Megatripolis Founder Fraser Clark Dies

Fri, Jan 23 2009

Written by:Rivmixx Editors

Fraser Clark, lynchpin of the alternative Megatripolis club-night that ran at Heaven in London in the early 90s, has lost his battle with liver cancer. He was reportedly surrounded by friends at home when he died.

Megatripolis was a ‘festival in a club’, with stalls and lectures from speakers - psychedelic guru Terence McKenna, poet Allen Ginsberg, cannabis activist Howard Marks etc - offsetting DJ sets in the main rooms. DJs such as Paul Oakenfold, Mr C, Andrew Weatherall and The Orb’s Alex Paterson played the night alongside residents Darius, Richard Grey and Sequenci, and ambient pioneer Mixmaster Morris used to do all-night sets in the chill-out room.

The club-night, which ran from 1993-96 at Heaven (“Within spitting distance of Parliament,” according to Fraser) and later for a brief time in San Francisco, served as a meeting point for counter-culture activists and introduced many alternative types to clubbing. Later in the 90s Clark was part of The Warp 24-hour tech-trance event that ran under London Bridge on the site that’s now the SEOne club.

Fraser Clark was a self-styled ‘zippie’ (techno hippie) who published radical pamphlets like Encyclopaedia Psychedelia and evolution^ magazine before founding evolution^ Records and putting out the early trance-inspired ‘Shamanarchy In The UK’ album.

Over the last few years he published radical weekly e-zine Parallel Youniversity. When he was diagnosed with liver cancer late last year, Megatripolis veterans reconvened for a benefit gig at Heaven.

Here, Mega T associate and friend Alistair Brook remembers his life.

“When you met Fraser, the first thing that struck you was his warmth. He had a broad smile and was always ready to chuckle. He had a great sense of humour that I only ever saw fail once or twice, even when disaster was all around him, as it often was.

“He was truly young at heart and had never lost his almost naïve enthusiasm, which he had obviously developed during his beloved hippie era. He was full of grand ideas and great schemes that he truly believed would help bring an end to the way society was/is and usher in an age of peace, love and harmony.

“Fraser was a great one for names and sound bites. He had his own ideas that he would rarely alter and sometimes these ideas overlapped perfectly with the times. I was lucky enough to become involved with him at a time when these ideas were perhaps at their most relevant. Acid house had expanded beyond the hands of the original instigators and ecstatic idealism had blossomed in a thousand creative ways. People felt empowered and for a while we all thought, like Fraser, we could change the world for the better.

“Both for those who knew him personally and those who knew him through his accomplishments, I think Fraser will be remembered first and foremost as a catalyst for change, albeit on a more personal level than he would have hoped. People such as Fraser, who manage to remain optimistic and strive for what they believe in, no matter how crazy, are needed more and more these days. He will be missed by many more than he ever met and the world is definitely a slightly less shiny place for his passing.”

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