The Second Summer Of Love

posted: 8 July 2008 by Leonie Cooper

It's 20 years since the second Summer of Love. What we're gonna do right here is go back... way back... back into time...

Second Summer Of Love
1967's original Summer Of Love might have kicked off way across the Atlantic Ocean over in San Francisco, but the second season of long hair, flowers and free hugs took place a little closer to home. Fuelled by bangin' choons and silly trousers, the psychedelic rave party that started in 1988 lasted for three love-packed years, and its shockwaves are still being felt today - seriously, just ask Klaxons.

Fashion
Granted, the Second Summer Of Love didn't have much going for it fashion-wise. Hedonism was far more important than looking like you'd just stepped off a catwalk. Simplistic yellow acid house smiley faces were placed on any and every item of clothing going, from T-shirts to boxer shorts to hoodies, everything, we repeat, everything, was baggy; all the better for raving in, see? Global Hypercolour T-shirts, which changed lurid neon colours with your body temperature, were popular, and in a throwback to the original '67 Summer Of Love, cutting your hair was strictly frowned upon, man.

Madchester
Sticking two fingers up to London, the Second Summer Of Love ruled in the north, particularly amongst the red bricks of Manchester. Proud residents - and those who wanted to be - wore T shirts proclaiming 'On The Seventh Day God Created Manchester,' while bands like the Happy Mondays and New Order found a higher state of consciousness in the late Tony Wilson's Hacidena nightclub. This era spawned the Madchester scene with groups such as the Mondays, Stone Roses, and Inspiral Carpets fusing together dance music and rock and roll in way which is still mind-blowing today.

Telly
The madness wasn't just confined to sweaty discos like London's Shoom and Trip or Manchester's Hacienda. Dance culture swiftly broke out into the mainstream and made its way onto TV. ITV's Chart Show set a series of spaced-out digital visuals to the week's biggest tracks, while rapper Normski fronted BBC2's hectic Dance Energy. There was even a rave scene in an episode of stuffy crime drama Inspector Morse!