The UK scene.

• UK Garage
• DNB
• House

An East London pirate from 1994 that went legal in 2010. Still a home for garage, grime, jungle and bass.

• Jungle
• DNB

Jungle’s pirate station, first on air in 1991 on 94.5 FM. Back on DAB+ and online, now part of the Rinse family.

• Jungle
• DNB
• UK Garage

A South London pirate from 1992 through jungle and garage. Licensed since 2018 on 101.4 FM and DAB.

• House
• Old skool

The acid house pirate of 1989, credited as the first seven-day rave station. On DAB since 2018.

• House
• UK Garage

Now a national station. It began as a London pirate in 1985 (see the history).

• UK Garage
• DNB
• House

Brixton’s youth-run station on 107.3 FM, DAB and online, with free training for young broadcasters.

• House
• DNB
• Old skool

A pirate from 1993, now online and on DAB: house, breakbeat, hardcore and drum & bass.

• House
• UK Garage

Started as the pirate Shine FM in East London and Essex. Now online and on DAB across the South East.

• House
• DNB
• UK Garage

Began as a pirate in 2001, licensed in 2010. Dance and urban music on 92.8 FM and DAB.

• House
• DNB

Dance music on DAB, with a long-running drum & bass show.

• Dub
• DNB

Bristol community radio: hip hop, reggae, drum & bass, old school and more.

• Dub
• Soul & Funk

Birmingham’s African-Caribbean community station since 2002, built on years of short-term licences.

• House
• DNB

Leeds dance and urban music on 97.8 FM and DAB.

• Community

An arts centre and youth-led radio in a converted chapel in East Leeds.

• Community

Sheffield’s community station on 93.2 FM since 2007.

• House
• DNB
• Dub

Online radio from London with hundreds of residents across every corner of music.

• House
• DNB

Peckham radio that grew from an app for club mixes into a station, events and videos.

• House
• Dub

Broadcasting from a shipping container on top of Netil Market in Hackney.

• House
• DNB

Online radio from Peckham, live on weekdays.

• House
• DNB

Manchester online radio and arts charity helping young people into work, based at Granada Studios.

• House
• Dub

Independent online radio broadcasting from Bristol.

• DNB
• Dub
• UK Garage

Bristol’s bass station: jungle, dubstep, garage, reggae and more. Now part of Rinse.

• House
• DNB

Freeform radio, arts collective and promoter at the University of Glasgow since 1995.

• House
• Dub

Edinburgh’s community online radio.

• Jungle
• DNB

Online radio for British grassroots music and culture, with jungle and drum & bass at its heart.

• DNB
• Techno
• House

Farringdon’s three-room club with the Bodysonic dancefloor. Fridays have been a drum & bass institution.

• House
• UK Garage

Elephant & Castle’s house music landmark.

• House
• Techno
• DNB

Shoreditch club known for its long DJ residencies.

• Techno
• DNB
• Dub

Two rooms under the arches at Elephant & Castle.

• Techno
• House

Canning Town warehouse club for long techno and house sessions.

• House
• Techno
• DNB

The giant Meridian Water warehouse in Enfield.

• House
• DNB

Shoreditch warehouse venue under the tube carriages on the roof.

• DNB
• Jungle
• Dub

Two rooms in Brixton with a long jungle and drum & bass tradition.

• House
• Techno
• DNB

Manchester’s autumn season of big warehouse nights, now at Depot Mayfield.

• Dub
• Soul & Funk
• DNB

Northern Quarter venue that hosts sound system culture nights.

• DNB
• House
• Techno

A former skatepark turned warehouse club, one of the UK’s best for drum & bass.

• DNB
• Jungle
• House

Bristol underground institution since the early 90s.

• DNB
• Dub

A club on a boat in Bristol’s harbour.

• House
• Techno

As old as acid house: Glasgow’s basement legend with its Bodysonic dancefloor.

• DNB
• House
• Techno

Industrial warehouse in Digbeth with a big sound system.

• DNB
• Techno
• House

Leeds basement club under the railway arches.

• Soul & Funk
• House

Newcastle’s home of soul, funk and house.

• DNB
• House

Seafront venue with a long history of big bass nights.

• Dub

Mikey Dread’s sound, playing since 1979 and a Notting Hill Carnival institution.

• Dub

Heavyweight roots and dub, one of the UK’s best-loved sounds.

• Dub

Lewisham sound from 1976, pioneers of the fast-chat MC style.

