DiY celebrated 30 years last November. Scotty Clark (aka Scotland Yardie) wrote this poem and dedicated it to Moffball, who ran lighting at the shows In the town of Nottingham, Where the sheriff was always stoned There lived a bunch of vagabonds, The city streets they roamed
The sheriff was upset about the noise He decided that he would deploy Road blocks, barriers against the crew The sheriff's men did pursue
Robin dealt in crack cocaine, Maid Marian was on the game And Little John and Friar Tuck Were on the run in Spain
Those who danced to repetitive beats So Robin took the fight to the London streets Against the sheriff and the Criminal Justice Bill It was now like raving on a contraceptive pill
Hearing of the money made, The sheriff became a promoter A lot of shit music got played For his punters he cared not one iota
None of the pleasure and none of the fun So Robin took the party back to square one Deep house became the dog house With no countryside views for anyone
Robin said to those he pissed off, “If no one pays no one gets ripped off” So November ‘89 at the Kool Kat DiY sound system set out to prove that
Opiates, pills and crack cocaine Where only poets bled in the acid reign Dreaming in yellow, dancing in mud A complexity of ecstasy of that Mile High Club
We didn’t need the sheriff With his shite music and tariff That fledgling collective Put it all in perspective And the free party people were born
With Icarus and his sunshine lust They flew over the suns top, Their wax vinyl melted, and They fell into a floppy disco
From Kool Kat to Rhythm Collision The merry folk voiced a collective vision Purveyors of the free party dream Pioneers of the deep house scene Oh! On a Friday night You should have seen us Queuing up to get into Venus With all that love shared between us With a Bounce ticket and a disco biscuit Trance induced in our dancing shoes Oddballs, weirdos, and revellers A20K rig with countryside views Townies, students and travellers Bouncing on a Serve Chilled pill At airfields and Breedon on the Hill Strictly 4 Groovers, narcotic hoovers Dancing on rural manoeuvres No tickets meant more money to spend, On chemicals that had us dancing for days on end Floppy disco and party poppers San Francisco wife swappers Dancing in the rays of sun Celebrating 2922 days of fun Who’d have thought it would become Nineteen thousand and fifty one? Robin continued to party without a reason In all weathers, in all seasons The winter of our disco tent That emanated from the banks of the Trent Then at Castlemorton in May 92 Robin assembled a Nottingham crew At that Goose Fair of debauchery With a middle finger up at authority Travellers, students, ravers, townies Edible chemicals and hash brownies Chaos theory with Timothy Leary Vivid gestures with Spirit Wrestlers Dancing with a dealer doctor Firing flares at the helicopter Dancing to the epic mix Jumping off the Malvern Cliffs
Landing on a poppies pillow They embraced the old reliable; Alcohol: with all the charm Of a mute and deaf DJ with only one arm The merry men and women were ill-equipped Soon it were rehabs and methadone scripts Without the merry men and women The sheriff could get on with being the villain His clubs were playing handbag Admission came with a price tag The sheriff’s men confiscated all the pills Nottingham was blue, a city without thrills Robin’s party people cleaned up their act Saw the city’s pain and formed a pact To celebrate their 30th birthday They decided again that no one should pay Robin and co went down to Bristol Returning with a van load of crystal The best MDMA the city had ever seen They joined forces with old Smokescreen To put the sheriff off their scent The smokies led him to an empty tent Leaving Robin and co free to follow a bright star That led them to the cities reservoir Like the KLF burning a million nicker The merry folk figured it would far quicker To drop the vanload of crystal MDMA In the water supply so no one should pay As the city awoke on 23rd of November Drinking water that gave them a splendour It was the most wonderful thing I ever did see The entire population of Nottingham Off their face on E 23rd November is our 4th of July So raise your glass to DiY Be thankful that we were there Dancing freely in the open air Happy birthday to everyone Let’s celebrate 19050 Days of fun