Back to Raving at 50 (part 4) - Summer Shakedown at the 338 - Outstanding!!!

Right after entering the club 338 - Summer Shakedown - wow what an event! Please give me the name of the photographer so I can credit them accordingly

I thought it unlikely I would write another blog this year as I have been keeping as busy as possible, and my efforts have certainly paid off recently. With one creative project or another all coming to fruition - The Making of the Magnificent 7 play is starting rehearsals and with my Rave Biography, Back to Raving at 50 (a book I never imagined I would find myself writing) dropping on September 12th, 2025, there's really not enough hours in the day right now. That said, this event - Summer Shakedown, so deserved one. How could I not? House is a Feeling & Rave Days partnered with Shine 879 dab on this event.

House is a feeling / Rave Days pulled out all the stops for this event and it was too late to include in my book, so I had to write this book

Two days before the event the second proof copy of my new Rave book arrived & as Rave Days get more than one mention, I thought I'd bring it along to show the lads. Back to Raving at 50 covers my (very brief) rave adventures in 1992 & primarily my journey of coming back to dancing on New Years Eve of 2022, then covers every event I went to thereafter up until June of 2025. It's not just a book about clubbing, the narrative is weaved with the personal stories of my life that led to my PTSD diagnosis and how I used dancing to overcome it. If you've followed my blog you'll know the circumstances, but the book also covers a great many other things - all of them connected to the Rave & London clubbing scene. As it says on the rear cover, Dancing is the best Therapy, and on Saturday August 16th I attended an event which underscored this message more than ever. This was my fifth time at an event organised by the Rave Days lads, John & Lee Read - House is a feeling - Summer Shakedown.

Noosh and I arrive at the Summer Shakedown at the 338, a new venue for both of us, snapped with two of 'the peanuts' the regular House Rave Squad - Billy Bunters stunt double can be in the background wearing the hat.

Clearly having learned from the best, it's self evident the Rave Days lads have worked hard to establish their brand to be synonymous with a certain level of quality. Summer Shakedown maintained that standard. Even though I always know someone at a Rave Days event, I still don't like going anywhere alone. This is a month of several difficult anniversaries for me and I was having more flashbacks than normal, although thankfully no where near as frequently as before. Fortunately the Nooshster, one of my regular Raving sisters was all in. We were both so impressed with their Valentines event at Koko that we bought tickets the day they went on sale (mine being a Birthday present from Noosh) but my summer had been so busy with writing, auditions for the play & shooting a short film in Kent that I had (almost) forgotten all about it. Many of our raving clan hadn't been to the 338 before, and when we met up with friends at the pre-meet we heard mixed things. A previous visit from a friend to an oversold event was not a happy one for them so many of us were a little apprehensive. We'd also heard the security could be a little over zealous. (But I get told that about a lot of venues & it's easy to forget that have a very difficult job to do, as was twice illustrated later that day, so please read on)

We had early entry tickets so we headed in for 1.30pm, the impressive sound system heard from some distance away. We met the Read brothers (thankfully their huge beards still intact otherwise I might not recognise them) at the gate, where I quickly showed them my rave book. Loving it, Lee wanted to take it to get all the DJ's to sign it, but as it was the only proof I had, and there was still a ways to go with the final corrections I knew I couldn't really let it out my sight. 'Don't worry, I'll come and get it off you from time to time and bring it straight back..' He said. This was a great idea apart from the fact that I had to cart it round with me all night, but as everyone who was on the (softback) cover was at Summer Shakedown, Noosh suggested they could all get a picture with it, which was actually a great idea. Plus I needed to start plugging it anyway, so figured it was fine, so if you saw me carting the yellow book about everywhere, that was why. Beyond the ticket check in was the rigorous security process, which in my case was hugely entertaining for all concerned because my bag was full of all my dancing toys & screenplays. Nowt else for them to be excited about.

