchester the city it is today; both for better and for worse.
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The project sees Danny – the Hyde-born writer of The Stranger, Brassic and Safe (along with credits for Clocking Off and Shameless) – teaming up with Chris Warburton from BBC 5 Live to examine how multicoloured capsules set a momentous cultural shift into motion.
Staring down the camera lens during his Zoom call with The Manc, Danny begins throwing fingers up in front of the monitor as he recounts the ways in which ecstasy remoulded the country.
“It changed crime, it changed policing, it changed culture, and ultimately it changed government policy,” he tells us.
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“This was the biggest and most radical cultural youth movement in this country since the sixties… possibly ever.”
But Ecstasy: The Battle Of Rave isn’t, as Danny reaffirms, an ode to “saucer-eyed, hands-in-the-air sweaty club nights”.
It’s a story about what this drug gave to Britain. And what it took away.
Ecstasy: The Battle Of Rave is built up of six documentary episodes featuring marquee names of the era; including Shaun Ryder and Graeme Park.
But tucked between each of these eps are five ‘Secret Voices of Ecstasy’; a quintet of fictional characters built from research and real interviews.
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According to Danny, this allowed him to retell the kind of stories that are rarely recited on the record, be it for fear of exposure, revenge or even incarceration.
A stellar UK cast steps in to fill the shoes of a raver (Meera Syal), a dealer (Ian Hart), an undercover cop (David Morrissey), a DJ (Monica Dolan), and an opportunistic party-organising entrepreneur (Adrian Edmondson) – who got rich by arriving on the crest of a wave.
“I think what the drama does is hopefully gets you inside peoples’ heads,” Danny reveals.
“[This lets us] tell their story very honestly, very emotionally, very truthfully in a way that you wouldn’t necessarily always get from someone who’s on the record in a documentary.”
Intriguingly, Ecstasy: The Battle Of Rave follows the same arc of the drug which bears its name.
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It reaches up to revel in the unparalleled highs – a glittering world of dilated pupils, flashing lights and giddy bliss – before diving back down to Earth to showcase the devastating, almost subterranean lows that came afterwards.
“We’re trying to be honest about the range of experiences that people had at that time,” Danny explains.
“If there’s a pattern to the story of ecstasy and acid house, it mirrors the drug.
“You’ve got the initial euphoria – which most people you speak to involved in this scene experienced – then you’ve got the levelling out where it’s becoming the norm.
“Then, you’ve got the comedown.
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“The good times were so good and [people] felt alive. It was very vibrant. But that’s not to say this didn’t come at a cost.”
As the podcast ascertains, ecstasy undeniably altered music, values and even society.
But it didn’t do it all alone. It had a companion. A partner in crime.
“In the eighties, MDMA found its moment,” Danny states.
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“The collision [with acid house] created this amazing cocktail… and to add to that there’s this youth culture in Britain that feels like it needs that escape.
“Ecstasy responds more to the situation you’re in. That’s why people take it at festivals.
“If you took ecstasy and got on a bus, for example, it probably wouldn’t quite have the same effect!”
According to DJ Graeme Park, ecstasy and acid house were the perfect match because the pills would raise your heartbeat to 120bpm… which happened to be exactly the same speed as the tempo of many tracks.
For the first time, people felt completely in tune with the music around them.
Most parts of Britain had a home for ecstasy and acid house. But in Manchester in particular, the pair were welcomed into the city by thousands of open arms.
The nerve centre for rave here was, of course, The Hacienda – the black-and-yellow hedonistic hive that would spawn the ‘Madchester’ scene.
But the podcast makes another big revelation in that the first rumblings of the movement actually started at Stuffed Olives – a little nightclub smuggled away down South King Street off Deansgate.
If FAC51 was the place that ecstasy and acid house realised they were destined to be soulmates, Stuff Olives was where they first clapped eyes on one another.
Shaun Ryder describes the movement as taking Manchester from ‘black and white’ to ‘teknicolour’.
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People of all races were coming together. Different classes were mixing. Football hooligans from rival firms were hugging on dancefloors.
“It [ecstasy] had a real capacity to heal and make us love one another,” Danny chuckles.
“Whether you think that’s naive or not; that was the feeling.
“A lot of what happened at that time came out of what people were experiencing; Thatcherism, unemployment, no palpable future that appealed to them.
“This movement, this freedom, this drug, this music offered them something that was a bit like a ‘screw you’ to the system.
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“The system hated that – because they couldn’t control it.”
During the nineties, ecstasy wore out its welcome as greed took over.