• Dub

Lloyd Coxsone’s sound, one of the foundations of UK sound system culture.

• Dub

Mark Iration’s sound, born at Leeds blues dances.

• Dub

Glasgow sound system in the Jamaican tradition since 2000.

• Dub
• Soul & Funk

Two days of Caribbean culture and sound systems every August bank holiday.

• DNB

Hospital Records’ drum & bass events, including Hospitality in the Park.

• DNB
• Jungle

Goldie’s label and nights, from the Blue Note Sunday sessions to today.

• UK Garage

Pioneering UK garage events since the late 1990s.

• House
• DNB
• UK Garage

Born in London: DJ sets streamed from the dancefloor to the world.

• House
• DNB

Manchester’s big weekend in Heaton Park.

• House

Liverpool’s superclub brand, from Nation in 1992 to Creamfields.

• House
• Techno

London’s electronic music festival.

• Techno

Techno under a motorway in Boston Manor Park.

• House
• DNB

Bristol’s city festival.

• House
• Techno
• DNB

Dance music festival at Damyns Hall in Upminster, East London.

• House
• Soul & Funk

Gordon Mac and friends’ pirate on 94 FM. It closed to apply for a licence and came back legal in 1990.

• House

88.3 FM from Newham, promoting the big M25 raves.

• Jungle
• DNB

94.5 FM from Clapton: London’s ruling jungle pirate.

• Jungle
• DNB

The first jungle pirate to get a temporary legal licence, for four weeks in 1994.

• Jungle
• Old skool

Hardcore and proto-jungle pirate that helped shape the sound.

• Jungle
• DNB

One of the jungle-era pirates that gave a generation of DJs their first shows.

• UK Garage
• House

89.4 FM from East London, one of the first stations to champion UK garage.

• UK Garage

101.8 FM garage pirate where DJ EZ made his name. Joint best station at the UK Garage Awards 2000.

• UK Garage

“Yours 2 Keep” on 90.6 FM, formerly Mission FM. Joint best station at the UK Garage Awards 2000.

• UK Garage

103.0 FM, So Solid Crew’s station, with over 10,000 listeners at its height.

• UK Garage

Garage-era pirate where DJ Cameo was among the selectors.

• Dub

Britain’s first Black music pirate, playing reggae from West London.

• House
• Soul & Funk

Manchester’s licensed dance station, co-founded by Mike Shaft. Its frequency became Kiss 102.

• Dub
• Soul & Funk

People’s Community Radio Link, a pirate at the heart of Birmingham’s Black community.

• Dub

Chapeltown pirate on 90.3 FM, playing reggae for the West Indian community.

• Jungle
• DNB

Leeds pirate with a prime-time Saturday jungle and drum & bass show from 1992.

• UK Garage
• DNB

Clerkenwell online station that gave grime, garage and bass a polished new home.

• House

Factory Records’ club: the beating heart of Manchester’s acid house and rave scene.

• Old skool
• Jungle
• House

King’s Cross warehouse of hardcore, jungle soundclashes and Freedom.

• DNB
• House
• Techno

West Central London club much loved by drum & bass and techno heads.

• House
• Techno

Clerkenwell club behind Trade, and the first in London with a 24-hour licence.

• DNB

Soho home of Fabio’s Swerve on Wednesdays, a cradle of liquid drum & bass.

• Dub
• DNB
• House

Shoreditch basement with a famous sound system, a birthplace of dubstep (FWD>>).

• Techno
• House
• DNB

A former newspaper print works in Canada Water, turned into one of the UK’s biggest venues.

• House
• Techno

Ancoats mill club; it closed when the building was sold for flats.

• House

Cream’s weekly house night at Nation, Wolstenholme Square.

• House

The late-90s trance and hard house phenomenon. The building was hit by fire in 2007.

• House
• Techno

Arts venue and club under Glasgow Central station.

• Dub

The first sound system in the UK, in Ladbroke Grove, 1955.

• Dub

The Zulu Warrior sound: the heaviest dub in the land, from the 1970s until Shaka’s passing in 2023.

• Old skool
• DNB

One of the UK’s longest-running rave promoters, with 18,000 at Energy ’97.

• Old skool

Big-production raves from 1991, starting with Eclipse.

• Old skool

London and Essex raves from 1989.

• Jungle
• Old skool

Multi-arena raves at what became the Sanctuary in Milton Keynes.

• Techno

The free party sound system collective.

• UK Garage

The South London Sunday night that defined garage’s glamour years.