ECSTASY AND THE DANCE CULTURE. LOST AND FOUND

IN THE NINETIES. PUBLISHED

IN THE UK IN 1995 - AKA THE MIDDLE OF EVERYWHERE.

WITH THAT GLEAMING E COVER, IT IS THE MOST MOOD ENHANCING BOOK OF THEM ALL. BLISSED OUT.

And for the back cover lovers...

This is a book by Nicholas Saunders. He wrote and published this in 1995, two years after E is for Ecstasy, which is also [E is for] excellent. In the early 70s Saunders published the Alternative Guide To London - a copy of which we have here and here - and followed that freedom of information act up by founding Monmouth Coffee and Neal's Yard Dairy. Wow. Sadly he died in 1998 in a car crash in South Africa while researching the use of psychoactive drugs by peoples in various parts of the world as part of traditional social rituals. We did not know that Saunders was so wonderfully influential: at least, now you do. 

Ecstasy and the Dance Culture is a great read BUT it also has a fully illustrated section. And that (along with the cover) makes it what any good dispensary would declare as indispensable :) 

Mike Pickering and Jon DaSilva's Ibiza night at the Haçienda. Kicked off in 1988 with a swimming pool on the dance floor. Also happens to coincide with ecstasy appearing on the UK club scene. 
 

When it all went Party Time (or Pete Tong). These tablets are all very pretty but the most fabulous part of this brilliant book is to follow...
 

Over a number of pages... Portraits painted before taking Ecstasy...

...and portraits painted an hour after taking Ecstasy... great fun. There is also a whole section of Mandalas painted by subjects on E, which are almost too happily hippy for us to show. Just one then...
 

Very nice.

Probably a truer picture above.