Kenny ‘Sting’ King, Telepathy UK rave promoter and Stratford Rex venue founder, celebrated in new book

One of UK rave’s unsung heroes, Kenny ‘Sting’ King, is being celebrated in a new book by Rollo Jackson and Andrew Bravin.

STEP IN TIME: Conversations with Kenny ‘Sting’ King is a largely first-hand chronicle of King’s time as a promoter in the ’90s with the Telepathy and Life Utopia raves, among others. Through a series as Q&A style interviews, it also documents his work as part of the pirate station Deja Vu FM, and as the owner of the Stratford Rex venue. It features a mix of photography, rave flyers and video stills from King’s personal VHS archive, as well as stills captured in the Deja Vu studio by grime, rap and rave documentarian Troy ‘A-Plus’ Miller.

Jackson and Bravin were inspired to compile the book after hearing about King’s extensive collection of VHS tapes, which did not exist anywhere else online and captured scenes of raves King promoted in venues such as Wax Club and Club UN. The book also features quotes from the likes of Andy C, DJ Hype, M-Beat, Funk Butcher and DJ Pioneer.

King’s history as a promoter extends right through the 1990s and into 2000s, first in hardcore and jungle, and later in garage and grime. The first Telepathy event was held in Stratford on 17th November, 1990. Telepathy is also reported to have been The Prodigy’s first London booking.

Speaking on the process of compiling the book, Jackson explained:  We really wanted this to be a mirror to [King’s] life – not a book that tries to encompass a whole genre or sum up an era, so the flyers are all his as well. Of course there are gaps and the footage is grainy and distorted in places, but the point is that it’s him, this is his story. We toyed with the idea of getting loads of other photos in but then we would have ended up in the trap of trying to make ’the definitive book on Jungle’, which was never the aim.”

For Jackson, several things stood out while creating the book: “First, [it was a] moment of Sting stepping into the unknown, coming from a soundsystem background of almost entirely Black music to being immersed in an acid house world on a different scale, and perhaps initially out of his comfort zone. Then [he was] taking both those things and basically fusing them, curating them together, riding this wave of multicultural unity, which obviously felt incredibly exciting and uplifting – and all soundtracked to music that was constantly evolving too. And then the flip side to that, I guess, is this feeling that throughout nearly all his career he had to contend with a level of systematic racism when it came to venues, other promoters, the industry at large. Obviously it didn’t stop him, but you get the feeling that it was a underlying presence.”

“This is almost unedited history,” he adds. “It’s not our opinion, or feelings, or views. This is Sting’s story. Nearly everything now is summarised or bite size, this is more raw. Also to acknowledge that scenes and raves, and clubs don’t happen by themselves. They need entrepreneurs, people willing to take a chance, see things a different way – to change the status quo. Those characters are far and few between. Sting is one of them.”

A launch party for the book will take place tonight, 27th November, at the Aries Store in Soho, London from 6pm. RSVP to that here. Check out some stills from the book below. 

In other news, HYPER: The Stevie Hyper D Story, a documentary film charting the life and career of influential drum and bass MC Stevie Hyper D was released this month.

This week, Metalheadz announced a new book, THE BOOK OF GOLDIKUS: VOL. 1 METALHEADZ / THE RUFIGE FILES to celebrate the label’s 30th anniversary.