Something for the Weekend: Interview with Karl Golden

“I wasn't a raver. Being from Dublin, it was all about the pub, so we never really raved — or at least I didn't. I love the opportunity to get drawn into another world, something completely different, and that's what the script represented,” says Karl Golden. Always up for a challenge, the Irishman has followed up his cult novel adaptation Pelican Blood – a story about love, birdwatching and suicide – with Weekender, a fast-paced, brash film about the Manchester rave scene in the early 1990s. This is almost the antithesis of Pelican Blood, something Golden admits himself. “I wanted to shoot in a completely different way,” he reflects. “It's not aiming for the emotional intensity of Pelican Blood. This is meant to be popcorn entertainment, just about music. Music, friendship, energy, that's what this is.”

Weekender features an up-and-coming young British cast, strobe lighting, drugs and – most importantly – lots of music. Golden was fortunate enough to enlist the help of DJ Terry Farley, who provided the film with a strikingly authentic soundtrack. “We did feel like it would be really useful to have somebody who wasn't just part of the scene but was the heart of the scene, and Terry – he's legendary,” Golden asserts. The music was crucial, particularly to the director. “I love music in movies. I want to be really excited by music when I watch movies. Terry wasn't like other music producers at all. Terry was like, [adopts surprisingly accurate London accent] 'fucking play this, it's fucking great.' He was driven by his absolute love of music.”

In addition to getting Farley on board, Golden and his cast and crew had a lot of research to do. Authenticity was key. “It was quite sweet actually, because research usually involved going to raves. I started going to illegal raves – they're still going on. I was at one and we liked the location so much that we ended up shooting right there in the squat. It had amazing graffiti all over the walls, it was scruffy and grimy, but it felt great and authentic. It was a strange rehearsal process – sitting in a room listening to music and then going raving!”

It seems that the music, and the scene, is quite an infectious one. Golden admits that although he hadn't originally been drawn to house or acid music, he ended up “genuinely falling in love with it.” In fact, his new obsession has become the source of much amusement for his wife. “She takes the piss out of me, because she was a raver when we met and I just didn't get it,” he rues. “Now she finds it hilarious that now I'm all about rave. I'll have to switch off eventually – I'm still listening to pounding rave music first thing in the morning.”

Notoriously, the rave scene also had a dark side. Drugs were synonymous with warehouse parties, a fact that led to gangsters realising the economic potential of taking over. For the film to be authentic, it was important to include these elements in the story. “Everyone talked about what it was like to have ecstasy – good, clean ecstasy at the time – and a great track playing, and how that was paradise. Those beats were written and produced to actually be amplified by drugs – drugs were an essential part.” So with Golden now constantly listening to rave music and attending illegal warehouse parties, was he ever tempted to fully immerse himself in the lifestyle? “One of the great things is actually being clear-headed when making a film that's got all sorts of chaos in it,” he laughs. “What you want to be is an acute observer. I was quite happy being on the sidelines.”