Elevation — The Hardcore Movement: Showtime ’93

Catalogue note

Original double-sided Elevation flyer for The Hardcore Movement: Showtime ’93 at Roller Express, Edmonton, on Bank Holiday Saturday 1 May 1993. The front combines Elevation branding with four documentary crowd photographs. The reverse is unusually text-rich: alongside live sets, DJs, MCs, ticket outlets and pricing, its ‘Mayday Message’ attacks inflated superstar fees, commercialisation and promoter profiteering and calls on ravers to use their collective power. It also advertises live Elevation, Satin Storm, an Astrology EP performance by DJ Kid Andy and DJ Nickle Bee, and a Suburban Base Records showcase.

Advertised programme: Elevation; Satin Storm; DJ Kid Andy; DJ Nickle Bee; Suburban Base Records showcase; Jumping Jack Frost; Simon Bassline Smith; Mickey Finn; Carl Cox; Fabio; Donovan Bad Boy Smith; MC-MC; MC Magika; MC Funki

Graphic-design significance: Front combines Elevation branding with four documentary rave-crowd photographs around the globe logo; reverse mixes manifesto text, performer blocks and ticketing infrastructure.

Historical context: The flyer sits within Elevation’s 1993 programme immediately after the Easter ‘Revenge of the Punter’ event referenced on the reverse. Its rhetoric presents Elevation as ‘the original and hardcore to the bone’ and frames Showtime ’93 as a corrective to commercial pressures within rave culture. Specialist surviving-audio discussion independently identifies Elevation ‘Show Time 93’ on 1 May 1993, while collector mix lists preserve recordings from the preceding 10 April 1993 ‘Revenge of the Punter’, supporting the sequence named on the physical object.

Condition note: Pronounced historic horizontal fold with central stress and local splitting; extensive creasing and handling wear; corner and edge losses/abrasions, especially upper-right and lower corners; scattered surface marks. Printed information and photographic imagery remain substantially legible and visually strong.

Through the flyers

Explore the club-culture timeline to follow advertised dates, places and billed performers across the held flyers.

Event details are drawn from the held object and the qualified catalogue research above. A printed bill establishes an advertised booking, not confirmation that a performer appeared.