2 × 2 Promotions — The Awakening
Founding venture · East of England Ice Rink, Bretton, Peterborough · Friday 1 November 1991 · Bizarre Inc live
Friday 1 November 1991 · 9pm–8am · ★ Gold Star object
Original double-sided 2 × 2 Promotions flyer for 'The Awakening', an advertised eleven-hour launch/founding rave on Friday 1 November 1991 at the East of England Ice Rink in Bretton, near Peterborough. The atmospheric fantasy cover depicts disembodied skyward eyes above mountains and a luminous waterfall; an indistinct small artist signature is retained without attribution.
Read the catalogue note →- Event
- The Awakening — 2 × 2 Promotions founding venture
- Promoter
- 2 × 2 Promotions, which physically prints 'EST 1990' and calls The Awakening 'their founding venture'. Preserve both statements: this advertises the venture as the first/founding event, not independent evidence that the company was first established in November 1991.
- Venue
- East of England Ice Rink (Peterborough)
- Location
- Bretton, near Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, UK, as printed. A regional ice-hockey-history account independently identifies the East of England Ice Rink as Peterborough's Pirates home in the 1980s; an exact 1991 street address/postcode is not printed and not invented.
- Advertised hours
- Friday 1 November 1991, 9pm–8am the next morning, 11 hours advertised. No entry after 1:30am even for ticket holders; no ticket–no entry.
- Original admission / price
- £17 advance plus booking fee (unspecified). No exact on-door price printed. Ticket early purchase recommended; entry subject to original security and 1:30am last-entry rules. This is 1991 ticket face value, NOT object Market Value.
- Designer
- Unidentified. A small partly legible cursive signature/mark is visible near the illustrated front lower-right border, but the lettering cannot securely be deciphered as a named artist. Do not attribute artwork or copyright to an inferred individual.
- Format
- Complete original single-sheet, two-sided portrait rave event flyer, atmospheric coloured illustrated front with large THE AWAKENING type; dense black-and-white reverse showing event, DJs and retail agents. No foldout/supplement depicted.
- Dimensions
- Unmeasured; a separately offered copy is described by seller as A4, but no ruler verifies this user's example or an identical print state.
- Orientation
- Portrait front and reverse.
- Original / reproduction
- High-confidence original-period 1991 printed flyer from photographic evidence, date and venue on original and comparable marketed period original. No independent reproduction testing or chain-of-provenance authentication.
- Edition / variant
- The Awakening dated 1 November 1991, East of England Ice Rink at Bretton, large full-colour eyes/mountains/waterfall cover and 2×2 EST 1990 black programme back. Other 'The Awakening' events, e.g. Orange 1993 and Genesis 1992, are unrelated. No verified later edition, printing sequence, alternate copy variant or numbered state.
- Condition
- Good to Very Good (photographic assessment; mild central crease and edge/reverse toning).
- Completeness
- Complete two-sided original single sheet as supplied; no separate parts shown, missing or asserted.
- Absolute rarity
- Unknown — another offered copy appears online, but neither original print run nor surviving-copy number, exact printing state or authentic scarcity established.
- Acquisition rarity
- Unassessed.
- Event relationship
- 2 × 2 Promotions — The Awakening (advertised founding venture) · 1991-11-01 (provisional date)
- Venue relationship
- Browse East of England Ice Rink (Peterborough) objects
Catalogue note
Original double-sided 2 × 2 Promotions flyer for 'The Awakening', an advertised eleven-hour launch/founding rave on Friday 1 November 1991 at the East of England Ice Rink in Bretton, near Peterborough. The atmospheric fantasy cover depicts disembodied skyward eyes above mountains and a luminous waterfall; an indistinct small artist signature is retained without attribution. Reverse labels the event the promoter's founding venture, advertises Jumping Jack Frost, Evil Eddie Richards, Micky Finn, Simon 'Bass' Smith, Nipper, Doc Scott, DJ SS and further underground names with MC Hardcore General and MC Lenni, plus a live Bizarre Inc appearance billed with contemporary chart hit 'Such a Feeling'. Tickets £17 plus fee; original 1991 programme retains venue marketing promises, 50K sound, 30,000-sq-ft dance-floor claim, extensive national outlets and strict admissions/security policies. Independent UK chart evidence dates the Bizarre Inc song to the exact period. No known TMR duplicate; other same-title raves are separate.
Advertised programme: DJs / advertised names: Jumping Jack Frost; Evil Eddie Richards; Mickey Finn (existing TMR canonical DJ Micky Finn); Simon 'Bass' Smith (existing Simon Bassline Smith); Nipper; Doc Scott; DJ SS; Doc Remede; Master Bleep; Masters of the Rink (role/group identity unresolved). MC Hardcore General; MC Lenni. Live stage appearance: 'BIZZARE INC' [sic; canonical Bizarre Inc.], billed with 'Such a feeling'. Published DJ/MC/live lineup does not independently establish realised performance.
