To you the ROAR Crew, We are proud and humbled to today celebrate ROAR’s first birthday – by bidding you farewell, and sending out a MASSIVE thank you for all of your support, in whatever shape that took, since our launch this time last year.

ROAR was always meant to be a lockdown project to bring a smile to the faces of ravers while journalistically chronicling the rave scene – and with raves on their way back, lockdown (sort of) lifting, and Latch expecting his second kid in September and having to do some paid work, our first birthday this week seemed a good time to wind it up…for now at least.

Proudly, we bow out having achieved a huge amount. That includes chronicling the ’90s rave scene by interviewing in great depth – often for the first time – many of the legends who created the Decade of Rave; all our episodes being curated into the BRITISH LIBRARY SOUND ARCHIVE for future historians or rave obsessives; having our content viewed or listened to HALF A MILLION TIMES in a year, with some interviews being viewed or heard more than 20,000 times; bringing together a community of 5,000 subscribers on YouTube and similar again on social media; giving new talent a chance to shine and supporting the scene’s recent resurgence; and, most importantly, bringing joy and entertainment to the rave scene at a bleak time for us all where we couldn’t go out raving.

As you’ll hear in this farewell episode, while we are halting the crowdfund for obvious reasons, Latch will be keeping the ROAR website and channel open for as long as he can afford to do so, and we are not against creating future content, should the right opportunities arise…in fact, we may drop some stuff from time to time so do keep your eyes peeled!

We will happily continue to put out more ROAR TRACK ATTACKS as long as producers keep sending them – submit them via hello [at] roaruk [dot] com.

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And if you know any businesspeople or wealthy philanthropists who’d like to help keep the project alive, even by allowing us to take on a young trainee, then we are all ears – again, it’s hello@roaruk.com. [Also, if you’d like to donate even a few quid from time to time to help Latch keep the website live – as it costs a few hundred quid a year to merely exist – you can do so at https://www.paypal.com/roaruk.]

We had hoped to depart by interviewing CARL COX and SHARKEY, but unfortunately events and timings conspired against us – so apologies for that. Happily, though, Sharkey is well and back where he belongs at the heart of the hardcore scene, and that’s the most important thing.

However, our most recent interview, where DnB impresario LONDON ELEKTRICITY talks for the first time about last summer’s racism storm which engulfed his label, HOSPITAL RECORDS, is one of our best so far so check it out if you’ve not already – https://youtu.be/eUDFZUL1q1k

There are loads of people to thank for their help bringing this project to fruition and keeping it going over the past 18 months – as we do in this episode, and apologies if anyone was missed out – but without you guys at home watching, commenting, subscribing and also donating your money during a tough time financially, none of this would have happened.

So thanks a million yet again, and if we don’t see you on here, we will hopefully see you on a dancefloor!

Loads of love,

ROAR HQ x