'E' by Gum 1991

 

‘E’ by Gum, is a simple story of a boy, a rave, a fairy godfather and some ecstasy. The leaflet focuses on the getting caught and overdoing it as those were the issues we were seeing. At the time although there was research from the U.S.A (where ecstasy was legal up until the early 1980’s), there was no research about all night dancing and regular ecstasy use - the issue of ‘heatstroke’ was (at that time) unknown.

 

On the back cover is some basic information done on a typewriter. It said there was ‘grieving evidence, that too much too often could cause problems’. Oh how we chuckled when we saw this supposed trendy street slang, copied in other leaflets - I had of course simply made a spelling mistake and meant ‘growing’ but always liked it so left it in.

 

By the time ‘E by Gum’ was produced we (or Peanut Pete at least) was starting to become well known within the rave scene and was attracting considerable national press interest. We were even (briefly) in the government’s good books, when in 1992 Peanut Pete was chosen to represent the UK at the ‘European Drug Prevention Week’ conference opened by Princess Di.

 

At that time we also had a worker/researcher at Manchester’s (then world famous) Hacienda nightclub. Here is the cover of the version of ‘E by Gum’ produced by the Hacienda.

 

> Read leaflet online

 

> Peanut Pete - The Rave Years