Not only were the Boy's Own gang responsible for publishing the first article on Acid House, penned by none other than Paul Oakenfold, they also held the first documented outdoor acid rave in 1988. And through their offshoot record labels Boy's Own Recordings and later Junior Boy's Own, the founders of the fanzine would help discover the likes of Underworld, X-Press 2 and the Chemical Brothers and release some of the most endearing British house music of the '90s.
Boy's Own quickly became the mouthpiece of the embryonic UK house scene. The fanzine's founders became heavily associated with London's first acid house clubs. Weatherall became a regular DJ at Shoom while Terry Farley played the VIP room and later the main room at Oakenfold's Future night at Heaven. However, even before the music had hit the mainstream Boy's Own was already criticizing the scene. Operating as agent provocateur Boy's Own was quick to tell the developing house scene where it was going wrong, coining the phrase "Better off dead than an Acid Ted."
As Weatherall, who wrote under the pseudonym of The Outsider, explains, "I was The Outsider because I was a bolshie little bastard! I always want to be in a gang then I don't want to be. I want the best of both worlds. So I thought I'd be able to write a snarky piece deconstructing or taking the piss out of everything you're about to read in the magazine."
Greg Hewitt and Kirk Beattie worked directly with the Boy's Own crew on this line of tees which lifts imagery direct from the original fanzines.
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