In 1997, the lyrical landscape opened up to what was, and probably still is, the greatest cassette tape collection on the planet. Garage Nation wasn’t just about events, it was the backbone to every Sony Walkman, Ford Escort subwoofer and DJ deck in any club that was worth walking through the door for.  

The man responsible? Terry Turbo. The King of Clubs. The giver of garage. The jack of the jungle. The man at the helm of the late licence line. Ladies and gents, set your clocks back. The reason for raving is raring to go again, and he’s bringing all of those sensational sounds with him. Get down on one knee, take a bow, and kiss the red carpet for the return of the best party on the planet. 

House music has its place. It caters for the young, the old and the new, but there’s nothing quite like a bit of garage, drum and bass and jungle to light up the ear lobes, is there? You might have given up hope of ever scratching that itch again, but incredibly, after years of retirement, making flicks and passing on the parties to those less worthy, Terry Stone, aka Terry Turbo, is back in the raving business. 

Terry has risen from the ashes of the movie set to take us back to our youth on October 12th at XOYO, Shoreditch for United Nation, an all-day rave set to rekindle an epoch worthy of dusting off your glad rags for. Good times indeed, chaps, good times, indeed. 

Terry, who fronts the Criminal Connection Podcast and is famed for his role as Tony Tucker in Rise of the Footsoldier, founded rave events One Nation, Garage Nation and Rave Nation, before turning to acting in 2003. 

“I did a documentary called United Nation, Three Decades of Drum and Bass, that premiered in 2020,” says Terry. “We did a UK cinema tour and Q&A with Grooverider, Fabio, Jumping Jack Frost and Brockie, and the audience kept saying, “Why don't you come back, nobody does drum and bass like you.” The thing is, there are very few venues and people don't go out on Wednesday and come back on Monday anymore, but I said, “Never say never.” I did 25 Years of UKG in Leicester Square 2023, which was focused on UK Garage. We had everybody you can think of from the UK Garage scene: Majestic, Shush, DJ Q, the Heartless Crew, Estelle, Miss Dynamite, Kele Le Roc. It made history, these people all just did it for nothing because it was a big premiere. People just kept on telling me I should come back. 

When I was doing One Nation and Garage Nation, every year I'd win all the awards. I probably won about eight awards, and the reason we won is because we'd always do stuff differently. 

Back in the day Terry had everyone from the real Ali G to the best Queen Elizabeth II look alike in the business rocking the stage at his events. 

“We got a Queen Elizabeth II lookalike to come to one of our raves for a laugh, and she literally rocked up at like half twelve in a Bentley with all the gear on, then started walking up and down the queue going, “Is this the One Nation Rave Party,” and people were just looking at their mates going, “It's the fucking Queen.” It was brilliant. We got her on the stage, stopped the music, and she did a speech, and everybody left that rave going, “Fucking hell, that Terry's got some clout, he had the Queen at his event.” People were ringing me up the next day going, “How the fuck did you pull that off, how do you know her?” It was such a fucking stupid thing, but it was so funny.

We had a ton of real celebs at the events, like Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, Denzel Washington, Alexander O'Neal, Luther Vandross, all sorts of people would just rock up, we'd always sell out.

Eventually, I decided to make a comeback. I knew I needed an old school venue, and XOYO in Shoreditch has all those elements. You walk down the stairs and with the open brickwork on the walls, it feels like you're going to a rave, rather than going to one of these pristine super clubs. I liked the feel of it, so we set a date and we've got a really good line-up. 

For me, it's about bringing it back, and if people support it and everyone enjoys it, the younger generation will buy into it. I’m building up a brand from scratch. In the old days it was flyers, radio ads, posters, there was no social media. It's just adapting what I was doing then to make it relevant now. 

Back then, I was one of the biggest club promoters in the world. We were doing 20 events a month, so in my twenties, whatever I did was sold out. People are struggling to get numbers in clubs nowadays and I’m trying to make a comeback 21 years on, but I think it’ll sell out. I think people will come to the event and go, “This is great,” and then it'll become word of mouth.

“The first United Nation event on the 12th will be like pouring petrol on a fire when people start talking about it. 

“We might do another one in November, December, or we might wait till the new year. It’s about getting people excited about it, establishing the brand and building up a new list.  I want to go back to doing ten events a month, but Rome wasn't built in a day. People will expect to see me there and I will be. I really am back. 

“We've got a great line-up. It's going to be a great atmosphere. I expect it just to go off like it did when we were doing all the other events, you know. It'll be a little bit of a trip down memory lane for people.”

United Nation takes place all day at XOYO, Shoreditch, from 1-9pm on Saturday 12th October 

Tickets are available here

To celebrate Terry’s comeback we’re giving every ticket holder LIFETIME free Loaded membership (Code shared upon purchase)