Donk was a hoax. It never actually existed. That doc Glice linked was a spoof, put together by vice magazine and 'Blackout Crew', who are really the electronica outfit Black Dog.

I saw the donkumentary last night - bloody hell, it was pretty mental. Funny that the music was in a way a background to the people in the scene, and quite depressing to see how run down parts of Bolton, Burnley and Wigan are.

It's stuff like this that makes me think that the youth in Britain deserve better.

This whole catastrophe would be redeemed in my eyes if this Friday Newsnight review holds a round table discussion on it, Paul Morley crossing and uncrossing his legs, internally trying to work out if the fact he thinks its shit means he's totally sold out his belief in "art" whilst externally throwing a few scraps of "Any nascent scene requires imitators, but in the future we may look back upon this as a golden time for British youth culture", secretly thinking "Its just not Unknown Pleasures is it", and looking plaintively to Martha Karney in the hope she'll step in and save him. Let this shit die.

You know how to deserve your rep.

I should add, Glice gave me a RAW neg-rep in the initial run of this thread calling my conclusions "myopic nonsense". Whilst i respect everyones opinions, if you side with he and not I, you are as to Glice as a sponge is to Diarrhea

Fuckhattery.

Paul Morley needs a slap. Preferable by some sort of moveable mountain.

you are the Paul Morley of this thread, it must be said

There's no need for that language sunshine. No need at all.

Just to be clear on this, if memory serves this was because you tried to deny it was a subculture. Which is horseshit that barely deserves negating.

The thing that fascinates me about Donk, and Scouse, Bassline, Hardcore or its european cousins (I'm well aware it stems partially from Dutch> German gabber and British Acid/Jungle) is how it manages to be entirely massive without ever particularly troubling the mainstream, or popular consciousness. I've not ventured into a Donk night yet (as I'm in the South), but everyone I know who's into Hardcore comes from the massively unfashionable edges of society, be it shit-hole council estates or backwash parochial nowhere'sville.

This is probably difficult for all of you witty, urbane city-dwellers to grasp, but there's something massively satisfying about going to a night with the express intention of simply having a laugh. I may be looking in the wrong parts of the world, but my experience of a lot of guitar-based scenes is that if the intention is to just go out and have a good time and chat to some people, it's often too reserved for that to actually happen. Some of you seem to treat the so-called 'chavs' as some entirely alien culture, but I've always found Happy Hardcore nights to be full of genuinely enthusiastic, chatty and friendly people. I quite often go out to meat-factory house nights, and while the music mostly leaves me cold, I'm guaranteed to have a good time and a good natter to a few people. The uniform of a house night (burberry caps, Ben Sherman/ Fred Perrys) is hardly more restrictive than the standard fucked blue jeans, Converse and band t-shirt, is it?

Also, for what it's worth, the reason I haven't started relative thread for Scouse, Bassline, Speedcore, Jumpstyle, Gabber etc is because, musically, they don't interest me. I can deal with people not liking Donk - it's a ridiculous form and should be treated (and enjoyed!) as such - but there's a definitely whiff of piss-stained indie elitism to this thread which is just crap.

stop being so self-pitying Glice

I have numerous good friends who were doing the happy hardcore thing 5 odd years ago, and even though i didnt do it myself i know why they did it, they had a good time and they didnt call me a "snob" because i didnt like it. I happen to have a Ben Sherman, Fred Perry Polo and a knackered old pair of Reebok classics in the back of my wardrobe, but i guess thats only collateral in the war against SNOOOOOOOOBS

blackout crew are like the hi-fi kersal massive.

Nobody wins in the war of shouting 'snob' the loudest, you're right. What's your point otherwise?