The drug was increasingly cut with dangerous substances so dealers could enjoy a bigger slice of the pie, and police were increasingly raiding parties to take down the culprits.
Raving undoubtedly has an ugly side. It’s one we’ve seen as recently as this year; as crowds have flocked to makeshift illegal gatherings during a pandemic.
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As police continue to tackle parties that put the wider public at risk, it’s an interesting time for a podcast about raving to be released. But Danny says the current climate had no real influence on the final edit.
“We’ve been writing this for a long time,” he informs us.
“We couldn’t have anticipated we’d be living through a pandemic… or that young people’s primal need to get together would result in a resurgence in illegal raves.
“At a time when people are supposed to be social distancing; that’s a very interesting contradiction.
“Obviously, COVID is a very different scenario [to the 80s/90s] because it’s [about] people responding to being trapped in their homes.”
But for the most part, the nightlife scene in Manchester currently remains under lock and key.
Nonetheless, Danny believes the shutdown could potentially result in a new wave of nightlife that may bring a resurgence to the city.
“There was a period in the early nineties where Manchester was the centre of the universe for a little bit,” he reflects.
“It felt like a very vibrant, lively, amazing place to be living and working.
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“Obviously that doesn’t last. The Hacienda has gone now and lots of the big famous clubs have gone.
“But it’s still a very lively place and it’s got that ability to be a great city for people going out.
“But everything’s under a shadow of COVID right now.
“It could go one of two ways. Some places will wither and die. Or the scene will come back with a bang because people will be so desperate to come together and live and be with other people.
Danny pauses and thinks about it for a second or two.
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“It could have a really positive effect, ultimately.”
You can listen to Ecstasy: The Battle Of Rave on BBC Sounds now.
A new series of Brassic is also in the works – with Danny working on plans for a third and fourth installment of the Sky comedy-drama.
There’s also discussions taking place to create a new show with Harlan Coben; whom Danny collaborated with on Safe and The Stranger.
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Five Greater Manchester-based music artists you should listen to | April 2026
Danny Jones
Ay up, you lot – we’re back with another box office batch of music from in and around Greater Manchester for you to get your teeth stuck into.
We’d like to think you know the deal by now, but if not, here’s a quick rundown for you…
Every month, we look back on the local bands and artists, either hailing from or now based in the area, that are spending regular time in our rotation.
It doesn’t matter if they’re still just young prospects or they’ve been at it for decades: if it’s good and it’s been in our ears, it goes on the list. Ready? Let’s go, then.
Five Manc bands and artists we’ve been listening to recently
1. Harry Lyon
First up is April’s cover star: the wonderfully talented Harry Lyon, who is another born and bred and now quietly plying his trade here in Greater Manchester and already showcasing a great level of versatility early in his career.
He moved to the city from Sheffield not too long ago, and his creative output has only ramped up since he got here. Toying with everything from alt-pop/indie to straight singer-songwriter stuff that wouldn’t sound out of place on the radio, his often R’n’B-esque vocals mean he can turn to multiple styles.
We actually lucky enough to bump into him in person earlier this month over in Stretford, and you’ll be glad to hear he’s also as sound a person as we hoped he’d be; he even teased a new single on the way, but for now, we’ll recommend ‘Violet’, ‘Backwards’ and the piano version of ‘While We’re Still Young’.
In fact, he does acoustic versions for most of his songs, and a fair few of them genuinely rival the originals in their own way.
From an up-and-comer to some Manc veterans that often get overlooked in the shadow of their even longer-standing and more well-known predecessors, but we’re going to go out on a limb and say something controversial here… We think we might prefer Black Grape to Happy Mondays.
Before you bite our heads off, let us explain: while the Mondays are obviously way more iconic and had a huge influence on the overall Madchester scene, we would argue that their progenic spin-off are almost a more honed evolution of at least some of what the Ryders and co. first created a buzz around.
Not only do the likes of ‘Kelly’s Heroes’, ‘Nine Lives’, ‘String Theory’ and more have so much more guitar in them (which will always score extra points for me), but more importantly, there is so much more successful experimentation with different instruments, cultural sounds and blends of energy.
It can be hard to know where to start, but those three examples aren’t bad options, and ‘In The Name of The Father’ is also such a vibe – we’re hoping we see it on the setlist for Outwards Fest next month.
BLACK GRAPE play Outwards Festival on Saturday 2nd May 😎
For fans of Sports Team, Spangled, Deadletter, and pretty much any current post-punk pioneers, these former students who originally hail from Cambridgeshire but have come up in and around the local rock scene have been making a splash for a little while, and now it feels like things are hitting a fever pitch.