You can always catch Lee, one half of Rave Days, on the dance floor, like me he does like to dance. Above us the VIPs look down from the upper echelons of the 338

Through the security and with bags deposited in the cloakroom (£4 quid, standard) Noosh and I decided to have a good look around the venue. For those without the treasured gold wrist band there were two main large dance spaces - the Garden Room (Room 1) which had a bar (later two bars and a fast food stand) and a circular podium about ten meters from the DJ box which I immediately thought looked a good place to dance for later (and so it proved) Then there was Room 2, which had a long raised rake that ran along the back of the DJ box which looked onto a smaller dancefloor accessed by two sets of stairs, a bar to the left, and then up the stairs was a second larger space behind with a low ceiling which had another long bar, which was manned, by among other people, a lovely mother and daughter team whom I spoke to later. (There's a whole chapter in the book dedicated to Security & Bar Staff which they were pleased to hear) The main dance space of room 2 was surrounded on three sides by an upper balcony which had an old town New Orleans kinda vibe and was filled with lots of sofas and tables.

In Room 2 - With the awesome Michelle aka Sexy Specs, whose been a good mate since the day we met at Labyryth - part of the upper balcony surround can be seen in the top right

Although i didn't see it, the VIP area upstairs contained its own smoking area, toilets, bar and dance space with a separate DJ line up. To be honest I wouldn't have spent that much time there as I like to dance where the atmosphere is most jumping. The line-up for the main event did not disappoint with the less well known DJ's putting in considerable effort for their early sets, and the headliners knocking it out the park as one would expect. I got to dance to several of my favourite songs twice, but despite this missed Voodoo Ray (the first track I ever danced to a rave club, and thus an all time fave) when I was in the other room.

Noosh and I pretty much danced non-stop the whole time we were there - the music was that good, it was hard to take a break. By 5pm the place was uber buzzing but thankfully not so rammed that there was not enough room to dance. It felt the right sized crowd for the venue and while yes it was busy, and there wasn't enough places to sit down at the ground level of the premises, it didn't feel oversold which for all concerned was a major plus.

Dancing down the front with Daniel, a regular mate i always end up at the front with which is how he ended up on the cover of my book!

SUMMER SHAKEDOWN was without question one of the best House music events I had ever been to.

It was a really mixed crowd, both young & old, some parents with their kids, but the Old School Ravers were out in force so I was definitely in the majority age group. There was even one father DJing his set in one room, while his daughter played her set in another. What an amazing sense of pride that Dad must have felt! An amazing story in its own right. Tons of the Ibiza set were there, mixed in with London regulars and people that had travelled far & wide to attend. Although I danced almost the entire time I did make an effort to speak to as many new people as possible, and got to know other friendly familiar faces a little better than before. We managed to catch Slipmatt (one of my favourite DJs) and most of Billy Bunters set, (another fave) but Noosh & I were fading fast by then, having been dancing for almost 8 hours at that point. We kept making the decision to finally go, when Bunter would whack on another banger and we would get 'delayed'. In some ways I wish i had come a bit later or paced myself somewhat, but then I would have missed the earlier sets, which were all great (including the always awesome Marion Key) plus it's kinda hard for me not to dance once in a venue. The venue was super light in both spaces, so while it was reasonably well air conditioned my light whip didn't look as good as it does in a dark space. (once dark they got the lasers out just as we were leaving)

The Garden Room (I think room one?) with Angela, her fella, and Buddy, whose Mum, is on the front of the book. We were reunited from school last year after 35 years - kinda nuts!

