Chal Ravens

Acrumpled young man​ , fresh off a Greyhound bus, is sitting in the back of a taxi and talking – to himself as much as to the driver. ‘Man, I just had the weirdest dream back on the bus there … D’you ever have those dreams that are just completely real?’ In the opening scene of Slacker (1990), Richard Linklater, who also directs the film, plays a version of...

For thirteen years​ Britney Spears lived under a conservatorship, a legal arrangement in which every aspect of her life was controlled by her father. She couldn’t spend her own money, drive her own car, write a cheque, change her setlist, get a manicure, take vitamins for her hair, remove her IUD or drink coffee. Jamie Spears had the power to enter his daughter into new contracts,...

In​ 1977, Abba were waiting at Arlanda Airport in Stockholm when they noticed a dishevelled young man charging towards them. Their security guards spotted him too, along with the spatter of dried vomit on his leather jacket. ‘You’re my favourite band! I love you!’ a 20-year-old Sid Vicious slurred, as his idols were hurried to safety. Improbably, Vicious’s favourite...

On​ 21 July 1990 a rave ended in the biggest mass arrest in British history. To get to Love Decade, as the party was called, you first had to call a telephone hotline, which disclosed the location of the meeting point. From there, hundreds of cars made their way to an empty warehouse on the outskirts of Leeds. Having used bolt cutters to break in, the organisers installed a makeshift sound...