Something of a bible for British nightlife, the artwork Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore cemented Leckey’s reputation upon its exhibition in 1999. The piece is a haunting assemblage of found footage spanning countercultural scenes, from northern soul and soul weekenders to casuals and acid house - spliced, looped and cut to snippets of rave tracks, ambient echoes and tolling bells that channel in and out. Leckey subsequently went on to snatch the Turner Prize in 2008.
"As with many such unexamined remembrances, one wishes the artist could have seen past his misty-eyed nostalgia and also cried with laughter at the shambolic spectacle of his stumbling, graceless dancers (I did). When in actual sync, their stiff movements respond as much to electronic bass lines as to their being literally drunk or stoned out of their brains on ecstasy. Subversive this film is not, unless youth and drug culture is your idea of sticking it to the man. Rhythmically speaking, it doesn’t hold a glow stick to Soul Train."