I'll return now to the aforementioned topic of Security in the club, while yes, they might have been rigorous & overly efficient, an example of why it was needed was not long in coming. I had only just got down from dancing on the circular podium when a lad right behind me just collapsed into the arms of a patron who was standing next to him. (He was not with the young man, he just tried to hold him up) I jumped back up on the podium and for the first time couldn't see any security apart from the uber tall guy near the DJ booth. I frantically waved my arms at him, gesturing for him to come over, and he managed to look every direction but right at me, so I legged it over to him while some other people put the lad in the recovery position. To his credit he sprang into action and by the time we got back two others had come over and were soon joined by a medic. I felt the lads pulse and it was really weak. As Noosh said to me - if this happened to her son at a club, she'd like to think both patrons and club staff would do their best and look after him. Both parties did so here and the club staff were quick to get him the full medical assistance he needed and thankfully he made a full recovery. As I said before, the security don't have an easy job and part of that job is to make sure no one comes to harm under their watch. From what I saw, they did a sterling job on Saturday night. The same guy I grabbed to come over, I saw him later quickly defuse an almost physical argument between two guys which actually ended with them both shaking hands (clearly one of those misunderstandings that if you talk instead of getting lairy can often be solved peacefully) so as I said, from what I saw, this security team were on point in the best possible way. At the end of the day we are all their to have a good time - not give anyone including the staff, a hard time.

There's about 7 of my mates in this picture, plus this crazy blonde lady (possibly Noosh) behind me.

The 338 has been largely rebuilt since it was partly destroyed by a fire in 2016. It is extremely well designed and the sound systems were superb in both rooms, with just a short space in-between where you could take a few steps between the rooms and hear one DJ or the other. If I have any gripes, they are pretty minor but the main one is certainly worthy of the venues consideration. Firstly for a Day Rave event where the majority of ticket holders will be downstairs and most of us are north of forty years of age, and many more over fifty, you need to have more seating, even if it's just runs of benches around the edge of the dance space - We don't need an ornate sofa or anything but we do need to occasionally sit down. When people have to sit on the floor because there is nowhere else available, that's an issue. This is a common complaint with venues for Day Rave events - even though I put in a good stint of dancing for a 50-something, I wouldn't have minded somewhere to sit later on and probably would have stayed later (and spent more money at the bar) if it were available to me. Secondly, and it might be that I missed it, but I only located one set of toilets on the ground floor, (just past the steps in room 2) which meant if you were dancing down the front to Bunter, it would take you a good twenty minute round trip to weave through people, getting to and from the bog and back to your spot. I know there were other loos upstairs, but most of us couldn't use those. As I say, it might be that we missed some, but we didn't find them if there were others. More prompt action by roving cleaning patrols to clean up those techicolour yawns on the dance floor wouldn't go a miss either. As I say, these are niggles, not a moan.

These are just some things for the promoters and venue owners to consider going forwards, but don't misunderstand me, this event was first class.

With Connie at her very first rave in July - Frantic at Koko, another stonker of an event, she absolutely loved it.

I was gutted that Connie (my friend who recently got into raving with me) had to miss this event because of work, as I would absolutely put Summer Shakedown in my top three UK Rave events of all time. (since coming back to it in 2022)

This lovely lady kindly agreed to being snapped with my book - She had the best outfit on of the day!

When it comes to Raves, bigger doesn't always mean better, I've had some of the best times ever at some of the smaller events in London but something about Summer Shakedown just all slotted into place for me. It felt epic in every best possible sense and part of that was to do with scale, part of it was the venue, part of it was the music & line-up, but the most important thing of all was the people who attended. I love the raving community, I love the wonder eclectic mix of characters, the diverse range of backgrounds and ages. It's just the best feeling and I never dreamt I would have this much fun, and make this many new friends at this period of my life. Long may that continue. Lance - PS special shout out to John Reads Mrs, who was still manning the door when we left, she worked really hard all day!

Lance Steen Anthony Nielsen is an award winning writer/director/actor/playwright & novelist - his latest book, the biographical Back to Raving at 50, which started as this blog is released on Amazon September 12th, 2025. His next play '7 Magnificent Egos' tells the hilarious story of the 1960 production of the Magnificent 7, and is on in London between the 15th & 19th of October at the Rose & Crown Theatre in Walthamstow and is already 30% sold out.