Every Picture Tells A Story Melbourne

In Melbourne, Australia, in 1993, the Melbourne Underground Development (M.U.D.) crew started a series of warehouse/rave parties that continued for almost 10 years, with 21 of their own Every Picture Tells A Story parties in total - drawing thousands of people to each event.

Every Picture and other M.U.D. events

The all night festivals show-cased Melbourne's best live electronic musicians, DJs, computer animation, performance artists and visual art, and also introduced a plethora of international acts to the city. The parties were held at the Global Village warehouse complex in Footscray, Melbourne, TVU Warehouse Footscray, West Gates Sports Complex Altona, Epicentre Byron Bay, and the Bertie St Warehouse Port Melbourne, with a collective of other artists (such as the Mutoid Waste Company) and DJs who together formed a hub of creative expression centred around the underground techno movement.

M.U.D. also put on other events such as the Pleazure and Strange parties, all of them events as famous for their unique décor, installation art, video graphics and vibe as they were for the music performed by dozens of Australian and international live acts and DJs.

What was then thought to be the final Every Picture party (#21) was held in 2000 at Festival Hall, Melbourne.

Internationals headlining the parties included Luke Slater, Claude Young, Derrick May, Stacey Pullen, Ultra Sonic.

But it was the visual aesthetic for which Every Picture Tells A Story events, that made such a cultural impact in Melbourne.

In 2010, a new installment of Every Picture Tells A Story began. After the devastating bushfires in Victoria in 2009, community spirit needed to lifted and a space was offered to M.U.D. to stage a special 3-day gathering in the Yarra Valley, Victoria. The event will take place from 16-18 April 2010. The 3 day gathering was canceled due to council restrictions, a warehouse day/night event will take place instead on 17 April 2010 at the Melbourne docklands - shed 4.

Global Village

Global Village was the name given to a warehouse complex in the industrial heartland of Footscray by Richard John of Melbourne Underground Development. Once the Docklands Cotton Mill, the huge warehouse space was lying unused and was 'discovered' by Phil Voodoo who recognised its potential as an art/events space.

Global Village truly came to life though, on New Year's Eve 1993/1994 when it hosted its first Every Picture Tells A Story party.

Global Village was the first of its kind in Australia, and possibly the world - a local council approved venue that allowed for total freedom to create any style of event without noise restrictions or hours of operation.

Global Village hosted a range of events, from a Melbourne Fashion Festival show, various art exhibitions (such as Mind a Maze) and various dance parties.

Over sixty events were held, and the final 'Shut-Down' party was held on 22 February 1997. The afternoon of the party, the building's owners attempted to stop the party taking place by locking the organisers out and putting security guards in place to guard the entrances. Far from being deterred, M.U.D. moved the sound system into the outside courtyard and with hundreds of guests beginning to queue outside, the local police were called by the owner's to assist in shutting the event down. However, due to the enormous popularity of Global Village and its events, the size of the crowd that had gathered, and the fact that no problems had ever arisen at previous events, the police allowed the party to go ahead fearing a riot may take place if they intervened.

Co-founder Phil Voodoo described Global Village as "artistic hub of like-minded people that came to dance, laugh, and express themselves in a safe, inspirational environment that was unique to the 90's."

Responses

"Artists came out of the woodwork," visual artist Garry Shepherd told the ABC's Sounds Like Techno online documentary in 2002. "Where else do you get to play with a ready-made crowd and a huge sound system and lasers at your disposal?" ^[1]

In the same documentary, fellow artist Robin Cooke agreed. "These events were so big, eight to nine thousand people. This was too big for one or two artists to handle; it needed 20 artists to make the thing come together." ^[2]

Melbourne journalist and former editor of Zebra in Inpress, Andrez Bergen, put it thus: "Global Village was one of the most important semi-institutions in Melbourne in the mid '90s especially. The crew behind Global Village, namely M.U.D., were very supportive of the more cutting edge live acts, for example Voiteck, Zen Paradox,Soulenoid,Guyver III, Sense and TR-Storm - who were then known as Void - and it gave these guys the opportunity to play before large and often more-into-it or dare I say 'enlightened' audiences. It also gave audiences the opportunity to see these guys because at more mainstream parties or clubs more mainstream music was played."^[3]

"The first thing I noticed upon arrival was the queue. Immense," wrote Lindy Tan in a review of Every Picture Tells A Story: Equinox in 1998 for Tranzfusion website. "It's true that Every Picture parties always seem to attract quite a younger crowd, but - as per usual – there was stunning decor, a great venue, and great local acts." ^[4]

Also at Tranzfusion, Natural 1 wrote that "M.U.D. is an institution within Melbourne's dance community, establishing the first specifically designed rave venue, Global Village, which was home to more than 60 events over a 4 year period." ^[5]

Record label

As a side-story, M.U.D. also operated as a record label, having released three Every Picture Tells A Story compilations of Melbourne-based producers such as Voiteck, Zen Paradox,Soulenoid,Guyver III,Sense, Slieker, Honeysmack, Little Nobody, Son Of Zev, TR-Storm, Kandyman, Davide Carbone, Sugar, Lumukanda, Natural 1, The DEA, PB909, Ollie Bobbitt, Drek and Kilroy.

References

1. ^ Sounds Like Techno, ABC. [1], 2001.
2. ^ Sounds Like Techno, ABC. [2], 2001.
3. ^ Sounds Like Techno, ABC. [3], 2001.
4. ^ Every Picture Tells A Story: Equinox, Lindy Tan. [4], 21 March 1998.
5. ^ Melbourne Underground Development, Natural 1. [5], 2000.

Every Picture Tells A Story links

• Profile of co-founder Phil Voodoo @ ABC
• M.U.D. discography @ Discogs