Graphic-design significance: Distinctive professionally finished fantasy-art flyer: vast eyes merge with the dawn sky over dark alpine peaks, vivid central waterfall and ethereal halo, soft rainbow/pink twilight and green plains; title in restrained large black serif 'THE AWAKENING'. Reverse dense printed event rhetoric, reversed-out all-night/ticket-price boxes and extensive two-column retailer list contrast visionary promise with functional logistics. Small visible right-edge signature is not a verified designer credit. Its visual language exemplifies 1991 rave use of altered-consciousness, mythic landscape and immersive spectacle.
Historical context: The promoter's rear sheet says '2 × 2 EST 1990' and simultaneously describes The Awakening as the team's 'founding venture' on Friday 1 November 1991. Treat as the first advertised 2×2 event / organiser's self-description, not unqualified independent confirmation of the company's date of creation. At the venue the paper advertises eleven nonstop hours, Bizarre Inc with 'Such a Feeling', various British DJs, 50K Renegade sound and 30,000 square foot floor, along with lasers, chillout and facilities—promotional rather than observed. Bizarre Inc's record reached No.13 on the Official Singles Chart in October 1991 and remained in chart run around the event. The rink was operating as the East of England Ice Rink during this period, documented in 1980s ice hockey accounts. This promoter/event is DISTINCT from other TMR 'The Awakening' titles and from the Wirrina Sports Centre DST/Protein objects also in this intake.
Production note: Colour-painted style front with black serif title; reverse mostly black print on white/aged paper with bold reversed labels. Exact printing method, ink, finish, grammage and printer unidentified.
Condition note: Good to Very Good photographic assessment. Saturated but age-softened front with visible thin horizontal handling line/crease through upper-mid valley/mist, mild rubbings/speckling at corners and edges; small top-left marks and lower rim wear. Reverse remains fully legible with mild overall toning/foxing/surface smudges and some wrinkling/creases near upper and lower edges. No obvious severe tears, losses, pinholes or tape repairs. Not Mint.
Confidence / uncertainty: PHYSICALLY VERIFIED: title, exact date/year, promoter 2×2 with EST 1990, 'founding venture' claim, East of England Ice Rink Bretton location, £17 plus fee, 9pm–8am, 1:30am last entry, names, live Bizarre Inc, 50K and size promotional statements, full retail-agent array. INDEPENDENT: Official Charts exact Bizarre Inc 'Such a Feeling' 1991 hit and artist Nipper/Eddie Richards profiles, ice-hockey history of East of England Ice Rink. PROVISIONAL: identity of artwork signature, actual line-up performances, sound/floor claims and founding-event historic priority. UNKNOWN: printer, exact size, print run, edition history, attendance, price realized for flyer.
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.
Why this object matters
Historical context
The promoter's rear sheet says '2 × 2 EST 1990' and simultaneously describes The Awakening as the team's 'founding venture' on Friday 1 November 1991. Treat as the first advertised 2×2 event / organiser's self-description, not unqualified independent confirmation of the company's date of creation. At the venue the paper advertises eleven nonstop hours, Bizarre Inc with 'Such a Feeling', various British DJs, 50K Renegade sound and 30,000 square foot floor, along with lasers, chillout and facilities—promotional rather than observed. Bizarre Inc's record reached No.13 on the Official Singles Chart in October 1991 and remained in chart run around the event. The rink was operating as the East of England Ice Rink during this period, documented in 1980s ice hockey accounts. This promoter/event is DISTINCT from other TMR 'The Awakening' titles and from the Wirrina Sports Centre DST/Protein objects also in this intake.
Score and assessment method
Archive Importance: 9.4 / 10 · Gold Star.
This is a curatorial judgement, not a measurement accurate to one tenth or a market valuation. Read the explanation and its evidence limits together.
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Recorded contributions · 2
- Doc ScottPerformerCatalogue credit
Performer credit: DJs / advertised names: Jumping Jack Frost; Evil Eddie Richards; Mickey Finn (existing TMR canonical DJ Micky Finn); Simon 'Bass' Smith (existing Simon Bassline Smith); Nipper; Doc Scott; DJ SS; Doc Remede; Master Bleep; Masters of the Rink (role/group identity unresolved). MC Hardcore General; MC Lenni. Live stage appearance: 'BIZZARE INC' [sic; canonical Bizarre Inc.], billed with 'Such a feeling'. Published DJ/MC/live lineup does not independently establish realised performance. Original catalogue credit
Find other objects with this contribution → - DJ SSPerformerCatalogue credit
Performer credit: DJs / advertised names: Jumping Jack Frost; Evil Eddie Richards; Mickey Finn (existing TMR canonical DJ Micky Finn); Simon 'Bass' Smith (existing Simon Bassline Smith); Nipper; Doc Scott; DJ SS; Doc Remede; Master Bleep; Masters of the Rink (role/group identity unresolved). MC Hardcore General; MC Lenni. Live stage appearance: 'BIZZARE INC' [sic; canonical Bizarre Inc.], billed with 'Such a feeling'. Published DJ/MC/live lineup does not independently establish realised performance. Original catalogue credit
Find other objects with this contribution →