Sometimes the idiosyncratic lyrics put you in mind of rising Oldham star, Seb Lowe; there’s even one intro that could be the start of a more upbeat and melody-forward King Krule, and you even get notes of Slaves/Soft Play at times. Whatever you hear, personally, you won’t find a bad song – we haven’t yet.
As the lyrics on ‘Are You The Best Yet?’ state, some of this stuff literally makes our knees go weak. We can’t remember the last time a band came around that has you eagerly awaiting the inevitable guitar break, let alone when you fully lock into one and pull a face (we’ve all got our own).
They’re so, SO good, and they help prolong some songs that, while brilliant, could feel more like fast-paced flashes in the pan without them. It all amounts to something extra and ups an already healthy dose of swagger: that’s definitely what you get on the recent ‘Cambridge Is On Fire’ and most of their tracks.
In at number four is another one to watch within the genre. Some industry figures have equated them to the likes of the Amyl and the Sniffers, Lambrini Girls, Viagra Boys, and so on, but we think there’s a much cooler sense of darkness going on with their approach – however familiar the repetitive guitar playing and aggressive, shouty vocals may be.
Luckily, their discography – not unlike that of their aforementioned punky peers – isn’t that extensive just yet, so you can easily work your way through all their releases soon enough, and they’ve also got a big gig at White Hotel coming up just after they drop their debut LP, Hodge Podge. Watch this space…
Our present picks would be ‘American Boy II’, ‘Marina’ for the foreboding sense of build and that central riff alone, and you simply have to listen to their latest single, ‘Creeping Offences’, which, understandably, is the best track in terms of production they’ve dropped yet.
We want to see them live before passing any decisive judgement, but we like what we’re seeing so far.
5. A Certain Ratio
Now, we’ve touched on electronic-influenced alternative group in Black Grape, but what about another truly influential act from within that fluid space? Probably one of your bands/favourite DJ’s favourite artists, whether you know it or not, A Certain Ratio were tastemakers long before even they knew.
If the previous two are post-punk, then these lot are the funkier forerunners, known for their trademark muted strumming patterns, heavily distorted, codified and multi-layered mixes, ACR have been going nearly half a century now, and they were doing all this stuff long before virtually anyone else.
You’ll inevitably fall down a bit of a rabbit hole listening to their stuff, but ‘All Comes Down To This’ is a good starting point, and ‘1982’ has always made us think of what a Doctor Who-themed rave might sound like.
Oh, and purely because it still sticks with us as an eye-opening first listen, it really doesn’t get much better than this one:
And once again, that’s all she wrote.
We hope you dive into at least some of these names over the long bank holiday weekend, as three uninterrupted days of listening couldn’t have timed any better.
Billie Eilish reveals the reason why she chose Manchester to film her new movie
Danny Jones
Global superstar Billie Eilish has revealed the reason why she chose Manchester, of all places, to film her upcoming new movie.
The answer won’t surprise you, but we were buzzing with it nonetheless.
In case you were unaware, Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour is the new documentary and live concert film directed by Billie herself, along with some help from none other than James Cameron.
Being screened not only in cinemas but also in 3D (yes, that’s still a thing), the performance-based movie captures content taken from her run of gigs right here in Manchester. Here’s why she picked us:
Though it’s still no surprise, really, we always find it so surreal seeing some of the world’s most famous artists speaking so highly about our city.
As you can see, while she did quip that the schedule lined up production-wise, it was an easy decision to pick her four – yes, FOUR sold-out nights at Co-op Live, as the place to film the project based on the atmosphere alone.
“I fricking love Manchester”, said the 24-year-old, going on to add, “Honestly, Manchester is one of my favourite audiences ever.”
Manc fans simply couldn’t get enough of her, hence why she was able to book so many big dates at the massive arena.
Here’s the big surprise she brought out for the show we were lucky enough to be at:
We love Billie and, as it turns out, she feels the same about us.
The release date for Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft tour movie is coming around early next month, with the film set to be screened in selected cinemas across the UK and beyond on May 8, 2026.
Speaking in the recent interview on the red carpet with the BBC, she also detailed how fellow Academy Award-winner Cameron contacted her first about the prospect of creating this immersive music project.
Imagine just picking up the phone to James Cameron – as you do…
Will you be watching? Better still, were you at one of the shows and plan to look out for yourself in the crowd, which is now soon to be splashed on the big screen?
The Manc -
17th September 2020 
